# Alternatives to Melio

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

## At a glance

| Name | Best for | Starts at | A month at 100 transactions | Better than Melio at | Checked |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Melio](https://tickmarkbooks.com/melio.md) | US small businesses and accounting firms paying vendor bills by card or bank transfer | Free, then $25 a month | Does not apply | — | 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 | Ledger included, Notice before a price rise | 26 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 | Ledger included, Users included | 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, Categorizes transactions | 26 October 2026 |
| [Stampli](https://tickmarkbooks.com/stampli.md) | Finance teams with high invoice volume, many approvers and several entities | On quote | — | Categorizes transactions, Your own bookkeeper | 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 | Categorizes transactions, Bank and card feeds | 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 | Categorizes transactions, Your own bookkeeper | 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 | Users included, What the AI costs | 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 | Users included, Notice before a price rise | 26 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 | Ledger included, Users included | 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. FreeAgent

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

**Where it improves on Melio:**
- [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/)
- [Notice before a price rise: yes — The terms of service promise at least 60 days' advance notice of a price or payment-term change, and a chance to decide whether to carry on before any increase.](https://www.freeagent.com/company/terms/)
- [Categorizes transactions: yes — The Guess feature categorizes imported bank transactions using machine learning on your own past explanations, so corrections you make feed the next suggestion.](https://support.freeagent.com/hc/en-gb/articles/115001586004-How-does-Guess-explain-your-transactions)

**Trade-offs against Melio:**
- [Past your plan’s limits: partial — No transaction cap is published, but Smart Capture is metered: ten receipts and bills a calendar month as standard, and more only via the £5 (about $6.70) unlimited add-on.](https://www.freeagent.com/pricing/)
- [Pays your bills: partial — Bills are captured, recorded and tracked as accounts payable inside FreeAgent, but actually paying them is left to partner products in its own Payment solutions directory rather than done in the product.](https://www.freeagent.com/features/expenses/)
- [Files 1099s: no — The vendor's own inventory of what can be filed from FreeAgent is End of Year accounts, Payroll, Self Assessment and VAT, all to HMRC or Companies House; US contractor forms are not among them.](https://support.freeagent.com/hc/en-gb/articles/15539041420178-What-can-you-file-using-FreeAgent)

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

### 2. Zoho Books

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

**Where it improves on Melio:**
- [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/)
- [Users included: yes — Free includes one user plus an accountant, Standard three, Professional five, Premium and Elite ten, Ultimate fifteen; extra users cost $3 each a month.](https://www.zoho.com/us/books/pricing/)
- [What the AI costs: yes — included — the AI page carries no separate price and the receipt autoscan allowance is part of the subscription, from 50 scans a month on Free to 1,000 on Premium and above.](https://www.zoho.com/us/books/pricing/)

**Trade-offs against Melio:**
- [Promotion and regular price: no — none — the $20 Standard rate is the standing month-to-month price; the lower $15 figure is simply the yearly billing rate, not a time-limited introductory offer.](https://www.zoho.com/us/books/pricing/)
- [Past your plan’s limits: partial — Each plan caps annual invoices and bills/expenses (5,000 a year on Standard) and the vendor's stated remedy is to email sales for a higher limit rather than a published overage rate.](https://www.zoho.com/us/books/pricing/)
- [Pays your bills: partial — Bills and vendor approvals are in the paid plans, but paying vendors by ACH with two- and three-way matching is the separate BillPay add-on at $59 a month billed annually ($69 monthly).](https://www.zoho.com/us/books/pricing/)

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

### 3. Puzzle

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

**Where it improves on Melio:**
- [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)
- [Categorizes transactions: yes — Categorizes by itself and learns from you. Every plan auto-categorizes ('Up to 98% auto-categorization' on Starter).](https://help.puzzle.io/en/articles/6986850-rules-and-categories)
- [Your own bookkeeper: partial — Named bookkeeper only on Full Service. Full Service includes a named bookkeeper with unlimited questions by email.](https://puzzle.io/pricing)

