Xero raised its prices again in late 2025 and the WhatsApp groups have started up. Should you ditch it for MYOB? Move to a spreadsheet? Use one of those new AI-only tools? Here is the boring answer: probably not, and here is why.
Why does Xero keep raising prices?
Xero is publicly listed (ASX:XRO). That means shareholders, and shareholders expect growth in revenue per user every year. It is the price you pay for the polish.
On top of that, Xero has invested heavily through 2024 and 2025 in AI features, payroll modernisation, tax automation, and new compliance tooling. The fundamental cost of running cloud accounting software for over four million subscribers is not trivial.
Translation: the price rises are not greed, they are the business model. Expecting them to stop is like expecting Netflix to stop putting prices up. It is not happening.
Yes, but is it still worth it?
For most NZ businesses, yes, comfortably.
Time saved on data entry through bank rules, AI categorisation, and Hubdoc typically pays the subscription several times over. At year end, the difference between handing your accountant a clean Xero file versus a shoebox of receipts is usually somewhere between $800 and $2,000 in fees. That gap pays the entire annual Xero subscription, twice over.
What about MYOB?
MYOB is fine. It is feature-rich and has its loyal users.
It is also slower, less polished, and the user experience trails Xero by maybe eighteen months. The integrations ecosystem is smaller. The mobile app is rougher.
If you are a small business and you already like Xero, do not switch to save thirty dollars a month. The friction of migration plus retraining staff will eat the savings for two years.
What about going DIY in a spreadsheet?
It works for sole traders with very simple income: one revenue stream, no GST, under sixty grand turnover. Honestly, fine.
Once you have GST returns, invoices in multiple currencies, asset depreciation, or payroll, the time you spend on the spreadsheet starts to cost more than Xero. We have seen clients save four hours a month switching off their homemade spreadsheet onto Xero. At $40 to $80 an hour of your time, the maths writes itself.
The TACA take
Every TACA package includes the standard Xero subscription. Our clients do not feel the price rises directly.
As a Xero Platinum Partner we get partner pricing and absorb most of the increases within the package year. If you are paying for Xero separately right now and using another accountant, moving the Xero subscription inside a TACA package usually saves money even before we count the accounting fees.
We are not going to pretend a Platinum Partner badge is a neutral source on this. We are biased. We genuinely think Xero is the right tool for the vast majority of NZ small businesses. We are also realists about its annual price creep. Bundling it into a fixed monthly TACA fee is how we shield clients from the worst of that.