Xero Alternatives Australia (2026): Cheaper Options Compared

The cheapest Xero alternatives in Australia are Zoho Books (free under A$50,000 revenue, or A$16.50 a month), Reckon One ($24 a month), MYOB Business Lite ($315 a year) and QuickBooks Simple Start ($33 a month), against $78 a month for Xero Grow (as at 18 October 2026). Payroll, user limits and migration costs decide whether the saving is real.

Xero alternatives compared

Standard prices checked on each provider's site on 18 October 2026, before promotions. Saving = $936 (12 months of Xero Grow at $78) minus 12 months of the alternative. Xero, QuickBooks, Zoho Books and MYOB quote prices including GST; Reckon, Rounded, FreshBooks and Cashflow Manager don't state it. Hnry's break-even is $936 ÷ 1.1%, about $85,000 of income a year; Hnry also prepares your tax return, so it isn't a like-for-like comparison.

What do the alternatives cost once you pay staff?

Xero Grow includes payroll for two people. Most alternatives charge for payroll separately, so the gap narrows once you employ.

Illustrative, standard prices checked 18 October 2026, no promotions. MYOB uses the $5 per-employee fee that applies from 1 November 2026. Payroller Standard is $3.99 per employee a month billed yearly with a $15.96 monthly minimum, which applies at two employees. Gimbla and Payroller don't state GST treatment.

At five or more employees, compare again: Xero Comprehensive is $1,284 a year for five people, MYOB Pro with five employees $930 on annual billing, and QuickBooks Simple Start with Standard Payroll $756 (Xero pricing guide, MYOB pricing guide).

Why businesses look for a Xero alternative

Write down your reason before comparing vendors. If it's unresolved bookkeeping, changing software may simply move the same questions into a different interface.

• Price rises. From 1 July 2026 Xero raised Grow from $75 to $78, Comprehensive from $100 to $107 and Ultimate 10 from $130 to $143 a month, and stopped applying its multi-organisation discount.
• Payroll caps. Each Xero plan pays a set number of people. Paying a third person on Grow means moving to Comprehensive, $29 a month more.
• Monthly billing only. Xero has no annual discount, while MYOB's annual prices are 25% below twelve monthly payments.
• A simpler workflow. A sole trader may want fewer screens, or someone else to handle tax.
• Stock, jobs or desktop files. Xero tracks stock in a single location, and some businesses want a Windows file they control.

The alternatives in more detail

MYOB Business: the closest like-for-like switch

MYOB Business Lite ($315 a year or $35 a month) and Pro ($630 a year or $70 a month) run in a browser, lodge BAS and connect bank feeds. Lite is capped at two connected bank accounts and two employees; Pro removes both limits. Payroll costs $3 per employee a month, rising to $5 on 1 November 2026. New customers can get 50% to 70% off for 6 to 12 months. MYOB is the other product most Australian bookkeepers know, which makes it the least disruptive move. See our MYOB pricing guide, Xero vs MYOB and the Lite and Pro guide.

QuickBooks Online: cheap entry, payroll by Employment Hero

QuickBooks plans cost $33 (Simple Start, 1 user), $60 (Essentials, 3 users), $84 (Plus, 5 users) and $125 (Advanced, 25 users) a month including GST, each with accountant access, bank feeds and BAS lodgement. Inventory starts at Plus. Payroll is a separate Employment Hero product: Standard Payroll is $6 per employee a month and Advanced Payroll is $10 a month plus $6 per employee. The promotion shows "70% off for 6 months" on the banner, but the offer terms on the same page say the discount applies for the first 3 months, with full price from month 4, and payroll isn't discounted. Read Xero vs QuickBooks.

Reckon One: plans with payroll tiers

Reckon One is now sold as three plans: Accounting Plus ($24 a month), Accounting Premium ($46, with inventory for 1 to 10 items) and Ultimate ($85, with unlimited payroll and inventory). Payroll on the first two is an add-on: $16 a month for up to 4 employees, $32 for up to 10 and $60 for unlimited. All plans include unlimited users, bank feeds and GST/BAS reporting. New customers can pay $1 a month for 6 months until 31 October 2026. Read Xero vs Reckon One.

Zoho Books: free or cheap, but no Australian payroll

Zoho Books Free suits businesses under A$50,000 revenue (1 user plus accountant, 1,000 invoices a year, no bank feeds). Standard costs A$16.50 a month billed annually or A$19.80 monthly, including GST, and adds bank feeds and 3 users; Professional (A$33 annually) adds stock tracking. Zoho Payroll isn't offered in Australia, so employers need a separate STP app. Read Xero vs Zoho Books.

Rounded: built for sole traders

Rounded Starter ($23.95 a month) covers quotes, invoices and time tracking. Pro ($29.95 a month or $329.95 a year) adds the bank feed, automatic GST tracking and a pre-filled BAS. There's no payroll. Starter is not an equivalent substitute for Xero because it lacks the feed and BAS. Our Xero vs Rounded comparison covers what happens if you later hire.

FreshBooks: invoicing for client-service businesses

FreshBooks Lite costs A$29 a month for up to 5 billable clients, Plus A$43 for 50 and Premium A$60 for unlimited, with 50% off for 3 months for new customers. It doesn't mention BAS, and its payroll isn't confirmed for Australia, so Australian reporting needs checking. Its billable-client limit is a different constraint from an invoice allowance. See our FreshBooks guide.

Tyro Accounting (formerly Thriday): free bank-connected books

Tyro Accounting's Free plan connects unlimited bank accounts through Open Banking, with unlimited invoices and GST tracking. Time-saver ($29.95 a month, $0 for new customers until 28 February 2027) adds automated reconciliation and DIY BAS from $57; Done-for-you ($119 a month) has its tax agent prepare and lodge your BAS and tax return. It doesn't mention payroll.

