Keeper Alternative for Tracking Platform Income, Not Just Write-Offs
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In short
Keeper is a deduction finder with tax filing attached, and the best alternative depends on which half of that you actually need. Its own pricing page in August 2026 publishes two annual filing plans, Standard at $199 and Premium at $399, alongside a tracking-only app subscription at $20 a month that does not include filing. If deductions are the whole problem, Everlance Professional at $99.99 a year bundles 1099 filing and audit defense and undercuts Keeper outright. If the problem is instead that Keeper reads a Twitch, Etsy or Gumroad payout as a plain bank deposit with no record of the fee taken first, that is a different category, and Earnly shows gross, fees and take-home per platform across twelve sources from $12 a month.
Last updated August 2026
The honest read
Keeper, once called Keeper Tax, is built to do one job well: find the tax write-offs a 1099 worker misses. You link your accounts, its software scans transactions for deductible expenses, and at tax time you can file directly or hand a clean deduction export to a CPA. The tracking-only plan, Only Deductions, runs $20 a month, and the annual filing plans published on keepertax.com in August 2026 are Standard at $199 and Premium at $399, with Premium adding quarterly tax support, three or more states, Schedule E and K-1s, audit protection, prior-year returns and amendments. If your main problem is that you are leaving deductions on the table and dread filing, Keeper is a genuinely good answer and this page is not trying to change your mind. What Keeper does not do is show you what you actually earn across the platforms you sell on. It treats a Twitch payout, an Etsy deposit and a Gumroad transfer as generic bank inflows, with no record of the fee each platform skimmed first and no sense of when the next deposit is due. Earnly is the alternative for that side of the ledger: twelve platforms on one board showing gross to fees to take-home per source, a payout calendar that knows Twitch pays around the 15th while Gumroad pays every Friday, and a next-month forecast band that is always labeled an estimate. The honest split is that Keeper answers what can I deduct and how do I file, while Earnly answers what did I really make, after fees, and when does the money land. Many creators run both, Keeper at tax time and Earnly all year for income clarity. Earnly is an informational analytics tool; it is not a bank, and it does not give accounting or tax advice or find deductions.
Published prices
Keeper pricing, from keepertax.com in August 2026
Keeper separates tracking from filing, which is the part that catches people out when they compare it on a single monthly number. Roundups quoting a $99 entry filing plan are quoting a figure the vendor page no longer shows.
| Plan | US price | Filing included | Notable inclusions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Only Deductions, the app subscription | $20/mo | No | Expense scanning, deduction export you can hand to a CPA or TurboTax |
| Standard | $199/yr | Yes, federal plus up to 2 states | Tax pro review and signature, Schedule C, investment tracking, up to 10 linked institutions |
| Premium | $399/yr | Yes, 3 or more states | Quarterly tax support, Schedule E and K-1s, audit protection, prior year returns and amendments |
Published prices
Which alternative fits which problem
Buy against the question you keep failing to answer, not against the brand. Prices checked on vendor pages in August 2026.
| If your problem is | Better answer | US price | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| I want deductions found and my return filed, cheaply | Everlance Professional | $99.99/yr | Bundles all-inclusive 1099 filing and $1 million audit defense into the annual price |
| My largest deduction is the car | Everlance Starter or Hurdlr | $8.99/mo or $9.99/mo | Both are built around automatic mileage detection, which Keeper does not do |
| I need real double-entry books my CPA can open | QuickBooks Online Simple Start | $38/mo | A ledger with a chart of accounts, not a deduction scanner |
| I need Schedule C categories and quarterly estimates only | QuickBooks Solopreneur | $20/mo | Same price as Keeper tracking, built around the self-employed return |
| What did each platform actually pay me after fees | Earnly | From $12/mo | Per-platform gross, fees and take-home, plus a payout calendar. No deduction finding. |
What Keeper is genuinely good at
Keeper, once called Keeper Tax, does one job well. It links your accounts, scans transactions for expenses a 1099 worker can legitimately write off, and surfaces the ones people forget: the share of your phone bill, software subscriptions, home office costs, the equipment you bought in March and never thought about again. At tax time you either file through Keeper or export the deduction list to a preparer.
For a freelancer who knows they are leaving money on the table and dreads April, that is a real product solving a real problem, and this page is not trying to argue otherwise. The reason people search for an alternative is almost always one of two things: the price stack once they see filing is separate, or the discovery that Keeper has nothing to say about their income.
The pricing detail that sends people looking
Keeper is often summarized as a $20 a month app. That is the Only Deductions subscription, and it does not file your taxes. Filing is an annual plan on top: $199 for Standard, or $399 for Premium if you have three or more states, rental property, K-1s, quarterly payments or want audit protection and prior-year amendments.
Run the arithmetic on a full year. Tracking at $20 a month is $240, plus $199 to file, which is $439 for a single-state Schedule C filer. That is a fair price for what you get, and it is also more than most people have in their head when they start comparing.
