ZipBooks vs Pilot

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

Compare	ZipBooksZipBooks	PilotPilot
In one line	Free invoicing and books, with paid plans for small teams	Done-for-you bookkeeping and tax for startups
Starting price	Free for 1 user	From $99/mo
Six-person team	$0/mo	$99/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 Essentials from $99/mo billed yearly (up to $100K monthly expenses); tax filing from $750/yr for newly formed companies, $2,000+ for partnerships and S-corps, $2,450+ for C-corps
Pricing model	Free tier	Paid
Free trial	30 days	—
Users	1 on Starter; 5 on Smarter	n/a
Both connect to	No shared connections on record.
Also connects to	Square POS, Gusto, Stripe Invoicing, PayPal Invoicing	Ramp10,000+ listed by the vendor
Team size	Just me · 2–10 people	2–10 people · 11–50 people
Available in	US · UK · CA · AU	US
Phone support	None listed	Core and up
Live chat	Plans not stated	Every plan
Support hours	Live chat: Mon-Fri 8am-4pm MT	Not published
Incidents posted	We found no public status page for ZipBooks.	We found no public status page for Pilot.
Capterra score	4.5 / 5 from 115 reviews	4.9 / 5 from 29 reviews
Trustpilot score	3.5 / 5 from 3 reviews (few reviews)	2.9 / 5 from 20 reviews
Fit: Retail shop	55	35
Fit: Restaurant or café	45	30
Fit: Service business	85	65
Fit: Agency or studio	75	78
Fit: Trades or contractor	72	40
Fit: Online store	45	75
Why people pick it	Free plan with unlimited invoices 30-day trial without a card	A team does the books Tax filing from the same people
Where it falls short	Reconciliation only on the $35 plan No inventory tracking	Costs more than software Built around startups
	Visit ZipBooks ↗	Visit Pilot ↗

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