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Comparison · Last updated 2026-07-28

HelloBooks vs Pandle: Two free UK ledgers — one built for MTD filing, one built for AI and operations

Pandle, built in association with The Accountancy Partnership, is one of the most generous free UK bookkeeping tools: unlimited users, bank feeds, invoicing, reporting, VAT submissions and MTD Income Tax submissions all on the £0 plan, with Pandle Pro at £5 a month plus VAT.

On UK filing, Pandle is ahead of us and we will say so plainly. It states it is HMRC-recognised and fully compliant for MTD Income Tax, on the free plan. HelloBooks is MTD-ready for VAT; we do not claim MTD Income Tax quarterly submission as a shipped feature. If ITSA filing is your requirement for 2026/27, that is a real reason to use Pandle.

Where HelloBooks is substantially ahead: AI. Pandle advertises none. HelloBooks includes AI categorization at 95%+ accuracy, OCR, a conversational assistant and cash-flow forecasting from the free plan, plus inventory, multi-entity and multi-country tax that Pandle does not attempt.

Researched & written by the HelloBooks editorial team. Checked against Pandle's public pricing and docs on 2026-07-28 · how we compare.

Scorecard: how they stack up

An at-a-glance rating on the criteria that decide an accounting-software purchase. Ratings reflect verifiable facts — not an invented score. See how we compare.

HelloBooks rates strong on 7 of 9 buyer criteria

HelloBooks vs Pandle — criteria scorecard
CriterionHelloBooksPandle
Free plan generosityStrongStrong
Unlimited users on freeLimitedStrong
MTD for VATStrongStrong
MTD for Income TaxNot verifiedStrong
AI shipped and generally availableStrongNot offered
Cash-flow forecastingStrongPartial
Inventory & operationsStrongLimited
Mobile experienceStrongLimited
Integrations & APIStrongNot offered

Side-by-side feature comparison

Where a value is shown as “—”, the feature was not verified at review time. See Pandle's site for the latest specifics. No paid placements — how we compare.

HelloBooks vs Pandle— feature-by-feature comparison
FeatureHelloBooksPandle
Free planFree forever — unlimited invoices, bills, quotes and POs, AP/AR aging, P&L, balance sheet, cash flow, full mobile app, 2 users, 2,500 AI credits/monthFree forever and unusually generous — bank feeds, receipts, invoicing, quotes, credit notes, projects, mileage, reporting, VAT submissions, MTD Income Tax submissions and unlimited users
Paid pricingPro £7.99/mo or £79.99/yr; Business £31.99/mo or £319.99/yr — unlimited users on bothPandle Pro £5/month plus VAT, monthly rolling, no annual discount. 14-day Pro trial with no card required
Users2 on Free; unlimited with roles and permissions on Pro and BusinessUnlimited users on both the free and Pro plans — genuinely generous
MTD for VATMTD-ready VAT for HMRC Making Tax DigitalHMRC-approved integration to submit VAT returns directly, included on the free plan
MTD for Income TaxNot claimed as shipped. UK VAT is live; confirm ITSA scope with sales before relying on itStates it is HMRC-recognised and fully compliant for MTD Income Tax, on the free plan. Final-declaration support is not described on its MTD IT page
AI capabilityAI categorization at 95%+ accuracy, OCR line extraction, Munimji assistant with 60+ tools, AI payables, AI calling for overdue AR, CFO agent, smart error detection, AI analysis on every report, public MCP serverNone advertised. No AI feature appears on any Pandle features or MTD page
Bank feedsIncluded on every plan. UK bank feeds supported; Plaid across 11,000+ US banks; PDF statement upload with AI reconciliation anywhereIncluded at no extra cost, including on the free plan — though a G2 reviewer notes the automated feeds do not cover all banks. Stripe and PayPal feeds are Pro-only
Cash-flow forecasting4, 12 and 26-week forecasts from eight driver sources with base, best and worst scenarios, plus variance and runway alertsCash flow forecasting is a Pro-only feature
Reporting depthP&L, balance sheet, cash flow, aged AR/AP, general ledger, trial balance, financial ratios with industry benchmarks, AI analysis on every reportTrial balance, balance sheet, P&L, payables and receivables. Reviewers describe reporting as hard to work with for supplier and payment matching
PayrollNot shipped for the UK. India payroll runs through HelloTime, a sibling productNone. Payroll is sold separately as a human service by The Accountancy Partnership
Inventory & operationsItem master, BOM, FIFO/LIFO/weighted-average valuation, GRN, multi-warehouse, POS and manufacturing — included from ProStock control is a Pro-only feature; there is no warehouse, POS or manufacturing capability
Purchase orders & three-way matchingUnlimited POs on every plan; PO/GRN/bill three-way matching from ProNot found — purchase orders are not documented as a Pandle feature
Multi-entityMulti-entity management from Pro with consolidation reporting for cross-company viewsMulti-company management is a Pro-only feature
Multi-currencyIncluded on all plans with automatic FX gain and lossIncluded — automates currency conversion at current rates with gain and loss on exchange between invoice and payment
Integrations & APIPlaid, Stripe, Razorpay, PayPal, PineLabs, Tally 6.2, API from Pro, BI connector, public read-only MCP serverBank, Stripe and PayPal feeds only. No public API found, and reviewers repeatedly cite the lack of integrations including with Dext and Hubdoc
Mobile experienceFull iOS and Android apps on every plan, including FreePandle Mobile exists but is rated far below the web product — 1.7 on the App Store from 38 ratings and 2.9 on Google Play from 44. MTD tools are web-only and not accessible in the mobile app
Independent ratingsNewer product with a smaller review base — judge us on the free plan rather than review volumeTrustpilot 4.6/5 (1,089, second-hand); Capterra UK 4.6/5 (20); G2 4.1/5 (10)

