Forge Tech vs QuickBooks: 18 key differences for Canadian SMBs
With 10 employees, QuickBooks Plus and its payroll come to $160–185 a month (prices checked on August 7, 2026). With me, payroll is included in Pro at $99 a month: $61 to $86 less every month. Here are all 18 rows, one by one.
| Feature | Forge Tech Accounting | QuickBooks Online |
|---|---|---|
| Data hosting | Quebec servers, run by a Quebec company with no US parent company | Intuit servers in the US — subject to CLOUD Act |
| Quebec Law 25 | Designed to meet Quebec Law 25 requirements. Your accounting file stays on a server in Quebec. The Forgeron AI assistant, invoice reading and email sorting go through an AI provider outside Quebec: on request, I switch them off for your company (body-shop photo analysis does not follow that switch yet) | The whole file is hosted outside Quebec: before sending personal information there, the law requires a privacy impact assessment (s. 17 of the private-sector act, as amended by Law 25) |
| Price with payroll (example: 10 employees) | $99/month (Pro, payroll included: estimated pay stubs for now), or $990/year prepaid for 12 months | Plus $85–110 + Payroll Core $25 + 10 × $5 = $160–185/month (August 7, 2026) |
| Quebec French support | You talk to the person who built the software, in French or English, in Quebec City | Large Intuit support centre, in French and English |
| GST and QST | From Base: 5% GST and 9.975% QST created when your file opens | Included — taxes set by province |
| CCQ Construction (Quebec) | Dedicated module included from Pro | No built-in CCQ module |
| Rental real estate (T776) | Real estate module (Enterprise): properties, leases, late rent, annual T776 summary | No built-in rental management — third-party apps |
| Quebec payroll | Included from Pro: estimated pay stub (QPP, EI and QPIP at 2026 rates, income tax estimated at 10% federal and 10% Quebec). Exact deductions are not on screen yet, T4 slips are entered by hand and the software doesn't produce the RL-1 yet | Add-on: Payroll Core $25 + $5 per employee, per month (August 7, 2026). Prepares T4 and RL-1 slips; the RL-1 is filed by hand on Revenu Québec's site (Intuit help) |
| Bank connections (RBC, BMO, TD, Desjardins) | CSV statement import; the direct connection (Flinks) is not active yet | Native most banks |
| Advanced BI dashboard | Included from Pro: 12-month revenue, receivables aging, anomalies, business health score | Advanced reporting in the Advanced tier: $190–220/month (August 7, 2026) |
| Public API and webhooks | Included in Enterprise | Available, with request limits published by Intuit |
| VoIP with AI call summaries | Included in Enterprise: the recorded call is transcribed in French, summarized, and the report is emailed | Not available |
| Built-in email module | IMAP/SMTP mailbox inside the software (from Pro) | No — external email only |
| Users included | Pro: 10; Enterprise: unlimited — priced per company | Plus: 5; Advanced: 25 (August 2026 pricing) |
| Mobile (iOS + Android) | Android companion app, full mobile PWA | Mature native iOS/Android apps |
| Third-party plugin marketplace | None — features are built into the software | Very large third-party app store |
| No commitment / cancellation | Cancel anytime. Not satisfied within the first 30 days of paid subscription: your first payment is refunded (Terms of use, s. 4.5). When you leave, you get 90 days to export your whole file (s. 6.2) | Monthly, cancel anytime |
| Price over time | Prices published on the Pricing page, no temporary teaser price | Frequent temporary discounts (often 50%); August 1, 2026 increases: Essentials +13%, Plus +22% |
QuickBooks Online Canada prices checked on August 7, 2026 on public comparison sites, in Canadian dollars, before tax and without temporary discounts. Redo the math with the price Intuit offers you and your own number of employees.
Honestly: when to pick QuickBooks over Forge Tech?
1. You're 100% US and don't operate in Canada
QuickBooks is built for the US market — better US bank integrations, native 1040/1099 forms.
2. Your business runs on apps connected to QuickBooks
Online store, expenses, payments: if several tools feed their data into QuickBooks, each one has to be reconnected elsewhere. Forge Tech has no third-party app store. List your connections before you decide.
3. You want software proven at scale
QuickBooks has been around for more than 30 years and had 6.5 million subscribers in the last figure Intuit published (fiscal 2023). Forge Tech is young, I build it alone, and it doesn't have consolidated reporting across several companies yet.
Choose QuickBooks if…
your accountant already works in it, you want your bank accounts syncing from day one, you want your software to prepare your RL-1 slips, or your business relies on apps connected to QuickBooks.
Choose Forge Tech if…
you pay employees in Quebec and want payroll in the price (Pro: $99/month, 10 users), you're in construction (CCQ), or you want your books hosted in Quebec by a local company.
QuickBooks wins 4 rows of this table, and I left them there. If I won every row, you'd have no reason to believe it.
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