**Trade-offs against Melio:**
- [Past your plan’s limits: partial — Moved up a plan; only AI credits priced. Seats: Starter 1, Core 5, Complete and Scale unlimited; more users means a higher plan.](https://help.puzzle.io/en/articles/17063329-puzzle-accounting-services-expert-reviewed-full-service-add-ons)
- [Reads receipts and bills: partial — Reads an uploaded receipt; no stated matching. You can attach documents to a transaction or bill.](https://help.puzzle.io/en/articles/15138987-month-end-close-with-ai-close)
- [Pays your bills: partial — Records bills; payment through Ramp or Bill.com. Bills can be entered, imported by CSV or synced from Ramp and Bill.com, matched to payments and shown in AP aging.](https://help.puzzle.io/en/articles/9165703-faq-accounts-payable)

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

### 4. Stampli

Procure-to-pay workspace for invoices, vendors, payments and card spend, with AI coding and routing.

**Where it improves on Melio:**
- [Categorizes transactions: yes — Billy applies your coding patterns to the fields of the accounting system you run, and reviewed corrections feed back into later suggestions; a person still confirms before posting.](https://www.stampli.com/billy/)
- [Your own bookkeeper: partial — Every customer gets a named Customer Success contact and support staffed by former accounts payable practitioners, but that is product help rather than a bookkeeper keeping your books.](https://www.stampli.com/customer-support/)
- [Accuracy the vendor claims: yes — Stampli claims its AI suggested values are correct 92% of the time and shows the measurement behind it: 29.6 million of 34.3 million fields in April 2026 across 2,248 customer environments.](https://www.stampli.com/ai-information/)

**Trade-offs against Melio:**
- [Platforms: partial — web is the main place it runs, with mobile approvals and a mobile capture flow for receipts and mileage; the vendor never names Windows, Mac, iOS or Android.](https://www.stampli.com/expenses/)
- [For accounting firms: partial — There is a partner program for accounting firms built on referrals and revenue sharing, not a console where a firm runs many clients under its own branding.](https://www.stampli.com/partners/)
- [Sign up without a sales call: no — There is no sign-up or checkout: buying starts with a quote request or a demo booking, and onboarding is run with a named success contact.](https://www.stampli.com/pricing/)

[View Stampli](https://tickmarkbooks.com/stampli)

### 5. Booke AI

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

**Where it improves on Melio:**
- [Categorizes transactions: yes — Daily, and learns from your approvals and fixes. It processes new QuickBooks Online and Xero bank-feed transactions in a daily run, categorizes them from the client's own history, sends low-confidence ones to your team, and uses each approval or correction for later categorizations.](https://booke.ai/quickbooks-online)
- [Bank and card feeds: partial — Reads the QBO or Xero bank feed; no feed of its own](https://booke.ai/)
- [Support: yes — Chat (weekdays 9-6 EST) and email; no phone listed. Chat: in the platform, Mon-Fri 9 AM-6 PM EST, 2-hour response (the SLA's header says 3 hours).](https://booke.ai/sla)

**Trade-offs against Melio:**
- [Sends invoices: partial — Matches payments to ledger invoices; sends none. It matches incoming payments to invoices that already exist in QuickBooks Online or Xero, including multi-invoice payments.](https://booke.ai/quickbooks-online)
- [NetSuite: no — not Desktop or NetSuite.](https://booke.ai/bookkeeping-ai)
- [Files 1099s: no — No 1099 work; tax left to people. No page mentions 1099s. The vendor's list of what it automates is categorization, matching, document requests and reconciliation preparation, and its list of what stays with people includes tax.](https://booke.ai/bookkeeping-ai)

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

### 6. Pilot

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

**Where it improves on Melio:**
- [Categorizes transactions: yes — AI categorizes and learns your patterns. The AI Accountant categorizes transactions, reconciles accounts and identifies vendors.](https://pilot.com/platform/ai-accountant)
- [Your own bookkeeper: partial — A US-based bookkeeper and team on Core. Core includes a US-based bookkeeper and 'your dedicated team' by app, email and phone.](https://pilot.com/pricing)
- [Stripe: yes — Stripe, Shopify, Gusto yes](https://pilot.com/platform/integrations)

