It’s no secret that the cost of living has been going up these past few years. Unfortunately that’s made everything slightly more expensive for sole traders, from materials to supplies to equipment – up to and including their accounting services and software.
Reports are in: accounting firms are planning to raise their fees this year, including for compliance work (think tax and BAS lodgements). Meanwhile, different accounting softwares have already increased their prices several times in just the last few years.
What this means is that it’s getting more and more expensive for sole traders to manage their taxes. They’re paying more for the same service, on top of the increasing costs of running their own businesses.
So what’s the solution? Well, firstly, there’s a bit more context behind these price raises that you should be across. Then, there’s Hnry – we’re deadset on doing the exact opposite, giving sole traders more good stuff for the exact same price. There’s a reason for that.
Let us explain.
- Why are accounting firms raising their prices?
- Accounting software: paying more, for less
- How we do things at Hnry
Why are accounting firms raising their prices?
In May 2025, payments software company Ignition published their annual survey tracking changes in the accounting industry. While the report doesn’t say exactly how many firms have already raised their fees for compliance work, the data suggests a clear trend: pricing is already on the rise.
(Compliance work is all the things a business needs to sort in order to be compliant with the ATO – so BAS, lodging tax returns etc.)
Between 2024 and 2025, the number of firms charging premium rates across core services (e.g., >$300 for individual returns, >$3,000 for company returns) has jumped dramatically — indicating that many firms have already increased their fees before the start of this new financial year.
Additionally, 80% of accounting firms have indicated that they plan to raise their fees again this year.
As the report lays out, this makes sense from a business point of view. Compliance work takes up a significant amount of time and effort (trust us), which needs to be factored into pricing structure. As wages go up, the cost of providing compliance work goes up – so there’s a real knock-on effect.
On top of all this, there’s been a shift within the accounting world towards providing advisory services – essentially financial coaching for businesses. According to accounting software company Spotlight Reporting, a record 49% of accounting firms now split their workload between advisory and compliance work in the last year, and many are expecting advisory services to help grow their own businesses. Compliance work is increasingly being seen as lower value (which is what many, many sole traders go to accountants for).
The tl;dr is that getting your taxes done by an accountant is becoming more and more expensive, and doing people’s taxes (especially for smaller businesses) is less and less attractive to accounting firms.
Accounting software: paying more, for less
Rising costs haven’t just affected accounting firms – accounting software companies have been increasing their prices as well.
(Not us, and we’ll explain why in a moment.)
It’s understandable for software companies to raise their prices with inflation, in order to continue funding their own innovation and growth. But the last few years have been financially stressful all round, and some price updates have perhaps pushed the boundaries of what’s reasonable.
On top of this, many services offer new-user discounts, often ranging from 30%-70% off for the first few months. It’s essentially bait pricing – offering an intro discount, only to escalate costs down the line – as well as a sore point for loyal users who don’t have access to these benefits.
MYOB
The headline here is that MYOB have raised their prices four times in the last four years.
While they have created more value for users by increasing the scope of their product – even launching a new sole trader app called MYOB Solo – it’s hard to justify the scale of the increases. Especially since there’s little to no flexibility – customers can’t opt in or out of most features that they may or may not use, and scale their subscription up or down accordingly.
(For the record, MYOB Solo is an app to help you manage your financial and tax admin, whereas Hnry just does that stuff for you.)
In 2021, MYOB had four tiers of their business product: Lite, Pro, AccountRight Plus, and AccountRight Premier. Lite was aimed at sole traders and small businesses, while Pro offered more features and add-ons, Plus was fairly comprehensive, and Premier included all features available.
For most sole traders, Lite or Pro would fit their needs. If they really wanted to use MYOB to manage an inventory, they’d have to update to Plus or beyond, which were designed for bigger businesses.
| Plan | 2021 price |
|---|---|
| Lite | $24/month |
| Pro | $50/month |
| Plus | $120/month |
But after four years of price increases, both Pro and Plus had increased by 25%+, while Lite was up 47.1%.
| Plan | 2021 price | 2025 price | % increase |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lite | $24/month | $34 | 41.7% |
| Pro | $50/month | $63 | 26.0% |
| Plus | $120/month | $150 | 25.0% |
An increase this significant can be difficult for sole traders and small businesses to manage, especially given their own rising operating costs and tighter and tighter margins.
While MYOB had launched MYOB Solo by this point as a cheaper alternative for sole trader businesses, it was a real step down from their Lite plan. Sole traders would lose access to the ability to send quotes, lodge BAS, create advanced business reports, track inventory, and manage orders.
For those already on the Lite plan who might have wanted to downgrade, there was no way to move their existing business data over; they’d have to manually enter everything from scratch.
