What it really costs
Karbon, over five years.
Karbon publishes both billing cycles, which is more transparency than most of this list offers. Team is US$59 per user per month paid annually and US$79 paid monthly. Business is US$89 annually and US$99 monthly.
Two things compound here. Paying monthly rather than annually costs about a third more, and the whole thing is per user, so a firm growing from eight staff to fourteen has raised its software bill by seventy-five per cent without the software doing anything new.
Their published price
Karbon, as Karbon prints it.
The other meters
Source: karbonhq.com/pricing/, read 17 August 2026. Published in US dollars, so the Australian cost moves with the exchange rate. The page does not state its GST treatment.
The sum
Multiply it out. That is the whole trick.
Today’s published price, held flat for sixty months, in USD. Held flat is generous: it assumes Karbon never raises a price for five years, which nobody has ever done. The break-even column compares against Premium at $9,000, paid once.
Do it on your own number
Set the dial to what you actually pay Karbon, including the meters most people forget: SMS, card processing, the extra seats, the add-ons.
Honestly
What Karbon is good at, and where it stops fitting.
Genuinely good
- Email and work management together is the thing accounting firms actually struggle with, and Karbon does it well
- Pricing is published per user, both billing cycles, which is more honesty than most of this list offers
Where it stops
- Per user, so a firm that grows from eight to fourteen staff has raised its software bill by seventy-five per cent without changing what the software does
- Paying monthly rather than annually costs about a third more, which is a real cost for a firm managing cash
- The list price is shown in US dollars by default. The page has a currency selector, so check which one you are reading before you compare
If Karbon fits, stay on it. A build is worth doing when the software is fighting the business, or when the meter has grown past what the software is worth to you. Neither of those is true for everyone reading this, and we would rather say so here than on the invoice.
The alternative
What we would build instead.
Email and work management together is the thing accounting firms actually struggle with, and Karbon does it well. This is not a page arguing that it is a bad product.
It is a page about the meter
Eight staff on Team paid annually is US$472 a month, or US$28,320 over five years. Fourteen staff is US$49,560. Twenty staff on Business is US$106,800. At that point the software costs more than a graduate, and the practice has no asset to show for it at the end.
What we would build for a firm
Jobs and workflow in your own words, with your deadlines and your compliance calendar rather than a generic one. Client records that match how your practice is actually organised, including the group structures most products flatten. The reporting a partner wants, which is usually recovery, work in progress, and who is actually carrying the load.
What we would not rebuild is email. Keep the mail client you have, and let the system deal with work rather than inbox. See professional services.
Common questions
Karbon, answered plainly.
How much does Karbon cost per user?
Karbon publishes Team at US$59 per user per month paid annually or US$79 paid monthly, and Business at US$89 annually or US$99 monthly. Enterprise is quote only. Read from karbonhq.com/pricing on 17 August 2026. The page carries a currency selector, so check which currency you are reading before comparing.
What does Karbon cost a firm over five years?
On Team paid annually, eight staff is US$28,320 and fourteen staff is US$49,560 over sixty months. On Business, twenty staff is US$106,800. Those figures assume no price rise and no growth in headcount, both of which are optimistic.
Is paying Karbon monthly worth the flexibility?
It costs about a third more. Team is US$59 per user annually against US$79 monthly, so a ten-person firm pays US$2,400 a year for the flexibility. That is a real trade rather than an obvious mistake, but it should be a decision rather than a default.
Should an accounting firm build its own practice management system?
It depends on size and on how much of your process Karbon actually fits. Under about eight staff the sums rarely work. Past fifteen, per-seat pricing starts costing more than the build, and the firms that benefit most are the ones whose workflow keeps getting bent to fit the product.
What would you not rebuild for a practice?
Email, accounting and lodgement. Those are solved, regulated or both. What is worth building is the practice workflow around them, which is the part that is specific to how your firm runs.
Where to next
Bring the invoice, not the brochure.
The free cost check takes twenty minutes. We add up what you actually pay across every meter, run it out five years, and tell you honestly whether a build is worth it for a business your size. You keep the numbers either way.