The Sage alternative
built for South Africa.
If you're weighing up whether Sage is still the right fit, OxyAccounting is a full South African cloud accounting platform at R149/month: one plan, every feature, no tiers. Here's how it stacks up.
Sage is a well-established name, but for many South African small businesses it's more product, and more cost, than they need. Its plans are tiered, so inventory, purchasing and extra users push you up the price ladder. OxyAccounting takes the opposite approach: a single R149/month plan with everything switched on.
You get a real double-entry general ledger with automatic posting, VAT201 built field-by-field against the SARS form with a GL reconciliation, bank reconciliation for FNB, ABSA, Capitec, Standard Bank and Nedbank across multiple accounts, inventory with COGS, purchasing with 3-way match, a fixed asset register with automatic depreciation and Roxy, an AI assistant powered by Claude.
Being honest about the gaps: OxyAccounting uses CSV bank import rather than live feeds and doesn't yet offer an API. If those are dealbreakers, the comparison table below lays it out plainly. Competitor details are to the best of our knowledge. Verify on the vendor sites.
Full feature comparison
To the best of our knowledge and current at the time of writing. Competitor plans and pricing change, so always verify on their websites before deciding.
| Feature | OxyAccountingR149/month | Sage Business CloudFrom R240/mo | QuickBooks OnlineVerify on their site |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing | |||
Monthly price (base)Sage Accounting Start is R240/mo (incl. VAT) per the Sage SA shop. QuickBooks ZA retail pricing could not be independently confirmed, so please check their website. | R149/mo | From R240/mo | Verify on site |
All features at one priceSage and QuickBooks use tiered plans, so higher tiers cost more. | |||
Free trialOxyAccounting asks for no card details to start a trial. Sage and QuickBooks both run trial offers in South Africa, but the length and the card requirement change from time to time, so check their current terms. | 14 days, no card | Verify on site | Verify on site |
Annual contract requiredAll three are available month-to-month. | |||
Users on base plan | 3 | 1 | 1 |
| Sales | |||
Invoicing | |||
Quotations / estimates | |||
Credit notes | |||
Recurring invoices | |||
PDF & branded email delivery | |||
Overdue reminders | |||
Customer statements | |||
Payment allocation | |||
Payment reversal (with GL reversal)Undo an incorrectly recorded payment. OxyAccounting reverses the ledger and the invoice balance together. | |||
| Purchasing & payables | |||
Purchase orders | Higher tiers | ||
Goods received notes (GRN) | Some tiers | ||
Supplier invoices | |||
Supplier payments (partial / full)Record payments against supplier invoices with a separate accounts-payable audit trail. | |||
3-way match (PO → GRN → Inv.) | Partial | ||
| Bank reconciliation | |||
CSV bank import | |||
Multiple bank accountsConnect and reconcile more than one bank account per company. | |||
Live bank feedsOxyAccounting uses CSV import only, with no open-banking feed. | |||
All 5 major SA banksQuickBooks SA bank coverage may vary. | Partial | ||
Auto-matching | |||
Record transfers & refunds inlineRecord a manual bank transfer or an expense refund straight from the reconciliation screen. | Partial | Partial | |
Period lock | |||
| Inventory | |||
Inventory management | Some tiers | Plus tier | |
COGS tracking | |||
Stock movement audit trail | Partial | Partial | |
Auto-update on invoice/GRN | Partial | Partial | |
| General ledger & compliance | |||
Full double-entry GLEvery invoice, credit note, payment, expense, GRN and supplier invoice posts a real double-entry journal automatically. | |||
Journal browser with drill-through | |||
Unposted items review | Partial | Partial | |
One-click SA SME chart of accounts | |||
IAS 1 balance sheet (comparative)Classified current vs non-current assets and liabilities, with a prior-year column. | |||
Trial balance export (Excel) | |||
Fixed asset register + depreciationAutomatic monthly straight-line depreciation via a scheduled job. | Higher tiers | Limited | |
Opening balances (mid-year onboarding) | |||
Year-end close / period lock | |||
GL control tie-out reportReconciles every subledger (debtors, creditors, bank and VAT) back to the general ledger and flags discrepancies. | Partial | Partial | |
| VAT & reporting | |||
VAT201 built against the SARS formFields 1 to 20 of the real SARS VAT201 form. It is not SARS-certified, so you review the return and submit it yourself via eFiling. | |||
GL-to-VAT201 reconciliation | Partial | Partial | |
VAT treatments (standard/zero/exempt/export) | |||
Income vs. expense report | |||
Customer age analysis | |||
Year-to-date figures | |||
Expense tracking with VAT | |||
| Platform & extras | |||
Built-in AI assistantOxyAccounting's Roxy is powered by Anthropic Claude, is aware of the page you're on and stays open as you work. | Roxy (Claude) | ||
Invite your accountant into live booksOxyAccounting's accountant link gives your accountant direct, real-time access to your books once you invite them and they accept, with the same scoping you'd get. They need their own paid OxyAccounting subscription to do this. Sage and QuickBooks don't require a separate subscription for your accountant. | Yes (own subscription) | Yes (uses a seat) | Free & unlimited |
Payroll (PAYE, UIF, SDL)OxyAccounting includes monthly payroll at no extra cost: PAYE, UIF and SDL from the SARS tax tables, BCEA-compliant payslips and EMP201 figures. IRP5/IT3(a) and e@syFile export are not yet included. | Paid add-on | Paid add-on | |
API access | |||
POPIA-compliant hostingIntuit/QuickBooks is a US company; data is processed offshore. | |||
Setup time | ~2 minutes | 30–60 min | 30–60 min |
Mobile-ready (browser-based) | |||
Frequently asked questions
Try OxyAccounting for yourself.
Free for 14 days, no card. R149/month after that, everything included.