---
title: "We recommended QuickBooks 27 days before it left India; Zoho Books is ₹749 a month"
summary: "What the three tools our 2023 post recommended cost an Indian SMB now, from archived Trello, Zapier, Zoho Books and TallyPrime price pages, August–September 2026."
url: https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/streamlining-operations-essential-tools-reducing-costs-saving
format: Analysis
desk: "Buying software in India"
published: 2025-06-25
facts_checked: 2026-09-30
author: TechBag (The TechBag Journal)
tags: ["SMB operations","QuickBooks","TallyPrime","Zoho Books","Trello","Zapier","accounting software","automation","pricing","audit trail","Companies Act","GST","DPDP"]
cover: https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/covers/streamlining-operations-essential-tools-reducing-costs-saving.png
---

# We recommended QuickBooks 27 days before it left India; Zoho Books is ₹749 a month

*What the three tools our 2023 post recommended cost an Indian SMB now, from archived Trello, Zapier, Zoho Books and TallyPrime price pages, August–September 2026.*

Analysis · Buying software in India · By TechBag · Published 2025-06-25 · Facts checked 2026-09-30 · Canonical: https://www.thetechbag.com/blog/streamlining-operations-essential-tools-reducing-costs-saving

The short version

- Our 2023 post told Indian SMBs to run their books on QuickBooks. Intuit withdrew QuickBooks from India on 30 April 2023, 27 days after we published.[1]
- The Indian replacements cost about the same for one desk over three years: ₹22,500 to ₹26,964 before GST for TallyPrime Silver or Zoho Books Standard. For three users, Zoho Books Standard costs about a third of TallyPrime Gold.[3][4]
- The other two picks survive. Trello is free for a team of up to ten; Zapier is free for 100 tasks a month and then prices the work, not the seat, which is the number to model before buying.[5][6]

The question behind the 2023 post was a fair one: which three pieces of software take the most manual work out of running a small Indian business, and what do they cost? We answered with a project board, an automation service and an accounting package. Three and a half years on, one of the three is not sold in India, the other two have repriced around free tiers and usage, and the accounting choice now has to satisfy a rule about audit trails that did not apply to most companies when we wrote. This piece re-answers the question with the prices the vendors printed in August and September 2026.

## The accounting tool we recommended was already leaving

Intuit announced on 1 July 2022 that it would pull QuickBooks from India, with the decision first reported to take effect on 31 January 2023.[2] Its final notice set the date at 30 April 2023, after which QuickBooks product and service offerings for accountancy and small business customers would no longer be available in India, and the India app marketplace closed with them.[1] Our post recommending QuickBooks went up on 3 April 2023.

**Figure: QuickBooks' exit was public for nine months before our post recommended it**

*QuickBooks India withdrawal timeline, July 2022 to April 2023*

| Date | Event | Detail |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1 Jul 2022 | Exit announced | Intuit says it will withdraw QuickBooks from India; the first reported end date is 31 January 2023. |
| 22 Mar 2023 | End date moved | Intuit's notice to developers sets the end of service at 30 April 2023, the close of the financial year. |
| 3 Apr 2023 | Our post recommends it | Our earlier version of this piece names QuickBooks as the accounting platform for Indian SMBs. |
| 30 Apr 2023 | Access ends | QuickBooks offerings end in India and the India app marketplace closes to new connections. |

Source: The Register (1 July 2022); Intuit developer notice, 'Discontinuation of QuickBooks in India' · as of 30 April 2023

Our view

Our view: the error was ours, and it is the useful lesson of this rewrite. A global product with a small Indian base is a product that can be withdrawn. For the system that holds your books and your GST history, prefer a vendor for whom India is the main market, and keep an export you have actually opened.

## Books: one desk costs the same either way; three desks do not

The two products most Indian SMBs choose between now are TallyPrime and Zoho Books. They price on different logic. Tally sells a perpetual licence, Silver for a single PC at ₹22,500 and Gold for multi-user access at ₹67,500, each with one year of Tally Software Services included, or rents the same software by the month or year: Silver at ₹750 a month or ₹8,100 a year, Gold at ₹2,250 a month or ₹24,300 a year, all plus 18% GST.[3] Zoho Books sells a subscription per organisation: Standard at ₹749 a month billed annually with three users, Professional at ₹1,499 with five, and higher tiers up to Ultimate at ₹7,999, exclusive of tax.[4]

TechBag countTechBag arithmetic

Three years, before GST, at the archived list prices: Zoho Books Standard 36 × ₹749 = ₹26,964; Professional 36 × ₹1,499 = ₹53,964; TallyPrime Silver rented yearly 3 × ₹8,100 = ₹24,300; Gold rented yearly 3 × ₹24,300 = ₹72,900. The perpetual licences are ₹22,500 and ₹67,500 for the first year of service; renewing Tally Software Services from year two is extra and was not priced on the page.[3][4]

**Figure: For one desk, Tally and Zoho Books cost about the same over three years; multi-user Tally costs 2.5 to 2.7 times Zoho Books Standard**

*Three-year list cost in ₹ before 18% GST, archived vendor pricing pages, August 2026*

