Is free accounting software enough — and where is the limit?

7 of the 28 solutions have a permanently free tier. The question is not whether it will do, but when you will hit its limit — and what that will cost.

Author: Stefan Bernhard
Published: 23. August 2026
Data as of: August 2026
Reading time: 3 minutes

The essentials

7 of the 28 accounting solutions compared have a permanently free tier, not just a trial period. As of July 2026.
The limit is almost always on VOLUME rather than on features: documents per year, number of clients, number of users. As long as your business stays below it, nothing is missing day to day.
The free tier gets expensive at its limit. Whoever crosses it in November changes tier or program in the middle of the financial year.
For comparison: the 12 published entry prices sit in the middle at CHF 25.– a month. The step from free to paid is therefore small — the step from one solution to another is not.

Rather filter for yourself? All 28 solutions with 19 criteria in one table Filter by profile and features, set a budget, read the columns side by side. This article gives the bearings — the table is the tool. To the comparison table

What «free» means in this category

There are two kinds. One is a trial period with an expiry date, the other a permanently free tier with a volume limit. Only the second is meant here, and 7 of the 28 solutions have it.

The difference from a trial is not the length but the intent: a free tier expects you to stay for good and is built accordingly. It is not feature-poor but volume-limited — and for a small business that is the cheaper cut.

Three limits where it ends

In this order they are reached in practice.

Documents per year
The most frequent limit and the only one that grows with the business. Estimate high rather than low: a business with forty documents a month has 480 a year, and that is above most free limits.
Number of users
Usually one. As soon as the fiduciary should be able to look in, or a second person invoices, the tier is reached — not because of volume but because of access.
Number of clients
Irrelevant for a single business. Whoever also runs a second company or an association needs a second client file and thereby almost always leaves the free tier.

Why switching costs more than the subscription

Within the same solution the step from free to paid is a setting: the data stays, the limit falls, and the amount is in the order of the 12 published entry prices — in the middle CHF 25.– a month.

Moving to a different solution is another matter. It leaves two sets of data for one set of accounts in the middle of the financial year, and the year end has to bring both together. Whoever bursts the free tier in November pays for it in closing work rather than in francs.

From this follows a simple rule: the free tier is the right choice if you will safely stay below it — and the wrong one if you are just below it.

Frequently asked questions

Is free accounting legally permitted?

The law sets requirements for the accounts, not for the price of the software. A free tier that files unalterably, stays legible and allows a complete export meets the same conditions as a paid one.

Which solutions have a free tier?

7 of the 28 compared. The names appear in the overall comparison in a group of their own — and in the comparison table as a row of its own that can be filtered.

What is the difference from a trial version?

The trial ends on a date, the free tier at a volume. For a side business the second is usable permanently, the first is not.

Where the figures come from

Free tiers: Vendor information, each value with a verification date. Only the permanently free tier is recorded, not the trial period. As of July 2026.
Prices: Vendor information from price lists and trial accounts. For 16 of the 28 solutions the vendor publishes no price; none is estimated.

Which of the 28 solutions has a permanently free tier can be filtered in the comparison table.

All 28 providers in the comparison table: Accounting