QuickBooks Online Pricing UK 2026: Plans, MTD and What Accountants Pay

QuickBooks pricing in the UK runs from £10 to £123 a month plus VAT across five QuickBooks Online plans, and accountants pay nothing for the core practice platform. As of October 2026, Intuit lists Sole Trader Plus at £10, Simple Start at £16, Essentials at £38, Plus at £56 and Advanced at £123, with payroll extra. Firms managing client billing get up to 50% off.

TL;DR:

Intuit's five UK QuickBooks Online plans list at £10, £16, £38, £56 and £123 a month, and Intuit's Making Tax Digital page says all prices are plus VAT at 20%.

Every plan is listed as MTD for Income Tax ready, but Sole Trader Plus cannot submit VAT returns, so a VAT-registered business needs Simple Start (£16) or above.

Payroll is extra: Core is £5 a month plus £1.50 per employee, Premium £10 plus £2.00, and Elite £15 plus £3.00.

Accountants pay £0 for Intuit Accountant Suite Core, get up to 50% off client subscriptions when the firm manages billing, and Accelerate costs £69 a month plus VAT from 20 January 2027.

For a VAT-registered sole trader over 12 months at list price, QuickBooks Simple Start costs £192 before VAT, against £216 for Xero Ignite, £228 for FreeAgent billed monthly and £240 for Sage Accounting Start.

What does a UK accountant pay for QuickBooks?
What are the QuickBooks Online UK plans and prices in 2026?
Which QuickBooks plans support MTD for VAT and MTD for Income Tax?
How much does QuickBooks Payroll cost in the UK?
How does QuickBooks pricing compare with Xero, Sage and FreeAgent?
When is Xero, Sage or FreeAgent the better fit?
Why does independent evidence matter when choosing accounting software for clients?
Realistic expectations: the price after the offer is the price
Find your next accounting software tool through The AI Ledger
Frequently asked questions

What does a UK accountant pay for QuickBooks?

A UK accountant pays nothing for the core QuickBooks practice platform, and can buy client subscriptions at up to 50% off. Intuit's UK accountants page says accountants and bookkeepers "get up to 50% off QuickBooks Online subscriptions for their clients when they manage the billing for them", and that to add clients a firm must create an Intuit Accountant Suite account on the free Core tier or the paid Accelerate tier.

Three things are changing at once:

The practice software. QuickBooks Online Accountant is discontinued on 31 December 2026, and firms move to Intuit Accountant Suite, whose Core tier Intuit's suite page says "has no monthly recurring fee". Our guide to the QuickBooks Online Accountant replacement covers the switch in detail.
The paid tier. Accelerate is listed at £69 a month plus VAT from 20 January 2027, when Intuit says the free beta ends, with 50% off automatically for the first 12 months. A per-client Books Close price was not stated on the page we read today.
The partner programme. Intuit's ProPartner Accountants programme succeeds the ProAdvisor Programme in early 2027; until then, Intuit says, ProAdvisor "will continue unchanged".

What does the ProPartner programme include?

Membership is free with an Intuit Accountant Suite account. Any tier above Member needs at least one active client in the suite and one person in the firm with a current QuickBooks certification.

ProPartner tier	Free software for the firm	Free Accelerate	Wholesale billing discount
Member	QuickBooks Ledger + Payroll Core	Not included	Up to 50% off QuickBooks Online and Payroll
Partner	QuickBooks Online Advanced + Payroll Elite	Not included	Up to 50% off
Preferred Partner	QuickBooks Online Advanced + Payroll Elite	Not included	Up to 50% off
Premier Partner	QuickBooks Online Advanced + Payroll Elite	Included	Up to 50% off
Elite Partner	QuickBooks Online Advanced + Payroll Elite	Included	Up to 50% off

Intuit says projected tiers reflect points earned between 1 August 2025 and 31 July 2026, from client spend, certifications and other activity. Wholesale prices per plan are not stated publicly; "up to 50%" is the only figure Intuit publishes.

Pro Tip: Before quoting a client a QuickBooks price, check in Intuit Accountant Suite what your firm's wholesale rate actually is for that plan. "Up to 50%" is a ceiling, not a promise, and the difference matters when you bundle software into a fixed monthly fee.

What are the QuickBooks Online UK plans and prices in 2026?

There are five QuickBooks Online plans in the UK, priced from £10 to £123 a month at list price. These figures come from Intuit's UK pricing page, read on 24 October 2026. That page does not say whether its prices include VAT, but Intuit's Making Tax Digital page shows the same plans with the note "All prices + VAT @20%", so the figures below are treated as excluding VAT.

