At the initial stage of any business, entrepreneurs are often busy with critical tasks, such as creating brand awareness and attracting new prospects to their offerings.
While taking care of their critical to-do-list, they often end up ignoring the need of having a separate accounting function. Accounting is critical for enabling transparency in business operations and can be handled efficiently with the right set of technologies.
Business Accounting software is a necessity in today’s time. The sooner you implement the right accounting software, the better you can handle your cashflow. Otherwise, you will end up struggling with unattended expense receipts and missing tax deadlines.
List of Top 13 Best Free Accounting Apps & Software
- Vyapar
- Wave Accounting Software
- Zoho Invoice
- Go GST Bill
- Sleek Bill
- ZipBooks Bookkeeping Software
- SlickPie
- Akaunting Software
- CloudBooks
- GnuCash
- Manager Accounting Software
- CodeAchi Easysell
- Giddh Accounting Software
| Product | Unique Selling Point | Pricing |
| Vyapar | Free GST billing app for accounting & invoicing | Its premium plans start at Rs 99 per month |
| Wave Accounting Software | Free online accounting software for small businesse | It’s completely Free |
| Zoho Invoice | GST invoicing software for mid-sized businesses | Standard at Rs 2499, Professional at Rs 9,999 and Premium at Rs 19,999. |
| Go GST Bill | Free GST billing software designed especially for Indian businesses | Go GST Bill’s one-year premium plan is available at Rs 999 per month. |
| Sleek Bill | Online invoicing software for modern businesses in India | You can opt for its online or offline premium plan is available at Rs 1999/ year. |
| ZipBooks Bookkeeping Software | Ensures accurate bookkeeping in three simple steps | Its premium version start at Rs 1000 per month. |
| SlickPie | Online accounting software with easy-to-use interface | Its Pro plan starts at Rs 2800 onwards. |
| Akaunting Software | Open source and free accounting software to track expenses with ease | It’s completely free to use |
| CloudBooks | Free bookkeeping & invoice software for time tracking and expense management | Pro for Rs 700 per month and Agency for Rs 1400 dollar per month. |
| GnuCash | A powerful & flexible software to track bank accounts, income and expenses | Available for free |
| Manager Accounting Software | It’s a fully-featured accounts software supported by Windows, Mac, and Linux | All features are available for free |
| CodeAchi Easysell | GST software, which includes sales, purchase and inventory functions | It’s a free software for small businesses. |
| Giddh | Invoicing, GST compliances, inventory, bank reconciliation, data management | Comes with free demo |
Best Free GST Accounting Software
GST accounting software has become the need of the hour, as it helps SMBs and large enterprises manage their finances as per the latest guidelines. With a software to make bookkeeping and tax calculation tasks easier, businesses can focus on offering the best to their customers.
Vyapar
Free GST Billing App for Accounting & Invoicing
Vyapar accounting software for android is available free. It helps in managing GST reports and stock inventory management. This is one of the best billing apps for accounting, which provides all basic functionalities without any limitation. It also keeps data secure while simplifying the process of making GST bills and sharing them with your clients.
Features
- Professional GST Invoice templates
- Organizes products into categories to ensures that you never run out of stock
- The auto backup functionality to keep your business data secure
- Critical business reports like Profit and Loss reports, Inventory Reports, and more
- Allows sharing invoices and business reports digitally.
- Designed especially for small businesses to manage their invoices, receipts, payments and inventory on the go.
- It works even when you are offline
- Fulfils all basic accounting needs of SMBs
- Businesses can also generate financial reports and calculate taxes automatically with this free accounting app.
- Doesn’t provide the advanced features for project accounting and payroll management.
Pricing: Its premium plans start at Rs 99 per month. | You can also look into the best Vyapar alternatives.
Wave Accounting Software
Free Online Accounting Software for Small Businesses
Operating the Wave Accounting Software is as easy as signing up on Google. As soon as you sign up on Wave, you get unlimited features to manage your finances, capture receipts and get paid from your clients on time. You can send unlimited invoices and estimates with your clients to ensure timely payment with this free GST accounting software.
Features
- Helps automate income and expense tracking
- Ensures record accuracy
- Helps stay compliant with the latest GST rules
- Easily sync transactions from online bank account
- Promotes error-free bookkeeping
- It doesn’t save your bank account and password details, thus making data secure
- Allows creating the perfect invoice for generating payment
- This free GST software also helps manage bills, receipts, and vendors.
- The software cannot be used to put money in or withdraw money from bank accounts.
- Its payroll feature is only available for the US and Canadian businesses.
Pricing: It’s a completely free accounts software.
