Which is the better sales tax integration for QuickBooks Online – Avalara or TaxCloud?
If you’re one of the 6.5 million businesses using QuickBooks Online, then you’re likely looking for a QuickBooks Online sales tax integration due to the limitations of QuickBooks’ built-in sales tax solution. There are a number of third-party software solutions that offer better sales tax features and seamless integration with QuickBooks Online.
Two of the most popular QuickBooks Online sales tax integrations are Avalara and TaxCloud – but how do you decide between them? We do a deep dive into both Avalara QuickBooks Online and TaxCloud QuickBooks online that compares the features, ease of integration, pricing, and reviews of both solutions.
Why Use a Sales Tax Integration with QuickBooks Online?
Many businesses prefer to use a sales tax integration with QuickBooks Online over using the accounting software’s built-in sales tax features. With QuickBooks Online you can manage your sales tax in these three ways:
- Manually Within QuickBooks Online: QuickBooks has limited functionality in their app to allow you to set up tax rates, state tax agencies, and other sales tax settings. However, the options are limited and require businesses to update sales tax rates when they change.
- QuickBooks Sales Tax: QuickBooks offers a product called QuickBooks Sales Tax integrated within their QuickBooks Online app. QuickBooks Sales Tax can help you by calculating accurate sales tax rates, filing dates, and can even file your taxes. However, it doesn’t have functionalities outside the app for e-commerce companies who sell online on their website or other marketplaces. That means that those companies will need a different sales tax solution that will work on all their apps and points of sale.
- Third-Party Sales Tax Providers: Sales tax software providers like TaxCloud QuickBooks Online and Avalara QuickBooks Online are holistic sales tax compliance solutions that can work across all platforms and apps a company uses. They can also calculate sales taxes on invoices within QuickBooks and consolidate all sales tax data in QuickBooks for accounting purposes.
What is Avalara QuickBooks Online?
Avalara QuickBooks Online, also known as Avalara Avatax for Quickbooks Online is a connector that allows businesses to connect all their sales tax data to their books in QuickBooks Online to help automate compliance. Unlike some sales tax software that just allows you to upload your sales tax data into QuickBooks online, Avalara’s QuickBooks integration allows businesses to also calculate sales tax on invoices within QuickBooks Online.
Avalara has closed multiple services to small-to-medium businesses in the last several years to focus more narrowly on global tax calculation for enterprise businesses.
Key features:
- Sales tax calculation on QuickBooks and other platforms
- Sales tax return preparation
- Sales tax filing support
- Nexus tracking
- Exemption certificate support
What is TaxCloud QuickBooks Online?
TaxCloud for QuickBooks Online is a premium real-time sales tax compliance integration. TaxCloud lets businesses calculate sales tax instantly on any documents within QuickBooks online. All you have to do is click ‘Calculate tax’ and TaxCloud determines the exact rate based on your product or service and the buyer’s location.
TaxCloud also integrates with your other ecommerce selling platforms to sync data with invoicing in QuickBooks online to ensure that your sales tax data is always accurate. That helps businesses with nexus tracking and TaxCloud even sends users alerts when they approach a threshold in a state. What’s more, TaxCloud is focused on helping e-commerce businesses of all sizes and offers a number of sales tax and filing plans to choose from.
Key features:
- Nexus tracking
- Real-time sales tax calculations for QuickBooks invoices with weekly capture
- Support for live tax calculations on estimates. (Estimates are not captured for filing since they never become orders. If a customer approves the estimate, it should be converted to an invoice, which will then be captured by TaxCloud.)
- Automated tax filing
- Automated sales tax remittance
- Auto-uploads of completed invoices
- Exemption certificate management
- U.S.-based customer support teams
- Audit-ready reports
Feature Comparison: Avalara vs. TaxCloud
When you compare Avalara’s and TaxCloud’s features side by side, it’s clear that TaxCloud offers more features for QuickBooks Online.
| Avalara QBO | TaxCloud QBO | |
| Real-time sales tax calculations for QuickBooks invoices | ✓ | ✓ |
| Real-time sales tax calculation on other platforms | ✓ | ✓ |
| Flexible invoice editing | ✓ | |
| Product tax code catalog | ✓ | ✓ |
| Nexus tracking & notifications | ✓ | ✓ |
| Automate sales tax filing & remittance (for additional fee) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Audit support (for additional fee) | ✓ | |
| Streamlined Sales Tax (STT) Program | ✓ | ✓ |
| Exemption certificates | ✓ | ✓ |
| Address verification API | ✓ | ✓ |
| API access | ✓ | ✓ |
| Transaction-level reports | ✓ | ✓ |
| Jurisdiction-level reports | ✓ | ✓ |
Winner: TaxCloud offers more features for QuickBooks Online than Avalara!
Pricing: Avalara vs. TaxCloud QuickBooks Online
Despite offering very similar services, TaxCloud and Avalara’s QuickBooks Online integrations charge very different prices for their services.
