QuickBooks Hosting Price Comparison: 2019 Edition
If you want to access QuickBooks accounting software anytime from anywhere, QuickBooks Hosting is your solution. But which provider should you trust with your accounting data and application? Is choosing a hosting provider merely on the basis of pricing is a good thing?
As remote accessibility and real-time collaboration becoming a need for modern accounting, an increasing number of businesses, CPA firms, and individual accounting professionals are moving to the cloud every day.
There are plenty of cloud hosting providers that host QuickBooks but you need to find out who can offer the best performance while keeping security at utmost priority — everything at the best price.
Last year, I did research on the leading QuickBooks Hosting providers and shared some guidance on how to choose the right host for your QuickBooks application and accounting data.
Now, it’s 2019 — Another year, so time for the price comparison of another batch of QuickBooks Hosting provider. :)
Before we jump into the details of what you should consider while choosing a hosting provider to host your QB application and data, let’s quickly see the price comparison and other details of top QuickBooks Hosting providers in the market.
Pricing: $44/user/month
Check their pricing here.
Special Offer: $19.5/user/month
Intuit Authorized- YES
Pricing: Not provided on website ($50 setup fee per user). Check their pricing here.
Intuit Authorized- YES
Pricing: $47/user/month
Check their pricing here.
Intuit Authorized- YES
But, wait…
If you have made your mind to choose a hosting provider, don’t forget to evaluate them on the following parameters.
1. Expertise in Hosting QuickBooks
Is QuickBooks hosting their area of specialization?
The first thing you should look in a hosting provider is their expertise in hosting QuickBooks application because different provider specializes in different industries.
For example, the provider renowned for offering private servers for websites, gaming, or other mobile apps or solely on web hosting, might not be a good host for hosting your accounting data and application.
How to Ensure? Check their industry recognition, product line, and online reviews.
2. Server Performance
Do QuickBooks Server provides higher or at least similar performance as of your local desktop system?
No doubt, cloud hosting of QuickBooks offers many benefits, but poor server speed or performance issues can hamper your accounting work — particularly when you expect multiple users to work simultaneously.
Simply put, performance means how much time your server takes to start, open QuickBooks file and save the entries you make. Choosing a hosting provider with high-performance server computing and infrastructure that facilitate a smooth and superfast QuickBooks hosting can make it a real difference to your work.
How to Ensure? Ask about their hosting technology, data servers, and a live demo.
3. Security Standard
How secure is your hosting provider?
No doubt, the cloud is more secure than traditional local setup. However, it still has some shortcomings such as Security. Your hosting provider is a central repository of your accounting data and QuickBooks application, so it is important to vet the security of your cloud provider.
Some providers have been the victim of cyber attacks such as Ransomware in the past. Know the hosting provider’s data center location, security practices, and access control policy beforehand to start your hosting services.
How to Ensure? Check their data center locations, security certifications customer reviews, and security methods used to protect the data.
4. Customer Support
Is your QuickBooks Hosting Provider will be able to handle IT and hosting issues? Will you fall in love with their services? 😊
You have an issue with the hosting services, you contact your service provider — either they are unavailable, demand extra money, or blame you for the issue. Does this sound familiar to you?
It is vital to choose a QuickBooks hosting company with a proven record of customer service experience, available to you 24x7 even on weekends and holidays, and with the team of experts and real person instead of automated messages, help articles and bots.
How to Ensure? Read their customer reviews, testimonials, ask for the contact of existing customers and schedule a live meeting with their customer team
5. Business Continuity
Does your provider have a contingency plan in case something bad happens with the hosting services?
Bad things such as service disruptions can happen anytime because no one gets advance notice from accidents. Even the best businesses such as suffered this.
This is where Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plan (BCDR) comes into the picture. It is recommended to host your QuickBooks data and application with the provider who has a tested business continuity plan and policy in place to make sure your business never goes down during a disaster — natural or man-made mistakes.
How to Ensure? Ask for their service uptime, BCDR plan, backup policy, and data replication methods.
6. Intuit Authorization
Do Intuit — the maker of QuickBooks recommends your provider for hosting?
Intuit has legally authorized few the cloud hosting provider to host the QuickBooks software — Pro, Premier, Accountant, Enterprise, and POS on their cloud after a certain evaluation.
This also allows these providers to give some additional benefits to their customers such as easy and early software upgrades, discounts on QuickBooks license and direct access Intuit support.
How to Ensure? Check out this listing page to know about the authorized hosting providers.
7. Price
Do you think cheaper is always better?
Each provider has a unique bundle of hosted QuickBooks services based on the technology, customer requirements and pricing model. Few providers are providing hosting services at a very cheaper rate.
But when it comes to your accounting data, it’s advisable to find a great deal on a good price without trapping yourself into some kind of deep discounts or catchy marketing headlines.
Don’t expect longevity, reliability, and trust with cheap hosting providers.
How to Ensure? Check out their pricing plan, special offers, discounts.
About the author:
Deepanshu Gahlaut is a digital marketer and technical writer formally associated with Ace Cloud Hosting — Intuit authorized commercial host for QuickBooks software and application hosting service provider to CPAs, Accountants, SMBs and Bookkeepers. You can find me on Twitter and LinkedIn.
