Best Online Accountants UK 2026

Online accountants now handle year-end accounts, tax returns and VAT filing for most UK sole traders and small companies, with pricing published rather than hidden behind a sales call. Six firms give a clear comparison: Crunch, More Than Accountants, The Accountancy Partnership, Mazuma, Cheaper Accountant and Taxez. Between them, monthly fees run from £10 to £185, and annual fixed-fee packages for company accounts span £49 to £599, priced by turnover rather than by hours worked.

This guide verifies what each firm charges against their own live pricing pages, then answers the question that decides whether an online accountant is even the right fit: how they compare with a local, in-person firm. For a fuller breakdown of accountant costs by business structure and turnover band, see our accountant costs guide; this page focuses on choosing between the online firms themselves.

What Is an Online Accountant?

An online accountant delivers the same statutory work as a high-street practice – annual accounts, a Self Assessment or Corporation Tax return, VAT filing and payroll – but manages it through cloud software and email or messaging rather than in-person meetings. Most bundle bookkeeping software, automated bank feeds and a fixed monthly fee into a single package, so the cost is known upfront rather than billed by the hour. Crunch and Mazuma both build their pricing around monthly software-plus-service tiers; The Accountancy Partnership and More Than Accountants price the accountancy relationship on its own. A second model exists alongside the monthly retainer: fixed-fee firms like Cheaper Accountant and Taxez charge once a year for a defined filing job, which suits a business that already keeps its own books and only needs the year-end return submitted. Both models are online accountants in the sense that nothing requires a face-to-face meeting.

The distinction that matters more than “online” versus “traditional” is monthly retainer versus annual fixed fee. A retainer buys ongoing access to ask questions through the year; a fixed fee buys one completed filing job and nothing else. Both are online accountants in the sense that matters for this guide – work is done remotely, and the price is published rather than quoted after a meeting.

Online Accountants Compared

These are the published entry prices from the six firms covered in this guide, checked in August 2026. Two publish a full monthly rate card, two price in monthly tiers by service level, and two price annually by turnover band rather than by month. Read the “what it covers” column carefully – a low headline price often narrows once you add VAT, payroll or a second director.

Mazuma’s four sole-trader tiers move on how much day-to-day support you want rather than on turnover: Basic starts at £38 plus VAT a month, Standard at £45, Plus at £52 and Premium at £60. The firm’s limited company, partnership and LLP pricing sits behind its own quote tool rather than a published rate, so treat the sole-trader figures above as a like-for-like comparison point rather than Mazuma’s full range.

Online vs Local Accountant: Which Should You Choose?

The practical difference between an online accountant and a local, in-person firm is not really about location – most local firms now also work over email and portal uploads. It is about pricing structure and access. Online accountants publish fixed monthly or annual fees upfront, so you know the cost before you sign anything, and the six firms in this guide range from £10 a month to £599 a year. Local firms more commonly price by scope after an initial consultation, which can suit a business with unusual circumstances – multiple income streams, a recent inheritance, or a complex group structure – where a fixed online package genuinely does not fit. For a straightforward sole trader or single-director limited company with routine bookkeeping, the fixed online price is usually cheaper and faster to arrange, because you are not paying for a bespoke scoping conversation you do not need.

Face-to-face contact is the other trade-off. An online accountant answers through email, chat or a portal, which suits business owners who want a fast written answer rather than a meeting. A local accountant can sit across a desk with your paperwork spread out, which some directors still prefer for year-end planning or a difficult HMRC query. Neither model is objectively better – it is a question of whether you value a lower, published price or an in-person relationship enough to pay for it separately.

Some businesses run a blended approach rather than choosing one model outright: an online accountant handles the recurring monthly filing at a fixed price, while a local specialist is brought in occasionally for a one-off job such as a complex capital gains position or a company restructure. That mix costs more than either option on its own, but it keeps the predictable, published price for the work you do every year and reserves bespoke advice for the year you actually need it.