When to choose HelloBooks

  • You want AI doing the categorisation, reconciliation and error detection — Pandle offers none at any price.
  • You carry stock, run a POS or manufacture, and need those movements posting to the ledger.
  • You need purchase orders with three-way matching, which Pandle does not document.
  • Your team works from phones — Pandle Mobile is rated 1.7 on the App Store and its MTD tools are web-only.
  • You want cash-flow forecasting with scenarios and runway alerts rather than a Pro-tier basic forecast.
  • You trade beyond the UK and want India GST, US 1099 and sales tax, or UAE VAT in the same ledger.

When to choose Pandle

  • You need MTD for Income Tax quarterly filing for 2026/27 today — Pandle states it is HMRC-recognised for ITSA and HelloBooks does not claim that.
  • You want unlimited users on a genuinely free plan, which is rare.
  • Your bookkeeping is simple: UK-only, no stock, no purchase orders, no multi-entity.
  • Your accountant is The Accountancy Partnership, which distributes Pandle to its clients.
  • You want the lowest possible paid price — £5 a month plus VAT with no annual lock-in is hard to beat.
  • A 4.6 Trustpilot score from over a thousand reviews matters more to you than feature depth.

Frequently asked questions

Is Pandle really free?

Yes, and more generously than most. The free plan includes bank feeds, receipt uploads, invoicing, quotes, credit notes, projects, mileage, reporting, VAT submissions, MTD Income Tax submissions and unlimited users, with no time limit. Pandle Pro at £5 a month plus VAT adds cash-flow forecasting, live chat support, premium invoice templates, stock control, PayPal and Stripe feeds, bank rules, multi-company management and customer statements.

Does Pandle handle MTD for Income Tax?

It says so, and we have no reason to doubt it: Pandle states it is HMRC-recognised and fully compliant for MTD Income Tax, and MTD Income Tax submissions appear in the £0 tier. One gap we could not close — its MTD IT page describes quarterly submissions but does not mention the year-end final declaration, so confirm that specifically with Pandle before relying on it for a full ITSA cycle.

Does HelloBooks handle MTD for Income Tax?

No, and we are not going to imply otherwise on a comparison page. HelloBooks is MTD-ready for VAT. MTD for Income Tax quarterly submission is not something we claim as a shipped feature. MTD ITSA became mandatory from 6 April 2026 for sole traders and landlords above the threshold, so if that applies to you, Pandle genuinely does something we do not. Speak to our sales team if you want the current UK roadmap position in writing.

What does HelloBooks cost in the UK?

Free forever with 2,500 AI credits a month and up to two users — unlimited invoices, bills, quotes and purchase orders, AP and AR aging, P&L, balance sheet and cash flow, and the full mobile app. Pro is £7.99/month or £79.99/year against a list price of £15.99, with unlimited users, unlimited bank connections, multi-entity, API access, inventory, three-way matching and multi-currency. Business is £31.99/month or £319.99/year.

Does Pandle have any AI?

None is advertised. No AI feature appears on Pandle's features pages or MTD pages as of 28 July 2026. If AI-assisted categorisation and reconciliation is what you are shopping for, this is the clearest difference between the two products.

