ZipBooks vs Bench

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.
Bench fits retail shop, restaurant or café, online store.
Bench suits teams past ten people.

Compare	ZipBooksZipBooks	BenchEmployer.com
In one line	Free invoicing and books, with paid plans for small teams	A bookkeeping team that does your books each month
Starting price	Free for 1 user	From $199/mo
Six-person team	$0/mo	$199/mo
Plans	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	Bookkeeping Light $199/mo (up to $250K revenue/yr); Bookkeeping $399/mo; Bookkeeping + Tax $649/mo; 20% off yearly; catch-up free on yearly plans
Pricing model	Free tier	Paid
Free trial	30 days	—
Users	1 on Starter; 5 on Smarter	n/a (service)
Both connect to	Square POS, Gusto, Stripe Invoicing
Also connects to	PayPal Invoicing	Shopify, BigCommerce, Shoeboxed
Team size	Just me · 2–10 people	Just me · 2–10 people · 11–50 people
Available in	US · UK · CA · AU	US
Phone support	None listed	Every plan
Live chat	Plans not stated	Every plan
Support hours	Live chat: Mon-Fri 8am-4pm MT	Phone: weekdays 7am to 5pm PST
Incidents posted	We found no public status page for ZipBooks.	We found no public status page for Employer.com.
Capterra score	4.5 / 5 from 115 reviews	Not listed
Trustpilot score	3.5 / 5 from 3 reviews (few reviews)	4.1 / 5 from 1,355 reviews
Fit: Retail shop	55	65
Fit: Restaurant or café	45	60
Fit: Service business	85	80
Fit: Agency or studio	75	80
Fit: Trades or contractor	72	70
Fit: Online store	45	75
Why people pick it	Free plan with unlimited invoices 30-day trial without a card	A bookkeeper you can message any time Free catch-up on yearly plans
Where it falls short	Reconciliation only on the $35 plan No inventory tracking	Costs far more than software Service paused in late 2024 before the sale
	Visit ZipBooks	Visit Bench

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

ZipBooks vs Bench

Short version

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