Subscription vs one-time licence: the 10-year cost of accounting software
What QuickBooks Online, Xero, Sage 50, QuickBooks Desktop and a one-time licence cost over ten years at October 2026 prices, and what the subscription buys you.
7 min read · October 18, 2026
We make AcboBooks, one of the products discussed here.
Why look at ten years
Most small businesses keep their accounting software far longer than they expect to. Changing means moving a chart of accounts, open invoices, payroll history and habits, so people put it off. A subscription that looks small per month becomes one of the larger software costs of the business over a decade.
The figures below are list prices as published in October 2026, multiplied out with no price increases. That makes them conservative: the major vendors have raised prices several times in recent years, and introductory discounts are left out because they end.
Ten years at today's prices
| Product and plan | Price (October 2026) | Ten years |
|---|---|---|
| QuickBooks Online Simple Start | $38 a month | $4,560 |
| QuickBooks Online Essentials | $85 a month | $10,200 |
| QuickBooks Online Plus | $140 a month | $16,800 |
| QuickBooks Online Advanced | $340 a month | $40,800 |
| Xero Growing | $59 a month | $7,080 |
| Xero Established | $97 a month | $11,640 |
| Sage 50 Pro Accounting (cloud) | $132.17 a month | $15,860 |
| Sage 50 Desktop Pro Accounting with Payroll | $1,155 a year | $11,550 |
| QuickBooks Desktop Pro Plus (existing subscribers) | about $1,149 a year, as reported | about $11,490 |
| AcboBooks, never renewing updates | $399.99 once | $399.99 |
| AcboBooks, renewing updates every year | $399.99 once, then an optional yearly renewal | $399.99 plus nine renewals |
Notes on the table:
- QuickBooks Online Plus is the plan a typical small business with inventory or project tracking ends up on; Simple Start is one user with no inventory.
- Xero Early ($27 a month) is left out because it is capped at 20 invoices and 5 bills a month.
- Intuit does not publish QuickBooks Desktop Pro Plus renewal prices, and Pro Plus is no longer sold to new US customers. The figure is the one accounting firms reported from February 2026, before a further increase announced for October 1, 2026. Your renewal notice is the real number.
- An AcboBooks licence includes 12 months of updates and email support. After that the software keeps working as it is; renewing updates is optional (payroll users need it for each year's new tax tables) and you can do it in any year you like.
Payroll and extra users
The plan price is rarely the whole bill.
- Payroll is a separate subscription on QuickBooks Online and Xero. Xero Payroll is $36 a month plus $6 per employee: for five employees that is $66 a month, or $7,920 over ten years on top of the plan. QuickBooks Desktop Enhanced Payroll is $700 a year plus $7 per employee per month (see the five-year comparison).
- Users are capped by plan on QuickBooks Online (1, 3, 5 and 25), so growing the team can mean moving up a tier. Sage 50 prices extra users on top.
- AcboBooks includes US and Canadian payroll in the licence, with no per-employee fee, and covers one business on two computers.
What a subscription buys you
A fair comparison has to count what the monthly fee pays for. With a cloud subscription the vendor runs the servers, makes the backups, keeps every user on the latest version, and maintains bank feeds and integrations. Support is included for as long as you pay. If those services would otherwise cost you time or an IT person, part of the difference in the table is money well spent. The desktop vs cloud comparison goes through them.
What the subscription also buys is dependence. If you stop paying, access is reduced; Intuit, for example, says a lapsed QuickBooks Desktop Plus subscription becomes view-only for 12 months. The price is the vendor's to set every year.
The catch with one-time licences
A one-time licence is not free after year one, and it is worth being clear about why:
- Payroll tax tables change every year. New federal, state and provincial rates arrive as updates. If you run payroll in AcboBooks, plan on renewing updates so January's paycheques use the new tables.
- You run the computer. Backups, Windows updates and a replacement PC when the old one dies are your costs.
- Support has a term. Email support is included for the first 12 months.
Even so, a business that renews every year is paying for software it owns, at a price it can choose to stop paying without losing access to its books. The pricing page has the details, and the one-time purchase page explains what you own.
QuickBooks® is a registered trademark of Intuit Inc. Xero is a trademark of Xero Limited. Sage and Sage 50 are trademarks of The Sage Group plc. AcboBooks is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by any of them. Prices are quoted from the vendors' US pages as of October 2026 and may have changed.
$399.99 once
AcboBooks includes payroll, inventory and multi-user on the office network, with 12 months of updates and support. After that it keeps working; renewing updates is optional, though payroll users need it for each year's new tax tables.
This article is general information, not tax, legal or accounting advice. Rules and dates change; check the official source or ask your accountant before acting.
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