Hnry: an accountant and software for a percentage

Hnry charges 1% plus GST of every payment into your Hnry account, capped at $1,500 plus GST a year, with no subscription (Hnry pricing). It's aimed at sole traders and handles tax payments and lodgements as part of the service. Below roughly $85,000 of income a year it costs less than Xero Grow, and it replaces your tax agent's return fee, but you give up control of the ledger and it doesn't suit companies or employers.

Manager and Cashflow Manager: desktop options

Manager Desktop is free for Windows, Mac and Linux with no usage limits; its Australian page lists a BAS worksheet, Single Touch Payroll and free bank feeds. It's single-user, and the Cloud edition costs A$89 a month, more than Xero Grow. Cashflow Manager, now owned by Reckon, is Windows desktop software from $28 a month (Gold, with inventory and unlimited STP payroll, from $51), both for a minimum of 12 months. Read our Cashflow Manager guide.

Free options

Free Accounting Software lodges BAS and STP free for businesses with 0 or 1 employee, and GnuCash is free open-source desktop software for people comfortable configuring GST themselves. Our free accounting software guide compares nine free options and their catches.

Match the alternative to your reason for leaving

For stock, ask for the exact transaction sequence or report that Xero isn't meeting. Test a part delivery, return and stock count before you commit. For a desktop file, practise restoring a backup and retrieving the reports your adviser needs before importing live records. The comparison selector compares these with Xero using the same criteria.

When to stay on Xero

Switching costs time and carries risk. Staying, or moving to a different Xero plan, is often the better answer when:

• Your bookkeeper or accountant works in Xero and would charge more, or work more slowly, in another product. Xero says its partner program has 250,000 accountant and bookkeeper members (Xero), and it reported 2.10 million Australian customers at 31 March 2026 (FY26 investor presentation). MYOB doesn't publish a comparable figure.
• The problem is plan size, not the product. Ignite at $37 a month, or Ignite plus the $8 auto-reconcile add-on at $45, may cover a low-volume business paying $78 for Grow, provided you stay within 20 invoices and 5 bills a month (Xero pricing guide).
• You rely on connected apps for POS, e-commerce, rostering or job management that would each need reconnecting and retesting.
• The saving is small next to the move. At $20 to $30 a month saved, a $900 conversion takes years to repay (see the calculation below).
• You're mid-year with staff. If you move payroll and transfer year-to-date amounts to a new payroll solution, the ATO says you must tell it, or employees can see duplicate income statements. You can instead finalise STP in the old system (ATO). Starting a new payroll system on 1 July avoids most of this.
• You need years of history in one place. You'll keep Xero exports for the record-keeping period anyway (record-keeping guide).

Calculate whether switching will repay its cost

Suppose a replacement saves $30 each month but conversion and training cost $900. At unchanged prices and with no other differences, the saving takes 30 months to recover the one-off cost. If three months of overlap costs another $180, it becomes 36 months: $1,080 ÷ $30. This is a fictional illustration, not a vendor quote, and it ignores price changes and financing costs. Count staff time separately so it is visible even when it does not create an extra cash payment.

Use normal prices on the same billing and GST basis. A promotion can reduce first-year spending, but it cannot show the cost after the offer ends. Our cost guide includes a worked example and the components to request in a quote. Recurring manual work, a missing requirement or better access may matter more than the payback figure, so write those reasons beside it.

Source product / destination product / exact plans:
Quote date and GST basis:
Old monthly total (including required add-ons):
New monthly total (including required add-ons):
Conversion quote / training quote / parallel access / other one-off cash costs:
Hours of owner or staff time and assumed value per hour:
Monthly saving = old total - new total:
Payback months = one-off costs / positive monthly saving:
If saving is zero or negative: no cost-saving payback under these assumptions.
Cutover date / opening trial balance / bank reconciliation:
Unpaid invoices / unpaid bills / stock quantities and value:
Payroll history / GST reports / attachments / historical exports:
Checks completed, differences and person resolving them:
Archive opened independently on:
Cancellation authorised only after acceptance by:

Keep records available through the move

Before cancelling, establish what transfers: opening balances, unpaid invoices and bills, attachments, payroll records and historical reports. Test the archive and reconcile the destination. Xero needs one month's notice to cancel and has no read-only plan, so export what you must keep before access ends.

A usable archive needs more than one summary report. Follow Xero's export guidance and the destination provider's import rules, then compare the records after conversion. Our migration checklist covers the handover. Do not delete the source or end access while the conversion still has unexplained differences. These are acceptance checks for your migration; they are not a claim that ASBG has tested every product transfer.

Key takeaways

• Xero Grow is $78 a month ($936 a year) including GST; MYOB Lite, Reckon One, QuickBooks Simple Start and Zoho Books all cost less at standard prices.
• Xero bundles payroll for a set number of people; most alternatives charge per employee or per tier, so compare totals with your staff included.
• Some savings come with limits: one user on QuickBooks Simple Start, two bank accounts on MYOB Lite, no Australian payroll in Zoho Books.
• A $30 monthly saving takes 30 months to repay a $900 conversion, so count migration costs before switching.
• Staying on Xero, or dropping to Ignite, can beat switching if your adviser and apps are built around Xero.

Where to get help

• Providers: Xero, MYOB, QuickBooks, Reckon and Zoho Books pricing pages, and the official documentation linked in each individual product guide.
• ATO: changing your payroll solution if you move payroll.
• Your adviser: ask them to confirm both the proposed workflow and the scope of the conversion. See how to choose a BAS agent.

Related tasks

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