# Alternatives to fileLedger by fileAI

> Source: https://tickmarkbooks.com/fileai/alternatives/ (re-verified)
> Updated: 28 October 2026

## At a glance

| Name | Best for | Starts at | A month at 100 transactions | Better than fileLedger by fileAI at | Checked |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [fileLedger by fileAI](https://tickmarkbooks.com/fileai.md) | Small accounting firms drowning in client invoices and statements that already run on Xero | From $13 a month | $40 | — | 28 October 2026 |
| [Zoho Books](https://tickmarkbooks.com/zoho-books.md) | Small businesses and startups that want one ledger plus the wider Zoho app suite | Free, then $20 a month | $20 | Cost for a solo freelancer, Ledger included | 26 October 2026 |
| [FreeAgent](https://tickmarkbooks.com/freeagent.md) | UK sole traders and small limited companies filing their own VAT and Self Assessment | From about $13 a month | About $25 | Cost for a solo freelancer, Promotion and regular price | 26 October 2026 |
| [Puzzle](https://tickmarkbooks.com/puzzle.md) | A US startup on Mercury, Brex, Ramp, Stripe and Gusto that wants to replace QuickBooks | Price not established | $30 | Ledger included, What the price is based on | 26 October 2026 |
| [Booke AI](https://tickmarkbooks.com/booke-ai.md) | A business or bookkeeping firm already on QuickBooks Online or Xero | Price not established | $156 | What the price is based on, Getting your books out | 26 October 2026 |
| [Pilot](https://tickmarkbooks.com/pilot.md) | A US startup or small business that wants its books done for it in QuickBooks Online | Price not established | $137 | What the price is based on, Reconciles your accounts | 26 October 2026 |
| [SimpleAI](https://tickmarkbooks.com/simpleai.md) | Accounting firms and finance teams processing high volumes of invoices and bank statements | From $79 a month | $106 | Cost for a solo freelancer, What the price is based on | 27 October 2026 |
| [Expensify](https://tickmarkbooks.com/expensify.md) | Small finance teams that want receipts, cards and reimbursements feeding one ledger | Free, then $5 a seat a month | Does not apply | Cost for a solo freelancer, What the price is based on | 26 October 2026 |
| [QuickBooks Online](https://tickmarkbooks.com/quickbooks-online.md) | Small businesses that want one ledger plus payroll, payments and an accountant login | Free, then $38 a month | $38 | Cost for a solo freelancer, Promotion and regular price | 28 October 2026 |
| [Xero](https://tickmarkbooks.com/xero.md) | Small businesses wanting the whole team and their advisor on the books, no per-user fees | From $27 a month | $27 | Cost for a solo freelancer, Promotion and regular price | 28 October 2026 |

“About” figures are converted at the European Central Bank rate of 30 October 2026.

The ones people open most here come first, then the closest matches.

## Shortlist

### 1. Zoho Books

Cloud accounting ledger with Zia AI, bank feeds, sales tax and 1099 e-filing, from $20 a month.

**Where it improves on fileLedger by fileAI:**
- [Cost for a solo freelancer: yes — A freelancer with bank feeds and receipt capture needs the Standard plan at $20 per organization a month billed monthly, since bank feeds start there.](https://www.zoho.com/us/books/pricing/)
- [Ledger included: yes — Zoho Books is the accounting ledger itself, so no QuickBooks or Xero subscription sits underneath it; the plan fee covers invoicing, banking, journals and the reports.](https://www.zoho.com/us/books/pricing/)
- [What the price is based on: yes — Flat per organization per month, independent of transaction volume; extra users, locations and bill pay are separately priced add-ons on top.](https://www.zoho.com/us/books/pricing/)

**Trade-offs against fileLedger by fileAI:**
- [Categorizes transactions: partial — Zia pre-fills the account and vendor against each imported bank line, so it suggests rather than posts by itself, and the page does not claim it learns from your corrections.](https://www.zoho.com/us/books/accounting-software/ai-in-accounting/)
- [Your accountant can sign in: partial — The Free plan is quoted as one user plus one accountant, so an accountant seat is free there; the paid plans are quoted only as user counts, with extra users at $3 a month.](https://www.zoho.com/us/books/pricing/pricing-comparison.html)

[View Zoho Books](https://tickmarkbooks.com/zoho-books)

### 2. FreeAgent

UK cloud accounting with HMRC filing, bank feeds and AI receipt capture, priced per business type.

