FreelanceFreelanceCFO vs QuickBooks Solopreneur: books versus runway
QuickBooks Solopreneur is bookkeeping for a one-person business: bank feeds, receipts, mileage, reports, and invoices your clients can pay online. FreelanceCFO is narrower and answers different questions: how many months your cash lasts, what this quarter will cost in tax, and which clients are worth keeping.
Intuit describes Solopreneur as built for single-owner, self-employed businesses, and it has something FreelanceCFO does not: clients can pay your invoices by card, ACH, PayPal, Venmo or Apple Pay. If getting paid online is the problem you need solved, that matters more than anything else on this page.
Feature by feature
| QuickBooks Solopreneur page | FreelanceCFO | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free at $0. Lite listed at $20 a month and Simple Start at $38 a month, each with an introductory discount for 3 months. Source | Free plan. Pro Early Bird $10 a month for life for the first 100 customers, then $20 a month. Source |
| Free plan limits | Up to 2 invoices a month, 2 receipt uploads a month, 5 mileage trips a month, and 3 reports. Source | 3 months of history and 1 client tracked on Free. |
| Invoices clients can pay online | Yes: card, ACH, PayPal, Venmo and Apple Pay. Source | No. You can create invoices and track what is unpaid, but payment happens outside the app. |
| Bank connection | Connect bank, credit card and other accounts to import transactions. Source | Manual entry and CSV import. Automatic bank sync is rolling out and is not yet available to everyone. |
| Mileage and receipts | GPS mileage tracking and receipt capture in the mobile app. Source | Not offered. |
| Tax filing help | Lite lists Expert Assisted Tax, powered by TurboTax, paid when you file. Source | No filing. Quarterly estimates only. |
| Quarterly estimated tax | The page says it keeps you organized for Schedule C and tax time. Source | Each quarter estimated from actual income and expenses, with deadlines on screen. |
| Cash runway | Simple Start lists cash flow history. Source | Months of runway and a projected zero date if income stopped today. |
| Client profitability | Not described on the Solopreneur page. | Effective hourly rate per client. |
| AI | Intuit Intelligence on Lite and Simple Start. Source | Lance answers questions about your own invoices and clients and drafts follow-ups you send yourself. |
QuickBooks details from quickbooks.intuit.com/solopreneur, checked 24 September 2026, monthly billing, before any promotion. Intuit changes these plans and prices often.
Which one to pick
Choose QuickBooks Solopreneur if
- You need clients to pay invoices online by card or ACH.
- You drive for work and want mileage logged automatically.
- You want a full set of books an accountant can open, and plan to file with TurboTax.
- You want every transaction pulled in from your bank without typing it.
Choose FreelanceCFO if
- You earn in lumps and the question you ask most is how long the money lasts.
- You want a number for what to set aside from each payment, and the next deadline in front of you.
- You want to know which client is worth your time per hour, not just who paid the most.
- You want something lighter than bookkeeping software that you will actually open every week.
Can you use both?
Yes. A common setup is QuickBooks for invoicing and payments, and FreelanceCFO for the planning view on top: runway, tax set-aside and client profitability. You would enter or import income in both, which is the cost of that split.
Try FreelanceCFO free: runway, quarterly tax estimates and client profitability in one place. No credit card.
Start freeSources
Checked on 24 September 2026. Prices and features change, so follow the link before you rely on any of them.