QuickBooks Online | Versus | QuickBooks Desktop (Pro) |
â | Users and Permissions | |
Prices | â | |
â | Simplicity of use | â |
Product Features | â | |
â | Integrations | |
â | Customer Support | â |
Negatives Reviews and Complaints | â | |
Positive Testimonials and reviews | â | |
Final Verdict | Champion | |
Read Review | Read Review | |
Visit Site | Visit Site |
During the last couple of years, Intuitâs been more and more encouraging people to convert from QuickBooks Desktop to QuickBooks Online. The organization promotes the cloud-based form of its software as user-friendly, convenient, and efficient. Many accountants, however, complain about insufficient features and inefficiency. So whatâs the news around the two programs, and which is the best for your company? Letâs have a look.
For that purpose of this review, weâll be searching at QuickBooks Pro (2014-2016) because the desktop form of the program.
Web-located or In your area Installed:
QuickBooks On the internet is cloud-based and includes free mobile phone applications for iPhone/iPad and Android devices. QuickBooks Pro is in your area installed and doesn’t offer mobile phone applications.
Users and Permissions:
Champion: QuickBooks Online
QuickBooks Desktop enables for just one user. To include more, youâll have to purchase additional licenses (often a little under the price of the program).
QuickBooks Online enables for just one, three, or five users, with respect to the size your plan. (You may also grant use of as much as two accountants, who don’t count toward your user limit.)
Prices:
Champion: QuickBooks Desktop
This oneâs not really a tournament. QuickBooks Pro generally includes a lifespan of 3 years. This program costs $299.95. Presuming you apply it 3 years, that breaks lower to $8.31/mo. QBO offers three subscription plans: Simple Start ($12.95/mo), Essentials ($26.95/mo), and Plus ($39.95/mo). Should you own multiple companies, you are able to run individuals via a single copy of QB Pro youâll require a separate subscription for every with QBO.
While Intuit more often than not offers discounts on programs, the comparative prices remains similarâif anything, using the discounts into consideration skews the outcomes much more in QB Proâs favor.
There are several caveats, however:
- Nowhere may be the three-year support period for QB Pro guaranteed. Intuit could choose to cut all support for QB Pro 2016 in 2017. Itâs unlikely, but technically possible.
- Most customer care isn’t incorporated with QuickBooks Pro. For a summary of what’s incorporated, visit here. Other things, youâll have to pay for: $299.95/yr, $89.95/3 months, or $59.95/one-time telephone call.
- Bank feeds aren’t incorporated with QB Pro. Youâll pay an additional $10-$15/mo for your feature.
- Updates and additional features aren’t incorporated with QuickBooks Pro (unless of course you have to pay a regular membership fee of $299.95/year)
Simplicity of use:
Champion (business proprietors): QuickBooks Online
Champion (accountants): QuickBooks Desktop
This can be a tricky someone to adjudicate, since the champion depends positioned on the knowledge degree of the consumer.
For non-accountants, QBO is really a more intuitive program. If youâre an entrepreneur who handles your personal accountingâor if the admin assistant with no accounting background is your bookkeeping, you will likely find QBO simpler to know and employ. The built-in help feature could stand improvement, but typically, youâll likely find functions in which you expect these to be, and also you wonât see much accounting jargon within the program.

QBO’s interface is usually simple for non-accountants to know.
However, trained accountants and lots of bookkeepers have a tendency to prefer QB Pro. This program provides extensive time-saving features which QBO lacks, and knowledge entry is frequently much more efficient. One of the leading complaints about QBO from users acquainted with QB Pro would be that the programâs interface is poorly designed, requiring multi-step approaches for tasks that was once simple. QB Pro also offers a much better in-program help function.

The QBD interface is much more nuanced.
QuickBooks Desktop introduced Earnings Tracker in 2014 and Bill Tracker in 2016 these functions incorporate QBO’s colorful, at-a-glance approach using the traditional QBD interface.

