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QuickBooks Self-Employed Alternative: 8 Options, Honestly Compared

August 2, 2026 · Dave Rodenbaugh

Intuit has closed QuickBooks Self-Employed to new customers and points everyone to QuickBooks Solopreneur. The full story of what happened to QuickBooks Self-Employed sits on its own page, along with where the login went. This page is about where you go next. Maybe Solopreneur fits you. Maybe it doesn't. Either way, know your options before you commit.

Full disclosure. We're building one of the alternatives on this page (ExpenseDuck), so keep that in mind while you read. Every QuickBooks Self-Employed alternative below is judged the same way, and we lose some of those rows. The checklist below still holds up. It came from months of QBSE users telling us what they leaned on every day, and what left them scrambling in April.

What QBSE actually did for you

Underneath the branding, QBSE did four jobs.

First, it pulled in your transactions so you could swipe each one business or personal. That swipe was the whole daily routine. Ten seconds in line for coffee and your books were caught up.

Next came mileage. Your phone logged the drives and you swiped those too. If you drive for work, that's a big deal. For most gig drivers the mileage deduction is the single biggest number on their Schedule C. This year it's also split in two: the IRS mileage rate 2026 rose from 72.5 cents a mile to 76 cents on July 1, so whatever you pick has to know the date of every drive.

Then everything landed in Schedule C categories, roughly where your tax return needed it.

And last, QBSE told you what to set aside for quarterly taxes. That one is the piece people tell us they'll miss most. Solopreneur and Simple Start do a federal version. None of the other tools below lists one.

Lose any of those four and you'll notice inside a month.

What to ask before you commit

If you'd like your own number first, our free self-employed tax calculator gives it to you. It works out the federal set-aside from your profit and your household's other income. That takes about a minute and costs nothing.

Start with the quarterly estimate, because replacing it is the hard part. Plenty of tools track expenses and stop there. Does it run your federal estimate off your real numbers? Does it count a spouse's W-2 and withholding? Does it know the safe-harbor rules well enough to tell you the smallest payment that keeps you clear of a penalty? Or does it make you over-save out of nerves?

Mileage next. Ask what happens when a trip fails to record. The story we heard most from QBSE users was trips going missing with no warning and nothing on screen. If nothing tells you, keep shopping.

Then look at categories. Auto-sorting only helps if you trust it, and trust needs a reason you can look at. You want to see why a purchase got sorted the way it did, and fix a wrong guess in one tap.

Ask how you get your data back out, too. You're switching right now because somebody else decided your tool's time was up. Next time will sting a lot less if everything exports whenever you want, without a support ticket.

Read the pricing carefully. Tax features tucked inside a bundle, mileage sold as an add-on, an intro rate that jumps at renewal. Those are the usual moves.

And check the fees under the price. Card and bank-transfer fees on invoices come out of work you already did. A cheap subscription that takes a cut of every payment can cost more than a pricier one that doesn't. Ask what it costs to get paid.

QuickBooks Self-Employed vs Solopreneur: "Should I just move over?"

Solopreneur is where Intuit points you now that QuickBooks Self-Employed is closed to new customers. So it deserves a straight answer. It's a real option for some people. Here's the honest comparison.

Solopreneur details checked October 13, 2026, on Intuit's own pricing and help pages, including its articles on switching from QuickBooks Self-Employed and on estimating income tax. Intuit's offers change often, so verify current terms before you decide.

Simple Start, Wave, FreshBooks, Xero, Zoho Books, a spreadsheet

When we went looking at where QBSE users actually landed, the answers weren't the ones we expected. The most common destination is QuickBooks Simple Start. Intuit puts the upgrade button right in front of you. After that comes a spreadsheet. Then Wave, then Xero and Zoho Books.

So that's the field we compared. Mileage-only apps didn't make the cut, because nobody in this situation brings them up. Several of these have free plans. We left the comparison honest anyway, including the rows where we lose:

Checked October 13, 2026, against each company's own pricing and help pages. "Not listed" means we didn't find the feature on those pages. Intro prices are for new customers, and plans change often, so verify before you decide.

We left our gaps in on purpose. A spreadsheet beats us on price, permanently, and nobody can discontinue it. After what Intuit just did, that counts for something. It falls down on one job. No spreadsheet watches your income all year and works out the smallest quarterly payment that keeps the IRS off your back. If you ever find one that does, use it.

Wave is free and good. If invoicing is most of what you need, start there and don't pay us anything. FreshBooks tracks mileage too, automatically on Android and with a manual start on iPhone. Most of these take card payments on invoices and we don't, on purpose, because those fees come out of work you already did. We track the invoice and chase it for you.

Xero and Zoho Books are the two that look like a step up and mostly aren't, at least not for one person filing a Schedule C. Both run double-entry accounting, where every transaction posts to two accounts and the books have to balance. That's the right tool for a business with staff and a bookkeeper. It's a lot of machinery for one person with a Schedule C. Neither one lists a quarterly federal estimate on its pricing pages. Xero's mileage claims only come with the $97 Established plan, and they work from addresses you type in. For GPS tracking, Xero points you to a third-party app. On its own product ideas forum, Xero's community manager answered the request for automatic mileage tracking in August 2024 with "no plans to develop this, this year." Zoho Books does have GPS mileage, but you press start for every trip. The hands-off version lives in Zoho Expense, a separate product. Either way you'd be paying for a general ledger you don't need.

What you can and can't take with you

Most "switch to us" pages skip this part. QBSE exports two files another tool can import: transactions and mileage. Your receipts download separately as a ZIP file, which is worth keeping but isn't something we import. Invoices and client lists have no bulk export at all. Intuit's own switch to Solopreneur can move more, including customers and receipts, because it works inside Intuit's systems. Outside tools, ours included, work from the files QBSE exports.

The real plan is short. Export your transactions and mileage, then import them. Save the receipt ZIP with your tax records. Set your active clients and invoice templates back up, and start catching receipts fresh from here. If the import is clean, you're done in an afternoon.

Where that leaves you

Full accounting software is more than most solo filers need. What you want is the four things QBSE did, done without surprises, from somebody who'll tell you plainly what imports and what doesn't.

That's what we're holding ExpenseDuck to. One plan, $14.99 a month, 30 days free to try it. It runs in a web browser on a phone or a desktop today. iPhone support is coming soon, pending App Store approval, and there's no Android app. If the table above lines up with what you need, here's how switching from QuickBooks Self-Employed works.

Whatever you land on, export your data before you upgrade or your QuickBooks Self-Employed login stops working. Intuit's own help page warns, "you won't be able to access your old account after the upgrade process is complete."

ExpenseDuck produces estimates. It does not give tax advice or file your taxes. Consult a licensed tax professional for your specific situation.

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