Expenses · September 20, 2026
Best expense trackers for solopreneurs (2026)
A solopreneur needs receipts a CPA will open, not an enterprise T&E suite with five approvers. Four products. The skip-if is the point.
By Gregory GreensteinUpdated September 20, 2026Affiliate disclosure
If you are the only person on the card, expense software has one job: capture the receipt, code the spend, and hand a file to a CPA that is not a shoebox. Mileage, reimbursements, and a corporate card are extras. A 12-step approval workflow is a tax on a company of one.
This ranking is for US freelancers, single-member LLCs, and founders who still pay themselves last. We are not ranking enterprise travel-and-expense suites, and we are not ranking generative AI bookkeeping chatbots. Incacent covers the ops stack. Receipt OCR that files into a ledger is in scope. “AI that does your taxes” is not.
Prices are public list figures from vendor pages and help centers, dated September 20, 2026. Expensify’s advertised Control rate is a card-spend discount, not list. Ramp’s Free plan is $0 until you add Plus. Intuit and Wave rotate promos. Confirm the live page before you model a year. This is not tax advice, and we are not your accountant.
The short list
Public list prices as of September 20, 2026. Promos change. Confirm on the vendor page before you buy.
| # | Product | Best for | Public starting price | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Expensify | Solopreneurs who scan receipts all week and want a dedicated expense product | Collect $5 per unique member/month, pay-per-use. Control $18 per included member/month on annual (plus $36 per active member above that size), or $36 pay-per-use. Expensify Card can cut Control as low as $9 / $18 — that is a spend-linked discount, not list. | 8.3 |
| 2 | Wave | New solopreneurs who need receipts, invoices, and a basic ledger at $0 | Starter invoicing and the basic books stay $0. Pro is $19/month or $190/year. Card payments use Wave’s published processing rates (commonly cited around 2.9% + $0.60 — confirm live). | 8.1 |
| 3 | QuickBooks Online | Solopreneurs whose CPA already lives in QuickBooks — which is most US CPAs | Simple Start $38/mo; Essentials $85; Plus $140; Advanced $340. New-customer 50% off for three months is commonly advertised. Receipt capture sits inside the ledger, not as a separate expense SKU. | 7.9 |
| 4 | Ramp | Founders who want a corporate card, bill pay, and expense capture in one login | Free $0/user/month (cards, receipt matching, basic QBO/Xero rules, bill pay). Plus $15/user/month plus a platform fee by team size (about 20% off annual). Enterprise is quote-only. | 7.6 |
01
Expensify
Solopreneurs who scan receipts all week and want a dedicated expense product
Public pricing: Collect $5 per unique member/month, pay-per-use. Control $18 per included member/month on annual (plus $36 per active member above that size), or $36 pay-per-use. Expensify Card can cut Control as low as $9 / $18 — that is a spend-linked discount, not list.
Expensify Help, “Understand Expensify Pricing” (help.expensify.com), reviewed September 20, 2026. Marketing pages lead with the card discount.
Skip if
You send six receipts a month and already live in Wave or QuickBooks. Buying Expensify just to feel organized is how you pay $5–$18 a seat for a job the ledger already does.
Why it ranks
- The product is the receipt. SmartScan, categories, and a reimbursement flow exist without buying a full accounting suite.
- Collect is honest pay-per-use math for a one-person shop that only needs capture and payout.
- Exports into QuickBooks and Xero when a CPA appears, instead of trapping the year in a chat thread.
- The Expensify Card is optional. You can use Collect without converting your spend onto their rail.
Watch-outs
- Control’s $9 headline requires routing a large share of approved USD spend onto the Expensify Card. Budget $18 annual or $36 pay-per-use unless that is actually your plan.
- You pay per workspace member, not per receipt. Inviting a bookkeeper as a member is a line item.
- Travel is billed separately (Expensify has published a per-trip add-on). Do not assume it is in Collect.
- If you already code every swipe in QuickBooks, this is a second login for the same job.
02
Wave
New solopreneurs who need receipts, invoices, and a basic ledger at $0
Public pricing: Starter invoicing and the basic books stay $0. Pro is $19/month or $190/year. Card payments use Wave’s published processing rates (commonly cited around 2.9% + $0.60 — confirm live).
