CCH® SureTax® vs. TaxJar

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
CCH® SureTax®
Score 7.5 out of 10
N/A
CCH SureTax is designed by tax experts to help businesses comply even with the most complex sale and use tax requirements. Always up-to-date on 100,000+ annual tax legislation changes, this cloud-based sales tax automation platform aims to ensure customers accurately calculate, collect, and remit taxes to the correct authorities every time.N/A
TaxJar
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
TaxJar offers automated sales tax reporting and filing. According to the vendor, capabilities include: Accurate, Detailed Sales Tax Reports: TaxJar’s local jurisdiction reports show sales and sales tax collected not only for each state, but for local jurisdiction (counties, cities, special jurisdictions, etc). Users can also sort data by any date range. Estimated Sales Tax Reports: Users can see a comparison of what they actually collected versus what…
$19
for up to 200 orders/month
Pricing
CCH® SureTax®TaxJar
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Starter
$19
for up to 200 orders/month
Professional
$99
for up to 200 orders/month
Premium
Custom
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
CCH® SureTax®TaxJar
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional Details30 day free trial. No obligation, no activation fees. Upgrade, downgrade or cancel anytime. Pricing based on order volume. Transactions are equal to -Orders imported into TaxJar with one or more line items -SmartCalcs API pushed sales tax calculation If you go over your transaction limit during a single month, we will charge you the difference between the plan you’re on and the next highest plan. The next month you’ll start back on the original plan that you subscribed to, and the process will repeat itself again. This is all done automatically. Your plan will never be interrupted and you will not have to speak with a salesperson.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
CCH® SureTax®TaxJar
Considered Both Products
CCH® SureTax®
Chose CCH® SureTax®
I have not used or evaluated any other companies so I cannot compare.
Chose CCH® SureTax®
CCH SureTax is the only sales tax management system I have used. I participated in a few demos of newer systems but they were not trusted by the business.
Chose CCH® SureTax®
I currently use or have used the products above or versions of them - I use Rev.io the billing platform, not the PSA, I no longer use Sage 100, we are currently using Sage 300, more on the server version than the cloud version - but we have it configured to talk to both.
So …
Chose CCH® SureTax®
100% better. Avalara is a self-starter kit where businesses are forced to create and develop their own bundles and product types. The support that you get from the AvaTax is not as user-friendly. SureTax is full of seasoned experts and full of industry leaders. Law firms that …
Chose CCH® SureTax®
In my opinion, both of those products are superior to Sure Tax and offer a far more robust system offering. That includes seeing tax rules and rates, running many different reports, and custom extract reporting.
Chose CCH® SureTax®
We used Avalara from 2007 through 2012. We had continual connection issues with their system going down at least once a month. When your sales tax system goes down, everything within your ERP that uses sales tax also goes down. We are constantly entering quotes, orders, …
Chose CCH® SureTax®
I think Avalara is who we will eventually move to. We originally selected CCH® SureTax® based on the price and this is where it got us.
Chose CCH® SureTax®
Don't have any other product to compare SureTax to.
Chose CCH® SureTax®
regret using other, if it was not for the amount of time an resources invested i would switch
Chose CCH® SureTax®
Unfamiliar with other products
Chose CCH® SureTax®
We researched them and had a few conversations because other areas of our company are using software from Avalara and we hoped to bundle but we couldn't meet their data deadlines at all so we had to keep looking around. There's really not much more I can say about it as that …
Chose CCH® SureTax®
We decided on SureTax because of some prior relationships our CEO had. The technical implementation team had a much better impression of the advice and explanations and guidance we received from Avalara
Chose CCH® SureTax®
As I've said a number of times, prior to discovering CCH® SureTax, I had not been aware of any company that provided the ability to accurately calculate and utilize API connectivity to allow for an almost entirely hands-off automated billing and payment of telecommunications …
Chose CCH® SureTax®
Avalara is a big name but fall short of expectation their software, got the attitude that they don't care and would not see through the implementation stage. They are not good for new comers.
Chose CCH® SureTax®
CCH SureTax has better options for handling local sales tax jurisdictions including certificate management.
Chose CCH® SureTax®
CCH SureTax was more accurate and truly understood telecom tax and the challenges. This is still a newer item that Avalara is still developing.
TaxJar
Chose TaxJar
At the time we made the switch, Avalara did not appear to do what we needed. They did not try to stop us from leaving or seem to care why we were leaving. About a year later I did reach out to Avalara after a mailer we got from them. They did clear up that they could do what …
