Zoho Books and Xero are both solid accounting software, but in my evaluation, Zoho Books comes out on top for its advanced inventory management and flexible pricing. That said, I’d recommend Xero for businesses with large accounting teams that need unlimited users and easy scalability.
- Zoho Books: Small businesses looking for a full-featured accounting program with the best-in-class mobile app
- Xero: Small businesses looking for an accounting platform with a fixed asset manager and unlimited users for a low price
Leveraging my accounting and bookkeeping expertise, I rigorously assess software using our internal case study that objectively scores key features while upholding editorial independence.
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Accounting and Bookkeeping Expert at Fit Small Business
Use Cases and Pros & Cons
Pros
- Has the best-in-class mobile app
- Offers multiple plan tiers for users with different needs
- Has excellent inventory features
- Works well with other Zoho apps
Cons
- Charges a fee for receipt autoscans
- Has no accounts payable (A/P) features in the Free and Standard plan
- Has a steep learning curve
Read our Zoho Books review
Use Cases
- Casual sellers and service providers: Zoho Books offers a free plan for casual sellers and service providers. However, the best selling point here is that if you decide to make your business a full-time commitment, you can always upgrade to paid plans for more features.
- Product-based businesses: In the Elite plan, you can enjoy advanced inventory control features such as serial number tracking, batch tracking, and shipment tracking, which are features absent in Xero’s inventory module. You can also print shipping labels, integrate up to two Shopify stores, and manage up to five warehouses with Zoho Books.
- Mobile app: Zoho Books tops our list of the best free mobile invoicing apps. The app includes basic accounting tasks like sending invoices, assigning expenses, entering bill payments, recording time worked, and even viewing reports. The functionality of Zoho Books’ mobile app is way better than that of Xero’s.
- Customer service: We like that Zoho Books gives users many ways to contact the provider or be contacted by the provider. Unlike Xero, Zoho Books has a customer service hotline, email, chatbot, and a live chat representative. In case you have problems with your account, it can help you right away.
- Businesses interested in other Zoho Apps: Zoho Books is one of the apps in the Zoho One suite. Zoho One brands itself as a “business operating system,” and a single subscription to Zoho One entitles you to access over 40 enterprise-level applications, including Zoho Books
Pros
- Offers unlimited seats in all plans
- Has a dedicated fixed asset manager module
- Integrates with many third-party apps
Cons
- Limits the number of invoices in the lowest plan
- Lacks annual billing options
- Has a weak mobile app
Use Cases
- Fixed asset management: Of all the cloud-based accounting software we’ve reviewed, Xero is the only software with dedicated fixed asset management features. Its fixed asset manager enables users to keep fixed asset records, calculate depreciation, and compute any gain or loss from disposals.
- Unlimited users: Zoho Books only allows up to 15 users in the highest plan — and you’ll have to pay for additional users. We recommend going for Xero because it has unlimited seats in all plans.
- Integration with third-party apps: Xero has a robust library of third-party apps integrating with the accounting software, making it one of our best ecommerce accounting software. If you’re using apps like HubSpot, Mailchimp, or Shopify, you can connect them easily to Xero through the Xero App Store.
User Reviews: Tie
Based on user reviews, Zoho Books excels in offering a feature-rich platform with strong automation and customization, which is ideal for businesses prioritizing comprehensive invoicing and cost-effectiveness. Xero, on the other hand, stands out for its ease of use and robust financial reporting, making it suitable for users who value intuitive design and detailed financial insights. Overall, I agree with these user sentiments.
Considering critical functionalities and general user consensus, Zoho Books may have a slight edge in terms of features, while Xero leads in user experience. Those requiring advanced features might prefer Zoho Books, whereas those seeking simplicity and strong reporting may lean towards Xero.
Pricing: Xero Wins
Xero offers better long-term value by keeping pricing predictable as businesses grow. Every plan includes unlimited users, invoices, and bills, ensuring companies never hit restrictive limits or face unexpected costs. In contrast, Zoho Books imposes annual transaction caps, which can force upgrades as a business scales.
While Zoho Books has lower entry costs for small teams, its pricing jumps significantly at higher tiers, making it less cost-effective over time. Xero’s flexible, scalable pricing model ensures businesses only pay for features, not for simply growing. That makes it the clear winner in overall value.
Features: Zoho Books Wins
Overall, Zoho Books wins in accounting features. However, we’d like to emphasize that while Zoho Books and Xero offer a few unique features, many of their features are similar. Our case study also found that there are only a few striking differences between the two programs. For instance, Zoho Books can compute FIFO and LIFO inventory costs, while Xero only computes using FIFO. US businesses that use LIFO for tax and accounting purposes will benefit more from Zoho Books than Xero.