Plan	List price a month (ex VAT)	Users	Key inclusions Intuit lists
Sole Trader Plus	£10	1, plus your accountant	Bank feeds, CIS, MTD for Income Tax ready, Self Assessment preparation. No VAT submission
Simple Start	£16	1, plus your accountant	Adds VAT submission to HMRC and a VAT pre-file check
Essentials	£38	3, plus your accountant	Adds multiple currencies and bulk invoice creation (beta)
Plus	£56	5, plus your accountant	Adds project management, inventory, AI insights and anomaly detection
Advanced	£123	25, plus your accountant	Adds fixed asset tracking, revenue recognition and tailored financial insights; sold with a demo option

All five plans include Intuit Intelligence chat, labelled beta with "limited queries per month". Billing is monthly, cancellation takes effect at the end of the billing period, and Intuit says there is no pro-rated refund.

What about introductory offers?

Intuit often runs an introductory discount or a 30-day free trial, but not both; check the current terms. Intuit's offer terms say a buyer who takes the discount is not eligible for the free trial, and that the plan then moves to "the then-current monthly price". Budget on the list prices above, not the offer.

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Which QuickBooks plans support MTD for VAT and MTD for Income Tax?

Every QuickBooks Online plan is listed as MTD for Income Tax ready, and every plan except Sole Trader Plus can submit VAT returns to HMRC. Intuit's pricing FAQ says users can track VAT and "prepare and submit your return to HMRC" on Simple Start, Essentials, Plus and Advanced.

Plan	MTD for VAT submission	MTD for Income Tax
Sole Trader Plus	No	Listed as ready
Simple Start	Yes, with VAT pre-file check	Listed as ready
Essentials	Yes	Listed as ready
Plus	Yes	Listed as ready
Advanced	Yes	Listed as ready

GOV.UK says MTD for Income Tax applies from 6 April 2026 to sole traders and landlords with qualifying income over £50,000, from 6 April 2027 to those over £30,000, and from 6 April 2028 to those over £20,000. Intuit notes MTD for VAT has applied to all VAT-registered businesses since April 2022.

So a non-VAT-registered landlord or sole trader can use Sole Trader Plus at £10; once VAT-registered, the cheapest filing plan is Simple Start at £16. See our explainer on the MTD for Income Tax threshold.

How much does QuickBooks Payroll cost in the UK?

QuickBooks Payroll is a paid add-on in three tiers, each a monthly fee plus a charge per employee. Intuit says it can be added to Simple Start, Essentials, Plus or Advanced.

Payroll tier	Monthly fee	Per employee a month	Examples of what Intuit lists
Payroll Core	£5	£1.50	Automatic calculations, RTI and FPS filings to HMRC, pension submissions with NEST, employee portal
Payroll Premium	£10	£2.00	Adds pension submissions with NEST and Smart, job and shift scheduling, time tracking, payroll mobile app
Payroll Elite	£15	£3.00	Adds geofencing, project-based payroll collaboration and project reports

A worked example: a small limited company on Essentials with three employees on Payroll Core pays £38 + £5 + (3 × £1.50) = £47.50 a month before VAT, or £570 a year at list price. Payroll tools beyond QuickBooks are in our payroll and HR category.

How does QuickBooks pricing compare with Xero, Sage and FreeAgent?

At list price, QuickBooks is the cheapest of the four for a VAT-registered sole trader, by £24 to £48 a year. The table uses the cheapest plan from each vendor that its own UK pricing page shows can submit VAT returns, read on 24 October 2026. All prices exclude VAT.

Software and plan	List price a month	Users	Limits worth knowing	12 months at list price	Editor score
QuickBooks Simple Start	£16	1	VAT and MTD for Income Tax; no multi-currency	£16 × 12 = £192	4.3 out of 5
Xero Ignite	£18	No per-user licence fees	20 invoices and 10 bills	£18 × 12 = £216	4.5 out of 5
FreeAgent (sole trader)	£19, or £190 a year billed annually	Not stated	10 Smart Capture files a month as standard	£19 × 12 = £228, or £190 annually	Not listed
Sage Accounting Start	£20	1	No receipt capture on Start	£20 × 12 = £240	Not listed (Sage Copilot: 4.0 out of 5)

Sources: Intuit, Xero, FreeAgent and Sage. With VAT at 20% added, the QuickBooks figure becomes £192 × 1.2 = £230.40, and the Sage figure £240 × 1.2 = £288.

