Avalara vs. Vertex: Which Tax Software is Best for Your Business?
Currently using Vertex or Avalara but feeling like there might be a better option out there? Or perhaps you’re just starting the process of choosing between the two? Whether you’re dissatisfied with Avalara’s pricing and support or seeking a cheaper alternative with more features than Vertex, we’re here to help!
We’ll conduct a thorough comparison of Avalara vs Vertex – examining their features, pricing, support, and reviews. On top of that, we’ll compare both solutions to TaxCloud, a similar option known for its industry-leading features, support, and pricing.
Let’s begin the comparison!
Overview: Avalara vs. Vertex vs. TaxCloud
What is Avalara?
Avalara is a publicly traded company that debuted on the stock market in 2018. It specializes in providing cloud-based solutions for sales tax compliance.
Overview:
- Manages global sales tax compliance
- Targets primarily large global businesses
- Helps with tax rate calculations, return preparation, and sales tax compliance management
What is Vertex?
Vertex is a tax technology company that provides various tax solutions to help users with sales tax compliance.
Overview:
- Manages global sales tax compliance
- Targets primarily large global businesses
- Helps with tasks like real-time calculation of global sales taxes, monitoring nexus thresholds, and filing and remitting sales taxes
What is TaxCloud?
Established in 2008, TaxCloud boasts over 15 years of sales tax compliance expertise.
Overview:
- Automates the entire sales tax compliance process, including nexus monitoring, calculation, return preparation, remittance, audit defense, and more.
- Manages sales tax rate calculations across 13,000+ US jurisdictions
- Caters to small and medium-sized businesses operating in the US
- Offers affordable pricing
- Offers customer support through live agents via phone, email, and chat
Features: Vertex vs. Avalara vs. Taxcloud
Let’s start by comparing these sales tax management software solutions on the basis of their features! Here’s a chart to help you compare the features offered by Vertex, Avalara, and TaxCloud.
Important to note: While TaxCloud offers two monthly plans tailored to the needs of our customers that include all the features named below, Avalara AvaTax and Vertex sell their services a la carte. You’ll have to pay extra for each service you want.
Key Features
| TaxCloud Starter | Vertex | Avalara AvaTax | TaxCloud Premium | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sales tax calculation | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Automate sales tax filing | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Filing audit support | ✓ | |||
| Streamlined Sales Tax (STT) Program | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Exemption certificates | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Address verification API | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| API access and reports | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Email support | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Phone support | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Chat support | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Pricing: Avalara vs. Vertex vs. TaxCloud
What about pricing? Which sales tax management software provides the most value? Here’s a chart breaking down TaxCloud vs. Vertex vs. Avalara pricing.
Important to note: While TaxCloud lists prices online, Avalara and Vertex do not. Both companies have feature and volume-based pricing. You’ll have to book a sales meeting to get a quote.
| TaxCloud Starter | Vertex | Avalara AvaTax | TaxCloud Premium | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost (annual invoicing) | $199/year | $0.12 – $0.14 per order for calculation alone | $$$$ Volume and feature-based pricing | $799/year |
| Exemption certificate support | Included | $1,200/year | $$$$ | Included |
| Setup fee | ✓ | |||
| Orders included | 1,200 | None | None | 2,400 |
| Lock-in required | ✓ |
Vertex vs. TaxCloud order-based pricing
What does it really look like when you compare TaxCloud and Vertex’s on a per-order basis?
Remember to add $1,200 to the Vertex price if you need exemption certificate support.
| Orders Per Month | Vertex Annual Pricing | TaxCloud Starter Annual Pricing | TaxCloud Premium Annual Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
| 200 orders | $288-$360 | $299 | $799 |
| 400 orders | $576-$720 | $499 | $1,499 |
| 1,000 orders | $1,440-$1,800 | $899 | $2,999 |
| 2,000 orders | $2,800-$3,600 | $1,299 | $3,999 |
| 4,000 orders | $5,760-$7,200 | $1,799 | $5,499 |
| 10,000 orders | $14,400-$18,000 | $2,499 | $7,499 |
Support: Avalara vs. Vertex vs. TaxCloud
Sales tax compliance is critical for every business. Relying on software for something that could cost your company a significant amount of money if done wrong requires a lot of trust. If something goes wrong or just to get your software set up, you’ll want to talk to someone quickly. So, how do these companies compare around customer support?