Another difference would be the comparison of actual to estimated project costs. Xero shows the actual amounts but Zoho Books didn’t show actual amounts in the report. We believe showing actual and estimated costs is important in the evaluation.
Invoicing (A/R): Zoho Books wins
While both Zoho Books and Xero offer solid A/R management features, Zoho Books pulls ahead in invoice customization, giving users more control over design elements. Xero covers the basics well, but Zoho Books provides a superior level of customization, allowing users to fine-tune everything from fonts and alignment to orientation and margins. It feels like a full-fledged word processor for invoices, offering extensive templates and branding options that let businesses create truly unique invoices.
Xero, on the other hand, limits invoice customization to line items, falling short in design flexibility. Users can personalize the content but have little control over layout, colors, or font styles, making it harder to align invoices with their branding. Given the depth of customization Zoho Books provides, it takes the win in this category.
Billing: Tie
After taking a closer look, I have to give Xero the win in billing. Both Xero and Zoho Books cover the basics, like tracking unpaid bills, managing vendor transactions, and applying credits, so there’s no major gap in core A/P functionality. However, Xero pulls ahead in receipt capture, offering a smoother experience with built-in tools to email and upload receipts directly. Zoho Books, on the other hand, requires additional steps or integrations, making it slightly less efficient.
Zoho Books does offer a vendor portal, which Xero lacks, but in my opinion, that’s more of a nice-to-have than a necessity. Most businesses can get by just fine without it, especially when weighed against Xero’s stronger receipt management features. Since Xero provides a faster and more seamless workflow for handling expenses and receipts, it takes the edge in billing.
Inventory Management: Zoho Books Wins
In my evaluation, Zoho Books takes the lead in inventory management because of its built-in serial number tracking, batch tracking, and shipment tracking. If you sell on Shopify, you can sync up to two stores directly with Zoho Books, making it easier to coordinate inventory across multiple sales channels. I also like that you can print shipping labels straight from the platform using the order details, which adds to the overall convenience.
Xero, on the other hand, integrates with over 20 different inventory management apps through its App Store. While having more choices is great, I see this as a tradeoff — Zoho Books offers built-in inventory tools, whereas Xero requires third-party software to match the same level of functionality. Some businesses might prefer the flexibility of Xero’s ecosystem, but I think having to pay for extra integrations can be an unnecessary cost, especially for small businesses on a budget.
Project Accounting: Xero Wins
Tracking and managing projects on both platforms is a breeze, and I recommend both for project accounting, as they each earned a perfect score in my evaluation. Both Xero and Zoho Books offer strong tools for budgeting, tracking costs, and managing project finances effectively. No major features are missing from either platform, making them equally solid choices depending on your workflow preferences.
Usability: Zoho Books Wins
In this criteria, I centered my evaluation on four areas: customer service, bookkeeping assistance, ease of use, and ease of setup.
Customer service
Zoho Books offers much better customer service than Xero. It allows users to reach support through live chat, chatbot assistance, and even phone support, which is a huge plus when I need real-time help. Zoho Books also provides structured training and onboarding, making it easier to get started.
Xero, on the other hand, only offers email support and relies heavily on self-help resources, which can be frustrating when I need quick answers. While Xero does have a strong user community and plenty of documentation, the lack of direct support makes troubleshooting harder. If customer service is important, Zoho Books is the clear winner.
Bookkeeping assistance
Neither Zoho Books nor Xero provides direct online bookkeeping services, but both offer formal advisor networks to help connect me with professional accountants. That said, neither guarantees availability in all 50 states, so finding the right accountant may depend on where you’re located. Since both platforms provide the same level of bookkeeping assistance, I consider this category a tie.
Ease of use
Zoho Books makes setup easier with features like a new company setup wizard and live onboarding support. These tools take a lot of the guesswork out of getting started, especially when migrating from another system.
Xero is also fairly simple to set up, allowing me to import key data like beginning balances, chart of accounts, customers, and vendors. However, it lacks live onboarding support, meaning I’d have to rely on guides or figure things out myself. While both platforms are user-friendly, Zoho Books’ extra guidance gives it the edge.
Ease of setup
Both platforms are easy to use, but Zoho Books feels more customizable and flexible. I like that it allows users to adjust the dashboard layout, making it easier to organize information. Plus, Zoho Books can view transactions with one click, view outstanding invoices without running a report, and automate invoice numbering — all things that make everyday tasks smoother.
Xero is still intuitive and well-organized, but it doesn’t allow dashboard customization, making it feel slightly more rigid. While it’s still easy to navigate, Zoho Books gives me more control over my workflow, making it the winner here.
Integrations: Tie
One of the biggest benefits of using Zoho Books is that it seamlessly integrates with other Zoho products, such as Zoho CRM and Zoho Inventory. On top of that, it integrates with payment gateways, such as PayPal, Stripe, and Authorize.Net.