What’s Included, and What Costs Extra

Every headline price above covers the core filing job: accounts and a tax return, or a Corporation Tax return for a limited company. The following are typically billed on top, and they are where a cheap-looking package converges with a mid-priced one:

• VAT returns – £29 per return at Taxez, £30 at Cheaper Accountant. Filed quarterly, that is £116 to £120 a year once your turnover crosses the £90,000 VAT registration threshold.
• Payroll – around £5 per payslip at Taxez or £5 a month at Cheaper Accountant. Our guide to payroll software costs compares the alternative of running it yourself.
• Confirmation statement – £39 at Taxez, £85 at Cheaper Accountant, plus the separate Companies House filing fee.
• Director Self Assessment – £10 plus VAT per month per director at The Accountancy Partnership, on top of the company’s own accounts fee.
• Same-day turnaround – Cheaper Accountant charges £150 extra for expedited filing.

Add two or three of these together and a headline £150 annual fee or £24.50 monthly retainer stops being the whole story. A one-person limited company with quarterly VAT returns and a single payslip a month, for example, adds roughly £116 to £120 a year in VAT filing plus around £60 a year in payroll on top of whichever base fee it started from. None of that makes the headline price dishonest – it is simply the floor, not the ceiling, and worth asking about upfront rather than discovering on the first invoice.

Sole Trader or Limited Company: What You’ll Pay

Legal structure changes both your accountant’s fee and your tax bill. A sole trader files one return – Self Assessment – and pays the entry-level rate at most online firms: £24.50 a month at The Accountancy Partnership, £38 plus VAT at Mazuma’s Basic tier. A limited company needs annual accounts, a Corporation Tax return and a confirmation statement, which is why The Accountancy Partnership’s limited company rate starts at £39.50 a month, roughly £15 more than its sole trader price at the same firm. Corporation Tax itself sits outside the accountant’s fee: the small profits rate is 19% on profits of £50,000 or less, the main rate is 25% on profits above £250,000, and Marginal Relief gives an effective rate in between. Both thresholds reduce proportionately for short accounting periods and where a company has associated companies.

Sole traders and limited company directors also work to the same Self Assessment calendar where a personal return is due. The current tax year runs 6 April 2025 to 5 April 2026, with the online filing and payment deadline falling at 11:59pm on 31 January 2027, and a second payment on account due by 31 July where HMRC requires it. A director usually needs a personal Self Assessment on top of the company’s accounts, which is why several online accountants price it as a separate monthly add-on rather than folding it into the company fee.

Partnerships sit closer to sole traders than to limited companies on price, at least where a firm publishes a rate for them: The Accountancy Partnership quotes £24.50 a month for a partnership, the same entry rate as a sole trader, because the filing burden is similar until the partnership itself needs a separate set of accounts.

How to Choose an Online Accountant

Price is the easiest thing to compare and often the least useful one on its own, since a low headline rate can hide add-ons that close the gap within a single VAT quarter. These five questions narrow the six firms above down to the two or three worth an actual quote call.

• Monthly retainer or annual fixed fee? – a retainer suits a business that wants year-round access; a fixed fee suits one that only needs the filing done.
• Does the quoted price include VAT? – ask directly, since several firms above do not state it on their headline figure.
• Who handles payroll? – if you already run payroll in-house, our guides to payroll software costs, payroll bureau versus software and how to do payroll cover that side separately, since accountants price it differently to a dedicated payroll provider.
• What happens after year one? – introductory rates are common on monthly packages; ask what the renewal price will be before you sign.
• Is cash flow or fee level the real problem? – if you are chasing overdue invoices rather than struggling with the accountant’s bill, invoice finance and a business line of credit solve a different question than switching accountant does. And if late, disorganised receipts are driving up your bookkeeping fee, spend management tools reduce the clean-up work that pushes a quote higher.

Clara Wenslow

Finance & Business Services Editor

Clara analyses SME finance and procurement markets, covering business loans, invoice finance, payroll, and related B2B services. She ensures each comparison and guide is transparent and data-driven.

Reviewed by

Sarah Mitchell

B2B Commerce & Finance Reviewer