FreeAgent is one of the most established names in UK small-business accounting, free through several major banks, and already HMRC-recognised for MTD for Income Tax. Ledgers is the transaction-led challenger that owns the general ledger and is built self-serve for sole traders and landlords. Here's an honest look at where each one wins.
Every figure below is ex VAT, taken from each provider's own published pricing in July 2026. FreeAgent runs a 50%-off introductory offer for the first six months; the full rate is what you'll pay from month seven.
| Plan | FreeAgent | Ledgers |
|---|---|---|
| Landlord / property | £10/mo | £14.99/mo |
| Sole trader | £19/mo | £4.99/mo (Solo) |
| Partnership / LLP | £27/mo | £29/mo (Starter) |
| Limited company | £33/mo | £29/mo (Starter) |
| Free tier | Full product — but only with a NatWest, RBS, Ulster or Mettle business account | Free forever, any bank — 15 transactions and 15 documents a month |
| AI document capture | 10 a month, then £5/mo for unlimited | 50 a month on Solo, 250 on Starter |
The document line is the one worth reading twice, because it's the difference that compounds. FreeAgent's Smart Capture includes 10 bills and expenses per licence per month as standard; beyond that it's £5/mo (+VAT) for unlimited. That allowance is per licence, and FreeAgent is explicit that a free bank-funded account gets "the same core features as a paid account" with add-ons still chargeable — so the 10-document cap and the £5 add-on apply to free users too. Ledgers' Solo plan reads 50 documents a month at £4.99 — roughly a quarter of FreeAgent's £19 sole-trader price, with five times the document allowance. If you photograph more than a couple of receipts a week, that gap is the whole argument.
This is the table that should decide it for most people, and it is not flattering to us. FreeAgent files more than Ledgers does today. If a filing below is the reason you're buying software, buy the one that files it.
| Filed directly to HMRC / Companies House | FreeAgent | Ledgers |
|---|---|---|
| VAT (MTD) | Yes | Yes |
| MTD for Income Tax — quarterly updates | Yes, HMRC-recognised and live now | Not yet |
| Self Assessment / final declaration | Yes | Not yet |
| Payroll RTI | Yes (monthly payroll only) | No — computes PAYE/NIC, your accountant files |
| Corporation Tax CT600 | Yes, micro-entities | No — draft computation only |
| Companies House accounts | Yes, FRS 105 micro-entity | No — deadline tracker only |
FreeAgent has real gaps of its own, and they're specific rather than general: no purchase orders, no tracking or cost-centre dimension, no multi-entity consolidation, journals that cannot touch a bank account, payroll that is monthly-only and switched off entirely on the cash basis, and — for MTD — no foreign property income, with partnership income still in development for 2026/27. But none of those are filing gaps. Ours are.
FreeAgent is on HMRC's recognised list for MTD for Income Tax from April 2026, and it already files VAT and full Self Assessment (SA103 self-employment, SA105 UK property) directly to HMRC today. That is a mature, battle-tested filing pipeline — sole traders and unincorporated landlords can submit quarterly updates and the final declaration from inside the product. Ledgers is building toward the same live SA105 submission but FreeAgent has it shipping now.
If you bank with NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Ulster Bank, or Mettle, FreeAgent is bundled at no extra cost — the full product, not a cut-down tier, and free for as long as you keep the bank account open. (Mettle attaches one extra condition: at least one transaction a month, or the subscription starts being charged.) For a landlord or freelancer already with one of those accounts, that's a genuinely hard price to beat, and it's a distribution advantage Ledgers cannot match. The one thing it doesn't cover is the add-ons — Smart Capture beyond 10 documents a month is still £5/mo even on a free account.
Beyond sole traders and landlords, FreeAgent handles single-director limited companies end to end: payroll (RTI), Corporation Tax, dividend vouchers and Final Accounts filing. If you're a one-person Ltd company today, that breadth is real and proven. Ledgers is still expanding its statutory company coverage.
FreeAgent has years of refinement, a mature mobile app, UK-based support and a large accountant partner network. It's a known, low-risk quantity — the kind of stability that matters when the software has to file your tax.
Both are real double-entry systems — FreeAgent has a fixed-asset register with automatic depreciation, FIFO stock valuation and daily FX revaluation, and it deserves credit for that. The difference is where the ledger stops being editable: FreeAgent cannot post a journal to a bank account at all, and has no tracking or cost-centre dimension, so some corrections have to be worked around rather than posted. In Ledgers every figure traces back to a categorised transaction and any of it can be journalled, split or reclassified with the audit trail intact.
Where most tools ask you to trust an automated categorisation, Ledgers shows its work: you approve the edges, every posting is inspectable, and corrections are learned. You stay in control of the ledger rather than handing it to a black box — which matters when the numbers become an HMRC submission.
Ledgers is built for the owner to run their own books directly, keeping an accountant for year-end if they want one — not around one. FreeAgent leans heavily on its accountant partner channel; Ledgers' wedge is a self-serve owner who wants to understand and control their numbers without mediation.
Ledgers offers free public tools (tax and deadline calculators, guides) plus a genuine free tier open to anyone — not conditional on holding a specific bank account. FreeAgent's free access requires a NatWest-group or Mettle account; outside that, it's a paid subscription after a 30-day trial.
Buy FreeAgent if a filing deadline is what's driving the purchase. If you bank with NatWest, RBS, Ulster or Mettle it costs you nothing; if you're a single-director limited company it files your CT600 and your Companies House accounts; if you're a sole trader or landlord facing April 2026 it is HMRC-recognised for MTD for Income Tax and filing today. At £10/month for landlords it also undercuts us. Those are real advantages and no amount of ledger quality substitutes for a return that has to be submitted. Buy Ledgers if the bottleneck is the volume and correctness of the bookkeeping rather than the filing event — 150 AI-read documents a month against FreeAgent's 10, a ledger where everything can be journalled and inspected, and a free tier that isn't conditional on banking with anyone in particular. The blunt version: FreeAgent files more, we do more of the work for you, and which of those you're actually short of should decide it.
See also: Making Tax Digital for Income Tax · Check your MTD status · For landlords
Comparison based on publicly available information as at mid-2026; check each provider's site for current features and pricing.