SaveTaxDome changed how it charges. It now prices by active client, not by seat, and its pricing page says current customers keep the old plan until their first renewal on or after 1 January. Most comparison articles still quote a per-seat price from last year. The shortlist looks different once you use the current page.
For a three-person firm with 150 clients, TaxDome is now one of the cheaper full platforms at list price. For a solo preparer with 60 clients, it is one of the more expensive, because the bill starts at 150 clients either way.
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Tax practice comparison sheet. Every price was read on the vendor's own page on 3 Nov 2026. Where a number was not on the page, the cell says see vendor pricing. Excel workbook · CSV.
Type your staff count and active clients on the "Your firm" sheet. Three invented firms are already worked: 3 people and 150 clients, a solo with 60, and 6 people with 400.
Which alternative fits which firm
Match the reason you are looking, then the tool.
- Canopy: US firms with IRS resolution work, from $74 per user a month billed annually, plus a Tax Resolution add-on at $50 per user a month.
- Financial Cents: a solo or a small team that wants a lower bill and a 14-day trial. Solo is $19 a month billed annually.
- Pixie: firms hiring faster than they add clients. One fee for unlimited users, $129 a month under 250 clients.
- Karbon: teams that live in a shared inbox. Team is $59 per user a month billed annually. Monthly billing needs four or more users.
- Uku: time, budgets and profitability, at $38 per member a month billed annually. The solo plan stops at 20 active clients.
- Content Snare, SmartVault or Liscio: you mostly used TaxDome to collect documents, and you do not need the rest of the platform.
The page that owns the wider buying question, features by firm size and how to switch, is tax practice management software. This one is for someone who already has a TaxDome quote, or a renewal date.
How TaxDome charges now
An active client is someone with activity in the past 12 months: a login, an upload, a message, or an invoice. A contact with no activity costs nothing. Importing the list is free. One person with a personal return and a partnership return counts as two active clients. That last point is easy to miss when you export a client list and count names.
The price starts at 150 active clients, which is $1,500 a year, about $0.83 per client a month on their wording. Fewer than 150 still pays $1,500. Clients past 150 are priced in bands, from $15 each down to $5 each, and TaxDome says it applies the lowest total. The page gives three examples: 400 clients at $4,125 a year, 1,000 at $9,000, 3,000 at $16,500. It does not publish every step of the band table, so past 150 you should move their slider rather than invent a rate.
Twenty seats are included. Staff beyond that is custom pricing. Billing is annual, paid upfront. There is no monthly option. The AI add-on is $200 a month for the whole firm, not per seat. Managed Client Care is $100 a month. Premium support is $249 a month. The white-label app is “contact sales”.
Existing customers stay on the current plan until the first renewal on or after 1 January. From a November 2026 reading, that is the January 2027 renewal for anyone whose year turns then. Read your own renewal date. The page is taxdome.com/pricing.
TaxDome alternatives compared
Prices checked on 3 Nov 2026, on each vendor’s pricing page. The workbook has the notes that do not fit in a cell.
| Tool | Best for | Price on its site | Model |
|---|---|---|---|
| TaxDome | Many clients, few staff | From $1,500/year up to 150 active clients. 20 seats included. AI add-on $200/month. | Per active client, annual upfront |
| Canopy | IRS notice and resolution work | Standard $74, Plus $109, Premium $149 per user/month, billed annually. Tax Resolution $50 per user/month. | Per user, plus add-ons |
| Karbon | Shared email | Team $59/user/month annual or $79 monthly (4+ users). Business $89 annual / $99 monthly. | Per user |
| Financial Cents | Solo and small teams | Solo $19/month annual. Team $49 and Scale $69 per user/month annual. Monthly Team is $69 and needs 5 users. 14-day trial. 12-month agreement. | Per user |
| Pixie | Headcount growing faster than the client list | $129/month under 250 clients, $199 for 251–500, $329 for 501–1,000. Unlimited users. 30-day trial. | Flat fee by client band |
| Uku | Time and profitability | Solo $19/month annual, capped at 20 active clients. Team $38/member/month annual or $49 monthly. 14-day trial. | Per user |
| Jetpack Workflow | Recurring jobs only | Starter $49 per seat/month billed monthly, or $40 billed annually. Premium $59 monthly or $50 annually. Setup package $1,500 if you want it. | Per seat |
| Liscio | Messages and files | $19 or $49 per user/month, billed annually. Organizers from $4 to $7 each. Monthly rates: see vendor pricing. | Per user, plus per use |
| SmartVault | Documents beside desktop tax software | Accounting Pro $65 per user/month billed annually, 2-user minimum. Accounting Unlimited $85. | Per user |
| Content Snare | File requests without a full platform | Basic $35/month annual ($42 monthly), 20 active requests, 2 users. 14-day trial. | Flat tier |
| Taxaroo | A small tax practice | $99/month for 1 user, or $790/year including 2 users. Extra users $500/year. 7-day trial. | Subscription, then per extra user |
Ignition sells proposals and payments in this neighbourhood. Its pricing page offered a 14-day trial and did not show plan prices when we loaded it, so the cell in the workbook says see vendor pricing. ignitionapp.com/pricing.