Xero
If you’re a longtime Xero user, you’ve probably been tracking what’s been going on via your bank account statement.
They’re definitely not the only ones who have been raising prices, but Xero’s price increases have been notable because users argue they’re getting the same (or less) value for a much higher price.
Sole traders don’t tend to need all the bells and whistles – Xero’s original Starter or Standard plans typically covered most of their requirements for accounting software. But even the most basic Xero plans have increased in cost exponentially.
Between 2020 and 2023, Xero raised their subscription costs for their Starter and Standard plans three times, at an increase of 28% and 30% respectively. Then in 2024, they changed their tiered structure up completely, requiring some subscribers to upgrade their plans in order to access the exact same features.
Xero’s new tiers
From 1st July, users would either be transferred immediately or gradually to their new tiered system, depending on their circumstances.
The Starter and Standard Plans would no longer be available – instead, access to the same features would be split across three new tiers:
- Ignite
- Essentially the Starter Plan, but with no optional add ons for claiming expenses, advanced analytics, or project tracking.
- Grow
- Expense claims included, but no optional add ons for advanced analytics, or project tracking.
- Comprehensive
- Expense claims and advanced analytics baked in, but no optional project tracking – for that you’d need the Ultimate plan (starting at $115).
| Old Plan | New Plan | 2020 price | New price | Percentage increase |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter Plan | Ignite | $25 | $35 | +40% |
| Grow | $25 | $70 | +180% | |
| Standard Plan | Grow | $50 | $70 | +40% |
| Comprehensive | $50 | $90 | +80% |
Basically, there was less flexibility compared to their old system – users could no longer build a subscription that fits their needs. Instead, they’d have to jump up a tier to access the same features.
For sole traders it was especially harsh – in order to manage their expenses through Xero, they would have to go from a Starter Plan + the expense management add on ($25 + $5 in 2020) to the Grow tier for $70 a month.
As if that wasn’t enough, Xero raised their prices again in 2025.
2025 price increase
| Old Plan | New Plan | 2020 price | New price | Percentage increase |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter Plan | Ignite | $25 | $35 | 40% |
| Grow | $25 | $75 | +200% | |
| Standard Plan | Grow | $50 | $75 | +50% |
| Comprehensive | $50 | $100 | +100% |
Sole traders forced to jump from the Starter Plan to the Grow tier in order to track expenses are now looking at a price increase from $30 a month in 2020, to $75 a month in 2025.
That’s a jump of 150%.
User reaction
Needless to say, the reaction from their user base has been less than supportive.
A quick survey of reddit, Xero forums, and online reviews turn up a few common complaints:
- The price increases have come with little or no real increase in value.
- Features that are critical for certain business types are now locked away by the tier system; to access them, you’d need to jump up a plan, which is far less affordable.
- Price increases apply to older, loyal users – new users are being offered significant discounts to subscribe.
- Despite justifying increases by citing increasing costs, Xero has posted record profits, and increased their stock price by 37% in the last year (as of 26th June 2025).
Hnry is for sole traders
This is the bit where we talk up our service. And we will in a minute, but what we actually want to point out is that sole traders deserve better.
They are quantifiably the most productive business type in the economy, and yet are often overlooked by the government, the accounting industry, and the tech companies who could be serving them better.
At the end of the day, a sole trader isn’t just a small business – you can’t scale down a business solution to sell to them, and call it a day. Sole traders have different ways of working, different concerns, and different needs.
It’s actually why Hnry was founded – our co-founders used to be sole traders who spent way too much time on their own taxes, with no real solution that was fit for purpose. So they created Hnry, an accounting service that is specifically designed for sole traders – including the way they earn.
Unpredictable price increases can be detrimental for sole traders, whose income can fluctuate, or who often earn seasonally. We’ve solved this issue by making our fee just 1% +GST of their self-employed income, meaning they only ever pay for our service when they earn.
We also don’t ask them to track their taxes, GST, and expenses – we automatically handle it all for them, including:
- Calculating and paying any income tax, GST (if applicable), Medicare levy, and student loan repayments to the ATO
- Completing and lodging BAS and tax returns, every time they’re due
- Managing tax deductions and passing on the tax relief in real time
- Providing access to unlimited quotes and invoices through the Hnry app
- Tracking business income and expenditure on the Hnry Dashboard
- Tracking business vehicle usage through our linked Mileage app
- … and so much more
Best of all, users have access to all this, and any future updates and feature releases, immediately. No tiered system, no price increases. We keep things simple and fair for everyone.
And if you’re curious, our pricing will never increase for sole traders – that’s a promise from our founders.
Join Hnry today.
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