Every booking, ticket, course and membership is income the day it is paid. Bank feeds match themselves to invoices, receipts are read for you, and profit shows per retreat and per offer. Add a personal set of books only you can see. Bookkeeping is included on every plan, not a separate subscription.
QuickBooks Online is accounting software: bank feeds, categorized expenses, invoices, reports, and on higher plans bills, contractors, inventory and budgets, for any kind of business.
| Feature | ColibriOS | QuickBooks Online |
|---|---|---|
| 1:1 booking and scheduling | Yes. Booking with intake forms, waivers and paymentsServe | No. Appointment booking is not part of the product; the customer list is for invoicing |
| Classes, workshops and events | Yes. Classes, workshops, retreats and events with ticketing and check-inGather | No. Event registration, tickets or classes are not listed |
| Capacity and waitlists | Yes. Capacity, automatic waitlists and door check-inGather | No. Not part of an accounting product; not listed |
| Memberships and class packs | Yes. Recurring memberships, class packs and member pricingGather | Partly. Recurring invoices bill on a schedule; member access, portals or content are not listed |
| Online courses | Yes. Courses with enrollment, student payments and portalsServe | No. Course or digital product delivery is not listed |
| Website on your own domain | Yes. Editable website on your own custom domainServe | No. A website builder is not listed |
| CRM and email marketing | Yes. Full CRM, email campaigns, funnels and textingServe | Partly. Customer records, invoice emails and reminders; newsletters or campaigns to a list are not listed |
| Bookkeeping and tax-ready books | Yes. Income tracked as it happens, expenses categorized, tax-ready year-end reportServe | Yes. Bank feeds, categorization, invoices, expenses and the full set of accounting reports on every paid plan |
| Bank connection, transactions imported | Yes. Live bank feed through Plaid, statements imported on every planGather | Yes. Bank and credit card connections with automatic transaction import |
| Published pricing | Yes. $116, $297 and $597 a month, on the pricing page | Yes. All five plans are priced on the page |
| Contract required | No. Month to month | No. Monthly billing; no contract term is stated |
| Cancel yourself, online | Yes. Settings, then Billing | Not stated. Cancellation is not described on the pricing page |
QuickBooks Online details checked August 2026 on QuickBooks Online's own pages. Their plans change; if you see something out of date, tell us at hello@colibrios.com. A tier badge on the ColibriOS column shows the lowest plan that includes the feature; every tier contains the one before it.
Published on the pricing page. 30-day free trial, no credit card, month to month, cancel yourself in Settings.
Five published plans from free to $275 a month at regular price (the page leads with a limited-time discount); payroll and payments are separate; no contract, month to month.
Source: QuickBooks Online's pricing page, checked August 2026A comparison that says we win every row is not one you should trust. Here is where QuickBooks Online genuinely does more.
Every paid plan includes accountant access, and most bookkeepers and CPAs work in QuickBooks daily. ColibriOS exports CSV and PDF reports your accountant can use, but there is no accountant seat yet.
Source, checked August 2026Essentials tracks and pays bills, Plus adds inventory and budgets, and payroll is an add-on. ColibriOS tracks what you spend and what you earn; it does not pay bills, run payroll or count stock beyond a product's quantity.
Source, checked August 2026If bookkeeping is the only thing you need, QuickBooks Free or Simple Start costs far less than Serve. ColibriOS is the better price only when it also replaces your booking, course, email and website tools.
Source, checked August 2026QuickBooks needs to be told about a sale. ColibriOS is where the sale happens: the discovery-call package, the retreat deposit, the course, the membership renewal. Each payment lands in the books with its client, its offer and its gathering already attached, the moment Stripe or PayPal confirms it. Invoices, estimates and recurring invoices go out from the same place with a pay page that takes cards, PayPal, Zelle, Venmo or cash.
Connect your bank on Gather and transactions arrive already sorted: a merchant rule you set, then the bank's own category, then your correction, which becomes a rule. A deposit that matches an invoice or a payment is matched for you, with a one-click confirm for the confident ones. A single charge can be split across categories, gatherings, or between the business and you. Every plan can import CSV, OFX or PDF statements.
Snap a receipt from your phone or drag one onto an expense. On Gather, Colibri reads the vendor, date, total and tax and offers the expense pre-filled. Receipts stay attached to the expense and the bank line they belong to, so the year-end folder builds itself.
Profit and loss by month. Profit by gathering, with the venue, the facilitator fees and the mileage against the tickets. Schedule C by line number. A quarterly estimated-tax card with the next due date and a suggested payment, and an email two weeks before it. Vendors fill in from your expenses, and the contractors report adds up who crossed the 1099 line. Everything exports to CSV and PDF for your accountant.
Tag an account or a transaction as personal and it moves to a set of books only the workspace owner can open. Owner draws and contributions show up in cash flow instead of as mystery transfers. QuickBooks is business only; Intuit sells personal finance as a separate product.
It does not pay bills, run payroll, count inventory beyond a product's stock, file taxes or give your accountant a login. If those are the reasons you pay for QuickBooks, keep it, and connect it to nothing: ColibriOS can still be the place your income is earned, and the bank feed will show the rest.
It is a business platform with bookkeeping built in, not double-entry accounting software. Income, expenses, bank feeds, receipts, mileage, profit and loss, Schedule C and estimated tax are all here. A balance sheet, journal entries, bills and payroll are not. Colibri helps you organize your income and expenses. It is not a tax preparer, accountant, or a substitute for professional tax advice.
For most coaches, practitioners and retreat hosts, yes. What you sell is earned inside ColibriOS, the bank feed fills in what you spend, and the year-end report is what your accountant asks for. If you have employees, carry inventory or pay a stack of supplier bills, QuickBooks still earns its place.
Not with their own login yet. Every report exports to CSV and PDF, including profit and loss, Schedule C by line, expenses by category with receipts noted, mileage and the contractors list. An accountant seat with read-only access is planned.
QuickBooks Online runs $0 to $275 a month at regular price. Serve is $116 a month and includes the books alongside booking, invoices, courses, your website, email and text campaigns. Bank connections and receipt reading are on Gather at $297. If bookkeeping is all you need, QuickBooks Simple Start at $38 is cheaper. If you also pay for a booking tool, a course platform, a newsletter tool and a website, Serve usually costs less than the stack.
Yes, on Gather and up, through Plaid, with two-factor sign-in required. Transactions sync on their own, arrive pre-categorized, and are matched to invoices and payments. On Serve you import statements as CSV, OFX or PDF, with duplicates skipped.
It adds them up. Mark a vendor as a contractor, record the W-9 date, and the contractors report shows the calendar-year total for each one and each staff member's fees, flagging anyone at $600 or more. It does not file the 1099 forms.
Tag any account or transaction as personal and it moves into a separate set of books only the workspace owner can see, with its own report. Budgets and net worth for the personal side are on the roadmap.
Export your bank transactions from QuickBooks as CSV and import them, with the categories mapped once and remembered. Export your customer list and import it as contacts. Connect your bank going forward, and keep QuickBooks read-only until your accountant has closed the year.
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