TaxCloud vs Avalara: 2025 Comparison
Switch to TaxCloud from Avalara and pay on average 30% less* for the same features. Learn why TaxCloud is the Avalara alternative that charges less for all essential functions. That’s right: cheaper tax filings, less expensive API calls, affordable integration, no lock-in contracts, and support from dedicated U.S.-based support teams.
Avalara
AvaTax
TaxCloud
Starter (or Premium)
$$$$ Volume & feature-based pricing
From $19 to $79/monthly
Yes
No setup fee
Per-order pricing
Starter up to 100 per month (or Premium up to 200 per month)
Key Features
Avalara
AvaTax
TaxCloud
Starter (or Premium)
$42-$54/filing + activation fee
Starting at $39/per return
$$$$
$599/month
$$$$
Starting at $99/month
Why TaxCloud?
Online sales tax software with timely human support
Don’t want to wait forever just to get an answer to your problem? Avalara’s average response time for Avalara Plus is 8 hours. Looking to get standard support? Their average response time is 24 hours. TaxCloud, meanwhile, responds on average in just over an hour and resolves your complaint in 21 hours – before you even hear back from Avalara. TaxCloud is known for our industry-leading personalized support. With TaxCloud, we help you every step of the way so you’re never on your own.
Streamlined Sales Tax provider
TaxCloud is a Certified Service Provider with the Streamlined Sales Tax (STT) program. That means we can easily manage your sales tax filing, registration, renewal, exemption certificates, and more. We can even reduce your audit risk.
Tax calculation and filing automation
Stay focused on your business – leave your taxes to us. We calculate sales tax in real-time and we’ll make sure that you never miss a deadline or waste hours trying to figure out one of a state’s hundreds of sales tax laws via our filing automation! Our Filing Subscriptions start at $39 a return and offer volume discounts demanding on how many states you file in.
Simple sales tax integrations
Our integrations are simple – and many of the most popular integrations are included in our Starter plan. That saves you money since you don’t need to upgrade just to get the real-time functionalities you need. If you can’t figure out how to set any of our integrations up or you have difficulties just give us a call and we’ll help you get started.
What you get with TaxCloud
Transparent pricing and more value
Go to any review site and you’ll find Avalara user reviews talking about how expensive their solution is or being sold services they don’t need. There’s a reason they don’t list their pricing online. TaxCloud provides you with both a lower price and much more value for your dollar. Get an Avalara cost breakdown.
Support for sales tax audits
We support your business’ end-to-end sales tax compliance by offering sales tax audit support. We provide nationwide audit protection with up to 12 amended filings and 8 hours of filing support. We started TaxCloud to give companies like yours peace of mind around sales tax compliance.
TaxCloud includes expert sales tax advice with 3 support teams
We have in-house, U.S.-based staff ready to support you with sales tax support. Our support teams include three different specialized teams – Customer Support, Customer Success, and Onboarding. They’re able to provide you hands-on support at every stage of your TaxCloud journey.
Frequently asked questions
Avalara, previously a publicly traded company, was acquired by Vista Equity Partners in 2022. It is a cloud-based software platform primarily focused on serving enterprise customers. Avalara helps ecommerce businesses calculate tax rates, prepare returns, and manage their sales tax compliance.
TaxCloud provides you with industry leading features and support. Have a question you need answered? You’re not just a support ticket with us. You can get in touch via chat, email or phone and reach a real person on the other end.
For that reason, TaxCloud is the right choice for small to medium ecommerce businesses ($1 million-$50 million in revenue). We’re a perfect fit for growing companies that want to automate their sales tax compliance in the US.
Avalara is a great choice for large global companies that already have specialized in-house tax experts who can handle their hands-on integration, customization, and ongoing support needs. Smaller businesses or those without teams of tax professionals might struggle with Avalara’s self-serve model.
Avalara changes customers with overdue bills 1.5% per month or the maximum rate permitted by law, whichever is lower. If a customer fails to make timely payments, Avalara can change your payment terms to make them shorter in the future. If your account is suspended, Avalara may charge a reactivation fee that’s equal to 50% of Avalara’s current service activation fee or $250, whichever is greater.
It’s easy! We’ll help you when you’re ready to make the switch but here are some things you’ll have to do:
- Download your individual transactions from Avalara
- Export your sales tax reports
- Integrate TaxCloud into all your e-commerce platforms and marketplaces
- List all the states you’re currently charging sales tax in as well as all registration numbers, logins, passwords, and filing frequency
- Describe the products you sell according to taxability rules
- Provide us with all your business information needed to register for sales tax in new states
- Share your banking information for the account you wish to pay sales tax from
That’s it! It’s easy to get started!
Avalara announced to their BigCommerce app customers in 2024 that they were eliminating their small business API-only pricing tier for sales tax calculations in their BigCommerce integration. All BigCommerce integration customers are now required to use Avalara’s calculation and filing services, starting at $5,000.
Avalara STT refers to Avalara’s Streamlined Sales Tax program. The Streamlined Sales Tax program is a state-run program designed to help ecommerce businesses by making sales tax compliance easier for out-of-state businesses. A small number of ‘Certified Partners’ have been designated by the state-run program to provide support with things like sales tax registration, sales tax calculation and sales tax return preparation at significant cost savings or free-of-charge. Avalara is one of the Streamlined Sales Tax Program’s Certified Partners and provides support with sales tax calculator, sales tax registration, sales tax returns, and sales tax remittance in member states.
TaxCloud is also an STT Certified Partner and provides the same services to ecommerce companies for free or at low cost in member states.
Both Avalara and TaxCloud offer integrations with Shopify to enable their customers to use Shopify. Up until this year, both companies also had Shopify sales tax apps that were fully integrated with Shopify.
However, Avalara’s Shopify app, Avalara AvaTax is no longer available for download and will stop working in April 2025. In recent years, Avalara has been closing down their products and services explicitly created for small to medium ecommerce businesses Avalara customers like their Avalara Returns for Small Business program to concentrate on providing services to large, multinational enterprises.
TaxCloud’s Shopify app, TaxCloud Sales Tax Automation helps companies manage their sales tax compliance with nexus alerts, sales tax reporting and analytics, sales tax filing and registration services, and automatic order importing into TaxCloud.