QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise is a widely-used accounting package designed for small to mid-sized businesses. It is the top of the QuickBooks line. Pricing starts at $3,000 for five users, and goes up depending on the number of additional users. They also offer an Advanced Inventory module for $999 / year.
$1,261
per year
Sage 50
Score 8.3 out of 10
Small Businesses (1-50 employees)
Sage 50cloud Accounting (formerly Sage 50 Accounting) is accounting software designed for small businesses. Sage 50cloud Accounting (formerly Sage 50, and formerly Peachtree) lets businesses invoice customers, pay bills, manage inventory, control costs, and pay employees. The solution includes high-level dashboards and in-depth reports.
$61.92
per month
Pricing
QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise
Sage 50
Editions & Modules
Gold
1,261
per year
Platinum
1,522
per year
Gold with Remote Access
1,785.60
per year
Platinum with Remote Access
2,083.20
per year
Diamond
3,060.34
per year
Diamond with Remote Access
3,600.36
per year
Sage 50 Pro Accounting
$61.92
per month
Sage 50 Premium Accounting
$103.92
per month per user
Sage 50 Quantum Accounting 3 User
$177.17
per month per user
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise
Sage 50
Free Trial
No
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
No
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
Optional
No setup fee
Additional Details
—
Annual billing plans also available for all products.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise
Sage 50
Considered Both Products
QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise
Verified User
Anonymous
Chose QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise
Quickbooks is better in all aspects of my business.
Quick Books Desktop Enterprise as it's pros and cons. Pro's is that is much more user friendly and intuitive to learn than other products. It does much better to revise or adjust retroactively to prior period when coding issues or even allocations issues are discovered …
Sage Intacct would be the best, but the cost is prohibative of clients. QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise is used more as it is syncs outside systems better.
QuickBooks seems to be more focused on the accounting side of the business than FreshBooks. I've also tried Peachtree software. Peachtree seemed more restrictive. The user had to adapt their procedures to the methods of the software rather than the reverse. I tried …
It's a great compliment to these tools and works in conjunction to provide an end to end solution to run a consulting/project based business where there is a lot of volume and billable labor hours to track and maintain margin on.
Thomson Reuters CS Professional Suite is a very good alternative to QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise. It is installed and web-based at the same time, taking a load off the server computing power. I think it also is very much more user friendly. As mentioned, QuickBooks Desktop …
There were instances that clients do provide their books with using Xero and QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise. When we export data from each other, they do compliment with the data and it's not far from analyzing each of them to see any difference from each sheets. You may need to …
Xero is too basic and not a very good general ledger system. I found Peachtree (Sage 50) to be very good. Reconciliations and look ups were more logical because it is more of an accounting document.
QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise vs. Frontier: Frontier's UI/UX is very old compared to QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise. QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise is far more advanced in terms of features and UI/UX. QuickBooks is one of the most widely used accounting software programs for …
We have selected this product as it is affordoable in terms of pricing and features too. Our clients is geeting lots of benefits by using this product. By using QuickBooks desktop client also manage the information realted to financials and also get the clear picture for the …
These other options are quite a bit more complex, customizable, and provide lots of options for creating custom integrations. However they all come with an exceptionally high yearly price tag and would require additional programming time to setup those additional features. …
Sage Accounting is better suited for smaller organisations with fewer transactions. The invoicing system of this piece of software is a superior tool, however. Sage HR is more commonly used for employees to access payslips and record things such as annual leave or overtime. …
Among the competitors, Sage 50 was the easiest to start working right off the bat and logical to build our payment and reconciliation process. Some competitors were difficult to set up in multi-computer mode, and it was challenging to obtain support that acknowledged …
Sage 50cloud Accounting is very user friendly and easy to use with simple functionality. Each area is self explanitory. i.e. for Customers, processing Invoices or Credits, Customer Statements and reporting. With the click of a button you have what you need.
Sage has more bells and whistles than other accounting software. Its robust set up allows clients to customize the settings to each organizations structure and needs. You don't find that in other accounting products. Sage can fit for any industry structure or size based on your …
I did not select Sage50, however, I do prefer it over Zuora. Sage 50 is in line with the easy manipulation of Quickbooks. Sage Intacct is best used for larger corporations whereas Sage 50 and Quickbooks are better tuned for smaller or mid-sized businesses.