**Where it improves on fileLedger by fileAI:**
- [Cost for a solo freelancer: yes — A freelancer pays the Sole trader plan: £19 a month (about $25) plus VAT at the regular rate, £9.50 (about $13) for the first six months, with bank feeds and receipt capture included and no per-transaction charge.](https://www.freeagent.com/pricing/)
- [Promotion and regular price: yes — promotion: every paid plan is advertised at 50% off for the first six months (or first year on annual billing), after which the regular published price applies.](https://www.freeagent.com/pricing/)
- [Ledger included: yes — FreeAgent is the accounting ledger itself: it keeps the books, builds the accounting reports and files the returns, so no QuickBooks or Xero subscription sits underneath it.](https://www.freeagent.com/features/accounting-software/)

**Trade-offs against fileLedger by fileAI:**
- [What the AI costs: partial — included in every plan for smart categorization and the first ten captures a month; processing more than ten receipts or bills needs the £5 (about $6.70)-a-month Smart Capture Unlimited add-on.](https://www.freeagent.com/pricing/)
- [Several businesses: no — One account holds one business: the vendor's guidance for someone running two businesses assumes a separate FreeAgent account, and so a separate subscription, for each.](https://support.freeagent.com/hc/en-gb/articles/7996920939794-Record-inter-business-transactions)
- [Australia: no — a US and a global edition exist with configurable sales tax reporting, and Canada and Australia are never named.](https://www.freeagent.com/us/features/sales-tax/)

[View FreeAgent](https://tickmarkbooks.com/freeagent)

### 3. Puzzle

AI-native accounting software with optional bookkeeper services for startups and small businesses.

**Where it improves on fileLedger by fileAI:**
- [Ledger included: yes — It is the ledger; no QuickBooks or Xero needed. Puzzle is a double-entry general ledger of its own, sold as a QuickBooks replacement (Core card: 'Your QuickBooks replacement').](https://puzzle.io/legal/faq)
- [What the price is based on: yes — mixed: flat software plans; services by expenses. Software plans are flat monthly fees per company (Starter $30, Core $72, Complete $120, Scale $360), stepping on features, seats (1, 5, unlimited) and AI credits, not on transactions.](https://help.puzzle.io/en/articles/8891734-faq-pricing)
- [Catching up past months: yes — From $300 per month of books. Catch-up bookkeeping is a one-time add-on on the pricing page: the team reviews, cleans up and closes each unfinished month, from $300 per month of books (the page's example: eleven months is $3,300).](https://puzzle.io/pricing)

**Trade-offs against fileLedger by fileAI:**
- None found.

[View Puzzle](https://tickmarkbooks.com/puzzle)

### 4. Booke AI

An AI bookkeeper that works inside QuickBooks Online and Xero to categorize transactions and match documents.

**Where it improves on fileLedger by fileAI:**
- [What the price is based on: yes — entities: $129 a month per business. The Business plan is priced per business (entity), with no transaction, account, user or spending band on the page.](https://booke.ai/pricing)
- [Getting your books out: yes — Books stay in your ledger; 30 days to export the rest. The ledger never leaves QuickBooks Online or Xero, so the general ledger and reports stay with you.](https://booke.ai/data-handling)
- [For accounting firms: yes — Firm plan: many clients, white label; price on request. A separate plan for accounting firms adds multi-client management, a white-label client experience, custom pricing and priority onboarding to everything in Business.](https://booke.ai/pricing)