Chose TaxJar
TaxJar was a better price than Avalara, mostly because it was a streamlined version of Avalara. TaxJar offers a no-frills software that does exactly what you need it to do, calculate and collect sales tax. If you need something more robust then I would look elsewhere, …
Chose TaxJar
I thought taxjar had a much easier intergration and UI
Chose TaxJar
I looked at Avalara in the beginning and the price point was way too high. I have been with TaxJar since shortly after they started and they are a great company. Watching them grow has been great. Just need to accommodate the accountant a little better.
Chose TaxJar
TaxJar is SO much cheaper than Avalara and SO much easier to use. Not even close - TaxJar is better. The only reason I would choose Avalara is if it had better native integrations with whatever software stack my business ran on. For our business, TaxJar made so much more …
I have not used any other products like TaxJar. I'm not even sure who the competitors are. I'm sure that they are out there, but this was the first one I found when looking for providers that worked with Amazon, and since it worked so seamlessly I never bothered to look for …
Chose TaxJar
I believe TaxJar is better suited to smaller, especially Home-Based businesses with its good customer service focus and more reasonable pricing for small biz. Avalara, as far as I know, is not priced competitively for micro-sized businesses. TaxJar began in the small business …
Chose TaxJar
TaxJar is less expensive, simpler to integrate and their billing is straightforward so that you don't have to worry about huge surprises at the end of a month or quarter. They spend a lot less time on sales/marketing but their support is excellent and overall we have had a …
Features
CCH® SureTax®TaxJar
Type of tax
Comparison of Type of tax features of Product A and Product B
CCH® SureTax®
7.4
Ratings
6% below category average
TaxJar
9.3
Ratings
17% above category average
Sales and Use Taxes7.90 Ratings9.70 Ratings
Cross-border Taxes9.00 Ratings9.00 Ratings
VAT / GST Taxes5.10 Ratings00 Ratings
Energy and Fuel Taxes7.60 Ratings00 Ratings
Tax Reporting & Compliance
Comparison of Tax Reporting & Compliance features of Product A and Product B
CCH® SureTax®
6.8
Ratings
14% below category average
TaxJar
9.6
Ratings
20% above category average
Geolocation for Tax Assessment8.90 Ratings10.00 Ratings
3rd-Party Software Integrations6.20 Ratings8.70 Ratings
Tax Data Reporting6.70 Ratings9.80 Ratings
Compliance Administration Management6.60 Ratings9.50 Ratings
Tax Exemption Processing7.60 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Tax Document Management6.60 Ratings9.50 Ratings
Complex Tax Scenario Management5.20 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
CCH® SureTax®TaxJar
Small Businesses
TaxJar
TaxJar
Score 8.6 out of 10
Intuit Lacerte
Intuit Lacerte
Score 9.4 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
LOVAT
LOVAT
Score 10.0 out of 10
LOVAT
LOVAT
Score 10.0 out of 10
Enterprises
ADP SmartCompliance
ADP SmartCompliance
Score 8.6 out of 10
ADP SmartCompliance
ADP SmartCompliance
Score 8.6 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
CCH® SureTax®TaxJar
Likelihood to Recommend
7.5
(0 ratings)
9.3
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.3
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.2
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
6.4
(0 ratings)
7.5
(0 ratings)
Configurability
6.6
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
CCH® SureTax®TaxJar
Likelihood to Recommend
SureTax has been the perfect solution; not only are they readily available to fix any and all of your questions, but they are also extremely attentive regarding the information requested. They are the best when it comes to entrepreneurs who are entering into a space that they are not fully aware of from a state and local tax compliance perspective. They can be better from the perspective of developing their client interface.
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If you aren't a tax professional, this is a must. Trying to manually calculate which county/city/state sales tax is owed will break your brain. Actually, even if you were a tax professional, why would you want to manually do it when you could just have a tool like this to calculate it for you. I wish it was also affordable to have it file for you and there are some crunchy bits, but its pros definitely outweigh the cons.
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Pros
  • The product is optimized to handle invoices with large number of line items. We've fast response times even on invoices with hundreds of thousands of line items.
  • It is a SaaS solution which saves costs, increases maintainability and is entirely web based
  • REST API is efficient, logically laid out and effortless to use
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  • The CSV upload for clients that do not have or want to connect directly is very good. It allows us to get a lot of the information done quickly.
  • The cost is very competitive.
  • According to our clients, the integration is relatively easy.
  • For the most part, the reports are accurate.
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Cons
  • In my opinion, the productivity website is clunky and limited. It's better than it used to be but still needs lots of work.