What AI does HelloBooks include?

AI auto-categorization at 95%+ accuracy, OCR bill and receipt capture with smart line-item extraction, Munimji — a conversational accounting assistant with 60+ tools — AI payables with approval routing, AI calling for overdue receivables, a CFO agent, Auto-Inbox capture from email and photos, smart error detection, Period Autopilot for automated month-end close and depreciation, and an AI Analysis tab on every standard report. There is also a public read-only MCP server at agents.hellobooks.ai/mcp. The Free plan includes 2,500 AI credits a month.

Which has the better mobile app?

HelloBooks, by a wide margin on the evidence. Pandle Mobile is rated 1.7 out of 5 from 38 App Store ratings and 2.9 from 44 on Google Play, and Pandle states its MTD tools are web-app only and not accessible on mobile. HelloBooks ships full iOS and Android apps with complete data entry on every plan, including Free.

Does Pandle do payroll?

No. Payroll is not part of Pandle — it is sold separately as a human service by The Accountancy Partnership. HelloBooks does not ship UK payroll either, so neither product solves this for you today; you will need a dedicated payroll product or a bookkeeper.

What do Pandle users complain about?

Performance is the most consistent theme — a G2 reviewer says the platform is often very slow, over 30 seconds to load, and an AccountingWEB thread describes it as slow and clunky. Beyond that: reporting is hard to use for supplier and payment matching; credit notes must be tied to a specific invoice; changing nominal codes on accounts is difficult; there is duplicate data entry across accounts; and the free plan pushes you toward Pro for practical use. Reviewers also cite the lack of integrations with data-capture tools like Dext.

Can Pandle handle inventory?

Stock control is a Pandle Pro feature, and that is as far as it goes — there is no warehouse module, no POS and no manufacturing. HelloBooks includes item master, bill of materials, FIFO, LIFO and weighted-average valuation, goods-receipt notes, low-stock alerts and forecasting from Pro, plus receiving, put-away, wave picking, cycle counting, POS, restaurant and manufacturing with MRP and job costing.

Can I migrate from Pandle to HelloBooks?

Yes, with a caveat worth planning for. Pandle documents report export in Excel and PDF and supports importing customers, suppliers and invoices, but we could not verify a full transaction-level CSV export — the existence of third-party Pandle-to-Xero conversion services suggests migration is not entirely self-service. Export what you can, then import chart of accounts, customers, suppliers, items, invoices and bills into HelloBooks from CSV; our import uses AI to retain nominal codes and map intelligently, with a dry-run preview and one-click rollback.

Is HelloBooks a UK product?

It is a global platform with live UK support rather than a UK-only product, and it is fair to be clear about that. UK coverage includes GBP invoicing, MTD-ready VAT, UK bank feeds and UK-specific content. Filing automation is live in India, the US, the UK, Australia and the UAE, with tax vocabulary and rate cards across 187 countries. Pandle is UK-only and goes deeper on UK filing specifically.

Is HelloBooks secure?

HelloBooks is SOC 2 Type II certified, with the report available under NDA through the Trust Center; ISO 27001 is on the compliance roadmap and we do not describe it as certified. Data is encrypted with AES-256 at rest and TLS 1.2+ in transit, MFA is available, hosting is AWS with 99.9% uptime and daily encrypted backups, and bank connections are read-only. HelloBooks is GDPR-aligned; sub-processors and residency detail are at /trust-center.

Can I run both while I decide?

Yes, and for a UK sole trader facing MTD ITSA this is the sensible move. Both products have a genuinely free tier with no clock, so you can keep Pandle for ITSA filing while testing HelloBooks on the same transactions for AI categorisation, reporting depth and mobile use. Decide on evidence rather than on either vendor's claims.

Migrating from Pandle?

HelloBooks supports CSV import for chart of accounts, customers, vendors, items, invoices, and bills. For QuickBooks Online, we offer a built-in two-way sync. For other platforms, our migration team can assist with a structured cutover.

Start freeTalk to migration teamView pricing

Related reading

Free accounting software

What the HelloBooks Free plan includes, permanently.

HelloBooks pricing

Free forever, Pro £7.99/month, Business £31.99/month in the UK.

AI categorization

Auto-coding at 95%+ accuracy with reviewable confidence scores.

Cash flow management

4/12/26-week forecasts with base, best and worst scenarios.

Inventory

Item master, BOM, valuation methods and GRN — included from Pro.

Migrate to HelloBooks

Dry-run preview and one-click rollback when you move your books over.

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