Head to head

Bench vs Bookkeeper360

Two established outsourced services at different price points. The structural difference is that one holds your books and the other works in yours.

Figures verified September 4, 2026 from vendor sources. How we compare.

The crux

Bench keeps your ledger on its own platform at $199–$599/month. Bookkeeper360 works in your QuickBooks or Xero file at $399–$599/month and will close weekly.

Choose Bench if…

You want the lowest published price for a dedicated human bookkeeper, your books are simple and cash-basis, and you are content with the provider’s platform.

Choose Bookkeeper360 if…

You already run QuickBooks or Xero and will not move, you need accrual accounting or a weekly close, or you want payroll, sales tax and income tax from the same provider.

Side by side

Bench and Bookkeeper360 on the dimensions that change the decision.
Product	Starting price	How it is priced	Human involvement	Your general ledger	QuickBooks Online	Xero	Multi-entity	Accrual basis	Inventory	AP / bill pay	Income tax filing	CFO / advisory	AI agents	Try before you buy
Bench	$199/mo	Flat monthly fee, ~20% cheaper billed annually. A separate QuickBooks-native option is billed hourly with an onboarding fee.	Dedicated accounting team	Service	Partial	No	Not published	Partial	Not published	Not published	Yes	No	Not published	Not published
Bookkeeper360	$399/mo	Monthly fee by close cadence, plus a separate onboarding/cleanup project fee. Tax, CFO, payroll and sales tax are individually priced.	Dedicated accounting team	Service	Yes	Yes	Not published	Yes	Not published	Partial	Yes	Yes	Not published	Not published

Not published means the vendor does not state it. We do not fill gaps with guesses.How this table is built

Bench

AI + human bookkeeping service · Dedicated accounting team

Long-running human bookkeeping service on proprietary software — with a documented continuity event you should price in.

Lowest published entry price for a service with a dedicated human bookkeeper ($199/mo)
Bundled tax filing at $599/mo is competitive against buying books and tax separately
The hourly QuickBooks-native option is a genuinely different product: your ledger stays yours
Bench ceased operations without notice on 27 December 2024 and was acquired days later — customers lost access to their books during the gap. Continuity is a real, documented risk here in a way it is not for most vendors.
The core service keeps books in proprietary software; exporting to a normal accounting system is an extra step

Full profile Vendor site

Bookkeeper360

AI + human bookkeeping service · Dedicated accounting team

US-based outsourced accounting on your own QuickBooks or Xero file, with a weekly-close option most competitors do not offer.

Works in your own QuickBooks or Xero file — no proprietary ledger, no lock-in
Weekly close option is rare and genuinely useful for cash-tight or seasonal businesses
Cleanup priced as an explicit project rather than hidden in the monthly fee
Every price is 'starting at', so the real quote depends on a scoping call
You pay for QuickBooks or Xero separately on top of the monthly fee

Full profile Vendor site

Where the difference actually is

Whose ledger

Bookkeeper360 works inside your own QuickBooks or Xero file: your books remain yours, your accountant can look at them any time, and leaving is a cancellation. Bench keeps books in proprietary software (except its separate $55/hour QuickBooks-native option). This is the difference that determines your leverage in every future pricing conversation.

Cadence

Bookkeeper360 sells a weekly close at $599/month against $399 monthly. Bench closes monthly. If you manage cash tightly or run a seasonal business, weekly numbers are worth more than the $200 difference; if you look at your P&L quarterly, they are not.

The onboarding line

Bookkeeper360 prices onboarding and prior-period cleanup as a separate project from $1,000, which is more honest than folding an unknown cleanup cost into the first month. Budget for it. Bench does not publish an equivalent figure for its main service, though its QuickBooks-native option carries a $1,200 onboarding fee.

Everything else you will need

Bookkeeper360: business tax from $1,000/year, business plus personal from $1,500, fractional CFO from $2,000/month, payroll $200/month, sales tax $125/month. Bench bundles income tax into its $599/month tier. For a business needing payroll and sales tax as well, Bookkeeper360 is a single vendor; Bench is not.

Risk

Bench’s December 2024 shutdown and subsequent acquisition is a documented event, and Bench holds the ledger for its main service. Bookkeeper360 carries the ordinary risk of any service provider, but because your books live in your own QuickBooks or Xero file, a provider failure is a staffing problem rather than a data-recovery problem.

Frequently asked

Is Bench or Bookkeeper360 cheaper?

Bench starts at $199/mo and Bookkeeper360 at $399/mo. Entry price is rarely the deciding number in this category — check the add-ons table on each product page, because tax filing, payroll and catch-up work are priced separately by most vendors.

What is the main difference between Bench and Bookkeeper360?

Bench keeps your ledger on its own platform at $199–$599/month. Bookkeeper360 works in your QuickBooks or Xero file at $399–$599/month and will close weekly.

Which should I choose?

Choose Bench if: You want the lowest published price for a dedicated human bookkeeper, your books are simple and cash-basis, and you are content with the provider’s platform. Choose Bookkeeper360 if: You already run QuickBooks or Xero and will not move, you need accrual accounting or a weekly close, or you want payroll, sales tax and income tax from the same provider.

Has AI Ledger Intelligence tested either product?

No. Neither product has been run against a controlled transaction set by us or, as far as we can find, by any independent party. This comparison is built from each vendor’s published material with the retrieval date shown. Our benchmark programme sets out the accuracy testing we intend to publish.

Sources for both products

Every figure on this page was read from the vendor’s own published material or from named trade press on the date shown. We do not estimate prices.

Bench pricing — bench.co, retrieved September 4, 2026
Bench homepage (Mainstreet branding) — bench.co, retrieved September 4, 2026
TechCrunch — Bench to be acquired after abruptly shutting down (30 December 2024) — techcrunch.com, retrieved September 4, 2026
GeekWire — Bench Accounting to be acquired by Employer.com following abrupt shutdown — geekwire.com, retrieved September 4, 2026
Bookkeeper360 pricing — bookkeeper360.com, retrieved September 4, 2026

Record last verified September 4, 2026.