QBD Earnings Tracker
Product Features:
Champion: QuickBooks Desktop
QuickBooks Pro has more features than the greatest-level QBO plan, and also at a small fraction of the price. However, itâs worth thinking about that QBOâs primary appeal is its mobility. For businesses which require access from a number of locationsâor which regularly use mobile devicesâit will probably be worth sacrificing additional features to be able to achieve that. QuickBooks Online also provides automated recurring invoices, an element which QB Pro lacks.
QB Pro has far superior job-costing abilities, and also gives batch invoicing, much more choices for invoice personalization . . . for instance, more choices on virtually every feature from the software. The programâs reporting abilities blow QBO from the water, particularly with regards to customizable reports. Same applies to budgeting. Even though the possible lack of mobility is really a downside, the truth that the organization file and software resides on your pc implies that problems on Intuitâs endâor together with your internet providerâwonât lead you to lose use of your file.
Integrations:
Champion: QuickBooks Online
QuickBooks Pro offers 248 add-ons, while QuickBooks Online offers roughly 280 add-ons. While QBO edges ahead on sheer quantity, if thereâs a particular integration you’ll need for the business, itâs worth checking with every program each supports some apps that the other program doesn’t, and the caliber of integrations varies a great deal.
Customer Support and Support:
Champion: Tie
Letâs be frank: neither choice is good. Neither program provides email or chat support, with both, youâre liable to cope with representatives who donât know how QuickBooks works. But QBO offers free support for those issues, whereas QB Pro only provides it in a few conditions. Also, Intuit appears to possess designed a serious effort toward improving wait occasions for QBO support, whereas wait occasions for support for that desktop version remain dreadful.
You will find, however, two benefits of QB Pro support: 1) When you jump through all of the hoops and hold occasions and voice recognition menus and reach out to technical support, the techs do appear to know this program, and a pair of) Unlike QBO support, QB Pro technical support can be obtained constantly.
QB Pro offers live technical support 24/7 customer support (for billing issues and so on) can be obtained Monday-Friday from 6am-6pm PST. QBO’s support hrs are Monday-Friday from 6amâ6pm PST and Saturday from 6amâ3pm PST.
Negative Reviews and Complaints:
Champion: QuickBooks Desktop
QuickBooks Online operates in a disadvantage here, due to course, QuickBooks Pro existed first, and a few of the complaints about QBO simply originate from users not liking change. However, even comprising this, the internet version falls behind its predecessor within this category, accumulating lots of horror tales and virulent remarks.
QuickBooks Online will get complaints about issues with conversion in the in your area installed versions, with lost data and reduced functionality to be the primary issues. Numerous people are extremely unhappy about because you canât downgrade your subscription (e.g. convert from QuickBooks Plus to QuickBooks Essentials). Users also complain about inefficiency (especially when compared with QBD), poor customer support, outages and downtime, and also the program running gradually.
For QuickBooks Pro, complaint highlights include poor customer support, forced upgrades, errors and bugs, and also the program running gradually.
Positive Testimonials and reviews:
Champion: QuickBooks Desktop
It’s not difficult to find reviews that are positive on either program. QuickBooks Pro just edges ahead here, possibly partly because itâs had additional time to build up a passionate users list. QB Pro was for any lengthy time the defacto standard of small company accounting software, and lots of users still find it still the best choice available.
QuickBooks Pro will get praise because of its vast number of options featuring, especially with regards to the softwareâs reporting abilities. Many purchasers also discover the interface sensible and efficient.
For QuickBooks Online, some small company proprietors praise the softwareâs simpler learning curve and insufficient accounting jargon. Customers particularly like the opportunity to share and access their company file on the internet, along with the mobile phone applications.
Final Verdict:
Champion: QuickBooks Desktop
Overall, QuickBooks Desktop remains in front of QuickBooks Onlineâfor now. However, thatâs not saying itâs a better option for those companies. The desktop form of the program is much more versatileâbut less mobile. It offers a wide array of options and functionsâbut many small companies wonât need these, and the like details come at the fee for a high learning curve for non-accountants dealing with the program. By itself, QuickBooks Pro is much more affordable than its online cousinâbut for those who have multiple users and wish full customer care, live bank feeds, and continual updates, it might be more costly.
For an organization with complex accounting needs, QB Pro will likely be a better option. But for an organization that has pretty fundamental needs as well as in which anybody however a specialized accountant is handling day-to-day transactions, QBO might be more suitable. Read our detailed reviews (QBD here QBO here) to learn more.
Wish to compare on your own? Both programs offer free trials check out QuickBooks Pro, take QuickBooks Online for any spin, and find out which program is the greatest match for the business.
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