Sales tax can be incredibly frustrating and sometimes confusing to deal with, especially when you run an online business that can sell its services across the country or even the world! Although Shopify’s in-house tax solution is a great start for basic tax calculations, it’s not very viable when scaling your business.
After all, as a business grows larger and larger, owners often hit a turning point where they can’t handle the many sales tax responsibilities of their growing ecommerce business, like registering, filing, auditing, nexus tracking, and making sales tax payments. This, of course, makes them seek out a more robust solution for handling their sales tax responsibilities from a third party.
If you’ve found yourself in this predicament, there’s no need to worry. There are countless sales tax solutions that integrate with Shopify, that can make handling your sales tax responsibilities a breeze. However, each solution has its own unique benefits and drawbacks. In this article, we’ll delve into eight of the top sales tax apps for Shopify and outline exactly who they’re best for.
Although Shopify offers a great suite of tools, including their native sales tax tool, this tool lacks the depth needed for larger, more complex e-commerce businesses. Some limitations that you’re probably facing if you’re using the native Shopify tax tool are:
Whereas using a third-party sales tax app provides quite a few benefits for business owners, such as:
Now that we’ve gone through some of the reasons why you might consider upgrading from the native Shopify sales tax tool to a third-party sales tax app, we’ll go through some of the best Shopify-compatible sales tax apps out there.
Below are eight of the best sales tax apps on the market right now for Shopify sellers. We’ve done the digging and outlined exactly what you can expect from each app and what it’s best for:
Numeral is the most comprehensive sales tax solution for Shopify sellers of all shapes and sizes. The Numeral app can handle everything, from tax rate calculations to nexus tracking, filings, registrations, and payments. This makes Numeral a great choice for Shopify sellers who are looking for an end-to-end solution for all of their sales tax needs. Some additional features that Numeral offers its customers are:
On top of all that, Numeral offers a simple pricing structure without any hidden fees. For Numeral to register your business with a state, so you can begin collecting sales tax, there is a flat fee of $150 per state. Once you’re registered with a particular state, Numeral charges a flat fee of $75 per filing, regardless of your company’s revenue. If you’d like to get started with Numeral, you can download the Shopify App, read the reviews, or book a demo directly on the Numeral website.
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TaxJar is another popular, well-established sales tax solution owned by the payments giant, Stripe. Since it’s owned by Stripe, TaxJar supports a wide range of seller platforms, including Amazon, Bigcommerce, Etsy, Magento 2, eBay, Shopify, Square, Squarespace, WooCommerce, and Walmart. Designed with simplicity in mind, TaxJar offers users a great suite of tools for calculating, collecting, and filing sales tax across multiple states. Some of their most notable features are:
Although TaxJar is a very popular end-to-end sales tax solution, their Shopify App has mixed reviews, with a ⅗ star rating across more than 100 reviews. If you’re not sure about TaxJar and want to give their product a try, they do offer customers a 30 day free trial. Once the trial expires, their “Starter” plan starts at $19/month, and their “Professional” plan starts at $99/month. Each of these plans includes 200 orders per month. If you go over this 200-order threshold, additional charges apply.
>> Other Option: TaxJar Alternative
TaxCloud is another popular end-to-end sales tax solution that’s known for its simplicity and compliance focus. It supports a wide range of seller platforms, including Shopify, odoo, WooCommerce, Amazon, Oracle Netsuite, Stripe, Square, BigCommerce, Etsy, Walmart, Amazon, Wix, eBay, and more. TaxCloud boasts several features that help Shopify merchants streamline the sales tax filing process, including:
TaxCloud is also rather unique in the fact that they have a free version of its service with limited capability. Additionally, they have a “Starter” plan that starts at $19/month and a “Premium” plan that starts at $79/month. Each of these plans includes 100 orders per month and charges an additional $39/month for return filing and remittance and $99/month for audit support. If you’re interested in trying out TaxCloud, you can install their Shopify App.
>> Other Option: TaxCloud Alternative
Quaderno is another versatile end-to-end sales tax app that supports a wide variety of seller platforms, including PayPal, Stripe, GoCardless, Braintree, Amazon, Shopify, WooCommerce, and more. Quaderno is designed to handle complex tax scenarios, making it a great choice for merchants that have international sales and, therefore, international sales tax obligations. Some of Quaderno’s most prominent features are:
Given all of the complexity that comes with Quaderno, their pricing structure is a bit higher than competitors, with their “Startup” plan starting at $49/month, their “Business” Plan starting at $99/month, and their “Growth” plan starting at $149/month. Quaderno also offers custom enterprise plans and a seven-day free trial. For those who want to try Quaderno, you can sign up through their website, or install their Shopify App.