Meanwhile, Xero also has an extensive marketplace, integrating with over 700 third-party software. Its many integrations include PayPal, Stripe, HubSpot, Mailchimp, BigCommerce, Shopify, Gusto, WorkflowMax, and simPRO.
While having a built-in ecosystem like Zoho’s is nice, it’s not a major factor in my evaluation — what matters more is the ability to integrate with key business tools. Since Zoho Books offers deep native integrations and Xero provides a massive selection of third-party apps, both are equally strong in this category, making it a tie.
Mobile App: Zoho Books Wins
Zoho Books gets the win here as its mobile app allows you to do all basic accounting and documentation work. Meanwhile, Xero’s app covers only a few basic functions. It can’t be used as an alternative way to do accounting work, so you’ll still have to use the web version.
How I Evaluated Zoho Books vs Xero
I evaluated Zoho Books and Xero based on ease of use, pricing, and how well each one performed against the ideal features we’re seeking, including invoicing, inventory management, and project accounting. My evaluation used our internal case study, which evaluates accounting software across 13 areas, as follows:
5% of Overall Score
We first determined a pricing score by assessing the software’s price for one, three, and five users. We also considered whether there was a free trial, monthly pricing, and a discount for new customers. After determining the pricing score, we assigned a value score based on the pricing score and the solution’s total score across all categories except Value.
5% of Overall Score
We evaluated general features like the flexibility of the chart of accounts, the ability to add and restrict the rights of users, and how your information can be shared with an external bookkeeper. We also searched for ways to provide more granular information like class and location tracking and custom tags.
10% of Overall Score
This assessed the ability to print checks, establish live bank feeds, and import bank transactions from a file. We also looked closely at the bank reconciliation feature. We wanted to see the ability to reconcile bank accounts with or without imported bank transactions and a list of book transactions that have not yet cleared the bank.
10% of Overall Score
In addition to the basics of issuing invoices and collecting customer payments, we evaluated the software’s ability to create customized invoices. We also assessed whether it could handle non-routine transactions like short payments, credit memos, and the refund of credit balances in customer accounts.
10% of Overall Score
The A/P score consisted of the basics like tracking unpaid bills, recording vendor credits, and short-paying invoices, but it also included some more advanced features—such as paying bills electronically, creating recurring expenses, and working with purchase orders. Receipt capture and the ability to automatically generate bills from captured receipts were also part of our A/P evaluation.
10% of Overall Score
10% of Overall Score
At the very least, we looked for software that could create multiple projects and separately assign income and expenses to those projects. We also searched for the ability to create estimates and assign those estimates to projects. Ideally, the program would then compare the actual expenses to the costs on the original estimate.
5% of Overall Score
Software should be able to track sales tax for multiple jurisdictions with varying tax rates. It’s helpful to have a function to easily record the remittance of the sales tax by jurisdiction. The very best tool will also help determine which jurisdictions sales are taxable to based on the address of the customer or delivery.
10% of Overall Score
I evaluated basic financial reports (such as a balance sheet, income statement, and general ledger) and common management reports (like A/R and A/P aging).
5% of Overall Score
Ideally, a mobile app should have all the same features as the computer platform, including the ability to capture receipts, send invoices, receive payments, enter and pay bills, and view reports.
5% of Overall Score
While it’s nice to have as many integrations as possible, we focused our evaluation on the four integrations we believe are most critical for small businesses: payroll, online payment collection, sales tax filing, and time tracking.
10% of Overall Score
The largest component of usability is the ability to find bookkeeping assistance when users have questions. This could be in the form of a bookkeeping service directly from the software provider or from independent bookkeepers familiar with the program. Other components of usability include customer service and ease of use.
5% of Overall Score
Our user review score is the average user review score reported by Capterra and G2. Other review sites might be used if a score from Capterra or G2 is unavailable.
*Percentages of overall score
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Zoho Books has three main disadvantages: 1) restrictions on the number of users for each plan; 2) no payroll services — although it does integrate with Gusto; and 3) limited integration options other than its own suite of products, such as Zoho Inventory.
No, Xero doesn’t currently offer phone or live chat support.
Zoho Books offers a free plan for businesses, which allows you to manage up to 1,000 invoices per year and gain access to the customer portal and bank reconciliation features. Zoho Books also offers paid plans that range in price from $20 to $275 per month, depending on the number of users and required features.
Bottom Line
Zoho Books and Xero have their strengths and weaknesses, and the decision comes down to understanding your exact business needs. Choose Zoho Books if you want the best-in-class mobile app and advanced inventory features. On the other hand, pick Xero if you want unlimited users and the ability to manage fixed assets through its fixed asset manager.