If you are a UK sole trader or run a micro-business and need accounting software for Self Assessment, the three platforms worth considering are Sage Accounting, QuickBooks Online, and FreeAgent. All three are MTD-compatible, all three connect to UK banks, and all three can file your Self Assessment tax return. The differences are in price, usability, and what happens from April 2026 when Making Tax Digital for Income Tax kicks in and you need to send quarterly updates to HMRC. Here is what each one costs, what it does, and where each one trips people up.
Making Tax Digital: Why This Matters Now
From 6 April 2026, sole traders and landlords with total self-employment and property income above £50,000 must use MTD-compatible software to keep digital records and send quarterly updates to HMRC. Those with income above £30,000 follow from April 2027, and above £20,000 from April 2028.
This is not optional. You cannot file quarterly updates on paper or through the HMRC website. You need software that is on HMRC's approved list for MTD for Income Tax. All three platforms covered here are on that list, but their MTD features are not identical.
What Each Platform Costs in 2026
Annual Cost for a UK Sole Trader After Introductory Periods (£ inc VAT)
Full annual cost including VAT after introductory pricing ends, comparing entry-level plans suitable for non-VAT-registered sole traders.
Source: Sage, QuickBooks, and FreeAgent UK pricing pages, February 2026
Sage Accounting has three tiers. Start costs £18 per month plus VAT (£21.60 inc VAT), Standard costs £39 per month plus VAT (£46.80 inc VAT), and Plus costs £59 per month plus VAT (£70.80 inc VAT). Start covers invoicing, bank feeds, and Self Assessment filing. Standard adds quotes, purchase invoices, and multi-currency. Plus adds project tracking and cash flow forecasting.
Note: Sage 50 is a different product aimed at larger businesses and starts from £77 per month. For sole traders, Sage Accounting (formerly Sage Business Cloud Accounting) is the relevant product.
QuickBooks Online offers a Sole Trader plan at £10 per month plus VAT (£12 inc VAT) after an introductory period of £1 per month for the first six months. Simple Start at £16 per month plus VAT adds VAT tracking and is the minimum for VAT-registered sole traders. Essentials at £28 per month adds bill management and multiple users.
FreeAgent costs £19 per month plus VAT (£22.80 inc VAT) after an introductory period of £9.50 per month for the first six months. The pricing is the same regardless of whether you are a sole trader, partnership, or limited company — there is one plan with everything included. If you have a NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, or Ulster Bank business current account, FreeAgent is free for as long as you keep the account. This is not a trial — it is the full product at no cost.
The NatWest Free FreeAgent Deal
This deserves its own section because it changes the maths entirely. If you bank with NatWest (or RBS or Ulster Bank), you get the full version of FreeAgent — MTD filing, Self Assessment, invoicing, expenses, bank feeds, project tracking — at zero cost. There is no time limit and no feature restriction.
For a sole trader earning over £50,000 who needs MTD-compatible software from April 2026, switching your business current account to NatWest to get free FreeAgent could save you £228 to £850 per year compared to paying for Sage or QuickBooks. The switching takes about a week through the Current Account Switch Service, and there is no fee.
This is not a secret, but it is undersold. Roughly 40% of FreeAgent's user base accesses the software through bank partnerships rather than paying directly.
What Each Platform Actually Does
All three platforms handle the basics: invoicing, expense tracking, bank feeds, Self Assessment filing, and MTD quarterly updates. The differences are in how they handle the tasks sole traders care about.
Invoicing: FreeAgent and QuickBooks let you create, send, and track invoices with payment reminders. Sage Accounting Start also supports invoicing but limits you to basic templates. All three support recurring invoices and can attach Stripe or GoCardless for online payments.
Bank feeds: All three connect to UK banks through Open Banking. Sage and QuickBooks match transactions automatically and suggest categorisations. FreeAgent's bank feed is slightly more manual — it shows you unmatched transactions and you categorise them, which some users prefer because it forces them to understand their books.
Expense tracking: FreeAgent and QuickBooks have mobile apps that photograph receipts and attach them to expense records. Sage has receipt scanning in Standard and above. All three calculate mileage for HMRC-approved rates.
VAT returns: All three file VAT returns directly to HMRC through MTD. If you are VAT-registered, QuickBooks Sole Trader does not support VAT — you need Simple Start at £16 per month minimum.
Self Assessment: FreeAgent files your Self Assessment tax return directly to HMRC and calculates your tax liability throughout the year, showing you what you owe in real time. QuickBooks calculates tax estimates. Sage shows tax summaries but the filing experience depends on the tier.
MTD for Income Tax: Who Is Ready
From April 2026, you need to submit quarterly updates to HMRC digitally. This means your software needs to calculate your income and expenses for each quarter and submit them through HMRC's API.
All three platforms are on HMRC's list of compatible software for MTD for Income Tax. FreeAgent has been running a pilot programme with HMRC since 2023 and has the longest track record of quarterly submissions. QuickBooks joined the pilot in 2024 and supports MTD ITSA on all plans including Sole Trader. Sage Accounting supports MTD ITSA from the Standard tier upward — Start does not currently include quarterly submissions.
This is a critical distinction. If you choose Sage Accounting Start at £18 per month and your income is above £50,000, you may need to upgrade to Standard at £39 per month for MTD quarterly submissions. Check the current feature list before committing to a tier.