Wave pricing (waveapps.com/pricing), reviewed September 20, 2026. Receipt features travel with the accounting product; they are not a separate SKU.
Skip if
You have a bookkeeper who will only open QuickBooks or Xero, or you need formal reimbursement approvals for other people. Wave is a starter file, not a T&E desk.
Why it ranks
- The cheapest honest stack for a one-person LLC is still Wave: invoice, bank feed, receipt, done.
- You are not paying a per-seat expense tax before the business has revenue.
- Pro is cheap if bank import is the leak and you are not ready for Intuit money.
- Good enough until a CPA asks for a file they already know how to open.
Watch-outs
- Receipt capture is not the same as a policy engine. There is no “manager approval” because there is no manager.
- Payment fees fund the free plan. Large client invoices should not default to cards.
- You will likely migrate. Export before tax season, not during it.
- Mileage and multi-entity nonsense are not why anyone picks Wave.
03
QuickBooks Online
Solopreneurs whose CPA already lives in QuickBooks — which is most US CPAs
Public pricing: Simple Start $38/mo; Essentials $85; Plus $140; Advanced $340. New-customer 50% off for three months is commonly advertised. Receipt capture sits inside the ledger, not as a separate expense SKU.
Intuit public pricing (quickbooks.intuit.com/pricing/), reviewed September 20, 2026.
Skip if
You only need to photograph receipts and send two invoices a month. Simple Start is a ledger subscription, not a $5 scanner.
Why it ranks
- The receipt lands in the same file as the bank feed. That is the whole reason to skip a standalone tracker.
- Plus is the plan most bookkeepers actually want if you have bills, tracking, and a close.
- Same family as Workforce payroll if you hire — fewer CSV nights.
- A US CPA who already has a QBO login will not charge you to learn a new expense app.
Watch-outs
- You are buying accounting, then using receipts as a feature. Do not pretend the $38 is an expense-app fee.
- List prices stepped in 2026. Your renewal may disagree with a 2025 blog post.
- Payroll and payments are extra subscriptions.
- The UI is busier than Expensify Collect. That is the trade for a real ledger.
04
Ramp
Founders who want a corporate card, bill pay, and expense capture in one login
Public pricing: Free $0/user/month (cards, receipt matching, basic QBO/Xero rules, bill pay). Plus $15/user/month plus a platform fee by team size (about 20% off annual). Enterprise is quote-only.
Ramp public pricing (ramp.com/pricing), reviewed September 20, 2026. Cards are issued by partner banks and require approval. Treasury yields on the page are not a promise to you.
Skip if
You have no credit need, no team cards, and no AP. Ramp is a spend platform that happens to collect receipts. A solopreneur with a debit card and Wave should not apply just because the Free plan is $0.
Why it ranks
- If the leak is “I put everything on a personal card and reconstruct December,” a corporate card with auto-receipts is the actual fix.
- Free is a real product, not a 14-day tease: unlimited cards, SMS/Slack expense completion, QBO and Xero on the free tier.
- Bill pay and vendor tracking show up before you graduate to Plus.
- Useful the week you hire and suddenly care about spend limits.
Watch-outs
- You have to be approved for a card. “Free software” is not the same as “you get a limit.”
- Plus adds a platform fee on top of $15/user. The napkin math is not $15.
- Ramp is a fintech. Deposit insurance, if any, is at partner banks under their terms — not Incacent, and not a reason to skip a real operating account.
- Overkill if you only need to photograph coffee receipts for a Schedule C.
How we picked
The job is a clean year of spend for a US company of one (or one plus a contractor). We scored whether a founder can finish setup without a systems integrator, whether receipts land somewhere a CPA will open, published pricing honesty, and whether the product survives the first hire. Hands-on use, public docs, and practitioner reports all count. We do not invent review counts, and we do not sell rank.
We left mileage-only apps and enterprise T&E (SAP Concur-class) off this list on purpose. A mileage app is a feature. Concur is a different buyer. Mixing them with Wave is how readers buy a platform they will log into twice.
Who should skip this whole category
If every dollar already hits a business checking feed and your CPA recodes it in February, you may not need a fourth app. If you have employees submitting reports, you have left the solopreneur job — look at Expensify Control or Ramp with limits, not this page’s Wave default. If the leak is invoices going out late, start with the invoicing ranking instead of buying a scanner.