Part of the UK Freelancer Accounting Hub — the full cluster index.

The short version

If you only read this paragraph: FreeAgent is the best fit for UK sole traders and small limited companies who want native Self Assessment and Making Tax Digital for VAT support. Xero is the better choice if you're a limited company already working with an accountant. QuickBooks Self-Employed is a strong cheap option for sole traders who want a clean mobile app and don't need full double-entry. Wave is the free choice and covers invoicing and basic bookkeeping at zero monthly cost.

Comparison at a glance

How we tested

We used each of these products to bookkeep a simulated freelance business through a full year: 24 invoices to UK clients (with and without VAT), 60 expense categories, one mileage log, one Self Assessment-ready year-end. Where we couldn't test the latest pricing tier directly, we cross-checked against the vendor's published pricing pages on the date of last review.

For each tool we looked at:

• How quickly you can issue a first invoice from cold sign-up.
• Whether the Self Assessment / company-accounts output is genuinely usable, or only via an accountant.
• Whether the mobile app does what the desktop does, or is a watered-down sibling.
• UK-specific features: VAT MTD, CIS, Annual Investment Allowance, dividend records, payroll for one-director companies.
• How much it actually costs once you've bought "the bit you actually need" (most vendors hide critical features behind the second tier).

FreeAgent — best UK fit for sole traders and small Ltds

Price: £19 + VAT per month for sole trader / partnership; £33 + VAT for limited companies. Free for the lifetime of a NatWest / Royal Bank of Scotland / Ulster Bank business account, and free for Mettle account holders. Free with Tide's £29.99/month "Pro" tier.

What it does well

FreeAgent was built in Edinburgh and bought by NatWest in 2018. It's the only product on this list that was designed from day one for UK freelancers and contractors. That shows up in the things that matter:

• Native Self Assessment. It fills out your SA103S (self-employment pages) from your bookkeeping. Click "submit" and it files directly to HMRC.
• Native VAT MTD. Flat Rate Scheme is properly supported (most rivals fudge it).
• Mileage tracking at 45p/25p with HMRC-compliant logging.
• Dividend records for Ltd directors, including the paperwork (dividend vouchers, board minutes).
• Payroll for single-director companies included on the Ltd tier — most rivals charge extra.

Where it falls short

The interface feels a generation behind Xero. There's no proper budgets-and-forecasts feature for businesses growing past sole-trader stage. Bank-feed reliability is occasionally patchy with the smaller UK challenger banks (though NatWest and Mettle are bulletproof, as you'd expect).

The free angle

If you bank with Mettle, NatWest, RBS or Ulster, FreeAgent is genuinely free — included with the bank account. This is the cheapest legitimate accounting software in the UK if you qualify. Mettle is free to open and keep, so even if you don't currently bank there, switching can cost you £0 and save you £19/month indefinitely.

Verdict

FreeAgent is the default recommendation for UK sole traders and one-director Ltds. The Self Assessment integration alone is worth the subscription if you're not getting it free through Mettle. Try FreeAgent →

Xero — best for scaling and working with an accountant

Price: Ignite £16/month (3 invoices, 5 bills); Grow £33/month (unlimited invoices); Comprehensive £47/month (multi-currency, projects, expense claims).

What it does well

Xero is the polished international option. New Zealand-built, used by the majority of UK accountants, with a massive integration ecosystem. You can connect Xero to almost anything — Stripe, Square, Wise, GoCardless, Receipt Bank/Dext, hundreds of niche industry tools.

• Cleanest UI on this list. Reports load fast, the cash-flow view is genuinely useful.
• Accountant collaboration is unmatched — invite your accountant, they get a clean dashboard, you don't pay extra.
• Multi-currency on the Comprehensive tier (real exchange rates, automatic gain/loss).
• Projects and time tracking built in (Comprehensive tier).

Where it falls short

Self Assessment isn't included — you either DIY-export the data or pay your accountant. The Ignite tier's 3-invoice/month limit is restrictive for freelancers (you'll outgrow it in week two). VAT MTD support is rock-solid but Flat Rate Scheme handling is less elegant than FreeAgent's.

Verdict

Pick Xero if you're a limited company already working with an accountant (most accountants are on Xero), if you'll likely employ someone in the next year, or if you sell across multiple currencies. Skip if you're a sole trader doing your own Self Assessment — FreeAgent is the better fit. Try Xero →

QuickBooks — best mobile-first option

Price: Self-Employed £10/month; Simple Start £16/month; Essentials £33/month; Plus £47/month. The Self-Employed tier is the one most freelancers want.