Zoho Invoice
GST Invoicing Software for Mid-Sized Businesses
Zoho Invoice, is the best for managing invoicing workflows. Attached to this best accounting software, you would find time tracking features, invoicing templates and expense reporting. All these features make project and billing management related tasks a breeze.
Businesses with the turnover of less than 1.5 Crore can benefit significantly from the free GST billing software plan of Zoho Invoice and sign up directly through their GSTN.
Features:
- Expense tracking functions
- Client portal to interact with customers
- GST invoicing with GSTIN, place of supply and HSN/SAC codes
- Reporting & GST filing
- Inventory & e-Way bill
- 5 Automated Workflows
- SSL Encryption
- Two-factor authentication
- Snail Mail
- Timesheets and other time tracking tools
- Multi-currency Support
- Recurring Invoices
- You can send invoice only up to 5 customers, so it’s not apt for large enterprises.
Pricing: Zoho Invoice comes with three different pricing plans per organization per year – Standard at Rs 2499, Professional at Rs 9,999 and Premium at Rs 19,999.
Go GST Bill
Free GST billing software designed especially for Indian businesses
The free version of Go GST Bill software provides many essential features, such as, sales and purchase invoice and payment receipt. It also helps with stock management. You can further generate sales/ purchases as much as 3000 per year.
Features:
- Simple reporting features
- Send invoice and quotation via email
- Helps keep track of expenses
- You can easily create unlimited products
- Allows managing the stock with one click
- Email support & 15 days phone support
- You can add as much as 25 items in a single document
- Fewer advertisement
- You cannot import products and customers from Excel.
- Provides limited invoice templates
Pricing: Go GST Bill’s one-year premium plan is available at Rs 999 per month.
Sleek Bill
Online Invoicing Software for Modern Businesses in India
With Sleek Bill, you can create beautiful invoices and GST documents in a simplified manner. You can also create tax invoice, export invoice and delivery note. This free GST billing software is compliant with the latest GST rules and is a great tool for tax management. It provides many unique invoice templates to help your business stand out.
Features:
- Attractive user interface
- GST tax calculation
- Smart tax reports
- You can make purchase orders & bills
- Allows you to print invoices and share through email
- Ensures data safety on the PC
- Helps manage billing & accounting as per the latest GST rules
- Provides GST optimized reports
- There’s a limit of 10 documents per month
- No dedicated support
Pricing: You can opt for its online or offline premium plan is available at Rs 1999/ year.
Best Free Accounting Software for Small Businesses
Accounting software is the key to the growth of small businesses who often end up compromising with manual processes. A single mistake in financial bookkeeping can impact your cashflow significantly. It’s time to go with one of the best accounting software for small business and get the most of it.
ZipBooks Bookkeeping Software
Ensures accurate bookkeeping in three simple steps.
ZipBooks bookkeeping software helps record payments easily in just a few clicks. Also, you can create invoices according to projects and share them with as many clients as you want. Not just that, its free version makes digital payment easier and is ideal for traders, e-commerce sellers and wholesalers.
With this software, you will not have to bother at the time of tax filing. As, all your finance data will be available in an organized manner.
Features:
- Send unlimited invoices
- Manage unlimited vendors & customers
- Accept digital payments with PayPal
- Generates Basic Reports
- Allows connecting with one bank account
- Provides several invoice templates which can be customized
- There is no limit to sharing invoices with the free version
- For start-ups, managing transactions online becomes quite easy.
- It doesn’t allow scheduling recurring bills
- Also, you cannot automate reminders for payment.
Pricing: Its premium version starts a Rs 1000 per month.
SlickPie
Online accounting software with easy-to-use interface.
SlickPie is a free accounting software which is helping many SMBs manage their finances efficiently. With its free version, you can manage 10 different accounts on a single account and will also get the email support. Also, there isn’t any limit to receipt entries.
Craeting professional invoices is another benefit of SlickPie accounting software free. You can create unlimited quotes and estimates and also get paid from your clients easily via PayPal.
Features:
- Set-up recurring invoices
- Creates quotes and estimates
- Provides live bank feeds
- You can send online invoices
- You can also track sales tax
- You can manage your business finances through any device
- It provides bank-grade security to your financial data
- Generates invoices for multi-currency
- It doesn’t provide advanced built-in reporting features
Pricing: Its Pro plan starts at Rs 2800 onwards.
Akaunting Software
Open source and free accounting software to track expenses with ease.
Akaunting is an online accounting software for small businesses to manage their invoicing and online payments details with ease. With this free best accounting software, you can keep track of expenses online. Further, it’s tablet and mobile ready, making it possible to work on the go.
Features:
- Billing expenses
- Bank accounts
- Powerful reporting
- Transaction categories
- Client portal
- Customer summary
- Inventory management
- Vendor management
- Easy-to-use Interface
- Multilingual admin & client panel
- Complete data ownership
- You need to be a bit wary about the privacy of your financials as it’s an open source software.
