Accounting Software Pricing in South Africa: Real Costs Compared

The advertised price of accounting software is rarely what you end up paying. Here is how to work out the real number before you commit.

The four costs people forget

1. Payroll as a separate product. This is the big one. Most foreign accounting products have no South African payroll, so PAYE, UIF and SDL live in a second subscription. That is two bills, two logins, and a monthly reconciliation between them.

2. Currency exposure. Software billed in dollars or pounds gets more expensive every time the rand weakens. Your budget assumption from January does not survive the year.

3. Per-user charges. A price that looks fine for one person can double when your bookkeeper and your accountant both need access.

4. Your accountant's time. If the software cannot produce a VAT201 in SARS format, someone re-keys those figures every second month. At professional hourly rates, that is often more than the software costs.

Working out your real monthly cost

Add these up honestly:

Line item	Your number
Accounting subscription
Payroll subscription, if separate
Additional user seats
Bank feed or integration fees
Accountant time spent working around the software
Total

Then add a currency buffer if you are billed in foreign currency. A 10 to 15% annual drift is not a pessimistic assumption for the rand.

What you should be paying by business stage

Freelancer, not VAT registered, no employees. You need invoicing, expense tracking, and basic reports. A free tier is genuinely sufficient. Paying R500 a month at this stage is waste.

Small business, VAT registered, no employees. You need VAT at 15% tracked properly and ideally VAT201 output. Budget nothing to a few hundred rand a month depending on whether you use a local product.

Small business, VAT registered, with employees. You now need PAYE, UIF and SDL. This is where the total cost splits sharply: one integrated system, or an accounting subscription plus a payroll subscription. Compare the total, not the sticker.

Growing business with multiple users and stock. Expect to pay a mid tier, and expect per-user costs to matter. This is the stage where the depth of a Sage or a Xero starts earning its price.

Where LEDGA sits

LEDGA is priced in rands with a free Starter plan that covers invoicing, expense tracking, and VAT at 15% with no card required. Paid tiers add payroll with PAYE, UIF and SDL, VAT201 and EMP201 output in SARS format, and higher limits.

The structural difference is that payroll and SARS returns are inside the product rather than sold alongside it, so the total for a business with employees is a single rand-denominated line rather than two subscriptions plus reconciliation time.

There is a 15-day free trial on paid features, no card required.

The cheap-tier trap

The most expensive decision is usually the cheapest tier of the wrong product.

It looks affordable, then you discover it caps invoices, or excludes VAT reports, or does not include the one module you actually needed. You upgrade within four months, and the price you compared on was never the price you were going to pay.

Before you sign up, check the tier you are choosing against:

Invoice volume limits

Number of users included

Whether VAT reporting is in that tier or the one above

Whether payroll is included, extra, or absent

Whether bank feeds cost more

Questions to ask any vendor

Is this priced in rands, and will it change if the exchange rate moves?

Does it produce a VAT201 in the format SARS expects, or only a VAT summary?

Is South African payroll included, and does it handle PAYE, UIF at the R17,712 ceiling, and SDL above R500,000 of payroll?

What does a second and third user cost?

Can I export all my data if I leave, and in what format?

Is support local, and in what hours?

Question 5 matters more than people think. Software you cannot leave is software with pricing power over you.

The honest summary

For a freelancer or pre-VAT business, pay nothing. Free tiers are genuinely adequate and LEDGA's Starter plan is a reasonable default.

For a VAT-registered business with employees, compare total stack cost in rands, including payroll and your accountant's time. An integrated local product usually wins that comparison, and the gap widens as the rand weakens.

For a larger business with stock and multiple users, the established products earn their price — pay it, but pay it knowingly.

Work out your total monthly cost including payroll and accountant time before you compare a single advertised price.

Start on LEDGA's free plan and upgrade only when your compliance obligations actually require it.