Here’s what they offer:
| Vertex | Avalara AvaTax | TaxCloud Starter & Premium | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Email support | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Phone support | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Chat support | ✓ | ✓ |
TaxCloud wins because we offer instant support from real humans to all customers.
Reviews: Vertex vs. Avalara vs. TaxCloud
Your reputation is built on the trust of your customers – and ecommerce businesses adopting sales tax management software have complex needs. Rather than choosing a sales tax management solution, investing significant time in its setup, and then discovering it’s not what you expected, it’s important to read reviews in advance so you know what you’re buying.
Here’s what customers are saying about these companies:
Avalara
Although many Avalara customers are satisfied with the AvaTax platform, there are some common themes that customers voice in Avalara reviews.
| Category | Review Excerpt |
| Cost | “High cost. No benefit. Avalara only files what you file with them. This is useless service at a high cost. Just file your tax yourself as they do nothing unless you file the income and tax with them first.” |
| Customer support | “The customer support. We’re multiple months into having the same type of order’s tax miscalculated and I’m still fighting to get any help on it, meaning hundreds of orders are being charged incorrect sales tax.” |
| Issues with tax calculation | “I discovered that all my returns for the last three quarters of 2023 had been filed with a $0 sales tax liability. They had deducted ALL of my sales as non-taxable. Not only did I have to go back and amend over 50 tax returns, I owed thousands in penalties and late fees.” |
| Inaccurate rates | “The accuracy of the tax rates is questionable to the point of us having to double check rates on state websites to verify that the correct tax rate is being charged. We were also unable to successfully integrate Avalara with QuickBooks.” |
Vertex
While Vertex is a great solution for some businesses, the company’s online reviews have a few recurring complaints. Here are some common themes in Vertex reviews.
| Category | Review Excerpt |
| Cost | “The cost of the software is pretty immense since you’re pretty much renting a server.” |
| Customer support | “I wish that there was a better resource at Vertex for navigating solutions in O’Series, when it comes to resolving issues we discover along the way. Navigating the ticketing system and the various emails back and forth (only to get a mediocre answer) is quite discouraging.” |
| Cumbersome exemption process | “The processing time to save a customer exemption certificate is excessive. Heavy users of this application will find this very frustrating.” |
| Difficulty onboarding | “It took a very long time to get the bugs worked out after we started to use the program.” |
| Difficult to use | “The interface is not intuitive or user friendly.” |
TaxCloud
Wondering why TaxCloud is loved by our 2,000+ customers? Read the TaxCloud reviews below to get a better idea!
| Category | Review Excerpt |
| Pricing | “Extremely cost efficient scalable sales tax processing and reporting that eliminated all burdensome sales tax matters. Sales tax is now easy.” |
| Support | “It’s easy to talk to the same people any time you have an issue, and not be bounced around through different employees.” |
| Ease of integration | “TaxCloud is perfect for those who have very little technical skills or low skills in accounting. This software will assist in reports and calculations for you.” |
| Reduction in staff time | “TaxCloud has made the collection and paying of sales tax a smooth running process that takes only limited staff time to manage.” |
| Simplifies tax compliance | “Taxcloud makes staying in compliance easy, we have multiple tax codes for Washington state and we don’t have to worry about figuring out how to make it work.” |
Verdict: Vertex vs. Avalara vs. TaxCloud
Now that we’ve looked at the features, pricing, support, and reviews of Vertex, Avalara, and TaxCloud – who won overall?
TaxCloud wins all categories:
Switch to TaxCloud and get more features at a lower cost than Vertex – with better support. Or switch from Avalara and get support that responds promptly with savings of up to 30%.
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