Which is the top sales tax solution for Shopify – Avalara or TaxCloud?
Over 5 million ecommerce businesses use Shopify. If you’re one of those companies, you likely need a third-party solution for your U.S. sales taxes since Shopify’s in-app solution Shopify Tax can’t help you do things like monitor your sales tax nexus obligations across all your platforms and marketplaces, help you with sales tax filings if you sell in more than one place, and more.
While there are a number of Shopify-only sales tax apps available, most growing businesses would benefit from having a sales tax compliance solution that can help them manage their sales tax compliance across all the platforms and marketplaces they sell on and integrate with their accounting or ERP software as well as benefiting from SST program that allows to save across 24 states if the business is a part of it.
Two of the most popular Shopify apps are the Avalara Shopify and TaxCloud Shopify apps but Shopify also has partnerships with Vertex and Sovos. However, both TaxCloud and Avalara are comprehensive Shopify sales tax apps that provide support and tax services across multiple marketplaces and platforms.
If you’re a Shopify merchant, we’ll help you decide between them by comparing their features, pricing, support, reviews, and more.
Why Use a Sales Tax Integration with Shopify?
While Shopify Tax is free for the first $100,000 in sales and only charges a maximum of $5,000 per year, that’s because they don’t offer end-to-end sales tax compliance like other more comprehensive Shopify sales tax apps.
The Shopify Tax platform doesn’t include:
- Help with sales tax registration
- Help switch sales tax filings
- Help with sales tax remittance
- Help with state audits
- Discounts for Streamlined Sales Tax states
- Comprehensive sales tax support
Compare Shopify Tax with TaxCloud.
What is the Shopify Avalara app?
The Shopify Avalara app, also known as Avalara AvaTax for Shopify Plus, is Avalara’s paid sales tax compliance app on Shopify. Avalara is a sales tax software provider well-known for their Avalara Avatax product that helps ecommerce businesses automate their sales tax compliance globally in 192 jurisdictions. In recent years, Avalara has been focused on serving large global businesses and closed multiple services aimed at small-to-medium businesses in the last several years.
Key features:
- Sales tax calculation
- Exemption management
- Sales tax return preparation
- Sales tax filing support
- Address verification
- Nexus tracking
- Access to Avalara tax codes
What is TaxCloud Shopify?
TaxCloud Shopify is a free-to-install plugin that’s compatible with Shopify and Shopify plus. You can use it on a free plan and it gives you CSV imports, economic nexus monitoring, and return-ready reports in your home state. Or you can pay for a TaxCloud subscription and get multi-state sales tax management with return-ready sales tax reports in all states or automated return filing and remittance with a tax filing subscription.
TaxCloud is focused on providing the best features, service, and support to small to medium-sized businesses operating in the U.S. and has been providing sales tax support for over 15 years. Plus they offer a number of features that are part of their free plan and which are free forever for users.
Key features:
- CVS imports (free forever)
- Nexus tracking (free forever)
- Return-ready reports for one state (free forever)
- Integration with Shopify stores (free forever)
- sales tax calculations for Shopify
- Automated tax filing
- Automated sales tax remittance
- Friendly U.S.-based customer support teams
- Exemption certificate management
- Audit-ready reports
- Streamlined Sales Tax discounts
- Automated order importing from Shopify into TaxCloud
Feature Comparison: Avalara vs. TaxCloud
When you compare Avalara Shopify’s features against TaxCloud Shopify app’s features, it’s clear that Taxcloud offers more features – and even has a great free plan.
| Avalara Avatax Shopify Integration | TaxCloud Shopify Integration (Free plan) | TaxCloud Shopify Integration (Starter plan) | TaxCloud Shopify Integration (Premium plan) | |
| Sales tax calculations | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Product tax code catalog | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Nexus tracking | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Nexus notifications | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Automate sales tax filing & remittance (for additional fee) |
✓ | Return-ready report in 1 state (Home state) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Audit support (for additional fee) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Streamlined Sales Tax (STT) Program | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Exemption certificates | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Address verification API | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| API access | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Transaction-level reports | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| CSV imports | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Jurisdiction-level reports | ✓ | ✓ |
Winner: TaxCloud’s plans offer more features for Shopify than Avalara – and even has a free tier with important functionalities.