TallyPrime Silver, perpetual

1 PC; year-one TSS only

₹22,500

TallyPrime Silver, rented yearly

1 PC

₹24,300

Zoho Books Standard

3 users

₹26,964

Zoho Books Professional

5 users

₹53,964

TallyPrime Gold, perpetual

multi-user; year-one TSS only

₹67,500

TallyPrime Gold, rented yearly

multi-user

₹72,900

|  | Value (₹) |
| --- | --- |
| TallyPrime Silver, perpetual | 22,500 |
| TallyPrime Silver, rented yearly | 24,300 |
| Zoho Books Standard | 26,964 |
| Zoho Books Professional | 53,964 |
| TallyPrime Gold, perpetual | 67,500 |
| TallyPrime Gold, rented yearly | 72,900 |

Source: Tally Solutions, Buy TallyPrime (archived 18 August 2026); Zoho Books India pricing (archived 7 August 2026); TechBag arithmetic · as of 30 September 2026 · Perpetual licences exclude Tally Software Services renewals after year one

The chart hides the real decision, which is who keeps the books. Most Indian SMBs share their accounts with an outside chartered accountant. If the accountant works in Tally, a Silver licence on the accounts desk and data shared with the CA is the cheapest route. If three or four people in the business need to raise invoices and see receivables at once, Zoho Books Standard covers them for about 37% of the price of Tally Gold rented over the same three years, before any Zoho user add-ons at ₹150 a user a month billed annually.[4]

Two smaller differences matter more than the headline price. Tally’s page lists e-invoicing, e-way bills and its connected services on every plan, rented or perpetual, but on a perpetual licence those connected features depend on keeping Tally Software Services current after the first year, so the “buy once” figure is the floor, not the total.[3] Zoho Books, for its part, lists managing e-invoices from Standard upward and scales by plan rather than by headcount, so the jump from three users to five is a tier change, ₹749 to ₹1,499 a month, not a per-seat creep.[4] Either way, ask your accountant which one they already use before you compare anything else; the cost of an accountant working in a system they dislike does not appear on either price list.

## Projects: Trello is free until the eleventh person

Trello’s free plan is for up to 10 collaborators per Workspace, with 10 boards and 250 automation command runs a month. Standard is US$5 a user a month billed annually, or US$6 monthly, and lifts the board limit and raises automation to 1,000 runs. Premium is US$10 annually or US$12.50 monthly and adds views and admin controls.[5] For a ten-person team that is a clean step: nothing, then US$600 a year, then US$1,200.

**Figure: A ten-person team pays nothing for Trello; the first paid year is US$600 billed annually**

*Annual list cost for ten users, US$, by plan and billing term, September 2026*

|  | Billed annually | Billed monthly |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Free | 0 | 0 |
| Standard | 600 | 720 |
| Premium | 1,200 | 1,500 |

Source: Trello, Pricing (archived 26 September 2026); TechBag arithmetic · as of 30 September 2026 · Enterprise (US$17.50 a user a month, annual) excluded; it is sized for larger estates

What pushes a small team off the free plan is rarely the headcount. It is the tenth board, or the 251st automation run in a month once someone discovers that cards can move themselves. Count both in a normal month before upgrading. The original post’s case of a marketing agency finishing projects “faster and with fewer errors” on Trello had no baseline, and we have dropped it; a free plan is cheap enough to test against your own.

## Automation: Zapier bills the work, not the seat

Zapier’s free plan includes 100 tasks a month and two-step Zaps. Professional is listed as “starting from $19.99 /month” with multi-step Zaps, premium apps and webhooks; Team starts at US$69 a month with 25 users and SAML single sign-on. The page says paying yearly saves 33%, and that every step in a Zap, including AI steps and code, draws from one shared pool of tasks.[6] The task selector runs from 100 to 2 million tasks a month, so the starting price is the price of the smallest paid tier, not of your workload.

**Figure: Zapier is free to 100 tasks; past that, the bill is set by how much work runs, not by how many people log in**

*Zapier plan entry points as listed on its pricing page, US$ per month, September 2026*

US$0

Free: 100 tasks a month, two-step Zaps

Zapier pricing

US$19.99

Professional, starting price: multi-step Zaps, premium apps

Zapier pricing

US$69

Team, starting price: 25 users, SAML single sign-on

Zapier pricing

33%

Saving the page states for paying yearly

Zapier pricing

Source: Zapier, Plans and Pricing (archived 25 September 2026) · as of 30 September 2026 · The archived copy does not show which billing term the 'starting from' prices assume

TechBag countTechBag arithmetic

The 2023 post’s example was a small e-commerce company copying customer details into its CRM by hand. Thirty orders a day, each creating a CRM contact and posting a note to the team chat, is two action steps per order: 30 × 2 × 30 days = 1,800 tasks a month. That is 18 times the free allowance and above the lowest paid tiers on Zapier’s selector.[6]

That is not an argument against Zapier. It is an argument for checking whether the two systems already talk to each other. Zoho Books, Zoho CRM and the rest of the Zoho suite share data natively, and Tally has its own connected services; a native integration costs nothing per order. Pay for task-based automation for the joins your main systems cannot make themselves.

