Best tax software, rated

Koinly is the broadest crypto-tax engine by exchange and chain coverage, with native report generation for the US, UK, AU, CA, DE, IE, FR, SE, NL, NO, NZ, and roughly 20 other jurisdictions. The published plan ladder runs Free (preview-only) / Newbie / Hodler / Trader, billed annually per tax year, with the tier breaks set on transaction count rather than feature gating [SC6]. Pricing transparency is high and the count-based breakpoints make total cost predictable for a user with a known transaction history. Ease-of-use scores well — wallet and exchange connections are mostly via API token or read-only key, with CSV fallback for missing integrations. Feature breadth is strong: cost-basis methods (FIFO, LIFO, ACB, share-pooling), DeFi handling for major protocols, NFT support, tax-loss-harvesting helper, and an accountant-facing portal. Support is email / chat without a phone channel. International is the score's strongest pillar — Koinly's localization across 20+ jurisdictions is the deepest in the category, which makes it the typical pick for non-US-resident crypto filers. Best-for fit is high for the cross-border crypto user; mid for US-only filers whose return is otherwise simple, who can sometimes self-prepare from exchange-issued 1099s.

Common approaches discussed by practitioners include using Koinly to produce a per-jurisdiction Form 8949 / CGT schedule and handing the resulting report to the underlying tax software (TurboTax, H&R Block) for the rest of the return.

Gusto is full-service US payroll, benefits, and HR for small businesses — the closest direct peer is ADP RUN at the small-business end. The published plan ladder runs Simple / Plus / Premium for full-service employer payroll, plus a Contractor-only tier for businesses with 1099-only payment flows; the public pricing page is transparent on per-employee monthly fees stacked on a base [SC10]. Pricing transparency is high and the per-employee economics are predictable. Ease-of-use is the category leader for new-payroll-onboarding — the setup wizard handles federal and state account registrations end-to-end, which removes the highest-friction step from setting up US payroll. Feature breadth is strong: full federal / state / local tax filing, W-2 / 1099 generation, benefits administration (health, 401(k), commuter), time tracking, integrated workers' comp pay-as-you-go. Support is via chat / phone with US-based agents on business hours. International is mid — Gusto added contractor payments in roughly 80 countries but full-service international employer payroll is not the product. Best-for fit is high for any US small business with employees; low when the business is solo with no employees (where it would be over-provisioned).

Common approaches discussed by practitioners include moving a new client onto Gusto Simple by default and stepping the client up to Plus when health-benefits administration becomes a need.

QuickBooks Online (Intuit) is the largest small-business cloud accounting platform in the US and the deepest integration with the US accountant ecosystem — the QuickBooks ProAdvisor program is the largest accountant-facing certification network in the country. The published plan ladder runs Simple Start / Essentials / Plus / Advanced with feature gating across users, classes, locations, and reporting; pricing transparency is mid — the public page shows current rates but heavy promotional discounting and mid-cycle upcharges (Payroll add-on, Live Bookkeeping) compress the headline price [SC4]. Ease-of-use scores below FreshBooks because QuickBooks tries to serve a far wider range of business profiles, and the interface complexity reflects that. Feature breadth is the strongest in the category: full GL, project-level P&L on Plus, advanced reporting on Advanced, sales-tax automation, payroll integration, deep bank feeds. Support is solid through chat and phone; international has improved through Intuit's UK / AU / CA localizations but the product remains primarily a US-domestic tool. Best-for fit is highest when the user already works with a QuickBooks-fluent accountant or expects to hire one — that ecosystem effect is the platform's moat.

Common approaches discussed by practitioners include starting on Simple Start for solo work, upgrading to Plus when class-based or project-based reporting is needed, and using a ProAdvisor-listed bookkeeper to handle reconciliations.

