NetSuite vs. QuickBooks – Comparing Accounting Heavyweights

By Brainsell Editorial Team

There are a lot of obvious similarities comparing QuickBooks vs. NetSuite. Both are extremely popular finance and ERP platforms. To compare the full features of NetSuite and QuickBooks, download our comparison guide for each accounting platform.

In short, and probably the most glaring difference, is that QuickBooks is not an all-in-one platform and does not have things like CRM and marketing tools built into the product. In contrast, NetSuite is an all-in-one business solution aimed at connecting all parts of your business (including sales and marketing) into your financial backbone.

1. Critical Differences Between NetSuite Vs. QuickBooks:

To illustrate the difference between an end-to-end platform like NetSuite and the accounting-only features of QuickBooks. We use the classic example of a Swiss Army Knife.

QuickBooks is only a tool for your financials (represented by the regular knife), where NetSuite has a knife included (always the main component of a Swiss Army Knife), but when you further investigate the tool it incorporates CRM and marketing (represented by the can and bottle openers).

2. Why an “all-in-one” system might matter to your business:

NetSuite provides an incredibly robust accounting platform but also has a “suite” of other features, functions and modules that expand its singular database to handle a variety of other business needs (Ecommerce, etc.). NetSuite would not be as good of a fit for small or budget conscious businesses with simple, accounting-only needs. Be mindful that QuickBooks can be scaled with the addition of third party tools using existing integrations (like SugarCRM).

At a certain point in a business’s growth, however, using too many products with too many integrations can inhibit business scalability and efficiency. At that point, companies with disparate (non-integrated) systems are faced with building data centers to aggregate data and produce the types of reporting they need to stay competitive.

This is where NetSuite could come in – the suite deftly handles daily accounting practices but offers a whole lot more inside of a unified database. NetSuite allows a business to host all of their company data in one login. This all-in-one tool (NetSuite) includes all sales, marketing and financial operations. In addition, NetSuite has a full suite of ecommerce and fulfillment plugins to drive the project after the sale is made. Bringing all of this data together eliminates duplicate entry (QuickBooks) and enables reporting across all segments of a business.