Last updated September 2026
Books is the ledger for a small nonprofit that wants to be reconciled every month and ready for the 990 and an audit. Aplos is a nonprofit CRM with accounting attached; QuickBooks is business accounting with nonprofits bolted on; fundraising platforms are great at collecting gifts and don't keep books. Here is the honest picture, including what we don't do.
✅ included · ➕ paid add-on · ◐ partial or workaround · ✗ not offered. Competitor details from their public pages as of September 2026 — tell us if something is out of date: help@support.thefin.ai.
| Books | Aplos | QuickBooks Online | Wave | Zeffy / Givebutter | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free self-host · $10 / $29 / $59 mo | $79–$129 mo + add-ons | ~$35–$100 mo | Free | Free (tips) / fees |
| Open source, self-hostable | ✅ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Full export (GL, bank, reconciliations, audit log, receipts) | ✅ | ◐ | ◐ | ◐ | ◐ |
| Free trial without a card | 30 days | 15 days | 30 days | — | — |
| Books | Aplos | QuickBooks Online | Wave | Zeffy / Givebutter | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| True fund accounting (restrictions, fund balances) | ✅ | ✅ | ◐ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Period lock and append-only audit log | ✅ | ◐ | ✅ | ◐ | ✗ |
| Users included | unlimited | 2 (then $20 each) | 3–25 by tier | unlimited | unlimited |
| Bookkeeper workspace across organizations | ✅ | ◐ | ✅ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Books | Aplos | QuickBooks Online | Wave | Zeffy / Givebutter | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bank connection | Plaid (pending production approval) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✗ |
| CSV import | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✗ |
| PDF bank statement read by AI | ✅ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| AI categorization with a confidence score | ✅ | ◐ | ◐ | ◐ | ✗ |
| Learns vendor rules from your confirmations | ✅ | ◐ | ✅ | ◐ | ✗ |
| A person confirms before anything posts | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | — |
| Books | Aplos | QuickBooks Online | Wave | Zeffy / Givebutter | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Statement reconciliation | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✗ |
| AI explains every difference (timing, splits, duplicates) | ✅ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Stale items block closing | ✅ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Statement balance pre-filled from the PDF | ✅ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Books | Aplos | QuickBooks Online | Wave | Zeffy / Givebutter | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Public donation page | ✅ | ✅ | ✗ | ◐ | ✅ |
| Card processing | Stripe on your own account | Aplos processing | ➕ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Platform fee on donations | none | ✅ | — | — | tips / fees |
| Zelle and check instructions on the page | ✅ | ◐ | ✗ | ✗ | ◐ |
| Automatic tax receipts and year-end statements | ✅ | ✅ | ✗ | ✗ | ✅ |
| Recurring giving | planned (next) | ✅ | ✗ | ✗ | ✅ |
| Events, text-to-give, email marketing, CRM | ✗ | ➕ | ✗ | ✗ | ✅ |
| Books | Aplos | QuickBooks Online | Wave | Zeffy / Givebutter | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Form 990-N worksheet with every field | ✅ | ◐ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| 990-EZ figures, Schedule B, functional expenses | ✅ | ➕ | ◐ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Draft 990-EZ XML for your preparer | ✅ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| One-click audit pack (AICPA layout + evidence + receipts) | ✅ | ◐ | ◐ | ◐ | ✗ |
| Peer comparison from public IRS 990 data | ✅ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Budgets | planned (next) | ➕ | ✅ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Payroll | ✗ | ✗ | ➕ | ➕ | ✗ |
Startups such as Alignmint (free all-in-one nonprofit platform with an AI assistant), Truewind and Zeni (AI plus a human bookkeeping team, from $249–$549/month) and startup-focused AI ledgers like Digits and Puzzle all use AI to categorize transactions; the incumbents are adding the same. What we think matters more than the model is whether the AI is auditable: in Books every suggestion carries a confidence score, nothing posts without a person, every action is logged, and you can take all of your data with you — the code is open source.
See what's coming on the roadmap, or try Books free for 30 days.
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