What each firm would pay
List-price arithmetic from each vendor’s pricing page on 3 Nov 2026. Before add-ons, payment fees and tax. The firms are invented. A bar of Firm 1 is in the workbook.
Firm 1. Three staff, 150 active clients, mostly 1040s.
| Tool and plan | Yearly list cost |
|---|---|
| TaxDome | $1,500 |
| Uku Team (3 × $38 × 12) | $1,368 |
| Pixie, under 250 ($129 × 12) | $1,548 |
| Financial Cents Team (3 × $49 × 12) | $1,764 |
| Karbon Team (3 × $59 × 12) | $2,124 |
| Canopy Standard (3 × $74 × 12) | $2,664 |
At this size TaxDome is no longer the expensive all-in-one. Uku is slightly less and does not include TaxDome’s organizers and IRS transcripts. Canopy Standard is $1,164 more before anyone turns on Tax Resolution.
Firm 2. One preparer, 60 clients. TaxDome is still $1,500. Financial Cents Solo is $228. Uku Solo is also $228, and it stops at 20 active clients, so this preparer is on Team at $456 for a single seat. Pixie is $1,548, because the under-250 band does not get smaller for a solo. Karbon Team annual is $708. Canopy Standard is $888. Taxaroo’s one-year plan is $790 and includes two users, which is more seat than this firm needs. The monthly Taxaroo plan is $99, or $1,188 a year, for one user.
Firm 3. Six staff, 400 active clients. TaxDome’s own example is $4,125 a year. The others, same method as Firm 1: Uku Team 6 × $38 × 12 = $2,736. Pixie at the 251–500 band, $199 × 12 = $2,388. Financial Cents Team 6 × $49 × 12 = $3,528. Karbon Team 6 × $59 × 12 = $4,248. Canopy Standard 6 × $74 × 12 = $5,328. Six seats is inside TaxDome’s included 20. A firm past 20 seats is on a custom quote, which we are not going to invent.
Type your own counts in the workbook. If your “active” number is a list of names and half of them have not logged in for a year, TaxDome’s definition will price you lower than a raw export. Count activity, not the CRM.
Pick by the reason you are leaving
The renewal went up. Put your real active-client count next to Firm 1 and Firm 2. A firm near 150 clients with a small team should run the numbers before assuming the new model is a rise. A solo under 150 clients is paying for clients they do not have.
The platform is too much for the team. Financial Cents and Pixie are the two we would trial first. Financial Cents is per user with a solo price. Pixie is one fee and unlimited users, which is the point if you add seasonal preparers.
You want to pay monthly. Karbon monthly needs four or more users. Uku monthly does not have that floor. Financial Cents monthly needs five or more users on Team and Scale, and the agreement is still 12 months. TaxDome does not offer monthly at all.
You mostly collected documents. Content Snare, SmartVault or Liscio, or the tracker plus an assistant. More on that below. A client portal is a smaller decision than a practice platform.
You work IRS notices. Canopy’s Tax Resolution add-on is $50 per user a month on top of the seat: transcripts, notice steps, a place for the case. TaxDome also pulls IRS transcripts on its pricing page. If resolution work is the job, trial Canopy with a real notice, not a brochure.
The team lives in email. Karbon. That is the reason to pay the seat price. If email is already filed somewhere else, you are paying for a habit you do not have.
When TaxDome is still the better fit
Keep it when the organisers, the branded client app and the IRS transcript pull are things clients already use, and when you have a lot of active clients relative to staff. Firm 1 is that shape. A three-person firm at 150 clients is looking at $1,500 before add-ons, with 20 seats sitting unused. Replacing that with three Canopy seats at Standard is a raise, unless you need the resolution add-on or you hate the product.
Also keep it if your renewal is soon and you have not exported anything. A forced move in February is more expensive than a price you dislike.
If you mostly need document collection
Leaving a full platform for a file tool is a real option when organizers and billing were never the point.
- Content Snare, if clients should open a link. Basic is $35 a month annual: 20 active requests, two users.