Pricing: It’s completely free to use.
CloudBooks
Free bookkeeping & invoice software for time tracking and expense management
CloudBooks is a free accounting software for small businesses, which allows them to manage unlimited users and invoices with ease. It also helps create estimates and track expenses to have a better control over the company’s cash flow. Also, finances can be handled as per your ongoing projects.
Features:
- Client management
- Invoice management
- Email support
- Unlimited staff users
- It ensures secure data storage on the cloud
- Complete email support
- You can send only five invoices per month
- With the free version, you dent get branding features
Pricing: It provides two premium plans – Pro for Rs 700 and Agency for Rs 1400 dollar per month.
GnuCash
A powerful & flexible software to track bank accounts, income and expenses
GnuCash free accounting software for small business financial accounting. It’s a powerful yet flexible software, with an easy user interface. Using this software, you can ensure accurate reports and balanced accounts books.
Features:
- Double-entry accounting
- Stock/bond/mutual fund accounts
- Provides reports and graphs feature
- Allows scheduling transactions
- Makes financial calculations hassle-free.
- GnuCash is also available for Android app.
- Provides limited features for basic accounts management.
Pricing: It’s a free software
Free Offline Accounting Software to Download? Find Here
Start your financial management journey by downloading accounting software free with an intuitive interface. This is a few offline accounting software, which will let you work even when you are not connected to the internet.
Manager Accounting Software
It’s a fully-featured accounting software supported by Windows, Mac, and Linux
Manager Accounting software is a free solution that allows users to work seamlessly even when they are offline. While you are working offline on desktop and laptop, it ensures uninterrupted access to the financial data and programs.
Features:
- It is available for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux
- The software ensures project-based accounting
- Facilitates accrual-based accounting
- Profit & loss statement
- Fixed asset management
- It provides all additional features you’d expect from any customized accounting software.
- The software provides no time limit, usage limit, or any advertisement.
- Reporting features can be further improved.
Pricing: It’s completely free.
CodeAchi Easysell
GST software, which includes sales, purchase and inventory functions
CodeAchi Easysell is one of the easiest options to manage your accounts, inventory and GST. This accounting software free download full version, offline version provides smart interface to manage business income and expenses.
Features
- Compatible with any kind of retail business
- Helps manage your Inventory with barcode
- Provides multiple billing and invoice templates
- Helps track sale and purchase easily
- Allows creating cost estimates
- Safeguards data from unauthorized access
- Features are quite limited depending on the needs of retail businesses.
Pricing: Its free for small businesses
Giddh Accounting Software
Cloud-based accounting solution for small business
Giddh is an online accounting software used for bookkeeping purposes and managing finances. The accounting management system helps with invoicing, GST compliances, inventory management, bank reconciliation, data management and more.
The GST software performs the best when used for imparting the data, sharing it, and collaborating with others. The cloud-based GST accounting software allows you to access your books from anywhere. Further, Giddh software facilitates Tally integration along with in-depth reporting and analytics.
Giddh Accounting Software Features
- Create inventory & track inventory expenses
- Create professional-looking invoices
- Multi-currency support
- Bank reconciliation to analyse cashflow
- Helps file GST returns
- Manage contact details of vendors & customers
- Bank level security of financial reports
- Advanced finance reporting tools
- Easy sharing of financial data
- Customizable dashboard for assessing your financial health
- Mobile application support
- Highly secured because of its bank-level security
- Friendly and supportive customer services team
- Can have more reporting types.
Pricing: Giddh accounting software’s paid plans start from ₹4000 per year. Feel free to connect with us for a free demo support.
How to Evaluate the Best Free Accounting Software Online
As a small business owner, it’s important to keep an eye on the cash in and cash out. Tools like accounting software helps in recording payments and tracking expenses. With the help of software, you can get an insight into the financial health of your business and take necessary steps.
However, all this is possible if you get the right accounting software that meets your business requirement. A software that helps analyse financial health of your business from different sources.
You can get the best one for your business by taking care of these important factors:
- Costs: Whether you are looking for the best free accounting software for small business with basic but essential features, or a paid application with additional features. It depends on your budget and capabilities that you expect from the software.
- Usability: The choice of right accounts software also depends on your team size and your current infrastructure setup. A cloud-based accounting solution requires no internal IT setup and the subscription charge is comparatively low. On the contrary, the desktop-based accounting software requires an internal setup and server for data storage and sharing. You might also need an app-based accounting software for your remote employees who often update accounting status on the go.