**Trade-offs against fileLedger by fileAI:**
- [Accuracy the vendor claims: no — No accuracy figure; claims up to 80% of feed work. No categorization accuracy figure is published.](https://booke.ai/bookkeeping-ai)
- [SOC 2 report: partial — No own SOC 2; hosting provider has SOC 2 Type II. Booke names no SOC 1 or SOC 2 report for itself.](https://booke.ai/security)
- [Your data trains AI: partial — Trains a model kept for your account only. That per-client model is itself trained on your books (privacy policy section 10 is titled 'How Your Data Trains AI Models').](https://booke.ai/data-handling)

[View Booke AI](https://tickmarkbooks.com/booke-ai)

### 5. Pilot

A bookkeeping and tax service for startups that pairs software-driven dashboards with human financial advisors.

**Where it improves on fileLedger by fileAI:**
- [What the price is based on: yes — monthly_expenses: bands of monthly spending. Essentials is one price for up to $100,000 in monthly expenses.](https://pilot.com/faq)
- [Reconciles your accounts: yes — Bank and card accounts reconciled each month. Essentials: AI reconciles accounts and closes the books monthly.](https://pilot.com/pricing)
- [People check the books: partial — Bookkeeper reviews on Core; Essentials is AI only. Essentials is described as AI doing the work ('AI categorizes transactions, reconciles accounts, and closes books monthly'), with support by in-app message.](https://pilot.com/pricing)

**Trade-offs against fileLedger by fileAI:**
- [Accuracy the vendor claims: no — No accuracy figure published. No accuracy figure for the AI on any page read.](https://pilot.com/why-pilot)
- [Your data trains AI: yes — Trains its AI on customer books; no opt-out. The privacy policy says Pilot builds categorization rules from 'learnings from Customer Data' and develops AI methods on it, and keeps de-identified data from those rules indefinitely.](https://pilot.com/terms/privacy)
- [Australia: no — not Canada, UK or Australia.](https://pilot.com/faq)

[View Pilot](https://tickmarkbooks.com/pilot)

### 6. SimpleAI

AI agents that extract, classify and reconcile accounting documents, then publish them into Xero or QuickBooks.

**Where it improves on fileLedger by fileAI:**
- [Cost for a solo freelancer: yes — A one-person business can start on NOVA's Starter plan at S$39 a month for 30 document credits, one entity and three users; the SAAM accounting module's own entry plan is US$79 a month plus the Xero or QuickBooks subscription it publishes into.](https://simpleaiworks.com/en/solutions/nova)
- [What the price is based on: yes — A flat monthly fee buys a document credit allowance rather than a per-transaction rate: one credit is one document, and a bank statement costs one credit for every page it runs to.](https://simpleaiworks.com/en/pricing)
- [Past your plan’s limits: yes — Past the monthly credit allowance you buy add-on packs at a published rate, but the number of packs is capped per month, so very heavy months force a plan upgrade rather than open-ended overage.](https://simpleaiworks.com/en/pricing)

**Trade-offs against fileLedger by fileAI:**
- [Xero: partial — The vendor names Xero, QuickBooks and Accurate as the ledgers it currently supports, with Accurate limited to Indonesia QuickBooks Desktop and NetSuite are absent from that list, and no page says which QuickBooks or Xero plans are required.](https://simpleaiworks.com/en/contact)
- [Your data trains AI: partial — The vendor limits the use of ledger data to improving classification for your own workflows and names no cross-customer model training, but it publishes no opt-out and its privacy notice treats financial data only as sensitive personal information.](https://simpleaiworks.com/en/contact)
- [Support: partial — Email, a WhatsApp group and an in-platform support system accept messages around the clock, but a reply takes one to two working days inside Singapore business hours, and no phone line or live chat with a person is offered.](https://simpleaiworks.com/en/legal/terms)

[View SimpleAI](https://tickmarkbooks.com/simpleai)

### 7. Expensify

Receipt scanning, company cards, bill pay and reimbursements that feed QuickBooks, Xero or NetSuite.

