Xero is the best general-ledger software in the world for someone who wants to keep their own books. Ledgers is the platform for someone who'd rather the books kept themselves. Here's the honest comparison — including where Xero genuinely wins.
Xero won the last decade by replacing desktop Sage with cloud. The job didn't change — categorising, reconciling, chasing receipts — it just moved into a browser. You (or the bookkeeper you pay £200–400/mo) still do the work. Ledgers is the first platform where the bookkeeping itself is the product.
You connect a bank feed. Transactions arrive. You sit down (or your bookkeeper does, billable) to categorise each one, match invoices, reconcile bank, prepare VAT, run payroll, file CIS. Xero is the canvas. The painting is your job.
You connect a bank. Transactions categorise themselves overnight. Bills auto-match to bank debits. VAT, CIS, and payroll are prepared for you to sign off. The genuinely ambiguous ones are surfaced to you to approve — never posted silently. You read a 3-sentence briefing each morning. That's the entire ritual.
Honest. Xero genuinely wins some rows. We don't pretend to be the better app store integration, for example.
| Capability | Xero | Ledgers |
|---|---|---|
| Bank feeds (UK) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Categorisation | You/bookkeeper, manual | AI agent, ≥90% confidence auto-commits |
| Bank reconciliation | You match, line by line | Auto-match + nightly cert. You see the gap. |
| Receipts | Hubdoc/Dext add-on (£10/mo+) | Built in. Snap → AI extracts → draft bill |
| VAT return | You fill the 9 boxes | Prepared. You type 'I confirm'. |
| CIS subcontractor scheme | Manual, prone to error | Verify → deduct at payment → CIS300 prepared |
| UK payroll + RTI | Xero Payroll add-on (£5+/mo) | Built in. Approximate engine; you verify with HMRC. |
| Fixed asset depreciation | Manual schedule, or Fixed Assets add-on | Auto-posts monthly via cron |
| Companies House filings | Not tracked | Auto-seeded from incorporation date |
| App marketplace | 1,000+ integrations | ~20 (the ones SMEs actually use) |
| Accountant ecosystem | Every UK accountant knows it | Designed to hand clean books to your accountant |
| Multi-entity / consolidation | Available on top tiers | Custom tier only (yet) |
| Foreign currency | Yes (Premium tier) | Scale tier (multi-currency JEs + FX) |
| Reporting flexibility | Deep, customisable | P&L / BS / TB / CF / HMRC pack — 80% case fast, custom slower |
| Mobile app | Mature native iOS/Android | Responsive web (native app planned) |
| Confidence Score | — | Live 0-100 books-health score with breakdown |
| Daily Briefing | — | 3-sentence email + WhatsApp every morning |
| Trust Receipt (shareable) | — | Monthly signed (SHA-256) PDF + public URL |
| Penalty Pledge | — | Growth+: we pay the HMRC penalty if our agent erred |
Software cost alone is misleading — Xero's £32/mo doesn't do the bookkeeping. Add a bookkeeper to the line.
| Setup | Software | Bookkeeper | Receipts add-on | Total/mo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Xero Standard + bookkeeper + Dext | £32 | £250 (typical UK) | £12 | £294 |
| Xero alone (you do the work) | £32 | £0 (your time) | — | £32 + your weekends |
| Ledgers Growth | £79 | Included (AI, you approve the edges) | Included | £79 |
Export your Xero transactions, drop the CSV into Ledgers, and the Migration Agent rebuilds your books. Most switches finish in under a week.
See how switching works →