Xero vs ZipBooks

Two accounting tools side by side. Prices are the starting plan a small business would pick, in USD.

Short version

ZipBooks costs less for a six-person team.
Xero fits retail shop, restaurant or café, agency or studio, trades or contractor, online store.
Xero suits teams past ten people.

Compare	XeroXero Ltd	ZipBooksZipBooks
In one line	Cloud accounting with unlimited users on every plan	Free invoicing and books, with paid plans for small teams
Starting price	From $27/mo	Free for 1 user
Six-person team	$27/mo	$0/mo
Plans	Early $27/mo (20 invoices); Growing $59/mo; Established $97/mo; unlimited users, no per-user fees; intro offers often cut the first 3 months	Starter free (unlimited invoices, 1 bank account); Smarter $15/mo (5 team members, recurring invoices, time tracking); Sophisticated $35/mo (unlimited users, reconciliation); billed monthly
Pricing model	Free trial	Free tier
Free trial	30 days	30 days
Users	Unlimited	1 on Starter; 5 on Smarter
Both connect to	Square POS, Gusto, Stripe Invoicing, PayPal Invoicing
Also connects to	Shopify POS, Rippling, Deel, Shopify, Mercury, Relay, Bluevine, Square Invoices +28 more1,000+ listed by the vendor	No others on record
Team size	Just me · 2–10 people · 11–50 people · 51–200 people	Just me · 2–10 people
Available in	US · UK · CA · AU	US · UK · CA · AU
Phone support	None listed	None listed
Live chat	None listed	Plans not stated
Support hours	Web form: 24/7	Live chat: Mon-Fri 8am-4pm MT
Incidents posted	26 incidents posted on Xero Ltd's status page, which covers all Xero Ltd products and regions, in the 90 days to Oct 27, 2026; 10 marked major or critical by Xero Ltd. Status page	We found no public status page for ZipBooks.
Capterra score	4.4 / 5 from 3,332 reviews	4.5 / 5 from 115 reviews
Trustpilot score	4.1 / 5 from 11,478 reviews	3.5 / 5 from 3 reviews (few reviews)
Fit: Retail shop	84	55
Fit: Restaurant or café	80	45
Fit: Service business	88	85
Fit: Agency or studio	90	75
Fit: Trades or contractor	84	72
Fit: Online store	85	45
Why people pick it	Unlimited users Clean interface Good for multi-currency	Free plan with unlimited invoices 30-day trial without a card
Where it falls short	Early plan limits are tight Fewer US accountants use it	Reconciliation only on the $35 plan No inventory tracking
	Visit Xero	Visit ZipBooks

Six-person prices are what a team of six would pay on the published plans; "Not listed" means those plans don't cover six. How we calculate prices

Xero vs ZipBooks

Short version

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