Our view

Our view: of the three 2023 picks, the automation service is the one most likely to surprise an Indian SMB on its bill, because everything else here is priced per seat or per company and Zapier is priced per action. Model a month of real volume before the trial ends.

If you are buying this in India

**Currency and GST.** TallyPrime and Zoho Books print rupee prices, with GST at 18% on top.[3][4] Trello prices in US dollars; Zapier’s page offers an INR currency option alongside USD.[5][6] A software service bought from a foreign supplier still carries 18% GST: a GST-registered business pays it under reverse charge and can usually claim the credit; an unregistered buyer is charged it by the supplier.[7] Through a reseller the same tools are invoiced in INR with GST on the invoice.

**The rule that bites the accounting choice.** A company that keeps its books in accounting software must, for financial years beginning on or after 1 April 2023, use software that records an audit trail of every change, with an edit log, and ensure the trail cannot be disabled, under the proviso to rule 3(1) of the Companies (Accounts) Rules, 2014; books, including the trail, are kept for eight years.[8] Ask whichever vendor you choose to show the edit log switched on and locked, in the edition you are buying. If customer data flows through an automation service hosted abroad, the Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, notified on 13 November 2025 with their substantive duties from 13 May 2027, make that service a processor you are answerable for.[9]

How we did this

Figures as of 30 September 2026

Prices are list prices read from archived copies of each vendor’s own pricing page on the Internet Archive: Zapier (25 September 2026), Trello (26 September 2026), TallyPrime (18 August 2026) and Zoho Books India (7 August 2026); we did not use the live pages, so no later price change is reflected. Three-year and annual totals are TechBag arithmetic at list, before GST and before any discount. The Zapier task example is illustrative arithmetic on the page’s stated rule that every step uses tasks; Zapier’s own usage rates may count some steps differently. The QuickBooks dates come from Intuit’s notice and The Register’s report at announcement. The original post’s three case studies had no named companies or baselines and were dropped.

Spotted an error? Write to us; corrections are published at the foot of the piece.

Sources

1. [Intuit, 'Discontinuation of QuickBooks in India' (developer notice: offerings end 30 April 2023; India app marketplace closed)](https://blogs.intuit.com/2023/03/22/discontinuation-of-quickbooks-in-india/) — 22 March 2023
2. [The Register, 'Intuit pulls QuickBooks from India, uncomfortably quickly' (first reported end date 31 January 2023)](https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/01/intuit_quickbooks_quits_india/) — 1 July 2022
3. [Tally Solutions, Buy TallyPrime: Silver ₹22,500 and Gold ₹67,500 perpetual; rental from ₹750 and ₹2,250 a month; all +18% GST (Internet Archive copy)](https://web.archive.org/web/20260818063708/https://tallysolutions.com/buy-tally/) — archived 18 August 2026
4. [Zoho Books India, Pricing: Standard ₹749, Professional ₹1,499, Premium ₹2,999, Elite ₹4,999, Ultimate ₹7,999 per organisation a month, billed annually, exclusive of taxes (Internet Archive copy)](https://web.archive.org/web/20260807074104/https://www.zoho.com/in/books/pricing/) — archived 7 August 2026
5. [Trello, Pricing: Free to 10 collaborators; Standard US$5 / US$6; Premium US$10 / US$12.50; Enterprise US$17.50 a user a month (Internet Archive copy)](https://web.archive.org/web/20260926222508/https://trello.com/pricing) — archived 26 September 2026
6. [Zapier, Plans and Pricing: Free 100 tasks; Professional from US$19.99; Team from US$69; shared task pool (Internet Archive copy)](https://web.archive.org/web/20260925220911/https://zapier.com/pricing) — archived 25 September 2026
7. [India Briefing, Digital services in India: OIDAR, GST applicability and reverse charge](https://www.india-briefing.com/news/tax-digital-services-oidar-in-india-gst-applicability-and-compliance-22465.html) — updated 29 September 2023
8. [TaxGuru, 'Audit trail compliance: rule 3(1) and rule 11, a practitioner's guide' (G.S.R. 205(E) of 24 March 2021, deferred to financial years from 1 April 2023)](https://taxguru.in/company-law/audit-trail-compliance-rule-3-1-rule-11-practitioners-guide.html) — 11 September 2026
9. [Legismith Partners, DPDP Rules 2025 commencement timeline](https://legismith.com/dpdp-rules-2025-timeline/) — Rules notified 13 November 2025

**Disclosure.** TechBag is a software reseller: it earns a margin when a reader buys through it, including from vendors named here. The analysis is TechBag’s own; no vendor paid for or saw this piece before publication. Facts are labelled reported, TechBag count or our view.

Go deeper on TechBag

- [TallyPrime intel page](https://www.thetechbag.com/tally/tallyprime) — Silver and Gold, perpetual or rented, and what Tally Software Services adds
- [Zoho Books intel page](https://www.thetechbag.com/zoho/zoho-books) — the GST-native cloud alternative, priced per organisation in INR
- [The catalogue](https://www.thetechbag.com/browse-products) — every product TechBag quotes in INR with GST