Avalara QuickBooks Online Price: Volume-based a la carte services
Avalara doesn’t share their pricing publicly since they offer a number of a la carte services whose pricing is based on a number of factors including things like volume of orders, length of contract, and more. However, one of the most common things QuickBooks Online Avalara customers complain about is their high prices. Also, they have a setup-fee that all new customers have to pay.
See our Avalara pricing analysis here.
TaxCloud QuickBooks Online Price: $79/month
Unlike Avalara, TaxCloud has transparent and affordable plans and prices that don’t require you to lock into a multi-year contract to access. To get access to TaxCloud’s real-time QuickBooks Online integration, businesses need to subscribe to TaxCloud’s Premium plan. This includes a number of services like real-time tax calculations, TaxCloud API access, exception certificates, and address verification API, and more. Unlike Avalara, TaxCloud’s QuickBooks integration has no setup fee but offers hands-on onboarding support for free.
Customers can then buy monthly filing and remittance support starting at $39 per filing as an add-on.
See TaxCloud’s pricing plans here.
Support: Avalara vs. TaxCloud
One area where Avalara and TaxCloud differ is in their approach to customer service. Avalara’s average response time for Avalara Plus is 8 hours and their standard support response time is 24 hours. Meanwhile, TaxCloud responds on average in just over an hour and resolves complaints in 21 hours – before many customers even hear back from Avalara.
TaxCloud also offers more ways to contact support and a dedicated U.S. based team to respond to your questions.
| Avalara | TaxCloud (on the Premium plan) | |
| Email support | ✓ | ✓ |
| Phone support | ✓ | |
| Chat support | ✓ | ✓ |
Winner: TaxCloud offers more ways to contact support and a friendly U.S. based team.
Reviews: Avalara vs. TaxCloud
One of the best ways to understand what it’s like using a sales tax software is to read what their customers say about it.
Avalara QuickBooks Online
Avalara customers often talk about some of the same frustrations about using their Avalara QuickBooks Online integration. Read Avalara reviews on Capterra.com.
| Category | Public Reviews in 2025 |
| Cost | “It was great until we got a bill for 2,000% more than what we were historically paying. They charged 2,000% more for upgrading our transaction level with no pricing alert.” |
| Customer support | “We paid for a higher level of support, and we were assigned an Account Manager. Our Avalara Account Manager will not respond to me unless I send at least 3 emails. Average response time is 8 days.” |
| Issues with tax calculation | “Avalara clearly doesn’t care about maintaining an excellent product with their QBO integration. We had tax calculations change after we sent the invoice to a client, even though we didn’t change anything on the invoice. Most recently, Avalara has failed to support an update the QBO rolled out, and now tax calculations take 3-5 minutes to calculate… what a huge waste of time? You want to create an invoice, and then send it to your customer, right? Nope, create that invoice… sit around for 3-5 minutes, make sure the sales tax shows up, then send it.” |
| Avalara QuickBooks integration | “The implementation process was miserable. From day one, I received a nondescript error that was simply a large red question mark in a dialogue box from the QuickBooks Connector. The application would also attempt to open a hundred windows while using QuickBooks. Three separate engineers walked me through the exact same troubleshooting – uninstall, reinstall, change permissions, restart computer, etc. All concluded “huh, that’s weird!” It took nearly five months of effort to get that response.” |
TaxCloud QuickBooks Online
In comparison, TaxCloud’s 2,000+ customers tend to give glowing reviews of TaxCloud. Read a sample of TaxCloud reviews below.
| Category | Public Reviews in 2025 |
| Pricing | “TaxCloud for QuickBooks Online is the right-sized solution for businesses like ours.” |
| Support | ’We’ve used many tax service providers in the US, from big names like Avalara to mid-sized companies, and hands down, TaxCloud is the best. What sets them apart is their exceptional customer service and personal approach. Unlike the big companies, they offer a more personalized experience with a dedicated professional who is always there for you.’’ |
| Ease of integration | “As the sole developer in a small ecommerce shop, I was in charge of selecting a company to handle our sales tax compliance. I like TaxCloud because they are inexpensive and also because their API is not needlessly complex. Everything is straight forward and we haven’t had any problems in the two years we’ve been using them.” |
| Reduction in staff time | “I’ve used tax cloud for more years than I can remember and it has served me well. It operates in the background, taking care of taxes for my online sales. I never really have to think about it, which is the best compliment I can give.” |
Winner: TaxCloud has more customers who are happy with their QuickBooks Online services and support.
Verdict: Avalara QB Online vs. TaxCloud QuickBooks Online
TaxCloud QuickBooks Online beats Avalara QuickBooks Online in all categories.
- Features: TaxCloud has MORE features
- Pricing: TaxCloud offers CHEAPER pricing
- Support: TaxCloud offers BETTER support
- Reviews: TaxCloud’s customers are HAPPIER
Conclusion
When it comes to the right QuickBooks Online software for your business, it’s important that you do your research and make sure it fits with your needs. Every software investment is a commitment and businesses should do their due diligence and fully understand the features and benefits before they adopt it. Get in touch and we’d be happy to walk you through how TaxCloud could help you.