I have used MAS 90 in the past. It was not as easy to use as Sage 50cloud Accounting (formerly 50 Accounting). MAS 90 did not perform as well by any means. MAS 90 seemed to have more screens and "clicks" to get the job done. Sage 50cloud Accounting (formerly Sage 50 Accounting) …
We selected Sage back in 2011 and the migration away from Sage is so difficult that we had to stay. I wish I could go back in time and switch to another vendor. Now we feel stuck and the fees are huge! They want a subscription for everything even though they add no reoccurring …
Offers a greater range of features, available on different platforms, more integration and cheaper than Sage but less popular and not a lot of accountants prefer it.
Sage 50 has a more professional operation to it, and transactions have to be reversed rather than just erased in QuickBooks. This leads to more confidence in the system when you are using it. I believe that you can do something like this in QuickBooks, but I have had trouble …
We didn't really consider any other software besides maybe doing everything in Excel. The thing with Excel though is that we would've had to configure all of the accounting rules so it would have taken a lot of time. Also, being a manual process, errors would have been a lot …
While QuickBooks is a great program, we found Sage to be a better fit for our company. QuickBooks does, however, offer more integration with other software applications and some even require QuickBooks to run.
I have used mainframe type programs with more bells and whistles than Sage 50. For what we do, that expensive software is a waste of money. Sage 50 is a solid program. I have used QuickBooks and they have online software that is an advantage. But it's not as good in ways an …
QuickBooks is the biggest competitor with our firm. I've mentioned before that Quickbooks is very simple and good for companies with a less competent accounting staff. Sage will require a little bit more training. But it is also easier than products like Dynamics GP which could …
I have used Navision in a Small to mid-size company and although it was massive it was also time consuming because it was module based. Custom Reporting for the overall view of the company was not regularly at your finger tips. Sage 50 has enough power and features to run the …
I have used Sage from the Business-works days and became familiar with the name and quality behind it. I have never used a non sage product since the advent of the PC
As the General Manager for Drake Industries it is critical for me
to have an on-demand snapshot of our business. We are a fast-paced, high turns,
durable custom products printer with hundreds of jobs running through our
Sage One and QuickBooks Online can only support a micro-business. Microsoft Dynamics is too hard to use. Sage 50 is just right. Sage 100 is the big brother for the larger business needing more depth in the modules.
As we did the conversion almost 10 years ago it is hard to answer this question. At the time it was the ease of being able to produce both cash and accrual financial statements and reporting that led us to pick Sage.
QuickBooks Enterprise is great for managing our inventory, purchases and income as we receive it. We use it to help budget and plan our monthly purchases, as well as keep each location on track when it comes to their expenses. It's also used for payroll and timekeeping at each store.
Sage is great for portability and exchange with external accountants as it is widely used and people will be able to read your data in. It's a very good and complete solution for a little business where one person can handle all of the accounting. I doubt that it scales well to large companies with several in-house accountants working at the same time.
I like the automated guides to set up complex features of payroll formulas.
The business intelligence reporting seems very comprehensive, so that one could really "crunch the data" and analyze different aspects of their business.
Sage annually improves the performance and features of their program.
I would like to see more ways to customize reports and have that process be more user friendly.
I would like to see the process of creating year end giving statements be made more user friendly. Since I only do it once a year, I have to figure the process out every year.
The out of the box reports are not appealing and take a bit to clean up during the end of the month. The set up of the reports can be quite tedious and not very intuitive. They need to do a better job of adding the drop and drag tool in a more visible way so that it is easy for the end user.
Sage needs to add the ability for the users (in a controlled environment) to manipulate the look and feel of the input screens. It gives you minimal options to add fields to certain areas.
The help feature does not have the "google" type of intelligence that allows you to search on phrases. If it is not exact, it does not do a very good job of filtering through items that you really don not need. I have used more of the internet searches to figure out my problem because it wasn't easy to pull up the help option in Sage.
While QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise has been an amazing tool for many years, it seems it is getting phased out for QuickBooks Online. Intuit is decreasing the level of support it offers for QuickBooks Desktop in lieu of stronger support for QuickBooks Online. Although the desktop version is robust and helpful, it seems QBO is the way of the future for bookkeeping with QuickBooks.