Xero is QuickBooks Online's closest competitor and the international leader in cloud accounting, with first-class localization for AU, NZ, GB, and a wide non-US footprint. The published plan ladder for the US runs Early / Growing / Established with unlimited-user pricing on every tier — a structural advantage over QuickBooks for practices and bookkeepers managing many users [SC5]. Pricing transparency is high and the headline-vs-actual gap is smaller than QuickBooks's. Ease-of-use is comparable to QuickBooks, with a cleaner UI but a thinner US accountant-network density. Feature breadth is high: full GL, multi-currency built in (a structural advantage for international users), project tracking on Established, native bank feeds, and the largest open-API third-party app marketplace in the category. Support is via chat and email and skews self-serve. International score is the highest of any program in this scorecard because multi-currency, localized tax (GST / VAT) modules, and accountant networks are native rather than bolted on. Best-for fit is high for cross-border or non-US-headquartered businesses; mid-high for US-only businesses where QuickBooks's accountant-network density still tips the choice [SC4].

Common approaches discussed by practitioners include picking Xero over QuickBooks specifically when a business operates in or expects to expand to AU / NZ / UK, or when the user wants unlimited-user pricing without per-seat economics.

H&R Block is the closest direct DIY peer to TurboTax and the leader in hybrid DIY-plus-in-person filing. The published online pricing ladder is broadly comparable to TurboTax across Deluxe / Premium / Self-Employed tiers, with H&R Block typically priced a small step below the equivalent TurboTax tier on the public pricing pages [SC2]. The differentiator is physical-office fallback — H&R Block operates roughly 9,000 retail offices across the US and adjacent markets, which is unique in DIY and matters for audit-anxious filers and for filers whose returns become more complex than the software handles. Feature coverage is high but lags TurboTax modestly on broker imports and K-1 ergonomics. Support scores high because both software and retail share a single brand and a customer can escalate from product chat to an in-office appointment. International is meaningfully better than TurboTax: H&R Block runs an Expat Tax Services arm with expat-specialist preparers handling Form 2555, Form 1116, FBAR, and Form 8938 — purpose-built for the US-citizen-abroad case rather than a bolted-on edge case. Best-for fit is high when a filer values the office-fallback option or expat coverage; mid for filers comfortable fully online and who would otherwise prefer TurboTax's UX polish.

Common approaches discussed by practitioners include starting in H&R Block Online and converting to a same-brand in-office appointment if a return outgrows the software mid-flow.

TurboTax (Intuit) is the most-used DIY tax software in the United States and the strongest interview-style UX in the category. Public pricing for the 2025 tax year (filed in 2026) starts at a Free Edition for simple W-2 returns and tiers up through Deluxe, Premium, and Live add-ons; the published price ladder for the federal product is widely surveyed and the company maintains a public pricing page [SC1]. The pricing score is held down — not by sticker price alone but by the FTC's 2024 final order over years of 'free' advertising that did not match what most filers actually paid; that order constrains how the product can be marketed and is part of the public record [SC12]. Feature coverage is the deepest in DIY: prior-year import, broker 1099-B aggregator imports, K-1 handling, multi-state, audit-support add-on. International is weak — the product is built for US filers and treats Form 2555 (FEIE) and FBAR adjacent flows as edge cases; expats are usually better served by an expat-specialist preparer or by H&R Block Expat Tax Services. Support quality is solid via TurboTax Live (CPA / EA review on demand) but in-product chat without the Live add-on is shallower. Best-for fit is high for the W-2-plus-1099 filer who values UX and can absorb the price; lower for low-income filers who would qualify for IRS Free File or Direct File [SC11].

Common approaches discussed by practitioners include using TurboTax Live for the on-demand human-review value, and switching to a credentialed tax pro once a return crosses into multi-entity, expat, or significant capital-asset complexity.

FreshBooks is invoice-first cloud accounting, narrower in scope than QuickBooks Online or Xero but built for the solo-services use case it serves. The published plan ladder runs Lite / Plus / Premium with a Select tier for higher-volume practices; the public pricing page is transparent on per-plan client caps and add-on team-member pricing [SC3]. Ease-of-use is the strongest in the small-business category for the invoice-and-time-tracking persona — onboarding is short and the time-to-first-invoice is measured in minutes, which matters for the freelancer who is not a bookkeeper. Feature breadth is the trade-off: full double-entry accounting, payroll integration, and inventory are present but lighter than QuickBooks or Xero. Support has live human chat on business hours and is consistently scored well by independent reviewers; international is strong because FreshBooks supports multi-currency invoicing and tax handling out of the box, which makes it a common pick for freelancers based outside the US. Best-for fit is high when the user is a solo service provider; lower as headcount and inventory complexity grow — at which point QuickBooks Online or Xero is usually the better next move.

