Xero vs Zoho Books — Australia 2026
Xero vs Zoho Books for AU small business. Compare pricing, BAS compliance, bank feed support, Payday Super readiness & accountant access.
Quick Verdict
Xero is the AU standard; Zoho Books is the budget pick
Zoho Books is significantly cheaper (Free under $50K; Standard $16.50/mo annual incl. GST) and has Sydney/Melbourne datacentres. It generates BAS reports but you lodge on the ATO portal. Xero lists in-product BAS lodgement and much deeper AU accountant adoption. Zoho invoice caps apply on every plan.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Xero | Zoho Books |
|---|---|---|
| Headquarters | Wellington, NZ (AU operations in Melbourne) | Chennai, India |
| Entry Price | $37/mo inc GST | Free |
| BAS Lodgement | AU plan pages list Track GST and lodge BAS, and the Ignite page says lodge BAS securely to the ATO from Xero. That is in-product lodgement, not a separate ATO-portal-only export. SBR is the usual channel; this check used the public plan pages, not an ATO software-product register extract. | Zoho Books AU help: generate a BAS report, then mark it as filed after you file on the ATO portal. That is export/prepare + portal lodgement, not in-product SBR lodgement. |
| STP Phase 2 | compliant | via_third_party |
| Payday Super | ready | not_ready |
| Modern Awards | Xero AU payroll FAQ: it calculates pay and tax and is STP-compliant; for specific award obligations it tells readers to check a payroll specialist or the Fair Work Ombudsman. That is not auto award interpretation. Employment Hero or KeyPay remain the add-on path for penalty-rate automation. | No Australian payroll features — Modern Award interpretation is not available natively. Requires third-party payroll integration (CloudPayroll, Employment Hero) for award compliance. |
| Bank Feeds | Big 4 + 50+ banks | Big 4 + growing banks |
| Data Hosting | unclear | AU |
| AU Support Hours | 24/7 online support | 24x5 (24 hours, Monday-Friday) |
| Phone Support | No | Yes |
| Integrations | 1000+ apps | 67+ apps |
Pricing Comparison (AUD, Mar 2026)
Xero Plans
Ignite
$37/mo
AUD inc GST
- ✓Invoices: 20
- ✓Bills: 5
- ✓Bank Reconciliation: Yes
Most Popular
Grow
$78/mo
AUD inc GST
- ✓Invoices: unlimited
- ✓Bills: unlimited
- ✓Bank Reconciliation: Yes
Comprehensive
$107/mo
AUD inc GST
- ✓Invoices: unlimited
- ✓Bills: unlimited
- ✓Bank Reconciliation: Yes
- ✓Multi Currency: Yes
Ultimate 10
$143/mo
AUD inc GST
- ✓Invoices: unlimited
- ✓Bills: unlimited
- ✓Bank Reconciliation: Yes
- ✓Multi Currency: Yes
- ✓Projects: Yes
- ✓Analytics Plus: Yes
Zoho Books Plans
Free
Free
AUD inc GST
- ✓Revenue Cap: 50000
- ✓Invoices Per Year: 1000
- ✓Bills Per Year: 1000
- ✓Bank Reconciliation: Yes
- ✓Users: 1
- ✓Accountant: 1
Most Popular
Standard
$19.8/mo
AUD inc GST
- ✓Invoices Per Year: 5000
- ✓Bills Per Year: 5000
- ✓Bank Reconciliation: Yes
- ✓Users: 3
Professional
$39.6/mo
AUD inc GST
- ✓Invoices Per Year: 10000
- ✓Bills Per Year: 10000
- ✓Bank Reconciliation: Yes
- ✓Purchase Orders: Yes
- ✓Users: 5
Premium
$59.4/mo
AUD inc GST
- ✓Invoices Per Year: 25000
- ✓Bills Per Year: 25000
- ✓Bank Reconciliation: Yes
- ✓Purchase Orders: Yes
- ✓Custom Domain: Yes
- ✓Users: 10
Elite
$220/mo
AUD inc GST
- ✓Invoices Per Year: 100000
- ✓Users: 10
Ultimate
$385/mo
AUD inc GST
- ✓Invoices Per Year: 100000
- ✓Users: 15
AU Compliance Scores
How we scoreScores are out of 5 and reflect depth of compliance support, ease of setup, and ongoing reliability for Australian businesses. Assessed March 2026.
