Accounting Software for Small Businesses
Grade: A — Score: 95/100
Xero leverages advanced technology, including its AI financial superagent JAX, to automate routine accounting tasks and provide real-time insights, enhancing decision-making capabilities for users.
The platform simplifies workflows by centralizing financial data, automating invoicing, and offering customizable reporting tools, allowing businesses to focus on growth rather than administrative tasks.
However, businesses must consider potential risks such as reliance on cloud services for data security and the need for ongoing internet access to utilize the software effectively.
Lite: $7/month
Starter: $27/month
Standard: $52/month
Premium: $75/month
Consider switching to QuickBooks: QuickBooks offers similar features with a more extensive user base and additional integrations.
Xero includes unlimited users on all plans (Starter at $27/month through Premium at $75/month), while QuickBooks Online caps users per plan (5 on Plus at $90/month, 25 on Advanced at $275/month). This makes Xero significantly cheaper for teams. QuickBooks holds roughly 80% US market share and offers native payroll, phone support, and deeper US tax integration. Xero is stronger internationally with multi-currency support on its Premium plan, and is the market leader in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. Xero's 1,000+ app integrations and clean interface appeal to businesses that value simplicity and collaboration with their accountant.
Yes. Every Xero plan, from Lite at $7/month to Premium at $75/month, allows unlimited users at no additional per-user cost. You can invite team members, accountants, bookkeepers, and other collaborators with role-based permissions (Advisor, Standard, Invoice Only, Read Only). This is one of Xero's strongest differentiators from QuickBooks Online and FreshBooks, both of which charge extra for additional users or limit user counts by plan tier.
Multi-currency accounting is available exclusively on the Premium plan at $75/month. It supports invoicing, bill entry, and bank reconciliation in multiple currencies with automatic exchange rate updates. The Lite, Starter, and Standard plans are limited to a single base currency. If your business has international suppliers or clients requiring foreign currency transactions, you will need the Premium plan.
Xero does not include native US payroll. Instead, it partners with Gusto for payroll processing, which is billed separately through Gusto's own plans. The integration syncs payroll data back into Xero for reconciliation and reporting. This means US payroll adds to the total cost of ownership beyond the Xero subscription. In other markets like Australia and New Zealand, Xero offers built-in payroll as part of the platform.
JAX is Xero's AI financial superagent, available across all plans. It answers business questions using real-time public data, explores your financial data with natural-language queries, and automates tasks like creating and sending quotes and invoices. JAX works within Xero and also through WhatsApp, SMS, and email. It builds on Xero's existing AI-powered bank reconciliation, which automatically matches 80%+ of transactions with high-confidence suggestions.
Yes. Xero offers a 30-day free trial with full access to all features on any plan, no credit card required. This lets you import real data, test bank connections, and evaluate the platform before committing. After the trial, you select a plan (Lite at $7/month, Starter at $27/month, Standard at $52/month, or Premium at $75/month). Xero also frequently runs promotional discounts for new US customers, such as 80% off the first 3 months.
Xero's App Store includes over 1,000 integrations across payments (Stripe, PayPal, Square, GoCardless), payroll (Gusto), e-commerce (Shopify, WooCommerce, Squarespace), CRM (HubSpot), bill pay (Melio), automation (Zapier), and POS (Vend). Hubdoc, Xero's data capture tool, is included on all plans and automatically extracts data from bills, receipts, and supplier statements via OCR. The Melio integration, strengthened by Xero's $2.5 billion acquisition in June 2025, handles US bill payments via ACH, check, and card.
Xero holds ISO 27001:2022 certification (validated annually by independent auditors) and produces SOC 2 Type II reports covering security, availability, and confidentiality. As a PCI DSS Level 2 merchant, Xero outsources card processing to Level 1 PCI-compliant providers. All data is encrypted with AES-256 at rest and TLS in transit. Multi-factor authentication is mandatory for all users with no option to disable it. Infrastructure runs on AWS with real-time data replication across multiple data centers and DDoS protection via AWS Shield.