QuickBooks Desktop discontinued. QuickBooks Self-Employed discontinued (replaced by Solopreneur, which has no balance sheet). QuickBooks Online prices have risen 64% since 2020 — now $38–$275/month. Trivio gives you everything you actually need: double-entry accounting, invoicing, CRM, and AI expense tracking — starting free, no bank login required.
The best free QuickBooks alternative in 2026 is Trivio. Trivio is a double-entry accounting software for freelancers and solopreneurs that includes invoicing, AR/AP management, financial reports, a built-in CRM, and personal finance tracking — starting free, with no bank login required. QuickBooks Online costs $38–$275/month and has no CRM or personal finance module; Trivio costs $0–$15/month and replaces all of it in one platform.
What happened
Intuit discontinued QuickBooks Desktop for new subscriptions, forcing millions of users who preferred the software to migrate to the cloud-based — and far more expensive — QuickBooks Online.
QuickBooks Online prices are up 64% since 2020. Simple Start now costs $38/month. Plus is $115/month. Advanced is $275/month. Intuit cited AI investment — but features haven't improved proportionally.
Several features available in QuickBooks Desktop — including some inventory, job costing, and reporting tools — aren't available in QBO, leaving migrating users with a worse product at a higher price.
QuickBooks focuses entirely on business accounting. If you also need to track leads, manage a sales pipeline, or separate your personal expenses, you need to pay for additional tools on top.
Side by side
Why Trivio
Accounting, invoicing, CRM, and personal finance in a single platform. No more paying for QuickBooks + a separate CRM + a personal finance app. Trivio handles all of it.
Upload a bank statement PDF or forward a bank email — AI categorises every transaction, matches it to the right account, and keeps your books balanced. No manual data entry.
Profit & loss, balance sheet, trial balance, AR/AP aging, and tax summary — generated from your live data in one click. No accountant required for routine reporting.
Track leads, manage your sales pipeline, log client conversations, and convert deals to invoices — all from the same platform as your accounting. QuickBooks doesn't have this.
Trivio imports transactions from PDFs and emails — never from your bank credentials. More secure, more private, and works with any bank in any country.
Free plan with real functionality. Pro is $15/month — not $38 to $275. For freelancers and solopreneurs who don't need enterprise accounting, Trivio is the right fit.
QuickBooks 2026 price hike
Intuit quietly raised QuickBooks Online prices on May 1, 2026 — citing AI investment as justification. Every plan was affected. Here's what you now pay vs. what Trivio costs:
At the Plus plan, QuickBooks Online now costs $1,380/year — more than 7× the cost of Trivio Pro at $180/year. Since 2020, QBO Plus has risen from $70/month to $115/month — a 64% increase. For freelancers and solopreneurs, that gap is hard to justify, especially when QuickBooks still has no CRM and no personal finance module.
QuickBooks Self-Employed discontinued
If you used QuickBooks Self-Employed, Intuit has replaced it with “QuickBooks Solopreneur” at $20/month. But Solopreneur is not a real accounting product — it's a stripped-down tool built for Schedule C tax filing only.
QuickBooks Solopreneur cannot produce a balance sheet. Without one, you cannot track assets, liabilities, or equity — standard requirements for any real accounting software.
Solopreneur is single-user only. You cannot invite a bookkeeper, accountant, or business partner to access your books — even read-only.
Solopreneur is designed for sole proprietors filing Schedule C. If you have an LLC, S-corp, or any business structure beyond sole proprietor, it is not suitable for your needs.
Trivio gives you full double-entry accounting — including a balance sheet, multi-user access, and proper P&L reporting — starting free. No artificial limitations.
FAQ
Yes. Intuit officially discontinued QuickBooks Desktop Pro, Premier, and Mac for new subscribers. Existing Desktop subscribers are being encouraged to migrate to QuickBooks Online, which costs significantly more. Prices for QuickBooks Online start at $20/month (Solopreneur, no balance sheet) or $38/month (Simple Start), up to $275/month for Advanced.
QuickBooks Online prices have risen 64% since 2020. QBO Simple Start rose from $25 to $38/month. QBO Plus rose from $70 to $115/month. QBO Advanced rose from $150 to $275/month. Additionally, QuickBooks Self-Employed was discontinued and replaced by Solopreneur at $20/month — a plan with no balance sheet and no multi-user access.
Trivio is the most complete free QuickBooks alternative: it includes real double-entry accounting, invoicing, AR/AP management, financial reports, a CRM pipeline, personal finance tracking, and AI expense categorisation. The free plan has no time limit. Pro is $15/month — compared to $20–$275/month for QuickBooks Online.
QuickBooks Self-Employed was discontinued and replaced by QuickBooks Solopreneur at $20/month. Despite the rebrand, Solopreneur is not a full accounting product — it has no balance sheet, no multi-user access, and is designed only for Schedule C sole proprietors. If you need real double-entry accounting, a balance sheet, or the ability to share access with a bookkeeper, Solopreneur is not sufficient. Trivio covers all of these at no cost on the free plan.
Yes. The migration process takes a few hours. You export your chart of accounts and transaction history from QuickBooks, set up matching accounts in Trivio, enter your opening balances, and upload recent bank statements for AI to categorise. Trivio's support team can assist with migration.
No. QuickBooks has no built-in CRM or sales pipeline. You need a separate tool like HubSpot, Pipedrive, or Salesforce to manage leads and client relationships — which means additional cost and manual data entry between your CRM and accounting software. Trivio includes CRM natively.
For most freelancers, QuickBooks Online is overpriced and overbuilt. The cheapest plan at $38/month (Simple Start) is limited to one user and basic reports. The plan most freelancers actually need — Plus at $115/month — is priced for small businesses with payroll. Trivio offers comparable accounting features plus CRM and personal finance for $15/month, or free.
Trivio is the cheapest full double-entry accounting alternative to QuickBooks. It is free for solo use and $15/month for Pro — compared to $38–$275/month for QuickBooks Online. Trivio includes all the features most freelancers need: double-entry journal entries, a real balance sheet, invoicing, AR/AP management, financial reports, and AI expense categorisation.
Yes — Trivio is specifically designed for this. Instead of connecting your bank account through Plaid or Open Banking, you upload a bank statement PDF or forward a bank email to your personal Trivio import address. AI reads every transaction and categorises it automatically. Your banking credentials are never shared with any third party. This approach works with any bank, anywhere in the world.
Verdict
Switch to Trivio if you...
Are a freelancer, solopreneur, or business under 10 people
Want accounting, CRM, and personal finance in one login
Need to import bank data without sharing your credentials
Were on QuickBooks Desktop or Self-Employed and need a replacement
Can't justify $38–$275/month for software with no CRM
Want AI to handle categorisation from PDFs or forwarded emails
Stay on QuickBooks if you...
Have 10+ employees and need payroll processing built in
Need multi-entity consolidation across several companies
Use QuickBooks Payments for integrated card and ACH processing
Require a certified ProAdvisor-managed setup for a large finance team
Migrate in minutes
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