Free Bookkeeping Software in 2026: What Each Free Plan Actually Includes

There is more free bookkeeping software in 2026 than there has ever been, and every free plan stops somewhere. QuickBooks now has a free plan, but it stops at 2 invoices a month and one bank account. Wave's free plan has unlimited invoices but no bank feed. Zoho Books is free until revenue reaches $50,000. Kick connects your bank but stops at 250 transactions a year. Mercury's books are free through December 31, 2026. Poof is free with no revenue cap, every report, and two bank feeds; its AI that does the work is $79 a month. Which one fits depends on which limit you'll hit first.

Every price and limit below comes from the company's own pricing page, checked on November 2, 2026. They change; check again before you decide.

I build one of these, so treat the Poof row with suspicion and check it the same way.

The free plans, side by side

Not on the list: Xero and FreshBooks, which have no free plan. Xero's cheapest US plan, Early, is $27 a month for 20 invoices and 5 bills. FreshBooks Lite lists at $23 a month for 5 billable clients, and bank reconciliation starts on its next plan up.

QuickBooks Free

QuickBooks' free plan is $0 a month with no credit card. What you get: one user, 2 invoices and 1 estimate a month, 2 receipts a month, 5 mileage trips, one connected bank account, the profit and loss, balance sheet and account quick report, and 1099s for one contractor. Invoices are unlimited if you qualify for and turn on QuickBooks Payments. Your accountant can't log in; that starts on a paid plan.

It is a starting point that is designed to be outgrown. A business that sends more than two invoices a month, pays more than one contractor, or wants its CPA in the books is on Lite at $20 or Simple Start at $38 within a month. Essentials is $85 and Plus, the plan with job costing and budgets, is $140, before the introductory discount.

Wave

Wave's Starter plan is still free and has no invoice cap: unlimited invoices, estimates and bills, and online payments at 2.9% plus 60 cents a card payment. What it leaves out is the bank feed. Automatic bank connections, auto-categorization and receipt scanning are on Pro, $19 a month or $190 a year. On Starter you enter or upload the transactions yourself.

Wave is a good fit for a freelancer who invoices a lot and has few expenses. For a business with a busy bank account, the real price of Wave is $19.

Zoho Books

Zoho's free plan is the most complete free double-entry software on the list, with a cap that matters: it is free only while the business's revenue for the year stays under $50,000. Within that: one user plus your accountant, 1,000 invoices and 1,000 bills a year, bank reconciliation, 50 receipt scans a month, and more than 50 reports. It tracks contractors and prepares 1099s, but e-filing them starts on Standard.

The bank feed also starts on Standard, at $20 a month or $15 a month billed yearly. A business doing $40,000 a year and willing to import statements gets a lot for free here. A business doing $60,000 doesn't qualify.

ZipBooks and Kick

ZipBooks still has a free Starter plan with unlimited invoices, customers and vendors, basic reports, and one bank connection. Its pricing page is light on detail, so check what the paid plans add before you rely on them.

Kick has a free plan aimed at new businesses and sole proprietors: bank sync, automatic categorization, the P&L, balance sheet, trial balance and general ledger, and a year-end tax package. It stops at 250 categorized transactions a year, about 20 a month, which a business with a card and a bank account passes quickly. Basic is $40 a month.

Banks that include the books

Some business banks now include bookkeeping, free, for their own accounts. They work best when everything runs through that bank.

• Mercury charges nothing for the account. Mercury Books, its double-entry accounting with categorization and reconciliation, lists at $35 a month and is waived through December 31, 2026. Plan for the price in 2027. On Mercury's free plan, 1099 filing is $5 a form.
• Found includes expense categorization (with one rule on the free plan), receipt scanning, a P&L, unlimited invoices, tax estimates, and 1099-NEC filing, for Found accounts. Importing other banks and cards is on Plus, $35 a month.
• Relay's free plan connects to QuickBooks and Xero and collects receipts; it is a bank that feeds your bookkeeping software, not the software itself.

We compared Mercury in more detail in Mercury Books vs QuickBooks.

Free desktop software

If you'd rather keep the books on your own computer, three programs are free outright.

• GnuCash is open-source double-entry accounting for Windows, Mac and Linux. It imports bank files (QIF and OFX) but has no live bank feed.
• Manager.io's desktop edition is free with no time or usage limits, for one user. Its cloud edition is paid.
• Akaunting is free to host yourself, for one company and one user plus an accountant; its bank feeds are a paid add-on.

They cost nothing and do the accounting. What they don't do is any of the work: every transaction is imported or typed, and every category is yours to choose.

Poof

Poof's free plan is the books, for good: invoices and estimates, bills, purchase orders, every report, the month-end close checklist, payroll and 1099 prep, sales tax, the dispatch board for service shops, and six roles so your accountant has their own login. It connects two bank accounts, with no revenue cap. Each month it includes 25 questions to Ask Poof, the AI assistant, and 25 receipt or document reads.

The paid part is the AI that does the work. Poof Agent, $79 a month, sorts the new transactions overnight onto a card for your OK, reads every receipt and bill, connects unlimited bank accounts, and writes the collection reminders. Every new company gets 30 days of it free, then stays on Free, with nothing locked. Poof also files 1099s: the first 3 forms a year are free, then $2.49 a form.

Where Poof doesn't fit: if you want desktop software, or you'd like your bank to keep the books for you.

Which one fits

What free costs

The price on the page is not the whole cost. A free plan without a bank feed means typing or uploading every transaction. One without automatic sorting means choosing a category for every line, every month. At a few hundred transactions a month, that is hours of an owner's time, which is the most expensive thing in a small business.

So the useful question isn't "which one is free," because most are. It is "which free plan will I still be on in a year," and "what does the work cost when I outgrow it." If you're leaving QuickBooks for a reason other than price, the QuickBooks alternatives post covers the paid options too.

*Prices and plan limits from each company's pricing page, checked November 2, 2026.*

*Written by Austin Semple, a former controller: two years in audit, seven running the books for small businesses, and the founder of Poof. Poof's free plan has every report, two bank feeds and no revenue cap; Poof Agent does the work for $79 a month. Start free, no card required.*