Clear Books vs FrontAccounting

Clear Books is browser-based accounting software for UK businesses, sole traders, and landlords, with Android and iOS mobile apps. Its listed capabilities include bank feeds, automated reconciliation, invoice creation, receipt capture, inventory tracking, and accountant access. Users can send branded invoices, schedule recurring invoices, and automate late-payment reminders. Tax tools include VAT submissions, MTD Income Tax, and quarterly updates; Clear Books describes itself as HMRC recognised and MTD-ready. Sole Trader Free and Property Free are ongoing free plans that require no card and have no transaction limits. Property Free covers one property or grouped properties, while Foreign Property Free is for one overseas property. Paid plans start at £5 per month plus VAT, and include a full-access 30-day trial that can be cancelled without payment. Subscriptions can be cancelled at any time. Paid plans include unlimited users and accountant tools. Small, Medium, and Large include integrations and an API, with Stripe and GoCardless built in. Support options range from self-service and email to phone support, with UK-based support.

FrontAccounting is free, self-hosted web accounting software for small companies, covering accounting tasks across a broader ERP chain. It includes purchasing, sales, accounts payable and receivable, inventory, manufacturing, fixed assets, and a general ledger with budget. Sales tools include quotations, orders, delivery notes, invoices, credit notes, batch invoicing, point-of-sale definitions, and payment allocation. Purchasing includes purchase orders, goods receival notes, supplier price lists and payments, and transaction attachments. Inventory supports stock items, locations, transfers, reorder levels, average material cost, and barcode scanner entry; manufacturing includes bills of materials and work orders. It supports multiple companies and users with different privileges, along with backup, restore, and simple audit trails. Reports can be printed, emailed, converted to PDF, or exported to Excel or OpenOffice Calc. Multi-currency and GST/VAT support are listed. Installation requires a web server, PHP, and MySQL with InnoDB enabled; other database systems are unsupported. The software is web-only, and support requests are directed to its forum. The listed plan is free.