In the USA, all of the accounting operations are operated digitally instead of manually. Now all paperwork has been converted into digital form. Various accounting software and tools have been developed such as QuickBooks, Quicken, etc, for managing financial transactions of large, medium, and small-sized businesses.
Although, there is a massive range of accounting software available in the market. However, choosing or comparing which one is best is the biggest challenge in QuickBooks VS Quicken. So, to clearly understand, we will discuss in this blog the difference between QuickBooks and Quicken based on their overview, features, pros and cons, alternatives, and pricing.
Nowadays, for running smooth business operations and effective use, users install widely popular financial applications on their mobile phones ( Android and iOS). Some business owners effectively use both QuickBooks and Quicken financial management tools through web browsers on desktop systems.
What is QuickBooks(QB)?
QB is the most widely used financial management software operated by both small and medium-sized business enterprises. This financial business accounting software was developed by Intuit, a well-recognized software company in 1992. It is a well-equipped accounting software package. It provides software products or tools for managing accounting and business transactions, inventory management, income tax e-filing, payroll systems, generating bill invoices, and so on.
It also manages account transactions for tracking and bank reconciliation statements, both budget and expenditure management, payment processing online, and completely managing receivable and payable account transactions. In addition, many business enterprises do not use this software because of the high price range. So, they might use additional software which is of low price when compared with QuickBooks.
There are many business financial tools out of which, Swiss Army Knife(Pocket knife legally worldwide) is an additional software tool used with QuickBooks with some new features added to enhance its productivity. It provides a desktop version to businesses by paying a nominal amount of fee to get a monthly or yearly subscription, which is fixed and can be accessible online through web browsers, tablets, android, and iOS mobile phones.
What is Quicken?
Quicken is another accounting or book-keeping software, which is mostly used for small-scale industries or businesses. This software product offers its services for those individuals and families, who want to run their business transactions efficiently on a small level. This tool keeps track of properly maintaining account balances, business transactions, short-term investments, owner’s plan budgeting, loans, and financial life. First of all the H.I.G Capital company purchased this software in 2016 and later on the Aquiline Capital Partners company owns in 2021.
Quicken can be operated through both mobile phones and desktop machines. It provides cloud services to its users for storage and can easily install the mobile app and use the desktop web version, which is user-friendly. The features of this software help individuals and families to provide the latest updated information from the bank about their investments and credit and debit account transactions. Thus, it helps them to track their investments by using cost basis factors to know about both buying and selling of tax submission intimations and to build a portfolio in a better way.
While comparing with QuickBooks, Quicken offers limited business tools for those individuals, who own a sole proprietorship or a side business. It also provides a fixed number of tools for tracking their rental properties.
Differences Between QuickBooks Vs Quicken Accounting Software
Here, we will differentiate between QuickBooks and Quicken software programs, which are designed in such a way that they have different features and operations. The differences between QuickBooks and Quicken are categorized based on a few factors, which include:
QuickBooks Vs Quicken: Features
QuickBooks
As we mentioned above, QuickBooks is an accounting software so it offers a complete package of features for the smooth running of small and medium types of businesses. The features are listed below:
- Stock management
- Invoice generating
- Income and Expense tracking
- Payroll system management
- Bank feeding
- Bank Reconciliation Statement (BRS)
- User-friendly accounting dashboard
- Accounts receivable and payable
- Balance sheet maintaining
- Income or sales tax filing
- Data protection and security
Quicken
Like QuickBooks, Quicken offers its features to both individuals and families, who are operating their business on a small scale. The listing features of this accounting software include:
- View and track all bank account balances and real-time transactions
- Maintain the record of spending transactions
- Monitor and manage personal finances
- Manage personal budgeting
- Track the performance of short-term investments
- Secure financial information or data
- Recognize general expenses and spending trends
- Complete access and ownership of data
- Provide user-friendly mobile application
- Track and manage the loan account
- Maintaining personal financial life
QuickBooks Vs Quicken: Pros and Cons
QuickBooks
This accounting software tool has some advantages and disadvantages in tracking and maintaining small and medium levels of business income and expenses.
