Sage vs QuickBooks. Which one to choose?

All those who’re running a business must be aware of the fact that only the professional accounting software like Sage 50 and QuickBooks ensures error-free processing of accounting and financial transactions for businesses.

Also, there’s no doubt that the introduction of comprehensive and effective accounting software i.e., Sage 50 and QuickBooks helped unnumbered businesses to manage all the financial and accounting tasks like invoicing customers, tracking income, and sales of an organization with the most ease.

But, while you work more towards building up or growing your business, it seems way more difficult to choose from these given two accounting software as they have similar features.

Therefore, to help you decide which software is right for you and support you in the areas you need; today in this blog we’ve discussed all the possible differences in Sage vs QuickBooks debate. So, without wasting any further second, continue reading to know the complete comparison between these two most sought-after accounting and financial software platforms in order to choose the most reliable from the two!

About Sage 50 and QuickBooks

Sage 50 QuickBooks
  • Produced by Sage Group, Sage is a highly professional and easy to navigate desktop accounting software that facilitates, collects, classifies, organizes as well as simplifies a variety of accounting tasks.
  • Over the last 20-25 years, Sage has become ideal software for freelancing individuals, startups, small & medium as well as for large corporations. Not only that, but it has also been listed as the third-largest accounting software in the world for financial and accounting management.
  • Earlier known as Peachtree accounting software, Sage Software today, caters its services to around 6 million users.
  • Sage is considered best for making financial reports, keeping records as well as for overall business management.
  • To conclude, Sage is a basic computerized package that simplifies every-day based accounting and financial tasks and offers users the facility to view their financial information in the most simplistic manner in order to run their businesses efficiently.
  • Produced and offered by Intuit, QuickBooks is highly comprehensive software that helps individuals as well as business groups to manage various accounting and financial tasks like invoicing customers and tracking income and sales of an organization in a simplified manner.
  • From the 1990s, as it was the first accounting software of that time, it became the first and only choice among the individuals who are related to the world of business. Later with the advent of other fellow accounting software, it still remains as one of the top choices of accounting professionals and amateur entrepreneurs alike for the fact that it is useful for all business types and sizes.
  • For ruling the financial management software industry for more than 20 years, the software now has a total of 7 million users from all across the world.
  • QuickBooks is considered a top choice among business groups because it takes all your business data and organizes them in such a way that it becomes easier to manage.
  • And, to make your accounting and financial management easier, it comes in both online and desktop versions i.e., QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Desktop.

Benefits:

Sage 50 Software QuickBooks Software
  • Completely computerized systems rule out human error.
  • Avoids the manual needs to fill and carry out data entry.
  • Easily access your account data to see all the transactions and cash flow to date.
  • Makes your accounting process quick, efficient, and cost-effective by avoiding paper-based accounting.
  • Offers a customizable dashboard for quick access to important business data.
  • It has screen-level security and automatic backup. And, also include options for credit card processing and inventory management.
  • Flexible enough for non-accountants.
  • Flexibility to use and access financial data anytime and anywhere.
  • Ease to keep track of revenue, expenses, and payroll information.
  • Helps to easily generate professional invoice templates and customize financial reports.
  • Eliminates the need for manual data entry and paper records and thus, in a way grants the ability to save time with automation.
  • It’s simple plain language, easy to navigate interface and virtual orientation makes the process of account and finance management easier
  • No requirement to know accounting, shortcuts, and formulae, etc to use QuickBooks software.

Sage Pricing and Plan

PLAN 1: Sage 50
Pro Accounting Software
In this plan, for Sage 50 Pro accounting software, you can choose to pay either monthly or annually. This basic plan costs you ranging from $46.83 per month to $465.95 per year.
PLAN 2: Sage 50cloud
Premium Accounting Software
This plan allows you to add multiple users i.e., around 5 users to your Sage 50 account and can use the software for around 10 companies. This Premium Accounting plan offers you to choose between monthly and annual pricing plans. However, it’s pricing differs based on the number of users such as :

For Monthly basis, it costs you:

  • $72.41 for one user
  • $116.66 for three users
  • $171.41 for five users

For Annual basis, it costs you:

  • $720.95 for one user
  • $1,165.95 for three users
  • $1,706.95 for five users
PLAN 3: Sage 50cloud
Quantum Accounting Software
In this plan, you can add around a total of 40 users with an unlimited number of companies This plan also offers you to choose between monthly and annual pricing plan based on the number of users:

For Monthly basis, it costs you:

  • $182.91 for three users
  • $232.41 for five users
  • $304.91 for 10 users

For Annual basis, it costs you:

  • $1,834.95 for three users
  • $2,322.95 for five users
  • $3,054.95 for 10 users

And, above that for more than 11 users.