Taxmatic is a specialized end-to-end sales tax solution that is built specifically with UK and European Shopify merchants in mind. This means that their features are focused mainly on VAT compliance. Taxmatic currently supports Shopify Woo Commerce, Amazon and Shopline merchants. Some of its most important features include:
Taxmatic offers a wide variety of pricing plans for businesses of all shapes and sizes. Their “New Entry” plan costs €19/month, plus €1.50 per transaction. Their other plans have a slightly different pricing structure, though. The “Essential Plus” plan starts at €99/month, the “Growth” plan starts at €199/month, and the “Premium” plan starts at €349/month. These are just their most popular plans - there are several more plans available on their website that might fit your unique needs better. If you’re interested in trying Taxmatic, you can sign up through their website, or their Shopify App.
Kintsugi is a newcomer to the sales tax industry, with its doors being opened in 2023. However, despite being a young company, they have created quite a few partnerships, integrating their services with Stripe, Oracle Netsuite, Etsy, Walmart, Shopify, Amazon, BigCommerce, and more. Some of their most interesting features include:
Although Kintsugi is the “new kid on the block”, they’ve drummed up quite a bit of support, with a 5-star rating built on the back of nearly 100 reviews on their Shopify App. Additionally, their pricing structure is relatively simple. Their “Starter” plan is free, and their “Growth” plan costs $100/filing. They also offer enterprise pricing for clients with custom needs. If you’d like to get started with Kintsugi, you can visit their website or install their Shopify App.
>> Other Option: Kintsugi Alternative
Avalara is one of the largest end-to-end sales tax solution companies in the space, with a heavy focus on enterprise customers. They offer a wide variety of compliance tools and are designed with large corporations in mind. They boast over 1,200 integrations, meaning they can integrate with practically any e-commerce platform you can think of, including Stripe, Shopify, WooCommerce, Oracle Netsuite, Amazon, Big Commerce, Salesforce, eBay, Etsy, and many more. Some of their key features include:
Given their focus on large-scale customers, Avalara’s pricing tends to be a bit higher than others. While they don’t offer any specific pricing details on their websites, users of internet forums have reported paying Avalara high four-digit to low five-digit sums of money per year for their services. Unfortunately, they don’t have a Shopify app, and they aren’t known for having the best customer service. If you are interested in signing up with Avalara, you can do so through their website.
>> Read More: Avalara Alternative or Shopify Tax vs. Avalara
Vertex is another end-to-end sales tax solution that caters more toward large-scale, enterprise clients with complex sales tax needs. Although they don’t offer a Shopify app, they integrate with Shopify and practically any other e-commerce platform you can think of, much like Avalara. Some of the more notable features of Vertex are:
Much like Avalara, Vertex does not publish its pricing online. However, if you run a large-scale e-commerce business and are interested in using Vertex, you can book a demo with their team to learn more about the features they have to offer and their specific pricing model.
>> Other Option: Vertex Alternative
Managing sales tax and compliance is a critical part of running an ecommerce business in today’s day and age. Unfortunately, sales tax is one of the few things that doesn’t get easier as you scale though. As with most things in life, there isn’t a simple answer to which sales tax app you should use for your Shopify business. The answer is going to depend on the unique needs of your business, what Shopify accounting software you use, and many other factors.
If your business is a large-scale, enterprise-grade business, then Vertex is probably going to be the best choice for you since they’re set up to deal with some of the largest retailers in the world.
If you’re a UK or EU merchant, then Taxmatic is probably going to be the best for you, as they’re designed with the UK and EU specifically in mind.
However, if you’re looking for a sales-tax solution that will be great for you, no matter how big your business is, then Numeral is the best option. Our simple pricing structure and comprehensive software are designed to make your life easier, and your business run smoother! And if you are looking to compare even more options for a growing ecommerce brand, take a look at our guide on the best ecommerce sales tax compliance platforms.
>> Your next read: Best AI Tools for Shopify
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