- Features: What functions you need to perform with the accounting software? Do you just need to manage account payable & receivable or need bank reconciliation function also? Top free accounting software along with the paid ones provide many additional features like inventory management, time tracking, payroll, project management, and more.
- Compatibility: The accounting software you choose must be compatible with the operating system and other computer applications you are currently using. An incompatible accounts software will only disrupt the existing function rather than serving any purpose. Your IT team can help in figuring out a compatible accounting software with your existing system.
- Security: Your financial data is vulnerable to cyber threats.So, go for an accounting software which ensures data security and confidentiality with advanced safety features. Look for security features beyond data encryption and restricted access.
Top Alternatives to the Best Free Accounting Software
| Product | Pricing |
| Busy Accounting Software | The basic plan comes at Rs 7200 |
| Tally ERP 9 | Its Silver plan starts with Rs 18,000 per month and its Gold plan is available for Rs 54,000 on monthly basis. |
| ProfitBooks | It starts at Rs 3500 per month for one user. |
| QuickBooks | The first-year subscription for QuickBooks starts at Rs 1,500/Year. |
| Zoho Books | It starts at Rs 2499 per year. |
Busy Accounting Software
Busy accounting software is quite popular among small and medium businesses as it’s simple to use and easy to configure. With this software, you can manage payroll processes and tax calculations efficiently. It’s especially useful for GST billing and filing. All GST related processes can be streamlined with one of the best accounting software.
Pricing: The basic plan comes at Rs 7200.
Tally ERP 9
Tally.ERP 9 saves a considerable amount of time and effort in managing GST transactional information. Everything is managed as per the books and the latest GST rules with Tally Accounting. Further, this top accounting software helps identify discrepancies and fill GSTR-9 efficiently.
Tally ERP 9 Price: Its Silver plan starts with Rs 18,000 per month and its Gold plan is available for Rs 54,000 on monthly basis.
OR Check Tally erp 9 educational version free download
ProfitBooks
ProfitBooks account management software is one of the professional accounting software, which makes tasks like invoice generation and payment much easier. This software further helps track day-to-day expenses and record banking transactions.
Pricing: It starts at Rs 3500 per month for one user.
Quickbooks Online
Quickbooks accounting software ensures quick payment from your clients with reduced need of follow ups. Every process is automated and customized according to specific customers. Further, your customers can search for invoice easily with PO number.
Pricing: The first-year subscription for QuickBooks starts at Rs 1,500/Year.
Zoho Books
Zoho Books is an online accounting software, which is used for sending professional invoices and receiving payments online. It also tracks and recognizes expenses to give you a better control over your cash flow. By connecting Zoho Books with your bank account, you can have a better control over your income and expenses.
Pricing: It starts at Rs 2499 per year.
FAQs About Best Free Accounting Software
Is Wave Accounting free?
Wave is a completely free accounting software, with no limit on the number of invoices you can create or contacts you can save. However, the features for payroll, bookkeeping and payment processing comes with its premium version only.
Is there a free version of Quickbooks?
There isn’t any free version of Quickbooks. However, depending upon your requirement and country where you are operating your business, the price and trial period vary. You can opt for different promotional offers to get the best deal. Also, Quickbooks accounting software plans often come with 30-day trial for free.
What is the cheapest accounting software?
With different accounting software options available, you may find it difficult to get the one which suits your budget. Fret not! There are so many free accounting software options available, which will help you have a better control over your company’s cash flow.
Some of the most popular free accounting software are ZipBooks bookkeeping software, Wave accounting, Easy accounting software, Microsoft small business accounting software and QuickFile.Which is the easiest accounting software?
Accounting doesn’t have to be a cumbersome task anymore. There are many feature-rich accounting software solutions which are also easy to use.
Depending upon the experience level of your accounting team, you can opt for any of these popular accounting programs are QuickBooks, FreshBooks, Zoho Books, GoDaddy Bookkeeping and FreeAgent.
It’s advised to go for online demo and trial of a few accounting software for small business to find the right one for your business needs.Which is the best accounting software for a mid-sized business?
No matter whether you are running a small or a mid-sized business, keeping your accounting functions organized is a necessity. The better is your control on your company’s cash flow, the more successful you can be. And, the secret to growing your business from mid-sized to a large enterprise also lies in streamlined accounting.
You can opt for any of these top best accounting software systems to manage your finances are Xero, Sage 50Cloud, Zoho Books, FreshBooks and Intuit QuickBooks.
More Useful Accounting Application Links
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Written by
Kalpana Arya 
Kalpana’s tech writing journey began in 2017 with Techjockey, and she truly belongs here! If she was not a technical content writer, she would have been a coder. Technical writing, especially for business software, is her passion, and she enjoys every bit of it. From addressing the pain... Read more
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