QuickBooks Desktop Premier vs. QuickBooks Online

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
QuickBooks Desktop Premier
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
QuickBooks Desktop Premier is an installed version of QuickBooks for general business, contractors, manufacturing and warehouse accounting, as well as nonprofits, professional services, and retail.N/A
QuickBooks Online
Score 8.3 out of 10
N/A
QuickBooks Online is a SaaS version of the QuickBooks product. It contains all of the features found in the local version. Higher-priced plans include greater automation, payment management, inventory and time tracking, and analytics features.
$38
per month
Pricing
QuickBooks Desktop PremierQuickBooks Online
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Simple Start
$38
per month
Essentials
$75
per month
Plus
$115
per month
Advanced
$275
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
QuickBooks Desktop PremierQuickBooks Online
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
QuickBooks Desktop PremierQuickBooks Online
Features
QuickBooks Desktop PremierQuickBooks Online
Payroll Management
Comparison of Payroll Management features of Product A and Product B
QuickBooks Desktop Premier
9.0
Ratings
15% above category average
QuickBooks Online
8.4
Ratings
8% above category average
Pay calculation7.00 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Benefit plan administration10.00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Direct deposit files8.00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Salary revision and increment management9.90 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Reimbursement management10.00 Ratings9.50 Ratings
Customization
Comparison of Customization features of Product A and Product B
QuickBooks Desktop Premier
1.3
Ratings
142% below category average
QuickBooks Online
8.3
Ratings
8% above category average
API for custom integration1.30 Ratings8.70 Ratings
Plug-ins1.30 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
QuickBooks Desktop Premier
10.0
Ratings
18% above category average
QuickBooks Online
9.7
Ratings
15% above category average
Single sign-on capability10.00 Ratings9.60 Ratings
Role-based user permissions10.00 Ratings9.70 Ratings
Reporting & Analytics
Comparison of Reporting & Analytics features of Product A and Product B
QuickBooks Desktop Premier
8.2
Ratings
4% above category average
QuickBooks Online
8.1
Ratings
3% above category average
Dashboards9.00 Ratings8.60 Ratings
Standard reports9.00 Ratings8.20 Ratings
Custom reports6.50 Ratings7.50 Ratings
General Ledger and Configurable Accounting
Comparison of General Ledger and Configurable Accounting features of Product A and Product B
QuickBooks Desktop Premier
8.3
Ratings
6% above category average
QuickBooks Online
8.5
Ratings
9% above category average
Accounts payable10.00 Ratings9.20 Ratings
Accounts receivable10.00 Ratings9.40 Ratings
Cash management10.00 Ratings8.70 Ratings
Bank reconciliation10.00 Ratings9.10 Ratings
Expense management10.00 Ratings8.70 Ratings
Time tracking5.00 Ratings6.90 Ratings
Fixed asset management5.00 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Multi-currency support9.00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Multi-division support7.00 Ratings9.20 Ratings
Regulations compliance1.80 Ratings9.20 Ratings
Electronic tax filing10.00 Ratings9.30 Ratings
Self-service portal5.00 Ratings8.80 Ratings
Global Financial Support5.00 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Primary and Secondary Ledgers7.00 Ratings8.70 Ratings
Intercompany Accounting10.00 Ratings8.70 Ratings
Localizations10.00 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Journals and Reconciliations10.00 Ratings9.30 Ratings
Enterprise Accounting10.00 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Configurable Accounting10.00 Ratings7.70 Ratings
Centralized Rules Framework10.00 Ratings8.40 Ratings
Standardized Processes10.00 Ratings8.50 Ratings
Inventory Management
Comparison of Inventory Management features of Product A and Product B
QuickBooks Desktop Premier
2.9
Ratings
87% below category average
QuickBooks Online
7.5
Ratings
2% above category average
Inventory tracking1.70 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Automatic reordering1.00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Location management8.00 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Manufacturing module1.00 Ratings7.00 Ratings
Order Management
Comparison of Order Management features of Product A and Product B
QuickBooks Desktop Premier
8.0
Ratings
3% above category average
QuickBooks Online
8.4
Ratings
8% above category average
Pricing10.00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Order entry10.00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Credit card processing10.00 Ratings8.60 Ratings