- SmartVault, beside Lacerte, ProSeries or ProConnect. Accounting Pro is $65 per user a month billed annually, with a two-user minimum.
- Liscio, for messages and requests. Platform is $49 per user a month billed annually. Organizers are extra.
- The Client Onboarding & Document Tracker, our free Google Sheet. It writes the reminder. It does not store the file.
- Grok Bot, on top of whichever you keep, to draft the reminder. It does not replace a portal or an e-signature. Setup. ChatGPT, Claude and Microsoft Copilot draft the same note if you strip the client name. A wider look is assistants for accounting firms.
One list per client, not one email per document: stop chasing clients for documents.
The free document checklist is the list those tools send. If you want the reminders running without rebuilding them each season, we can help with that.
How to switch without losing a tax season
Move in May to October if you file a US or UK busy season. January to April is how a portal change becomes a missed return. The month-by-month version is the tax season checklist.
Export the client list the way you file it (a couple can be two returns), the documents including signed letters, a spreadsheet of open jobs, and the unpaid invoices. Run both systems for a month: ten clients in the new one, the old one read-only. Tell clients before the first request comes from a new link. Letters move with the engagement letter template, not a rewrite of scope in the same week.
Ask where data is stored and whether you can export it. US firms still have Publication 4557, a written plan under Publication 5708, the Safeguards Rule, and Publication 1345 for remote Form 8879 signatures.
If you only needed onboarding, use client onboarding software. The comparison sheet at the top of this page is the one to open on the renewal call. Change the yellow cells, then ignore any row that does a job you do not need.
Questions
What is the best alternative to TaxDome?
There is no single replacement. Canopy fits US firms with IRS notice and resolution work. Financial Cents and Pixie fit small teams that want something simpler. Karbon fits teams that live in email. Uku fits firms that care about time and profitability, with a solo plan capped at 20 active clients. A firm that only used TaxDome to collect files can leave for Content Snare, SmartVault or Liscio.
How much does TaxDome cost in 2026?
TaxDome charges by active client, paid annually upfront. The pricing page shows $1,500 a year for up to 150 active clients, with 20 seats included. Extra clients cost from $15 each, down to $5 in larger bands. Their own examples: 400 clients $4,125 a year, 1,000 clients $9,000, 3,000 clients $16,500. The AI add-on is $200 a month for the whole firm. There is no monthly plan.
Is there a cheaper alternative to TaxDome for a solo preparer?
Often, yes. A solo with 60 clients still pays TaxDome's $1,500 minimum. Financial Cents Solo is $19 a month billed annually ($228 a year) for one user. Uku Solo is the same $228 a year but only up to 20 active clients, so 60 clients means Uku Team at $38 a month ($456 a year) for one seat. Pixie is $129 a month even under 250 clients. Taxaroo's one-year plan is $790 and includes two users.
Is there free tax practice management software?
Not among the tools checked on 3 Nov 2026. Financial Cents and Uku offer a 14-day trial. Pixie offers 30 days. Taxaroo offers 7 days. Anchor has no subscription, but it is a proposal and payment tool, and it deducts $5 when you are paid. A spreadsheet tracker is the actual low-cost route for a solo firm.
TaxDome or Canopy: which is better for a small firm?
Compare them on your client count and on whether you do IRS resolution work. At 3 people and 150 clients, TaxDome's list price is $1,500 a year and Canopy Standard is 3 × $74 × 12 = $2,664, before Canopy's Tax Resolution add-on at $50 per user a month. At one person and 60 clients, TaxDome is still $1,500 and Canopy Standard is $888. Canopy is the one with transcript and notice tools in that add-on.
Karbon or Financial Cents for a tax firm?
Karbon is the stronger fit if the team works out of a shared inbox and you have at least four people who want monthly billing. Financial Cents is the smaller bill: Solo at $19 a month annual, Team at $49 per user a month annual, with a 14-day trial. Karbon Team is $59 per user a month annual. Both do recurring work, requests and engagement letters.
Can I move my clients off TaxDome without losing documents?
Plan the export before you cancel. Clients, files, signed letters, organizers and invoices do not move themselves. Run the old portal read-only for a month beside the new one, and tell clients before the first request comes from a new link. Do this outside January to April if you file a US busy season.
When is the best time of year to switch practice management software?
For a US or UK firm, May to October. Not January to April. Australian firms should stay off July to October. Give yourself one quiet month with both systems open, ten clients in the new one, then the rest.
This guide covers running the practice, not tax law. Rules differ by country and change often, so check anything technical with your local tax authority or professional body.