I use this rating simply because I have a thriving Sage 50 consulting practice and will continue to keep my expertise in the product. I have consulted on both Sage 50 and QuickBooks for over 25 years so I have to maintain expertise in the solution as well as accounting and verticals.
QuickBooks provides all staff immediate access to the data in whatever form each person wants it. The balancing on entries prevents incorrect data entry on payables/receivables. Reports are easy to customize and save for future use. The records are easy to audit.
I think Sage 50 is a trusted product and is reliable from a product delivery and support perspective. They have deep domain expertise in the non-profit space and should be a consideration for new non-profit startups or existing non-profits looking to migrate from other platforms. Overall, I believe that Sage 50 does many things well with few limitations.
Rating: 7 out of 10 We rate QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise's availability a 7 out of 10. For the most part, the software is dependable and available when we need it. When hosted on a properly managed local server or through a reputable third-party cloud provider, uptime is generally consistent, and routine day-to-day operations run smoothly. However, availability challenges do arise, particularly when accessing QuickBooks remotely or during periods of high system demand. Because it's a desktop-based solution, availability is highly dependent on our internal IT infrastructure. If our network goes down, a server needs maintenance, or if there’s an issue with a remote desktop connection, access to QuickBooks can be temporarily disrupted. These outages aren’t necessarily caused by QuickBooks itself, but they do impact our experience with availability. Additionally, we’ve occasionally experienced application errors, especially after updates or when working with large company files. While Intuit support is usually helpful in resolving these issues, they can still lead to frustrating delays—especially during critical periods like month-end closing or grant reporting deadlines. Planned maintenance, while infrequent, also affects availability, especially when using a hosted environment. Coordination with IT or hosting providers is sometimes needed to minimize downtime. Overall, QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise is a reliable tool, but its dependence on local infrastructure introduces more potential points of failure compared to cloud-native solutions. Enhancements in cloud-based access or hybrid models could significantly improve both accessibility and uptime. That said, with strong internal IT support or a reliable cloud hosting provider, the availability can easily rise to an 8 or 9.
I rate QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise's performance a 5 out of 10, mainly because while it’s functional for most routine tasks, it can lag significantly when handling complex operations, large data files, or during multi-user sessions. As our organization has grown, we’ve noticed that report generation—especially for customized or multi-dimensional reports—can be slow, sometimes taking several minutes to load or refresh. This impacts productivity, particularly during key financial cycles like audits, monthly closings, or grant reporting. Performance degradation is especially noticeable when multiple users are active in the system at the same time. Even with a solid server setup, there’s often a drop in responsiveness when more than a handful of users are generating reports or entering transactions concurrently. We’ve also experienced some slowdowns in third-party integrations, particularly when syncing with Vena Solutions or exporting data for use in external tools. While the integrations are valuable, they occasionally stall or require workarounds, adding friction to our workflows. In short, QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise delivers the basics well, but its performance limitations become more apparent in high-volume or complex use cases. It would benefit from better optimization for large datasets and faster processing for advanced reporting. Upgrades in system architecture—such as deeper support for cloud hosting or more efficient data handling—could significantly improve the user experience and move this rating closer to an 8.
Very rare do I call the Quickbooks Enterprise Solutions support staff and I get a customer service associate quickly. On average, my wait time is near an hour, and at times even longer. After spending the first three minutes discussing my problem, they then begin to poke and prod around, sometimes the questions continue. But 80% of the time, the problem is over their head and they have to escalate the issue. The only problem is this escalation arrives usually after spending forty-five minutes poking and proding around but learning nothing. In short, my experience is rarely all that well, let alone great
The support from Sage is quick, easy to understand and always relevant. They are very responsive to queries and this enables us to have very little down time if the product does fail for whatever reason. Having someone on the end of the phone who can solve your issues is invaluable.
