Zoho Books vs Bench

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

Compare	Zoho BooksZoho	BenchEmployer.com
In one line	Free for small revenue, strong with the Zoho suite	A bookkeeping team that does your books each month
Starting price	Free	From $199/mo
Six-person team	$0/mo	$199/mo
Plans	Free under $50k revenue; Standard $15/mo; Professional $40/mo; Premium $60/mo; Elite $120/mo; Ultimate $240/mo (billed annually)	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	—	—
Users	1 on free; 3 on Standard	n/a (service)
Both connect to	Square POS, Stripe Invoicing
Also connects to	Ramp, Helcim, Zoho Expense, PayPal Invoicing, Wise Business, Payoneer Workforce Management	Gusto, Shopify, BigCommerce, Shoeboxed
Team size	Just me · 2–10 people · 11–50 people	Just me · 2–10 people · 11–50 people
Available in	US · UK · CA · AU	US
Phone support	Standard and up	Every plan
Live chat	Standard and up	Every plan
Support hours	Email: Monday to Friday, 9 am to 9 pm ET · Phone: Mon- Fri ( 9:00AM to 9:00PM ET )	Phone: weekdays 7am to 5pm PST
Incidents posted	Zoho has a public status page. Status page	We found no public status page for Employer.com.
Capterra score	4.4 / 5 from 681 reviews	Not listed
Trustpilot score	Not listed	4.1 / 5 from 1,355 reviews
Fit: Retail shop	66	65
Fit: Restaurant or café	55	60
Fit: Service business	75	80
Fit: Agency or studio	72	80
Fit: Trades or contractor	65	70
Fit: Online store	70	75
Why people pick it	Generous free tier Deep Zoho ecosystem	A bookkeeper you can message any time Free catch-up on yearly plans
Where it falls short	Fewer accountants know it UI is dense	Costs far more than software Service paused in late 2024 before the sale
	Visit Zoho Books ↗	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