  • It seems a little too difficult to get an answer when sometimes all I need is a quick what taxes apply in this area.
  • In my experience, sales people are WAY TOO PUSHY. They need to understand that us users aren't always the decision makers and that there can be 3 levels of approval that the "negotiations" have to go through. So getting pushy and frustrated with us users is not the way to get the service agreements extended.
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  • Continually increase its native integration features with BigCommerce, which recently just opened up more Checkout APIs and Sales Tax APIs.
  • The Amazon integration is confusing only because Amazon (sometimes?) calculates and collects sales tax on your behalf. It's not clear what's best-- to let Amazon do it for you or for TaxJar to handle it.
  • Onboarding could be a bit easier and guided.
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Likelihood to Renew
We switched our tax service from Avalara to SureTax years ago. Prior to this, we manually prepared the data and ran a report uploading and then got the tax result every time. With Suretax providing enough and flexable APIs, we redesigned and implemented our new application to communicate with SureTax seamlessly and automatically. This greatly reduced our workload, improves the system efficiency, and increased the data accuracy.
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No answers on this topic
Usability
SureTax is very reliable in with the integration with Microsoft Dynamics GP. It provides accurate tax calculations in accordance with tax updates. SureTax also has a user-friendly interface that makes it easy to navigate. It is easy to add customers and also run reports on the website. The overall manageability of it is great!
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No answers on this topic
Support Rating
It has taken much longer than we would like to get certain issues - and problems - resolved. And the initial product support as we designed the implementation left much to be desired
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We had a few questions about integrations & onboarding, and support answered quickly and in-depth. They understood our questions - which were a bit technical in nature - and were able to provide an explanation in a timely and specific manner that allowed us to get the system up and running quickly.
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Alternatives Considered
I currently use or have used the products above or versions of them - I use Rev.io the billing platform, not the PSA, I no longer use Sage 100, we are currently using Sage 300, more on the server version than the cloud version - but we have it configured to talk to both. So CCH® SureTax® is just another tool in the toolbelt as it stacks up against the rest. Everything has its place and time. Sage300 handles the bulk of the accounting, Rev.io does the billing, CCH® SureTax® handles the tax. That's the simplest way to explain it. I don't have to spell out how much complexity goes behind those statements. If you're an accountant, you know.
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TaxJar is less expensive, simpler to integrate and their billing is straightforward so that you don't have to worry about huge surprises at the end of a month or quarter. They spend a lot less time on sales/marketing but their support is excellent and overall we have had a much better experience with TaxJar.
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Return on Investment
  • positive impact on resources due to accessibility by more team members
  • positive impact on resources due to willingness of other team members to use this GUI - it's more inviting
  • positive impact on timing due to strict deadlines so I simply CANNOT be pulled off to help with other projects which often happened when deadlines were later in the month
  • once the prepayment module is put into production that is also going to help with tracking (for states like FL, GA etc. where the number only changes once/year because we're told SureTax will "remember" that month to month and keep it filled in on each return)
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  • With regards to ROI, it definitely saves time. And time, as they say, is money. It may be hard to put a particular dollar sign on this, but it definitely has provided a positive return.
  • It keeps me aware of where I have sales tax nexus that I might not know about otherwise. This is important. Even if I have to check it manually, at least I am made aware of where I need to file.
  • It allows me to track how much in sales tax we've paid year over year, which is a good indication of how our sales are doing.
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ScreenShots

CCH® SureTax® Screenshots

Screenshot of Transaction level viewScreenshot of Nexus dashboardScreenshot of Exempt Certificate ManagerScreenshot of Reporting viewScreenshot of Returns dashboardScreenshot of A return screenshot

TaxJar Screenshots

Screenshot of TaxJar Reports dashboard showing you the states in which you have nexus, how much sales tax was collected, and your gross sales summary.Screenshot of TaxJar state report showing breakdown of sales tax by city, county, and local jurisdiction for easy sales tax filing.