What it does well

QuickBooks Self-Employed is built around the assumption that you live in your phone. The iOS and Android apps are the best on this list by some distance. Receipt scanning, mileage auto-tracking via GPS, and one-tap "swipe right = business expense / swipe left = personal" categorisation that actually works.

• Quarterly tax estimates shown in the dashboard — useful "how much have I earned, how much tax am I on track to owe" view.
• Self Assessment filing from inside the app (Self-Employed tier).
• Bank-feed integration with all the major UK banks.
• Often the cheapest paid option at £10/month for sole traders.

Where it falls short

QuickBooks Self-Employed is not full double-entry accounting. If you have a limited company, you'll need to upgrade to QuickBooks Simple Start or higher — at which point the price advantage narrows. Reports are less customisable than Xero's. Customer support can be slow.

Verdict

QuickBooks Self-Employed is the right choice if you're a sole trader who does most admin on the move (e.g. tradespeople, photographers, freelance journalists on assignment) and you want the cheapest competent paid option. Avoid for Ltd companies — Xero or FreeAgent suit better. Try QuickBooks →

Wave — the genuinely-free option

Price: Free for invoicing, accounting, and receipt scanning. You only pay for payment processing (~1.4% + 20p per card transaction in the UK) and payroll (US-only, doesn't apply here).

What it does well

Wave is what every other "free accounting software" wishes it could be. Genuinely unlimited invoices, real double-entry bookkeeping, bank-feed connections, receipt OCR, and a clean modern interface. They make their money on payment-processing fees, which means if you don't take card payments through Wave you literally pay nothing.

• £0 per month, forever for invoicing and bookkeeping.
• Decent mobile app for invoicing and receipts.
• Unlimited clients, unlimited invoices — no artificial caps.

Where it falls short

This is a US-built product that "works" in the UK rather than one designed for it. No Self Assessment integration. No MTD VAT submission (you'd file via HMRC's portal or a bridging tool). No UK-specific things like CIS, the AIA, or dividend records. Customer support is community-forum-only.

Verdict

Wave is the right starting point for first-year freelancers who haven't crossed the VAT threshold and want professional invoicing without a subscription. It pays for the calculators here on FreelanceToolkit (use our expense tracker alongside it) to cover the UK-specific gaps. When you outgrow Wave — usually around year 2, or when you VAT-register — switch to FreeAgent. Try Wave →

Which one should you actually pick?

The honest decision tree:

What we deliberately didn't include

You'll see some tools recommended in other roundups that we left out of this one, and why:

• Sage — historically dominant but expensive, slow to modernise, and built for accountants more than the businesses using it. The current Sage Business Cloud is fine but rarely the best choice for a sole trader.
• Crunch — they're an accountant + software bundle, not pure software. Excellent if you want full bookkeeping done for you (~£99/month all-in). We didn't compare it here because it's apples-to-bananas with the others.
• Zoho Books — a credible product but the UK feature set lags. Better suited to small businesses than UK freelancers specifically.
• 1Tap, Coconut, Pandle — niche options. Pandle is genuinely free and worth a look if Wave doesn't work for you.

The real annual cost comparison

What you'll actually spend in year one (UK sole trader), based on the typical tier each freelancer ends up on:

• Wave — £0 (if you accept ~1.4% card fees on payment-processed invoices)
• QuickBooks Self-Employed — £120/year
• Xero Ignite — £192/year (but you'll likely upgrade to Grow at £396/year)
• FreeAgent — £228/year + VAT (£0 if you bank with Mettle/NatWest/RBS/Ulster)

And the typical year-one accountant cost for a sole trader filing Self Assessment: £200–£600. Most accountants will give you FreeAgent free if you sign on with them.

Bottom line

For 80% of new UK freelancers, the right call is one of:

• Open a free Mettle account → get FreeAgent for free. Best long-term answer, costs you nothing.
• Start with Wave free. Switch to FreeAgent when you near the VAT threshold or want native Self Assessment filing.

For limited companies, Xero is the safer bet — it's what your accountant will want, and growing companies outgrow FreeAgent's reporting eventually. For mobile-first freelancers (anyone who invoices from coffee shops, tradespeople, photographers), QuickBooks Self-Employed deserves a 30-day trial.

Whichever you pick, the tools here on FreelanceToolkit UK plug the gaps in any of them — use our Self Assessment estimator, invoice generator and expense tracker alongside your accounting software (or as a free starter setup before you sign up to anything).

Pricing verified against vendor pricing pages at the time of last review. Vendors change pricing; if anything here is out of date, please drop us a line.