**Trade-offs against Melio:**
- [Past your plan’s limits: partial — Moved up a band from your 3-month average. No per-unit overage price.](https://pilot.com/faq)
- [Setup or onboarding fee: yes — Onboarding charge equal to one month. A one-time onboarding charge equal to one month of bookkeeping on every plan (so $99 on Essentials and $399 to $1,199 on Core, by band, at monthly billing).](https://pilot.com/faq)
- [Pays your bills: partial — Bill payment is an add-on; Core manages 10 bills. Accounts payable is not in the bookkeeping plans by default.](https://pilot.com/faq)

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

### 7. SimpleAI

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

**Where it improves on Melio:**
- [Users included: yes — Every published SAAM plan, Starter included, carries unlimited users and unlimited entities, so adding a colleague or an outside accountant costs nothing extra.](https://simpleaiworks.com/en/pricing)
- [What the AI costs: yes — credits: the AI is the product and is in every plan, but what you process is metered in credits at one credit per document and one per bank statement page, with extra credits sold in capped packs.](https://simpleaiworks.com/en/pricing)
- [Categorizes transactions: yes — It classifies extracted entries by itself and the vendor says it improves from repeated corrections, custom prompts and your historical transactions rather than from fixed rules.](https://simpleaiworks.com/en)

**Trade-offs against Melio:**
- [Promotion and regular price: no — none on the SAAM plan cards: the only discount the vendor names on them is 10% for annual billing, and the separate Bank Statement Extraction module is the one that runs a labeled limited-time promotion.](https://simpleaiworks.com/en/pricing)
- [Pays your bills: partial — Bills are captured and classified and every plan includes an approval workflow, but the agent's documented end point is publishing entries into your accounting software, not paying suppliers.](https://simpleaiworks.com/en)
- [Sends invoices: partial — Sending invoices belongs to the other product lines, not SAAM: NOVA handles invoices and AR aging conversationally, and the e-Invoicing module issues Peppol invoices for Singapore, while SAAM only extracts AR documents.](https://simpleaiworks.com/en/solutions/nova)

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

### 8. Expensify

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

**Where it improves on Melio:**
- [Users included: yes — No seats are bundled; every member is charged, so one more person simply adds another $5 a month on Collect, or the Control rate on that plan.](https://use.expensify.com/ai-disclosure)
- [Notice before a price rise: yes — The terms of service promise fifteen days' notice before the next billing cycle whenever the price of a service package changes.](https://www.expensify.com/terms)
- [What the AI costs: yes — included - the vendor states the AI is not a module or add-on and carries no extra charge on either paid plan or the free one.](https://use.expensify.com/ai-disclosure)

**Trade-offs against Melio:**
- [Promotion and regular price: no — none - the $5 Collect rate is the standing published price, not a limited-time offer; the only time-limited element is a 30-day free trial that starts when a workspace is created.](https://use.expensify.com/ai-disclosure)
- [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)
- [Contract and cancelling: partial — Collect is sold only month to month on pay-per-use, so you can stop whenever, but the discounted Control rates require a 12-month commitment to a chosen subscription size you cannot shrink mid-term.](https://help.expensify.com/articles/new-expensify/billing-and-subscriptions/explore-plans-subscriptions-and-pricing/Understand-Expensify-Pricing)

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

### 9. Xero

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

**Where it improves on Melio:**
- [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/)
- [Users included: yes — Every plan takes unlimited users at no extra cost, so adding staff, a treasurer or an advisor does not change the monthly bill.](https://www.xero.com/us/versus/quickbooks-alternative/)
- [What the AI costs: yes — included: JAX chat carries no extra charge for subscribers on any plan, though Xero reserves the right to change that pricing later.](https://www.xero.com/us/ai-in-accounting/jax/)

**Trade-offs against Melio:**
- [Past your plan’s limits: partial — Only the Early plan is capped, at 20 invoices and 5 bills a month, and the footnote says approving counts too; the pages do not say what happens once you reach the cap.](https://www.xero.com/us/pricing-plans/)
- [Sends invoices: partial — Invoicing with online payment acceptance is on every plan, but Early is capped at 20 invoices a month before you must move up to Growing.](https://www.xero.com/us/pricing-plans/)
- [Free trial or free plan: partial — There is no standing free plan, but any plan can be taken for one month at $0 before billing starts, so you can run your own books in it first.](https://www.xero.com/us/)

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