Usability and Learning Curve
FreeAgent is designed for people who are not accountants. Its interface uses plain English, shows a tax timeline that tells you what is due and when, and presents your business finances as a dashboard rather than a ledger. First-time users can be invoicing within ten minutes.
QuickBooks Online is globally popular and has the widest range of third-party integrations. Its interface is clean but uses accounting terminology (chart of accounts, journal entries) that can intimidate sole traders who just want to send invoices and track expenses. QuickBooks' strength is its app marketplace — if you need to connect your accounting to Shopify, PayPal, or a CRM, QuickBooks has the widest choice of add-ons.
Sage Accounting sits between the two. Its interface is functional but less polished than FreeAgent or QuickBooks. Sage's strength is brand recognition — accountants in the UK know Sage, and if your accountant already uses Sage Practice, sharing data is straightforward.
What Your Accountant Prefers
If you use an accountant or bookkeeper, their preference matters. Accountants get free practice management tools from all three platforms, but the depth of support varies.
QuickBooks has the largest UK accountant partner programme and offers free QuickBooks Online Accountant accounts with portfolio management. FreeAgent has a strong UK accountant community and offers practice-level discounts. Sage has the deepest roots in UK accountancy — Sage 50 and Sage Accounting have been the default choice for UK practices for decades.
Ask your accountant before choosing. If they already use one of these platforms, you will save time on data sharing and year-end preparation.
Year-End and Tax Return Day
The real test of any accounting platform is what happens in January when you are staring at the Self Assessment deadline.
FreeAgent calculates your tax liability continuously throughout the year. Open the tax timeline and you can see what you owe for the current tax year, broken down by income tax and National Insurance. When you are ready to file, FreeAgent generates the SA100 and supplementary pages, lets you review the figures, and submits directly to HMRC. The whole process takes less than ten minutes if your records are up to date. FreeAgent also handles payments on account and tells you what your January and July payments will be so there are no surprises.
QuickBooks Online shows estimated tax throughout the year on the Sole Trader and Simple Start plans. At year-end, you can review your income and expenses by category and file your Self Assessment return through QuickBooks. The filing process is straightforward but requires more manual checking than FreeAgent because QuickBooks does not pre-populate supplementary pages with the same level of detail.
Sage Accounting provides tax summaries on all tiers. Self Assessment filing is available but the depth of guidance varies. Start gives you the numbers. Standard and Plus provide more structured year-end reporting. If you use an accountant, Sage's year-end process typically involves exporting data or granting accountant access rather than filing directly yourself.
For sole traders who file their own returns without an accountant, FreeAgent's year-end process is the least stressful of the three. For those who hand everything to an accountant, the differences matter less because all three platforms export the data your accountant needs.
Receipt Scanning and Mileage
If you drive for work or buy supplies regularly, how each platform handles receipts and mileage claims affects your daily routine.
FreeAgent has a mobile app for iOS and Android that photographs receipts, reads the amount and date using OCR, and creates an expense record. You categorise it, attach it to a project if needed, and it is done. Mileage claims use HMRC's approved rates at 45p per mile for the first 10,000 miles and 25p thereafter. You log the journey and FreeAgent calculates the allowable expense.
QuickBooks offers receipt capture through its mobile app with automatic data extraction. It matches receipts to bank transactions where possible, reducing duplicate entries. Mileage tracking in QuickBooks uses GPS on your phone to record journeys automatically, which is useful if you forget to log trips manually. The mileage feature is available on all UK plans.
Sage Accounting includes receipt scanning from the Standard tier upward. Start does not have it. Sage's mobile app captures receipts and extracts key data. Mileage tracking is available but less automated than QuickBooks because you enter journeys manually rather than using GPS tracking.
If receipt scanning and mileage tracking are part of your daily workflow, QuickBooks has the edge on automation. FreeAgent is reliable and straightforward. Sage requires the Standard tier at minimum, which doubles the cost compared to Sage Start.
The Honest Recommendation
Feature Comparison: Key Capabilities for Sole Traders (Score 1–5)
How each platform scores on features that matter to UK sole traders doing Self Assessment, where 5 is fully featured and 1 is not available or requires an upgrade.
Source: CTC editorial assessment based on platform documentation, February 2026
Choose FreeAgent if you bank with NatWest, RBS, or Ulster Bank — it is free, it handles Self Assessment and MTD quarterly updates natively, and it is designed for sole traders who are not accountants. Even if you do not bank with NatWest, FreeAgent at £19 per month is the best all-in-one option for sole traders who want simplicity.
Choose QuickBooks Online Sole Trader at £10 per month if you need the cheapest paid option, you are not VAT-registered, and you want the widest range of third-party app connections. Upgrade to Simple Start at £16 per month if you need VAT filing.
Choose Sage Accounting if your accountant uses Sage and data sharing is a priority, or if you need multi-currency support and project tracking (available from Standard at £39 per month). Do not choose Sage Accounting Start if you need MTD quarterly submissions — check the current feature list before committing.
For a UK sole trader facing MTD for Income Tax from April 2026, FreeAgent (especially the free NatWest version) offers the easiest path to compliance with the least friction. QuickBooks is the budget alternative. Sage is the accountant's choice.