Cost of goods sold10.00 Ratings9.30 Ratings
Order Orchestration10.00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
End-to-end order visibility1.00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
Order exception Resolution5.00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
QuickBooks Desktop PremierQuickBooks Online
Small Businesses
QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)
QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)
Score 8.9 out of 10
QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)
QuickBooks Self-Employed (discontinued)
Score 8.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Zoho Books
Zoho Books
Score 9.0 out of 10
Zoho Books
Zoho Books
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
Score 8.6 out of 10
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
SAP S/4HANA Cloud
Score 8.6 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
QuickBooks Desktop PremierQuickBooks Online
Likelihood to Recommend
10.0
(0 ratings)
8.8
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
1.3
(0 ratings)
1.9
(0 ratings)
Usability
10.0
(0 ratings)
8.8
(0 ratings)
Availability
8.9
(0 ratings)
2.0
(0 ratings)
Performance
5.7
(0 ratings)
1.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
1.0
(0 ratings)
1.1
(0 ratings)
Online Training
1.0
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
7.2
(0 ratings)
3.0
(0 ratings)
Configurability
9.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
7.0
(0 ratings)
1.3
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
6.2
(0 ratings)
1.0
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
1.0
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
7.0
(0 ratings)
1.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
QuickBooks Desktop PremierQuickBooks Online
Likelihood to Recommend
QuickBooks Desktop is an easy-to-use software with good services. Their invoicing, employment, and vendor sections are all wonderful. These sections allow efficient tracking and instant business summaries and reporting. However, the pricing for additional services and upgrades and lack of good customer service makes it a less attractive software for small businesses.
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I appreciate the ability to auto-generate invoices for recurring transactions, which saves time, as well as the option to set up auto-generated transactions. The report option is super helpful when reviewing information, as you can click to view the details in the report without having to go back and forth.
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Pros
  • QuickBooks Premier is easy to use, yet flexible and powerful enough to handle some complicated accounting scenarios.
  • QuickBooks Premier offers a wide array of canned reports. Custom reports can be easily created.
  • QuickBooks Premier with Enhanced Payroll gives us the tools to handle complex payrolls with multiple variables.
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  • It enables me to do a P&L for each specific program as requested by the county for the grant money that they give us.
  • It enables me to do [an] organizational budget as well as a budget for each specific program
  • It enables the accountant and the auditor access at any time for transparency
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Cons
  • I would like to be able to choose how i want to view accounts receivable aging. I would like some flexibility to sort and choose how to present the data.
  • For a seasoned accountant, I would like to see some of the restrictive controls that are in place for novices to be able to be relaxed so that I can easily make some entries and adjust some balances that ordinarily a regular user would not be able to do.
  • I would like to see an easy way to clear old outstanding checks that need to be reversed without affecting prior balances/history.
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  • Purchase Orders cannot be linked to multiple bill payments which makes tracking purchase orders in QuickBooks Online obsolete. Without the function we have to track this within a different more manual spreadsheet.
  • Would be helpful if you could "split" bank transactions directly from the "review" downloads from the bank. Currently, to split transactions to multiple accounts we need to first categorize, then review after assigning to 1 account.
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Likelihood to Renew
Because we have been extremely happy with the product and our organization tends to be creatures of habit. We rarely leave a product that works this well for the latest and greatest. Typically we follow the "if it's not broken, don't fix it rule". While QB does make changes we typically just roll with it. If we do find something we don't like we work through it until we fully understand its functionality.