Pricing Plan for QuickBooks accounting software

QuickBooks Desktop
  • QuickBooks Desktop Pro: $299.95
  • QuickBooks Desktop Premier: $499.95
  • QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise: $1,213
QuickBooks Online
  • QBO Basic: $25/month
  • QBO Essentials: $40/month
  • QBO Plus: $70/month
  • QBO Advanced: $45/month

Features

Sage 50 Software Supports QuickBooks Software Supports
  • Basic Accounting
  • Online Invoicing
  • Tracking Cash Flow
  • Project Management
  • Vendor Management
  • Dedicated Customer Management
  • Paying Bills Online
  • Inventory And Resource Management
  • Fixed Assets Management
  • Data Insight Generation and Customization of over 100 Reports.
  • Track the orders received and sales target met in a specific period
  • With payroll features; track profits, and as well as report taxes.
  • And many more.
  • The Inclusion Of Multiple Attachments
  • Customization Of Email Templates
  • Tracking Bank Transactions, And Bounced Checks.
  • Customizable Consumer Forms, Contact Information on Consumer, Employee, and Vendor; all in one place.
  • Options To View All Income-Generating Transactions In One Window
  • Simplified Reports on Key Performance Indicators.
  • Unlimited customer support and data backups
  • Review actions and track changes over time using an audit log.
  • And many more.

Pros and Cons

Sage 50 Software QuickBooks Software
Pros:

  • It saves time by managing your accounting, cash flow, inventory, taxes and invoicing, etc. from one central system. With Sage 50 you can quickly and easily create financial reports, process VAT, view your finances, stay updated with current financial legislation as well as you can process international payments.
  • With the help of cloud-based project management, secure online access, and integration with many apps like Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Outlook, and Microsoft Word, etc.; Sage software increases performance and productivity by allowing multiple users to simultaneously work and collaborate on a single project.
  • The software offers scalable plans as well as project management to invoicing in order to grow and run the business more efficiently.
  • With having an excellent technical support team, Sage offers effective support and expert knowledge.
Pros:

  • Compared to other fellow accounting programs, QuickBooks has a superior reporting tool that easily monitors your business expenses and income over time. Not only that, it easily pulls out data of different periods and gives you a neat and clean report of your business performance.
  • Right from invoicing to tracking all the finances of a business, QuickBooks helps you to quickly perform all financial tasks with ease.
  • Not only that but, QuickBooks also helps you to save time by syncing with the bank and credit card accounts so that all your transactions automatically fill in the system.
  • Similar to Sage 50, QuickBooks also offers various scalable plans to help you grow your business without much hindrance.
  • QuickBooks even offers its users various bookkeeping tools to help them in managing their business-related tasks like tracking income, expenses, and payroll, etc effectively.
Cons:

  • Sage reporting tool can be difficult to use for non-accountants. It is quite difficult to pull out data from a whole month to compare one report.
  • It requires proper training and practice to use the Sage reporting tool effectively.
  • If you need any technical support related to Sage 50 accounting software then, you have to wait for a long time as its support team takes a lot of time to respond sometimes.
Cons:

QuickBooks software has no remote access or mobile apps
It has a slightly expensive license structure.
And, it also has disappointing technical support for the fact that its customer support-team is limited. It is suggested that, when you urgently need help, read the QuickBooks manual itself to get yourself assisted quickly. Otherwise, chances are less that you’ll get help on time.

Comparisons: Is QuickBooks better than Sage?

Sage 50 Software QuickBooks Software
Sage 50 accounting software is designed while keeping in mind all the professional accountants.

However, it is designed in such a way that even the non-accountant users also use it themselves. So, if you want to know which is easier, Sage or QuickBooks? Then without a doubt, Sage is easier as compared to QuickBooks.

QuickBooks accounting software is designed while keeping in mind those individuals and business groups who have experience in handling accounts as well as those people who have no experience in handling accounts.

However, as QuickBooks also offers various powerful and scalable tools like bookkeeping, it becomes difficult sometimes for users to use QuickBooks with such features.

In Sage 50, the most popular for small business are Sage Startup.
But, for multi-user functionality, Sage 50 is required.
In QuickBooks, the most popular for small businesses are SimpleStart and QuickBooks Pro.
Sage 50 is considered the top choice for having the best subscription option for a 1-person operation or for a small team. QuickBooks access is considered best for a larger team of full-fledged accountants.
Over QuickBooks, Sage 50 is suitable for those who’re in the construction, manufacturing, or distribution business. QuickBooks Online is suitable for most small businesses as it is more affordable than Sage 50cloud.