**Where it improves on fileLedger by fileAI:**
- [Cost for a solo freelancer: yes — One person can run receipts, mileage and expense reports on the free Submit plan, and a paid workspace with reimbursements and accounting sync starts at $5 per member a month.](https://www.expensify.com/pricing)
- [What the price is based on: yes — Billing is per person per month, not per transaction: Collect counts every unique member added to a workspace, while Control counts only members who were active that month.](https://use.expensify.com/ai-disclosure)
- [Past your plan’s limits: yes — There is no transaction or account cap to pass; on a Control annual subscription, anyone active beyond the subscription size you committed to is simply charged at the higher pay-per-use rate.](https://help.expensify.com/articles/new-expensify/billing-and-subscriptions/explore-plans-subscriptions-and-pricing/Understand-Expensify-Pricing)

**Trade-offs against fileLedger by fileAI:**
- [Your accountant can sign in: partial — Accounting firms in the partner program get their own free account and a dashboard over client workspaces, but the vendor's pages do not say an outside accountant can be added to a single workspace without being billed as a member.](https://use.expensify.com/accountants-program)

[View Expensify](https://tickmarkbooks.com/expensify)

### 8. QuickBooks Online

Intuit's cloud ledger, now with Intuit Intelligence agents that categorize, reconcile and flag errors.

**Where it improves on fileLedger by fileAI:**
- [Cost for a solo freelancer: yes — A solo operator needing bank feeds plus receipt capture starts at Simple Start, $38 a month regular price, because the $0 Free plan connects only one bank and has no mobile app for receipts.](https://quickbooks.intuit.com/pricing/)
- [Promotion and regular price: yes — promotion: every paid plan card shows a half-price figure for three months beside the struck-through regular price, so Simple Start is $19 then $38, Plus $70 then $140.](https://quickbooks.intuit.com/pricing/)
- [Ledger included: yes — This is the accounting ledger itself, not an add-on to someone else's books, so no separate QuickBooks or Xero subscription sits underneath the price.](https://quickbooks.intuit.com/accounting/)

**Trade-offs against fileLedger by fileAI:**
- [Notice before a price rise: no — Intuit's own footnote reserves the right to change pricing without notice, so the terms promise no notice period before a renewal price rises.](https://quickbooks.intuit.com/accountants/)

[View QuickBooks Online](https://tickmarkbooks.com/quickbooks-online)

### 9. Xero

Small-business ledger with a JAX assistant that answers questions in plain language; unlimited users on every plan.

**Where it improves on fileLedger by fileAI:**
- [Cost for a solo freelancer: yes — The cheapest public plan, Early, is $27 a month after the promotion and includes bank reconciliation, Smart Document Capture and reporting, so one freelancer with roughly 30 transactions pays that.](https://www.xero.com/us/pricing-plans/)
- [Promotion and regular price: yes — promotion: new US customers get 90% off for six months, the offer closes 2 November 2026, and the regular plan price then applies and renews monthly.](https://www.xero.com/us/pricing-plans/)
- [Ledger included: yes — Xero is the double-entry ledger itself, so no QuickBooks or Xero subscription sits underneath it; the plan price is the whole accounting bill.](https://www.xero.com/us/)

**Trade-offs against fileLedger by fileAI:**
- [Notice before a price rise: partial — The pricing page reserves the right to change prices at any time, while the terms promise a reasonable effort to give 60 days notice of material changes, so the notice is an endeavor rather than a guarantee.](https://www.xero.com/us/legal/terms/)
- [Categorizes transactions: partial — Bank rules categorize recurring transactions for you and Xero suggests matches, but hands-off auto-reconcile is a $5 a month add-on on Early and only included from Growing up; no page claims it learns from your corrections.](https://www.xero.com/us/pricing-plans/)
- [Support: partial — Support is free and online around the clock: you search Xero Central and raise a case from any article. There is no published phone line, though you can ask to be called back.](https://www.xero.com/us/about/contact/)

[View Xero](https://tickmarkbooks.com/xero)