Xero pricing for tradies: plans, real costs and which one you need (2026)

Short answer

Xero costs from A$37 a month (Ignite) to A$500 (Ultra) in Australia, including GST. Prices went up on 1 July 2026.

Most trade businesses need Grow at A$78 a month. Ignite caps you at 20 invoices a month, and invoices your job app sends to Xero count towards that cap. Move to Comprehensive (A$107) once you have three to five people on payroll, and Ultimate (from A$143) at six or more.

New customers can get 90% off the first three months until 11:59pm AEDT on 2 November 2026. After that, check Xero’s pricing page for the current offer.

Xero plans and prices in Australia

These are Xero’s prices from 1 July 2026, from its AU pricing page, checked 25 October 2026. Xero shows prices including GST. If you’re registered for GST you claim that back, so the ex-GST column is your real cost.

Every plan includes bank reconciliation, quotes, GST and BAS, and receipt capture. Xero subscriptions are monthly and auto-renew until you cancel. You can move to a cheaper plan one month after upgrading.

Which Xero plan does a trade business need?

Two things decide it for most tradies: how many invoices you send, and how many people you pay through payroll.

The job-app catch on Ignite

Ignite allows 20 invoices a month. Xero’s fine print says the limit applies “to both approving and sending invoices” and that “transactions initiated by app partners may automatically contribute to your invoice limit”.

If ServiceM8, Tradify, Fergus, Simpro or AroFlo sends your invoices to Xero, each one counts. A sole trader doing 35 jobs a month goes over the cap in the third week. Ignite also only allows five bills a month, and supplier invoices from your wholesaler count as bills.

If you use a job app, start on Grow. See job management software that works with Xero for what each app sends across.

Payroll: what counts as a person

Xero counts the people you pay through Xero Payroll in a calendar month. Apprentices and casuals count in any month you pay them. Subcontractors don’t, because you pay them as bills, not wages.

In Australia you can’t buy one extra payroll person on Ignite, Grow or Comprehensive. When you go over, you move up a plan. The only per-person charge is A$2 a person on Ultimate 100 (past 100 people) and on Ultra (past 10). Some sites say extra people cost A$5 each on any plan. Xero’s AU pricing page doesn’t offer that.

Each hire that takes you past a plan’s payroll limit also raises your Xero bill:

• Taking on your third employee moves you from Grow to Comprehensive: A$29 a month more, A$348 a year.
• Taking on your sixth moves you from Comprehensive to Ultimate 10: A$36 a month more, A$432 a year.

Do you need Xero Projects?

If you use a job management app, you can skip it. Xero Projects tracks time and costs against jobs, but it’s only on Ultimate plans (10 project users included, then A$7 a user a month). It’s not available on Ignite, Grow or Comprehensive.

Every job app on this site does job costing itself and sends the invoice to Xero. For a trade business, A$65 a month extra to go from Grow to Ultimate 10 for Projects alone is hard to justify.

Extra costs on top of the plan

The plan price isn’t the whole bill. These can add to it:

Card fees vary by where you read them: Stripe’s own AU page says 1.65% + 30c, Xero’s Stripe listing says 1.75% + 30c. Check Stripe’s current rate. Since 1 October 2026 you can’t add a surcharge for eftpos, Mastercard or Visa payments in Australia, so the fee comes out of your price. If your job app takes the payment instead (ServiceM8 Pay, Tradify’s card payments, Fergus Pay), its fee applies and Xero’s doesn’t.

Xero also says some direct bank feeds are chargeable, billed with your usage charges the following month.

What a year of Xero costs

At full price, including GST:

The offer column is three months at 10% of the price and nine at full price. It only applies to the base plan, not to add-ons, usage charges or payment fees.

How much Xero’s prices have gone up

Xero restructured its Australian plans in July 2024 and has raised prices each July since.

The bigger plans have gone up fastest. Xero also dropped its multi-organisation discount from 1 July 2026, according to its notice to customers as reported by several accounting firms. That hits anyone running two companies, like a trading company and a separate entity for vehicles or property.

In May 2025 Xero put payroll back into Ignite (1 person) and Grow (2 people), after removing it from the cheaper plans in the 2024 change (Xero announcement).

Xero discounts and promo codes

• Xero’s own offer. New Australian customers buying their first organisation get 90% off for three months with code DC90626310AU, until 11:59pm AEDT on 2 November 2026. After that date, check the pricing page for whatever has replaced it.
• First month free. Instead of the discount, you can take your first month free on any plan. You can’t combine the two.
• Not-for-profits. Xero offers a not-for-profit discount with proof of status, and it carries over if you change plans.
• Through your accountant. Accountants and bookkeepers in Xero’s partner program can buy subscriptions on behalf of clients. Ask yours whether they can supply yours.
• Deal sites. Some tradie deal sites advertise “100% off for six months” through their own sign-up. These are separate partner deals, not Xero’s public offer. Read their terms, including what you pay after six months and whose partner account the subscription sits under.

Xero’s AU pricing page doesn’t offer a free trial as such. The “first month free” option does the same job.

Is Xero free?

No. The cheapest plan is Ignite at A$37 a month. Two cheaper plans exist, Xero Ledger (A$7) and Cashbook (A$16.50), but you can only get them through an accountant or bookkeeper, and they’re for record-keeping, not running a trade business.

What happened to the Starter plan?

Xero replaced Starter, Standard and Premium with Ignite, Grow, Comprehensive and Ultimate in July 2024. If you’re searching for “Xero Starter”, Ignite is the closest match, but it now includes payroll for one person.

Xero pricing in New Zealand

New Zealand prices are different, and Xero shows them excluding GST. They went up on 1 October 2026 (Xero NZ update).

Two differences from Australia: in NZ you can add payroll people one at a time on the smaller plans, and there’s one Ultimate tier. Xero’s NZ offer for new customers was 80% off the first three months when we checked. See Xero’s NZ pricing.

Is Xero the right choice for a trade business?

For most Australian and NZ trade businesses it’s the default. Every job management app on this site connects to it, and so do most supplier and payroll tools.

We read every live Seek job ad that named a job management app: 468 ads in Australia. Where an ad also named the accounting software, it was Xero 75 times out of 87. MYOB came up 14 times and QuickBooks twice.

MYOB and QuickBooks Online both work with ServiceM8, Tradify, Fergus, Simpro and AroFlo too, so if your accountant prefers one of them, your job app isn’t a reason to switch.

DE

Written by Dan Edwards

Dan sets up job management, call tracking and CRM systems for trade businesses. More about Dan.