As a small business owner, you know how quickly expenses can add up. Fortunately, you don’t have to sacrifice quality to find affordable accounting software. No-fee bookkeeping apps offer basic invoicing, expense tracking, and bank reconciliation features. This guide explores the 10 best free accounting tools for small businesses and three vendors offering 30-day free trials.
Best free accounting software for small businesses in 2025
- Wave: Estimate unlimited jobs and bill clients from anywhere.
- Zoho Books: Access feature-rich accounting apps for businesses earning $50,000 or less yearly.
- ZipBooks: Manage big client or vendor lists and accept PayPal payments.
- NCH Express Accounts: Automate recurring orders and bills with offline bookkeeping tools.
- Akaunting: Customize a self-hosted or on-premise accounting system for free.
- BrightBook: Organize home-based business bookkeeping and billing tasks.
- Manager: Run payroll and track inventory with free desktop accounting software.
- Odoo: View real-time data, track budgets, and profitability from mobile and desktop apps.
- LedgerSMB: Use a free enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to scale your business.
- GnuCash: Protect your privacy with desktop-based bookkeeping tools.
Wave: best free accounting software for invoicing and estimates
The Wave Starter plan is free forever. It provides intuitive mobile apps and allows unlimited invoices, customers, estimates, products, and vendors. One user can access accounting and invoicing tools through desktop and mobile devices, but it costs extra to capture receipts or connect bank accounts digitally.
Key features include:
- Unlimited invoices and estimates, available through a link or PDF.
- Reporting dashboard with profit and loss statements.
- Unlimited bookkeeping records, entered manually.
[Read more: A Guide to Small Business Accounting]
Zoho Books: best free bookkeeping software for micro businesses
Zoho Books offers a free version for micro-businesses earning $50,000 or less annual revenue. One user and an accountant can send up to 1,000 invoices and enter 1,000 or fewer expenses yearly. There is more to learn compared to Zoho alternatives like Wave. However, Zoho’s free bookkeeping app supports W9 and 1099 reporting and syncs with multiple banks and credit cards.
Key features include:
- Expense tracking, including receipt scans, recurring expenses, and mileage.
- Over 25 accounting reports, like income and balance sheet statements.
- PayPal, Stripe, Google, and Microsoft integrations.
ZipBooks: best free accounting app for unlimited contacts and payments
ZipBooks Starter is free forever for one user. It connects to one bank account, allows unlimited invoicing, and supports Square and PayPal payments. ZipBooks automatically classifies new contacts as vendors or customers and supports unlimited records.
The Slack and Gusto integrations are unique. You can view basic income statements or unpaid invoice reports in Slack. If you pay yourself through Gusto, you can sync transactions from ZipBooks. But you may need a paid ZipBooks plan to automate team payroll entries.
Key features include:
- Unlimited invoices, estimates, and quotes.
- Expense tracking and receipt storage.
- Cash and accrual reporting.
Choose Your Accounting Software
Not sure what accounting software to choose for your business? Download our guide to the key features of the most popular accounting software products to help you make the right choice.
NCH Express Accounts: best free desktop software for small teams
NCH Express Accounts is free desktop accounting software for businesses with five employees or fewer. Time-saving features like order and invoice automation help small teams with repeat customers. It works on Windows (7 to 11) and macOS 10.5 and above. The user interface is rougher around the edges than new, web-based apps, but NCH handles essential accounting functions well.
Key features include:
- Over 20 financial reports, including sales payments and key metrics.
- Unlimited invoices and estimates.
- Bank reconciliation via CSV uploads.
- Inventory management.
Akaunting: best open-source accounting software for customization
Akaunting provides free online accounting software for small businesses. The On-Premise Standard Plan allows unlimited invoicing and bill paying. Because Akaunting is open-source, you can modify the code to fit your business needs, making this free accounting tool an excellent choice for solopreneurs with tech experience. That said, Akaunting will take longer to learn if you’re unfamiliar with coding or don’t have tech support.
Key features include:
- Expense management, including receipt and bill auto-capturing.
- Customizable invoicing and payment options, such as crypto and bank transfers.
- Auto-scheduling financial reports.
[Read more: 17 Accounting Terms to Know (Even if You Have an Accountant)]
Brightbook: best free online accounting software for creative freelancers
Brightbook is a free online accounting system for small businesses with one to five employees. You can give your accountant and colleagues access to the program or establish multiple free accounts and access them through a single login. Unlike other free bookkeeping software, Brightbook doesn’t track mileage. Its bright, fun design and always-free tools make Brightbook a good accounting system for creative freelancers or solopreneurs.
Key features include:
- Invoices, quotes, and statements in multiple currencies with PayPal integration.
- Basic bill and expense tracking.
- Bank transaction imports via QIF format.
If free software for small business accounting doesn’t meet your needs, consider a free trial. Leading platforms give you 30 days to explore advanced features.
Manager: best free Linux accounting software with offline access
Manager is a free forever accounting platform for Linux, macOS X, and Windows. The database format is standardized, meaning you can transfer files between computers with different operating systems. It supports unlimited invoices, multiple companies, billable time tracking, and more. To access bookkeeping features remotely, consider a cloud-based alternative.
Key features include:
- Unlimited invoices, estimates, quotes, and purchase orders.
- Inventory and payroll management tools.
- Cash, accrual, and project-based accounting.
Odoo: best free accounting software for profit tracking and budgeting
Odoo offers free and paid business apps for finance, sales, and human resources. You can choose one free module, like accounting or expense management. The stand-alone Odoo Accounting app supports unlimited users and synced bank or cash accounts. It updates over two dozen financial reports in real-time, including accounts payable and receivables. But you can’t track expenses without adding another module, requiring a paid plan.
Key features include:
[Read more: Starting a Business? How to Set Up Your Accounting Right From Day One]
LedgerSMB: best free ERP accounting software for growing businesses
LedgerSMB is a free ERP program. It integrates sales, invoicing, shipping, purchasing, and accounting into one system. You can deploy it on-premise or online (self-hosted or third-party). The open architecture allows for more integrations than other free accounting apps, but the setup is more complex. For small and mid-sized businesses with IT support, LedgerSMB is a scalable tool for managing accounts and resources.
Key features include:
- Budgeting by department or project with variance reporting.
- Sales orders, quotations, and contact management.
- Invoicing and time tracking with billable hours.
- Inventory, light manufacturing, and fixed asset management.
GnuCash: best free desktop accounting software for data privacy
GnuCash is a free, small business accounting tool that runs exclusively on desktops, with Windows, macOS X, and Linux support. It doesn’t require a cloud account; no data leaves your device. The software design isn’t as modern as Wave or ZipBooks, but it works well. You can customize graphs and reports or configure recurring transactions without an internet connection.
Key features include:
- Double-entry accounting and multi-currency support.
- Checkbook-style register with split transactions and reconciliation tools.
- Unlimited invoicing, bill payments, and contact records.
- Scheduled transactions and automated reminders.
Popular accounting tools with free trials
If free software for small business accounting doesn’t meet your needs, consider a free trial. Leading platforms give you 30 days to explore advanced features. Review the trial terms to see how long you can test the software, upgrade options, and whether you’ll qualify for free or discounted months after the trial ends.
Here are the top accounting software tools with free trials:
- QuickBooks Online: Manage accounting, cash flow, and payroll in one dashboard.
- Xero: Track global income, expenses, and taxes with real-time syncing.
- FreshBooks: Automate time tracking, invoicing, and recurring client billing.
This article was originally written by Jamie Johnson.
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