Common approaches discussed by practitioners include pairing FreshBooks for invoicing with a separate compliant accountant-facing GL when a US-based S-corp's bookkeeping gets past the threshold FreshBooks comfortably handles.

CoinTracker is the most US-centric of the three crypto-tax engines in this scorecard and the official tax partner of Coinbase. The published plan ladder is transaction-count-based and broadly comparable to Koinly, with Free / Hobbyist / Premium / Ultra tiers; the public pricing page is clear on the per-tier transaction caps [SC7]. Ease-of-use is excellent for the Coinbase-heavy user because the integration is one-click; non-Coinbase exchanges and DeFi are supported but the polish is most evident on the Coinbase path. Feature breadth is solid — FIFO / LIFO / HIFO, NFT handling, DeFi support for major protocols — but the international depth is shorter than Koinly's, which costs CoinTracker the international score. The product is also a portfolio tracker, which is a feature differentiator vs. Koinly's tax-only positioning. Support is email; a phone channel is not standard. Best-for fit is highest for the US-resident Coinbase-heavy user who plans to feed the resulting Form 8949 into TurboTax or H&R Block; mid for users with non-Coinbase exchange activity, where Koinly's coverage is typically deeper.

Common approaches discussed by practitioners include using CoinTracker for the Coinbase pull and a secondary tool for non-Coinbase exchange CSVs when a portfolio is mixed.

ZenLedger sits between Koinly and CoinTracker on coverage and is the most direct of the three at offering CPA-on-demand and tax-pro-prepared add-ons. The published plan ladder is transaction-count-based — Free / Starter / Premium / Executive / Platinum — with the higher tiers including escalating CPA-consultation hours; the public pricing page is clear on what each tier includes [SC8]. Pricing scores mid because the plan boundaries are tight — power users frequently move two tiers up unexpectedly. Ease-of-use is good for the standard-exchange path; complex DeFi sometimes still requires manual review. Feature breadth is solid: cost-basis methods, NFT, DeFi protocols, tax-loss-harvesting helper, and the differentiator — the integrated tax-pro hours, which CoinTracker and Koinly do not directly bundle. Support scores high specifically because of that tax-pro integration. International is the weakest pillar — coverage is meaningfully shallower than Koinly's. Best-for fit is high when the filer wants software-plus-CPA in one purchase; lower when the user is comfortable handing a Koinly export to their existing preparer.

Common approaches discussed by practitioners include picking ZenLedger when the filer prefers software with bundled human-review hours and is not optimizing for international coverage.

Bench is human-assisted bookkeeping packaged as a subscription — a different category from the DIY accounting platforms above. The published plan ladder runs Essential / Premium with the Premium tier including tax-filing services; the public pricing page is transparent on what each tier handles [SC9]. Pricing scores low because Bench is materially more expensive per month than Xero or QuickBooks Online (which are software, not a bookkeeping team) — that price gap is the design, not a defect, but it constrains the score per the rubric. Ease-of-use is the strongest pillar — the user uploads bank-feed access and a small monthly check-in, and a Bench bookkeeper handles the rest; the in-product UX is purpose-built for monthly review, not data entry. Feature breadth is shallower than QuickBooks because Bench is not trying to be a full GL — it is a service. Support is via the assigned bookkeeper plus team escalation. International is weak: Bench is primarily a US service. Best-for fit is high for the US small-business owner whose time on bookkeeping is more valuable than the price gap to DIY accounting; low for users who would prefer to pay less and learn QuickBooks themselves. Note: Bench publicly closed and was acquired in late 2024 / early 2025 — the service continues under new ownership. Customers should review current service-continuity terms before committing to a long contract.

Common approaches discussed by practitioners include using Bench when the owner does not want to be a bookkeeper at all and budget allows for full-service handling, and switching to a QuickBooks ProAdvisor-listed bookkeeper if the price gap becomes the bottleneck.