Best Accounting Software · alternatives
Best Bench alternatives (2026)
7 alternatives to Bench in accounting software, ranked by entry price. Bench starts at $199/mo. Every figure links to the public page it was captured from — the vendor's own wherever the vendor publishes the number, otherwise the named public source — with the date we captured it.
Key takeaways
- Cheaper than Bench: Wave, Zoho Books, Patriot Software Accounting, QuickBooks Online, FreshBooks, Xero.
- Free alternatives: Wave, Zoho Books.
- Closest by price: Wave ($0/mo), Zoho Books ($0/mo), Patriot Software Accounting ($20/mo).
Bench alternatives compared
| # | Alternative | Entry price | Free | HIPAA | Best for | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wave | $0/mo | Yes | — | Freelancers and micro-businesses wanting $0 accounting software | waveapps.com |
| 2 | Zoho Books | $0/mo | Yes | Yes | Businesses already using Zoho CRM or the broader Zoho suite | zoho.com |
| 3 | Patriot Software Accounting STALE · 2026-09-02 | $20/mo | No | — | Small US businesses wanting tight payroll-accounting integration at low cost | patriotsoftware.com |
| 4 | QuickBooks Online STALE · 2026-09-02 | $20/mo | No | — | Small businesses wanting the broadest accountant network | quickbooks.intuit.com |
| 5 | FreshBooks STALE · 2026-09-27 | $23/mo | No | — | Freelancers and service businesses billing by client | freshbooks.com |
| 6 | Xero | $27/mo | No | — | Teams with many users wanting flat per-org pricing | xero.com |
| 7 | Bookkeeper360 STALE · 2026-09-02 | $399/mo | No | — | eCommerce, SaaS, healthcare, or real estate businesses wanting outsourced bookkeeping | bookkeeper360.com |
Data current through 2026-11-01. STALE marks a row whose price we have not re-checked at its source in over 30 days; a vendor with no published price is marked when any of its plans is. 4 of 7 rows above are marked. Compare any two directly on the Accounting Software index.