Xero
BAS Lodgement5/5
STP Phase 25/5
Payday Super5/5
Modern Awards3/5
GST Handling5/5
Bank Feeds5/5
Zoho Books
BAS Lodgement3/5
STP Phase 22/5
Payday Super1/5
Modern Awards1/5
GST Handling4/5
Bank Feeds3/5
Pros & Cons
Xero
Pros
- Australia's most widely-used accounting platform — your accountant almost certainly knows it
- Bank reconciliation and bank connections on every AU plan checked
- In-product BAS lodgement to the ATO listed on Ignite through Ultimate 10
- Largest app marketplace with 1,000+ integrations (Deputy, ServiceM8, Employment Hero, Shopify, etc.)
- ISO/IEC 27001:2022 and SOC 2 Type II on Xero's security pages
- Auto Super listed as included in AU plans for Payday Super workflows
- Payroll included in listed AU plans, with people-paid caps by tier
- 24/7 online support with callback service
Cons
- Most expensive of the major accounting platforms — Grow is $78/mo standard from 1 July 2026
- Ignite limited to 20 invoices per month, pushing most invoicing businesses to Grow
- No inbound phone support — callback service only
- Public docs do not confirm Australian data residency for AU organisations
- Repeated price rises; Ignite/Grow/Comprehensive/Ultimate 10 all increased again on 1 July 2026
- No annual billing discount on the pages opened — subscriptions auto-renew monthly
- Public AU pages advertised both 90% off first 3 months and a one-month-free CTA; checkout was not started so the applied offer is unresolved
Zoho Books
Pros
- Genuinely free plan for businesses under $50K revenue — not just a trial, actually free with bank reconciliation and GST tracking
- Cheapest paid plans among major platforms — Standard from $16.50/mo (annual), dramatically less than Xero ($75/mo) or MYOB ($70/mo)
- Australian data centres in Sydney and Melbourne — genuine AU data sovereignty with SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certification
- Part of the Zoho ecosystem — native integration with Zoho CRM, Projects, Inventory, and 40+ Zoho products
- Strong GST handling with automatic calculations, BAS report generation, and ABN validation
- 24x5 support with Australian phone number (+61 1800 911076)
- 6 pricing tiers from Free to Ultimate — scales from micro business to larger operations
Cons
- No native Australian payroll — STP Phase 2, Payday Super, and Modern Awards require third-party integration (CloudPayroll, Employment Hero)
- No direct BAS lodgement to ATO — BAS reports are export-only, requiring manual lodgement
- Invoice/bill limits on all plans (1,000/yr on Free, 5,000/yr on Standard, 10,000/yr on Professional) — not truly unlimited
- Fewer Australian bank feed connections than Xero (50+) or MYOB (130+) — relies on Yodlee aggregator
- Smaller integration ecosystem in Australia compared to Xero (1,000+ apps) — mainly Zoho-ecosystem focused
- No Payday Super support — depends entirely on third-party payroll integrations
Who Should Choose Xero
Xero is best suited for businesses that need small business, sole trader, accountant managed.
Choose Xero if you are:
- Small Business
- Sole Trader
- Accountant Managed
- Growing Business
Who Should Choose Zoho Books
Zoho Books is best suited for businesses that need micro business budget, sole trader under 50k, zoho ecosystem user.
Choose Zoho Books if you are:
- Micro Business Budget
- Sole Trader Under 50k
- Zoho Ecosystem User
- Startup
- Au Data Sovereignty Budget