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QBO needs better integration with non-Intuit products and developers need to use Intuit's open API to develop better add-ons. Clients are having a great deal of problems with their data importing from the bank and this takes time away from better revenue producing activities. Although the efficiencies are there, they are outweighted by the shortcomings of the product. When we ran a parallel of QBO versus other cloud accounting products, we had more issues with the QBO product than any other
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Usability
We switched to a more "robust" software program with the hiring of a new CFO. The migration of historical data and ancillary information has been cumbersome and riddle with errors and issues. In hindsight much of what the new software program was touted to accomplish is not come to fruition. QB Desktop Premier was sufficient for the organization needs
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I had very little trouble setting up the program and migrating from our old accounting system. The daily usage is also very intuitive and easy. Anytime we run into minor trouble with the program, there are always tons of help available on YouTube, so we don't even look up the online manual anymore.
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Reliability and Availability
This is very reliable software, the desktop version is fast. If there is a problem, it is most likely on your own hardware!
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We have rarely had outages in the last 10 years. I can only recall 2 times in the last 10 years where we were not able to access our client files.
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Performance
It takes forever to load.
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Everything process has its bugs lately with the new interface. Nothing has worked smoothly since this all began last month.
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Support Rating
This is where QuickBooks falls short. Many times my staff has had questions that have not been able to get resolved easily with a chat or call. I personally have had more general questions that have not been answered easily as well. I think QuickBooks needs to provide the resources of having readily accessible help in order to make it simpler to get solutions.
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In my experience, most representatives keep me on the phone for hours, literally, for a single issue and then usually cannot resolve it satisfactorily. I have 10 open cases that need resolution and, in my experience, there has been NO follow-up communication on any of them.
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Implementation Rating
It is important to do your research. There are tutorial videos online that could help new user of this accounting system. These tutorials are straightforward and easily understandable.
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The person in charge of QB needs to be very accurate with record keeping and is recommended to stay on top of tasks. The biggest issue we have is reconciliation, and those issues occur only when too much time has occurred between reconciliations
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Alternatives Considered
We've used QuickBooks Desktop Premier for many, many years. We've not reviewed any other accounting products internally - but have a handful of the customers that use Cyma (mentioned above). While I've never had occasion to functionally use Cyma, I have had to install and troubleshoot problems with it. Put simply... not impressed. I found installation a bit confusing, and once started up, I wasn't able to easily find anything I would have wanted to find - where conversely, QuickBooks Desktop Premier excels on both of these fronts.
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QuickBooks Online is an accounting software package that allows companies to use a cost-effective and efficient software package. QuickBooks Online allows companies to prepare their balance sheets and income statements. It connects with a variety of other applications, which allows you to be efficient. We are very pleased with QuickBooks Online, and we would highly recommend it.
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Scalability
They're getting better. Still room for improvement.
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As we have grown along our professional path, we have also expanded our use of QB. The scalability is easy and features seem to be waiting for you until you need them. We have increased profits by over 10x from our first year in business to the current and have yet to find a reason to look elsewhere
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Return on Investment
  • Most of our business clients use QuickBooks which makes it efficient for us to work on clients that use the program. We can import QuickBooks data into our software which adds efficiencies to our tax practice.
  • Having staff that are familiar with the software enables our firm to provide quality service to the clients that use QuickBooks.
  • We receive referrals from satisfied QuickBooks clients.
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  • I think the help function is cumbersome and hard to use. When I go to refresh myself on a function, say quarterly, I feel like I have to cast about just looking for it.
  • The account reconciliation works, but in this place that could benefit from messaging, there are no easy helping functions flagging things like amounts that fit the discrepancy.
  • Even styling invoices and documents is more cumbersome than it should be.
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ScreenShots

QuickBooks Online Screenshots

Screenshot of the accounting and bank transactions interfaceScreenshot of an overview of the accounting inventoryScreenshot of book marksScreenshot of the business tax overviewScreenshot of the customer hubScreenshot of the dashboard