Advantages
- QB is easily accessible from anywhere online via a desktop system or any portable device such as mobile, tablet, etc.
- The software automates tasks very quickly and is equipped with an automated backup service for restoring the data.
- This software is completely designed in such a way that it fulfills the requirements of small and medium-sized enterprises.
- It helps to create, track, and easily monitor bill invoices and expenses.
- It is customer-oriented and easy to use.
- This software is flexible and adjustable with additional software tools
- This also helps to monitor income and fill tax reports timely.
- It offers data privacy and can easily adapt to the latest technological platforms.
Disadvantages
- QB is expensive and has a high price range as compared to Quicken.
- For additional tools, this software is chargeable.
- This software is limited to the number of users as well as several transactions.
- The software has problems related to financial reporting.
- It has scalability and integration challenges with mobile apps.
- The software has a shortage of direct professional support services.
- When the system crashes, the software is unstable due to insufficient system resources.
- It has a lack of double-entry accounting because features are not obvious.
Quicken
Quicken software provides several benefits to individuals and families while using. These are mentioned below:
Advantages
- The software provides real-time monitoring and tracking of account balances and transactions.
- It saves time and money for both individuals and families.
- This software helps in customizing business transactions.
- It is beneficial in maintaining all the financial information up-to-date.
- Quicken offers a wide range of reasonable and affordable subscription options.
Disadvantages
- This software has a limited number of bank integration applications and features.
- Quicken is unable to transfer data to other software or tools.
- The software has no online trial version, it only supports desktop versions.
- Quicken’s User-Interface(UI) is not user-friendly.
- When compared with Mac desktop software programs, it has more irregular features than Windows software programs.
QuickBooks Vs Quicken: Alternatives
QuickBooks
This accounting software is expensive and requires little accounting knowledge. For customizing the needs of small businesses there are some popular QuickBooks alternatives, which include:
- Xero accounting software
- Fresh Books invoice and accounting software
- Wave small business accounting software
- Sage Intacct cloud accounting and financial management software
- Zoho Books accounting platform
- Melio accounting billing software
- NetSuite cloud-based enterprise resource planning software
Quicken
This accounting tool is less expensive and low price range as compared to QB. There are some below-mentioned Quicken alternatives to effectively manage business finances, other than personal finance budgeting. These are as follows:
- YNAB (You Need a Budget) detailed budgeting system
- Empower tracking investment software
- Mint.com
- PocketSmith
- Quicken Simplifi basic budgeting system
- Monarch comprehensive personal finance tracking software
- Rocket Money tracking subscription system
QuickBooks Vs Quicken: Pricing
QuickBooks
This software comprises four subscription levels and has different pricing options. The levels are categorized as:
- A simple subscription level starts from $30 per month.
- QBO Essentials subscription level starts at $60 per month.
- Plus subscription level price is $90 per month.
- The advanced subscription level price range is $200 per month.
QuickBooks is usually more expensive than Quicken and a free 30-day trial is available in the market to purchase online QB online or Desktop plans.
Quicken
The free trial version or demo of Quicken is not available in the market. The software can’t be used without paying for its subscription and every year the subscription will be renewed.
For individuals and families, Quicken’s starting price is $10.99 monthly. Also, the subscription pricing of Quicken Classic software will go on increasing and updating every year. Quicken subscription levels are as follows:
- Starter subscription level is $47.88 per year
- Deluxe subscription level is $71.88 per year
- The premier subscription level is $95.88 per year
Note: These factors are essential to finding the best accounting software in QuickBooks VS Quicken.
Conclusion
We expect that you have complete knowledge of QuickBooks VS Quicken after reading this blog and are also able to decide which one is best. QuickBooks and Quicken are accounting software programs that also have distinct and unique features and perform different business operations. QuickBooks focuses on fulfilling the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMBs) related to complex accounting transactions while Quicken aims to maintain user’s finances or loans. Also, they differ in their price range. Therefore, QuickBooks offers more data protection and security as compared to Quicken.
Read More Articles:
