Blue J vs Instead
Blue J
bluej.com
Instead
instead.comSide by side
| Figure | Blue J | Instead |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $124.83/mo | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 2 |
| Spec score · Tax Research Software | 8.1 (#7) | 8.7 (#3) |
| Audience | Blue J describes its Individual Plan as best for sole practitioners and its Team Plan as best for firms with multiple tax professionals. | The product is presented for CPA firms, tax preparers, corporate tax teams, family offices, businesses, and high net worth individuals. |
| Support | Team plans include dedicated customer support, guided onboarding and training, and firm-wide usage insights. | Terms state that standard support may use in-product help, websites, chat, email, video, phone and online communities. |
| What it does | Blue J is a cloud native generative AI tax research application that answers challenging tax law questions through a natural language interface. | Instead is an AI tax platform that coordinates research, planning, preparation, filing and defense in one system. |
Plans
In their own words
Blue J
Blue J is a web-based generative AI tax research application that answers difficult tax-law questions through a natural-language interface. Responses include relevant source documents, verifiable sources, in-line citations, and source lists. Users can upload their own files, combine them with Blue J’s authoritative tax database, analyze documents, and download answers as PDF or DOCX. The application can generate memos and emails. Blue J says its primary tax sources are current and updated daily, drawing mainly on primary resources and Tax Notes news and commentary. It uses language-model technology from OpenAI and Google and says customer data is not used to train generative AI models. Data is stored and processed in AWS us-east-1 in North Virginia; storage elsewhere and on-premise deployment are not offered. Optional customer files are deleted automatically after 24 hours. The Individual Plan costs $1,498 a year per user and includes US federal and SALT coverage, unlimited questions, drafting, uploads, citations, and source lists. A seven-day trial requires no credit card. Team plans add dedicated support, guided onboarding, firm-wide usage insights, SSO, and custom access controls.
Instead
Instead is a web-based AI agent for tax research, planning, preparation, filing, and defense. It lists support for individual 1040, C corporation 1120, S corporation 1120-S, partnership 1065, and trust and estate 1041 returns. Users choose which workflows to run, and credits are consumed only when they start a task; the credit estimate is shown beforehand. Users can review the agent’s work before filing. Google Drive, OneDrive, and Box are live integrations with two-way sync, version tracking, and automatic folder mapping. Instead says it is IRS-approved and supports e-filing in 48 or more state jurisdictions, as well as local filing. Federal and state e-file and prior-year import are listed. The free Instead Platform plan is free and includes unlimited users, entities, e-file and print file, multi-entity support, and collaborators and viewers. Instead Agent is billed per credit, with pricing dependent on volume and usage; purchased credits are valid for 12 months. The service lists a free trial, US-based customer support, and 24/7 support, with email responses within 24 business hours.