Accounting Software Is Getting More Expensive: The State of Pricing In Australia

Over the past decade, accounting firms have rebuilt themselves around the cloud. Online ledgers replaced desktop systems. Payroll moved online. Practice management tools connected workflow to billing. Reporting tools became standard. For most firms, this shift improved efficiency and reduced friction.

What has changed more gradually is the cost of maintaining that stack.

Subscription pricing across the major accounting platforms has moved upward over time. Tier structures have become more complex. Add-ons that were once optional are now part of the expected setup for many clients. These changes are incremental and often tied to product investment, but they compound at scale.

Firms do not experience these increases once. They experience them across every client licence they manage.

Why software prices increase

It is easy to focus on the increase itself without considering why it happens.

Cloud accounting platforms operate on subscription-based models. Unlike traditional desktop licences, vendors now carry ongoing infrastructure costs. They maintain global data centres, security frameworks, compliance updates and customer support teams. They invest continuously in product development, automation and integration.

As usage grows, infrastructure scales. As functionality expands, development teams grow. As regulatory requirements evolve, platforms update their systems. Subscription pricing reflects those ongoing commitments.

There is also a broader market dynamic. Most major vendors are public companies or backed by institutional investors. They are expected to deliver consistent revenue growth. Subscription adjustments are one mechanism for doing that, particularly in mature markets where new user growth slows.

From a vendor perspective, periodic price reviews are part of the business model. For firms, the question is not whether prices will increase, but how regularly and how predictably those increases can be managed.

Accounting software: paying more, for what exactly?

Price reviews are part of the subscription model. Vendors invest heavily in product development, infrastructure, compliance updates and security. Those costs move. Pricing moves with them.

What’s worth looking at, though, is how much pricing has shifted over the past five years, and how those shifts have been structured. When you compare earlier Australian pricing with current plan structures, the pattern becomes clear.

MYOB

In 2021, MYOB’s business plans were positioned at:

• Lite – $24 per month
  
• Pro – $50 per month
  
• Plus – $120 per month
  
  

Today, the equivalent plans sit at:

• Business Lite – $34 per month
  
• Business Pro – $63 per month
  
• AccountRight Plus – $150 per month
  
  

That’s a 41.7% increase at the entry level, and roughly 25% across the mid and upper tiers.

On paper, those changes may not seem extreme. They’ve been introduced gradually, across multiple price updates. But the cumulative effect is clear. A plan that sat comfortably at $50 per month is now $63. A $120 tier is now $150.

MYOB has also evolved its bundling. Payroll and additional features increasingly sit either in higher tiers or outside the base subscription. Capability has grown, but so has the floor price for meaningful functionality.

Xero

Xero’s changes have been both financial and structural.

In 2020, the structure was simple:

• Starter – $25 per month
  
• Standard – $50 per month
  
• Premium – $70–$90 per month
  
  

In 2026, that structure has shifted to:

• Ignite – $35 per month
  
• Grow – $75 per month
  
• Comprehensive – $100 per month
  
• Ultimate 10 – $130 per month
  
  

Comparing broadly equivalent tiers, Starter to Ignite represents a 40% increase. Standard to Grow is a 50% increase. Premium to Comprehensive is over 40%.

But the more significant shift was the tier restructure itself. Under the older model, some features could be layered in without jumping plans. Under the current structure, functionality is more tightly bundled. If a client needs expanded payroll capacity or deeper reporting, the only path is often upward into a higher tier.

QuickBooks Online

QuickBooks Online’s current Australian pricing is:

• Simple Start – $33 per month
  
• Essentials – $60 per month
  
• Plus – $84 per month
  
• Advanced – $125 per month
  
  

Earlier pricing in the 2020–2021 period sat lower across these tiers. Essentials was around $45. Plus was closer to $60. Advanced sat nearer to $100.

That equates to increases in the range of 25% to 40%, depending on the tier.

Like Xero and MYOB, the entry price remains in the low $30s. But most active trading businesses don’t sit on entry plans. They sit on Essentials, Plus, Grow, or Pro equivalents,  where the increases have been most noticeable.

Payroll remains an additional charge on QuickBooks, pushing the effective monthly cost higher again.

Across all three platforms, the direction is consistent.

Entry pricing remains relatively accessible. Core SME tiers have moved into the $60–$84 range. Upper tiers sit between $100 and $150 per month. Structural tier changes have reduced flexibility. Introductory discounts soften the initial sign-up, but standard rates are materially higher than they were five years ago.

None of this is unusual for a maturing subscription market. The question for firms is not whether vendors should review pricing. It’s whether those cumulative changes are being tracked and reflected properly within their own pricing models.

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