The in-person training for QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise received a 9 out of 10 based on feedback from my manager, and this rating reflects the overall effectiveness and value of the experience. The training provided a hands-on, interactive environment where staff could immediately apply what they were learning to the system, which made the process much more practical and engaging. One of the standout features was the personalized support provided by the trainer, who was able to address specific questions and scenarios tailored to our organization’s unique needs. This was particularly helpful for areas like nonprofit accounting and grant management, where we had more specific requirements that could have been difficult to grasp in a standard training setting. The trainer’s expertise and clear explanations allowed the team to gain a deeper understanding of QuickBooks’ more advanced functions, ensuring that everyone could use the software effectively. The small group size also facilitated a collaborative learning environment, where participants could share insights and learn from each other. However, the training wasn't perfect. Some minor logistical issues—such as coordinating schedules and ensuring all staff could attend—were factors that slightly impacted the overall experience. Despite this, the quality and effectiveness of the training made it an extremely valuable part of the implementation process.
easy to learn system, specially with some kind of support. Just like with any other system, things get lot easier if you have guidance to lead you in your search for answers. having said that, QB is very easy to use and very easy to teach. you wont spend much time memorizing where to click.
If you're loading QuickBooks Enterprise Solutions onto a computer that you're going to directly log into, you should be able to do it yourself. If you are going to connect to a server through a network or remote connection, you should probably have a professional IT person set it up for you.
Sage 50 is a strong accounting software package. It will work efficiently if it is installed correctly. If one puts garbage in, one will get garbage out. Also it is important to train the staff to use Sage 50 properly. It is also important to set up security for each user.
QuickBooks seems to be more focused on the accounting side of the business than FreshBooks. I've also tried Peachtree software. Peachtree seemed more restrictive. The user had to adapt their procedures to the methods of the software rather than the reverse. I tried Peachtree a number of times but always came back to QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise.
Sage Accounting is better suited for smaller organisations with fewer transactions. The invoicing system of this piece of software is a superior tool, however. Sage HR is more commonly used for employees to access payslips and record things such as annual leave or overtime. Sage Intacct is likely a more practical solution for a larger organisation with a higher volume of transactions.
I would rate QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise a 7 out of 10 for overall scalability. The product offers solid scalability features, particularly for small to mid-sized organizations like ours that are growing and need reliable multi-user access, enhanced data capacity, and cross-departmental functionality. It handles increasing transaction volumes and user growth quite well, especially with its support for up to 40 users and the ability to manage large lists (customers, vendors, accounts, etc.)—a significant improvement over QuickBooks Pro or Premier. Its role-based permissions system also allows us to assign tailored access by department or user level, which is essential for maintaining control and security across teams like finance, HR, and program management. Additionally, features like advanced reporting, inventory management, and class tracking have helped us better manage multiple programs or sites within one system. That said, the scalability still has some limits. For example, deploying the software across multiple physical locations or for remote teams requires additional IT infrastructure—such as hosting it on a third-party cloud server or setting up a VPN—which introduces cost and complexity. Also, while QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise can technically handle a high volume of data, performance can decline as the file size grows over time unless regular maintenance and optimization are done. In summary, QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise scales well within its designed range, particularly for growing nonprofits and NGOs. However, organizations with distributed teams or very large, complex operations may eventually find the system’s desktop-based architecture less agile compared to cloud-native ERP platforms. With enhancements to cloud integration and remote accessibility, this rating could easily increase.
I define scalable from two perspectives; 1) the scalability to handle more bookkeepers/accountants using the product, and 2) the scalability to handle increasing customer/vendor/employee and transactional data. Sage 50 does a good job on both fronts. From the single users operating a micro-business accounting for customer invoices and bill payments only, to the multi-staff, multi-location, multi-departmental complex transactional operation. Although Sage 50 is quite expensive for that smallest user, it is quite inexpensive for the larger business entity. So, for the new enterprise expecting rapid growth, Sage 50 is the application of choice.
Memorized transactions save time and can prevent errors.
Improved accessibility saves time- multiuser, multi-companies open at once.
Annual audit with CPA firm is easier being able to export whole file to them.
Worry about bookkeepers who claim they know QuickBooks Desktop Enterprise and accounting but in reality do not. Doesn't require really knowing debits from credits. Big worry.
It has allowed for more emphasis on sales than data entry which has allowed the Wholesale division to grow
The "On Screen" credit status on the Sales Order feature has given the capability to free up inventory for paying Customers which increased Turnover, while keeping Past Due to a minimum
The Reporting has allowed for yearly, prior year and Budget Variance Reporting for the Sales Reps so they can stay or target
The Inventory Reporting and Receiving keeps a grasp on damaged based on Lots received which helps to notify the Parent company of production issues and monitor shrinkage
The Credit with Job and RGA capability give a clear view of which Customer are having warehouse issues or if we are having Freight Carrier issues
