QuickBooks Price Increase 2026: 75% Higher in 4 Years (Full Breakdown)

What changed, and when

Intuit applied a UK list-price rise on 13 November 2025. It did not lift every plan. Sole Trader Plus and Simple Start stayed put. Essentials, Plus and Advanced went up.

Current list prices are on Intuit's own UK pages: the pricing page, the plans block on the UK accounting-software page, the Sage vs QuickBooks comparison (Advanced at £123 + VAT, Simple Start at £16 + VAT), and the AI comparison page (Simple Start £16, Essentials £38, Plus £56, Advanced £123). Intuit marks those figures as plus VAT at 20%.

Intuit's public help article on subscription updates does not publish the old-versus-new table. The 13 November 2025 date and the before/after amounts below come from UK reseller write-ups that quoted Intuit's direct-subscription prices: Amlink (17 January 2026) and Elaga Accountancy. Some reseller invoices followed in January 2026 after firms absorbed the November rise for a period. That is why older write-ups dated the change to January.

Here is what those sources say changed, against the current Intuit list:

The Advanced split (older subscriptions previously at £100, later ones at £115, both now £123) is from Elaga Accountancy, not from Intuit's public pricing page.

Plus took the biggest cash step of the mid-market plans. If you were paying £47 a month, you are now paying £56: an extra £108 a year at list price, or £129.60 including VAT, for the same software you were already using. Annual list cost on Plus is now £672 ex VAT (£806.40 including VAT).

For anyone who has been on QuickBooks for a few years, the cumulative path is steeper than this one step. One charity director posting on AccountingWeb described going from £32 a month in 2022 to £56 a month in 2026. That is a 75% increase in four years. £56 is also today's Plus list price on Intuit's UK site.

What this means for practices

This is not only a problem for individual businesses. Practices that manage QuickBooks subscriptions for clients saw the same list-price step on every file sitting on Essentials, Plus or Advanced.

One practitioner on AccountingWeb running 141 client subscriptions calculated the increase at over £2,000 straight off their annual profit. They described it as "almost a 70% price increase" and questioned whether the product justified the cost any longer. That is their figure from the thread, not a recalculation from the table above.

The phrase "annual price gouging" came up more than once in the discussion. Whether or not that is fair, the frustration is real. When software costs rise faster than fees, the margin on each client file shrinks unless the cost is passed through.

Why This Keeps Happening

QuickBooks is not alone in raising prices. Xero increased UK pricing by 10-17% in September 2025, pushing its Grow plan from £33 to £37 and its Comprehensive plan from £47 to £50 a month, and raised prices again on 1 September 2026, to £39 and £55. Sage and others have followed similar patterns.

There are a few reasons this has become the norm:

Platform lock-in works. Moving accounting software is genuinely painful. You have years of historical data, bank feeds, payroll connections, and integrations to consider. Software companies know this, and they price accordingly.

Investors expect growth. Intuit is a publicly traded company. When subscriber numbers plateau, the simplest way to grow revenue is to charge existing customers more. The calculation is straightforward: if 5% of customers leave after a 30% price increase, you still come out ahead.

Features you may not use subsidise features you do. QuickBooks has been adding AI features, inventory management, and project tracking. If you only need basic bookkeeping and VAT returns, you are paying for a lot of capability you never touch.

Inflation is real, but not this real. UK CPI has been running at 3-4% over the past year. A 19% increase on the Plus plan is not an inflation adjustment. It is a repricing.

What Are Your Actual Options?

If the last increase has you reconsidering your software, here is an honest look at the alternatives available to UK businesses right now.

Stay on QuickBooks but Downgrade

Before switching entirely, check whether a lower QuickBooks tier would work. If you are on Plus but do not use project tracking or inventory, Essentials at £38 a month might cover what you need. It is the least disruptive option, even if it feels like rewarding the behaviour. A VAT-registered sole trader who does not need supplier bills can sit on Simple Start at £16.

Switch to Another Established Platform

The main alternatives each have trade-offs:

A few notes on each:

Xero is the most common destination for QuickBooks migrants, and your accountant likely already supports it. But Xero has its own history of price increases. The September 2025 rise pushed most plans up 10-17%. You may be trading one escalator for another.

FreeAgent is genuinely free if you bank with NatWest, RBS, or Mettle. For sole directors and freelancers, this is hard to beat. The interface is showing its age and it lacks some of the depth of QuickBooks or Xero, but for straightforward limited company accounting, it does the job.

Sage Accounting starts at £16 a month and has strong UK roots. It handles VAT and payroll well, though the user experience can feel more traditional than the cloud-native alternatives.

Wave is free and works well for very basic invoicing and bookkeeping, but it is US-focused and does not handle UK VAT returns or Making Tax Digital compliance. Not a realistic option if you need HMRC integration.

AccountsOS is a newer option built specifically for UK limited company directors. Full disclosure: I built it, so take this with appropriate scepticism. It is £20 a month with a 14-day free trial and no credit card required. The approach is different: Finn, your AI accountant, handles the bookkeeping work. You chat with your books in plain English, forward receipts, and get proactive alerts about deadlines and tax savings. MTD VAT is live and AccountsOS is on HMRC's list of MTD VAT software. Direct bank feeds are in production approval. It is best suited for service-based solo directors who want to stop doing manual bookkeeping.

Consider Whether You Need Software at All

If your business is simple (a few clients, modest expenses, quarterly VAT) a well-maintained spreadsheet and a good accountant might actually serve you better than any subscription. HMRC does not require you to use commercial software for corporation tax (though MTD for VAT does require compatible software or bridging software).

This is not the right choice for everyone, but it is worth at least asking the question before signing up for another monthly subscription.

How to Switch Without Losing Your Data

If you do decide to leave QuickBooks, here is a practical checklist:

1. Export everything first. Download your chart of accounts, transaction list, customer and supplier lists, and any reports you rely on. QuickBooks lets you export most data as CSV files.

2. Time it with your VAT quarter. Switching mid-quarter creates reconciliation headaches. Start the new software at the beginning of a VAT period if possible.

3. Talk to your accountant. If you have one, let them know before you switch. They may have a preferred platform, or they may be able to help with the migration.

4. Run both systems in parallel for a month. This sounds tedious, but it catches any data that did not migrate cleanly.

5. Cancel auto-renewal. QuickBooks will continue billing until you explicitly cancel. Do not assume that signing up for something else stops the charges.

The Bigger Picture

The accounting software market has consolidated around a few large players, and all of them are raising prices. QuickBooks, Xero, and Sage between them dominate the UK small business market, and when all three increase prices in the same year, the options narrow.

This is partly why newer entrants (including AccountsOS, Coconut, Ember, and others) are finding an audience. Not because they are necessarily better across the board, but because they are starting from a different price point and a different set of assumptions about what small businesses actually need.

Whether you switch now or stay put, it is worth doing the arithmetic. Add up what you have paid over the past three years, project what the next three will cost at the current trajectory, and decide whether the value still justifies the price. For some businesses, it will. For others, the November 2025 rise (and the January invoices that followed for some reseller customers) might be the push they needed.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much did QuickBooks increase UK prices in 2026?

The last UK list-price rise took effect on 13 November 2025, not in January 2026. Some reseller invoices followed in January after firms absorbed the change for a period. Essentials went from £33 to £38 (+15%), Plus from £47 to £56 (+19%), and Advanced from £115 to £123 (+7%), or from £100 for older Advanced subscriptions. Sole Trader Plus (£10) and Simple Start (£16) were unchanged. Those before/after amounts are from UK reseller write-ups. Current Intuit UK list prices are £10, £16, £38, £56 and £123 a month, all plus VAT. For long-term subscribers, a commonly cited four-year path on Plus is £32 in 2022 to £56 now, a 75% rise.

Can I still use QuickBooks at the old price?

No. The current list prices apply to new subscribers, and existing customers on Essentials, Plus and Advanced were moved to the new rates from 13 November 2025. There is no legacy or grandfathered pricing available on Intuit's public pages. Some users have reported that contacting QuickBooks support and threatening to cancel resulted in a short-term discount, but this is not guaranteed and any discount is typically temporary.

What is the cheapest QuickBooks alternative for UK limited companies?

FreeAgent is free if you bank with NatWest, RBS, or Mettle, making it the cheapest option that still handles UK VAT and MTD compliance. Sage Accounting starts at £16 per month. AccountsOS is £20 per month with a 14-day free trial and no credit card required. Wave is free but does not support UK VAT returns, so it is not suitable for most UK businesses.

Should I switch accounting software mid-year?

It is possible but requires care. The best time to switch is at the start of a new VAT quarter or financial year to keep reporting clean. If you switch mid-year, export all transactions from your current software and import them into the new platform so your year-end accounts are complete. Running both systems in parallel for at least one month is recommended to catch any discrepancies.