Reading the table fairly:

Editor scores come from the directory: QuickBooks + Intuit Intelligence has an editor score of 4.3 out of 5 and Xero (XeroForce & JAX) 4.5 out of 5. Sage Accounting and FreeAgent are not listed; Sage Copilot, the AI built into Sage Accounting, has an editor score of 4.0 out of 5.
FreeAgent billed annually is £190, £2 less than QuickBooks. FreeAgent says it is free with a NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland or Ulster Bank business current account, or an active Mettle account.
Payroll is included in Sage Accounting Start for one employee, with £1.85 per extra employee a month, and Xero's Grow plan (£39) includes payroll for one person. QuickBooks charges for payroll separately.

You can line up these listings side by side with The AI Ledger's compare tool.

When is Xero, Sage or FreeAgent the better fit?

QuickBooks is cheapest at entry level for VAT filers, but its rivals bundle features QuickBooks charges extra for, and some clients fit them better.

Xero suits firms already standardised on it. Our editor verdict calls it "the UK default ledger, now with useful built-in AI in JAX". But Ignite's limit of 20 invoices and 10 bills makes Grow at £39 the realistic plan for many trading businesses.
FreeAgent suits sole traders and small limited companies who bank with NatWest Group or Mettle. FreeAgent says it is on HMRC's list of compatible software for MTD for VAT and MTD for Income Tax. Its limited company plan, at £33 a month, lists payroll, Self Assessment filing and Corporation Tax return data among its features.
Sage Accounting suits small employers. Start includes payroll for one employee and Sage Copilot, so a one-person company running payroll may pay less overall on Sage than on QuickBooks Simple Start plus Payroll Core (£16 + £5 + £1.50 = £22.50 a month).
QuickBooks suits QuickBooks-centred practices. The case is strongest where the firm uses Intuit Accountant Suite, can bill clients wholesale, and wants one platform across sole traders and larger clients on Plus or Advanced.

Pro Tip: For a mixed client base, price the full monthly bill per client, ledger plus payroll plus receipt capture, rather than the headline plan. The cheapest headline is often not the cheapest total once a client has staff.

Why does independent evidence matter when choosing accounting software for clients?

Independent evidence matters because every vendor's pricing page is built to sell: the QuickBooks, Xero and Sage pages we read today all led with an introductory offer rather than the price a client pays once it ends.

Each AI Ledger listing carries an editor score and the date it was last verified against the vendor's site: 10 October 2026 for QuickBooks, 14 October for Xero and 11 October for Intuit Accountant Suite. The AI Ledger has not tested these products hands-on, and affiliate links never affect scores. Browse every listing in the directory.

Realistic expectations: the price after the offer is the price

An introductory discount is a marketing cost the vendor recovers later. Quote clients the list price, plus VAT, plus payroll, and treat anything lower as a short-term saving rather than the budget.

Expect change in 2027 too: Accelerate billing starts, ProAdvisor is retired, and Intuit says ProPartner benefits are "subject to change without notice". Review your firm's tier and wholesale rates early in 2027.

Find your next accounting software tool through The AI Ledger

The QuickBooks + Intuit Intelligence listing sits in our reporting and dashboards category. For practice-side software, the Intuit Accountant Suite listing has an editor score of 4.1 out of 5. To shortlist tools by task, practice size and ledger, use the AI Ledger finder.

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Frequently asked questions

How much is QuickBooks a month in the UK?

Intuit's UK pricing page lists QuickBooks Online at £10, £16, £38, £56 and £123 a month for its five plans. Intuit says these prices are plus VAT at 20%.

Do accountants get QuickBooks for free?

Intuit says the Core tier of Intuit Accountant Suite has no monthly fee, and ProPartner tiers from Partner upwards include QuickBooks Online Advanced and Payroll Elite for the firm at no cost. Client subscriptions are discounted by up to 50% when the firm manages billing, not free.

Which QuickBooks plan do I need for MTD for VAT?

Simple Start at £16 a month is the cheapest QuickBooks plan that submits VAT returns to HMRC. Sole Trader Plus cannot submit VAT returns.

Is QuickBooks ready for MTD for Income Tax?

Intuit lists every UK QuickBooks Online plan, including Sole Trader Plus, as MTD for Income Tax ready. GOV.UK says the rules apply from 6 April 2026 to qualifying income over £50,000.

Is QuickBooks cheaper than Xero in the UK?

At entry level, yes: QuickBooks Simple Start lists at £16 a month against £18 for Xero Ignite, both before VAT. Xero says Ignite includes 20 invoices and 10 bills, while QuickBooks charges separately for payroll, so compare the full bill per client.