Quicken vs. QuickBooks: 2024 Comparison

Comparing Quicken and QuickBooks is a bit like comparing apples and oranges. Both are financial management tools and even share a few features and functions, but the two software programs are built for entirely different uses.

Quicken is for managing your personal or family finances, with a few business tools tacked onto its top-tier service, Quicken Home and Business. QuickBooks Online, on the other hand, is full-fledged small-business accounting software with inventory management, advanced financial reporting and hundreds of app integrations.

Whether you use Quicken or QuickBooks Online depends largely on the size of your business and the features you need.

When to use Quicken:

• You want software to manage your own finances or your family’s finances.

• You have a new small business and want one tool to track personal and business finances.

• You own a rental property and want to manage leases and collect rent online.

When to use QuickBooks:

• You want to keep your business books entirely separate from your personal finances.

• You need advanced financial reporting, such as sales, inventory and profitability reports.

• You manage 1099 contractors.

Where Quicken stands out

Property management tools

• Quicken Home and Business comes with a suite of property management tools. Rental property owners can track leases, rental rates and tenants. You can also accept online rent payments (via PayPal), keep tabs on security deposits, and get a full report of paid and outstanding rents across your properties. Quicken can also help you track all tax-related transactions, which you can export to your tax prep software.

• QuickBooks Online can also manage rental properties, but the setup is less intuitive and can take a lot of trial and error to get it just right.

Business and personal expenses

Few accounting software programs allow you to manage your personal budget and investments alongside business income.

• Quicken is, first and foremost, a personal finance tool, and Quicken Home and Business gives you one view of all of your finances. You’ll need to tag business-related accounts and expenses to track profits and loss, tax deductions and cash flow projections.

• QuickBooks is not set up to manage personal accounts, budgets and investments. You can manage business and personal transactions with Quicken, but it’s still best to keep the two separate and use a business checking account and business credit card.

Cost

• At $103.99 per year, Quicken Home and Business is less than half the cost of QuickBooks Online’s entry-level plan. The more affordable price tag is a draw for those with side gigs, freelancers and businesses just getting off the ground. You can still generate estimates, send invoices, accept payments, track profits and losses, and keep tabs on deductible business expenses.

• Quicken won’t grow with your business, though. You’ll need to switch to a full-fledged accounting software to gain deeper insights and access more sophisticated reporting as your books become more complex.

Where QuickBooks stands out

Scalability

• QuickBooks Online makes it easy to upgrade plans as your business grows. Simply change your subscription from Simple Start to Essentials, for example, and you instantly add time tracking and bill pay functionality to your account. QuickBooks also has add-ons and app integrations to level-up your business with payroll, point-of-sale and inventory management.

• By contrast, Quicken offers just one option for small-business owners, with no apps or add-ons. When you outgrow Quicken Home and Business, you need to switch services, likely to QuickBooks.

Accounting tools

• Quicken Home and Business includes basic accounting functions, such as accounts receivable and payable, profit and loss reports and cash flow projections.

• QuickBooks Online goes beyond basic accounting features with time tracking, inventory management, sales tax and job-cost calculations. You can also manage payments to 1099 contractors and easily share your books with an accountant.

App integration

• QuickBooks’ marketplace of more than 650 apps helps streamline and customize things. If you sell on Etsy, for example, you can use the Sync With Etsy app to automatically import transactions from your Etsy shop to QuickBooks Online. There are more than a dozen payroll apps to help manage payroll, taxes and benefits. While some apps are free, others carry an additional monthly fee.

• Quicken Home and Business lets you accept payments via PayPal but doesn’t sync with other tools and services.

QuickBooks is popular, but it’s expensive and requires some accounting knowledge. Its customer support is not highly rated, and it may not have all the customization options your small business needs.

Alternatives to QuickBooks include:

• FreshBooks, which is geared toward freelancers or sole proprietors.

• Xero, which is popular outside the U.S. and has a more intuitive design.

• Wave, which is a free option for accounting software.

» MORE: Top QuickBooks Online alternatives

While Quicken has useful features that go beyond basic personal finance budgeting, there are many free alternatives if you’re simply looking for a way to manage your finances. Alternatives to Quicken include PocketGuard, Mint and You Need a Budget (YNAB).

NerdWallet also has a free app that lets you keep tabs on your credit score, understand your cash flow and see your net worth.

» MORE: Our picks for the best budget apps

» MORE: Find other useful tools on our list of the best small-business apps