Free Accounting Software for Nonprofits: What "Free" Really Costs

The only genuinely free accounting software in our research is Wave's Starter plan, which costs $0 but isn't built for nonprofit fund accounting. For most small nonprofits, the better value is QuickBooks Online Plus through TechSoup at $80 a year. That isn't free, but it's close, and it handles more. Purpose-built nonprofit tools such as Aplos cost more and add true fund accounting. Here is how the options compare as of October 2026, and how to tell when a spreadsheet has stopped being enough.

The options at a glance

Software	Cost to a nonprofit	Fund accounting	Best for
Wave Starter	$0	No	Very small organizations with simple income and expenses
Wave Pro	$19/month or $190/year	No	Same, with more automation
QuickBooks Online Plus via TechSoup	$80/year (5 users)	No dedicated module	Most small nonprofits with a bookkeeper or accountant
QuickBooks Online Advanced via TechSoup	$170/year (25 users)	No dedicated module	Larger teams
Xero	$27 to $97/month list, with a nonprofit discount of unpublished size in the US	No	Organizations that prefer Xero's workflow
Aplos	Reported from $79/month (Lite)	Yes	Organizations that need true fund accounting

Wave: free, with limits

Wave's Starter plan costs nothing and is open to any business, not just nonprofits. Its pricing page doesn't mention nonprofits at all. What you give up, per our records:

• No fund or grant tracking. Wave isn't designed for nonprofit fund accounting.
• Paid add-ons. Payroll, receipt scanning and bookkeeping help cost extra.
• Card fees on payments. If you take payments through Wave, card processing is 2.9% + $0.60 (Amex 3.4% + $0.60). That's higher than the nonprofit rates from PayPal or Stripe (see payment processing fees).

Wave fits an organization whose books are a single checking account, a few dozen transactions a month and no restricted grants. Pro, at $19/month or $190/year, adds automation but no fund accounting.

QuickBooks through TechSoup: not free, but close

QuickBooks Online is the most common answer to "free accounting software for nonprofits", and it isn't free. Through TechSoup, eligible US nonprofits pay an $80 admin fee per year for Plus (up to 5 users) or $170 for Advanced (up to 25 users). Intuit's current list price for Plus is $140/month, so:

$140 × 12 = $1,680 a year at list. Minus $80 = $1,600 a year saved.

Against Wave Starter, QuickBooks Plus costs $80 more per year, about $6.67 a month. What that buys depends on your bookkeeper. QuickBooks has no dedicated nonprofit fund-accounting module, but bookkeepers commonly track funds and programs with its built-in classes and locations. Ask yours how they'd set it up.

The catches, from TechSoup's terms:

• New company file. The TechSoup subscription can't be applied to an existing QuickBooks account. You start a new one and copy your data across. Payroll history doesn't transfer. See the migration guide.
• Payroll isn't included. QuickBooks Payroll is billed by Intuit at commercial rates.
• One donated subscription per organization, for its lifetime.
• US only, through TechSoup US.

If you use QuickBooks Desktop, note that the last Desktop offer on TechSoup was retired in February 2026, and QuickBooks Online has no equivalent of the Desktop Nonprofit Edition.

Xero: a discount of unknown size

Xero's US nonprofit page confirms a nonprofit discount exists and is applied "once you've subscribed to Xero and we've confirmed your not-for-profit status". It doesn't give a percentage. Xero's Canada page says 25% off and asks for evidence within 31 days of subscribing. We haven't confirmed that the same terms apply in the US.

US list prices are $27/month (Early), $59/month (Growing) and $97/month (Established). If the Canadian 25% applied to Growing, the cost would be $59 × 0.75 = $44.25/month, or $531 a year. That's an illustration, not a confirmed US price. Even then, Xero would cost several times what QuickBooks Plus costs through TechSoup. Xero makes sense if you prefer its workflow, not to save money.

Aplos: pay for fund accounting

Aplos is built for nonprofits and churches, with fund accounting at its core. It has no special nonprofit discount, since all its customers are nonprofits. Its pricing page blocked our research tools, so these figures come from search excerpts of Aplos pages and third-party listings, and they should be confirmed with Aplos:

• Lite: reported at $79/month, with 2 users included and extra users at $20/month each
• Core: reported at $129/month
• Advanced: reported from $229/month (one church page says from $189)

At the reported Lite price, $79 × 12 = $948 a year. That's $948 − $80 = $868 a year more than QuickBooks Plus through TechSoup. Whether it's worth it depends on how much fund tracking you do and how long your bookkeeper spends on workarounds. One third-party review notes that Lite lacks budgeting, AP/AR and integrations. For the full comparison, see Aplos vs QuickBooks.

Counting the hidden cost: time

A free tool that takes an extra three hours a month to reconcile isn't free. A simple way to compare:

True annual cost = subscription + (extra hours per month × 12 × hourly cost)

At an example rate of $40/hour (use your own):

• Wave Starter with 3 extra hours a month of fund workarounds: $0 + (3 × 12 × $40) = $1,440
• QuickBooks Plus via TechSoup with 1 extra hour a month: $80 + (1 × 12 × $40) = $560
• Aplos Lite (reported price) with no extra hours: $948

The hours here are illustrations. Ask your bookkeeper for real ones. The point is that the cheapest subscription isn't always the cheapest choice. The free audit runs this comparison with your numbers.

When spreadsheets stop working

Many very small nonprofits start on a spreadsheet, and that can be fine. These are common signs it's time to move:

• Restricted money. You have a grant or designated gift that must be tracked and reported separately.
• More than one person enters transactions. Spreadsheets have no audit trail and no user permissions.
• Reconciliation takes hours. Bank feeds in Wave, QuickBooks or Xero automate most of it.
• Someone asks for real statements. A board, funder, lender or auditor wants a statement of financial position or a statement of activities.
• Year-end filing gets harder. If your organization files an IRS Form 990 or a state report, your preparer will work faster from proper books. Confirm what you need to file with a CPA.

If two or more apply, the $80 TechSoup QuickBooks subscription will likely pay for itself in saved time. If restricted funds are central to your work, look at fund accounting tools such as Aplos.

Which to choose

• Tiny, simple, no restricted funds: Wave Starter.
• Most small nonprofits: QuickBooks Online Plus through TechSoup, at $80 a year.
• Heavy grant and fund tracking: Aplos or another fund-accounting tool, after confirming current pricing.
• Already on Xero and happy: ask Xero to apply its nonprofit discount.

Churches have extra considerations, such as clergy payroll. See church accounting software pricing. For every other tool you pay for, see the nonprofit software discounts hub.