Pricing: Avalara vs. TaxCloud Shopify
TaxCloud and Avalara’s Shopify integrations might be similar in the services they offer – but their pricing strategies are very different. Avalara is known to be one of the most expensive sales tax compliance software solutions. Meanwhile, TaxCloud is known for being one of the most cost-efficient. .
Avalara Shopify Price: Volume and service-based
Avalara doesn’t list prices transparently on their website. Instead, they sell their services a la carte and base pricing on things like how many services you’re buying and how long you’ll sign a contract to use their services. They also have a setup free that new customers are required to pay.
See our Avalara pricing analysis here.
TaxCloud Shopify Price: Free, $19 or $79/month
TaxCloud’s prices are transparent and cost efficient. We offer a free plan with some key functionalities and then a $19 per month Starter plan and a $79 per month Premium plan. Both come with a certain number of transactions included.
But the good news? TaxCloud doesn’t charge anything for setting up your integration. Customers can choose to buy automated monthly filing and remittance starting at $39 per filing on top of their plan.
See TaxCloud’s pricing plans here.
Support: Avalara vs. TaxCloud
Wondering if you’ll be able to get in touch with a customer support person if you have a problem? The average response time for Avalara Plus is 8 hours which is a long time to wait if you need help. But even worse is that their standard support response time is 24 hours. With TaxCloud, we respond on average in just over an hour and resolve your complaint in 21 hours. That’s much more responsive support!
TaxCloud also gives you multiple ways to contact our U.S.-based support team when you need them.
| Avalara AvaTax | TaxCloud Starter | TaxCloud Premium | |
| 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
The best way to find out if a software product is right for your company is to read the reviews of similar companies. Here’s what the reviews say about both companies:
Avalara Shopify
Avalara customers share many of the same challenges when using their Avalara Shopify integration. Read Avalara reviews on Capterra.com.
| Category | Review Excerpt |
| Cost | “In 2021, we upgraded to Shopify Plus specifically to use Avalara’s Avatax at the recommendation of our CPA. This program promised unlimited transactions for $250/month. Now, Avalara claims this is false, asserting they can charge us per API call. They are changing their billing model midstream, despite having sold us something entirely different. Recently, they emailed us about discontinuing this program in April 2025, but they’ve already been finding ways to shirk their obligations for over a year.” |
| Customer support | “There’s always something wrong and customer support is not helpful. They outsource their call center so when you call you don’t get a solution or troubleshooting, you get a ticket and the person emailing you isn’t helpful either.” |
| Issues with tax calculation | “AFTER 3 years of using them, we are finding out from multiple jurisdictions that AVALARA has been filing our taxes incorrectly – wrong tax amounts, incorrect rate, even to the wrong tax entities. It is a complete nightmare that we have been paying exorbitant rates to AVALARA with the promise that they would be the experts so we did not have to be.” |
| Avalara automation | “The software was sold to me as automating my sales tax collection process and every day I learn more and more that is nothing to do with automation and all inputting on my end. It is automatic for them because i am doing it, but not for the customer who is spending a ton of money on your software. I find it subpar at best.” |
TaxCloud Shopify
In comparison, TaxCloud’s customers give glowing reviews of TaxCloud. Read a sample of TaxCloud reviews below.
| Category | Review Excerpt |
| 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 Shopify has more happy customers!
Verdict: Avalara Shopify vs. TaxCloud Shopify
TaxCloud Shopify beats Avalara Shopify in all categories making it the best sales tax compliance automation solutions for Shopify merchants
- 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 choosing a Shopify sales tax solution, be sure to do your research. Choosing a software is always a commitment and it’s important to understand the features, drawbacks, and benefits of the solutions you’re considering. It’s important that you do your research and make sure it fits with your needs. We’d be happy to walk you through how TaxCloud could help you.