The comparison that stings most is Everlance Professional at $99.99 a year, which includes all-inclusive 1099 filing and $1 million of audit defense in the annual price. For a self-employed filer who wants the return handled and whose deductions are mostly mileage and ordinary business expenses, that is a genuinely cheaper package. We would rather say that plainly than pretend Keeper wins on price, because it does not.
Note that both vendors move their numbers. Everlance publishes no monthly price for Professional at all, only the annual figure, so any monthly number you read elsewhere is somebody's arithmetic. Check both pricing pages on the day you buy.
The gap that has nothing to do with price
Keeper reads your bank feed. A bank feed knows one thing about a platform payout: the net amount that arrived. It does not know that Twitch kept half of a $4.99 subscription, that a Gumroad Discover sale cost 30% while a direct sale cost about 13%, that Etsy took $0.20 for the listing plus 6.5% plus processing, or that Amazon deducted a referral fee before disbursing.
That matters for one specific and expensive reason. Platforms report GROSS on a 1099-K, and under the current US rules that form issues above $20,000 and more than 200 transactions, both conditions together. If your books are built from net deposits, your reported receipts are understated by exactly the fee total, and the fees you paid are never claimed as the deductible expense they are. A deduction finder that looks only at money going out will never catch this, because the money never went out. It was taken before it arrived.
This is the half Earnly covers. Connect the platforms and each payout shows as gross, then fees, then take-home, with a calendar of expected pay dates and a next-month forecast that is always labeled an estimate. It is read only, it never files anything, and it does not find write-offs. It answers what did I really make and when does the money land, which is the other question on the same profit and loss line.
How most people end up settling this
The common outcome is not switching, it is splitting. Keep a tax tool for April and run an income tracker all year. If Keeper is doing well at finding your deductions, the sensible move is usually to keep the $20 a month tracking plan, compare its Standard filing plan against Everlance Professional when the time comes, and add income tracking separately rather than hoping a tax product grows into one.
If you would rather consolidate, the honest test is whether anyone other than you needs to read your books. If an accountant will file for you, give them a real ledger: QuickBooks Online Simple Start at $38 a month. If you file yourself and the whole problem is finding deductions, the deduction-first tools are cheaper and faster. Our comparisons of Everlance alternatives, Hurdlr alternatives and QuickBooks Self Employed alternatives go deeper on each, and the best income tracker apps roundup covers the income side in full.
Side by side
Where the boards differ
| What you get | Earnly | Keeper |
|---|---|---|
| Per-platform gross -> fees -> take-home view | Yes | No |
| Payout calendar with expected pay dates | Yes | No |
| 12+ creator and seller platforms on one board | Yes | No |
| Next-month income forecast (labeled estimate) | Yes | No |
| Finds tax-deductible expenses automatically | No | Yes |
| Files your federal and state taxes | No | Yes |
| Read-only; never files or touches your money | Yes | Scans linked accounts for write-offs |
| Pricing model | Flat, $12 to $79/mo | $20/mo tracking; $199 to $399/yr to file |
Comparison reflects published pricing and feature descriptions as of August 2026; both products change. Pick the tool that fits how you earn. See what the board looks like on the income tracker homepage, or start with the revenue dashboard.
Questions people actually ask
Is Keeper worth it for freelancers?
It depends on whether the deductions it finds exceed what it costs. A full year of tracking at $20 a month plus the $199 Standard filing plan is $439. If Keeper surfaces $2,000 of write-offs you would otherwise have missed, that is clearly worth it at a 25% effective rate. If your expenses are simple and mostly mileage, Everlance Professional at $99.99 a year covers tracking and filing for less.
What is the difference between Keeper and QuickBooks?
Keeper is a deduction scanner with filing attached and no general ledger. QuickBooks Online is a double-entry accounting system with a chart of accounts, a balance sheet and a profit and loss statement. If nobody but you reads your books, Keeper is lighter and faster. If an accountant files for you, they will want QuickBooks or Xero, and QuickBooks Online Simple Start is $38 a month.
Does Keeper file quarterly taxes?
Quarterly tax payment support sits on the Premium plan at $399 a year, not on Standard at $199 and not on the $20 a month tracking subscription. If you expect to owe $1,000 or more and need help with estimates through the year, that is the tier that covers it. Confirm on keepertax.com before you buy, since Keeper has moved these figures before.
What is the best free alternative to Keeper?
There is no honest free equivalent of the deduction scanning, but two things get close for parts of the job. Everlance Basic is no-cost and covers 30 automatically detected trips a month, which is about one a day and the real upgrade lever. Wave keeps a no-cost Starter tier for basic bookkeeping and invoicing. Neither files your return, and both leave the platform-fee question untouched.
How much does Keeper cost?
Keeper has two shapes. The tracking-only plan, called Only Deductions, is $20 a month and gives you the expense scanner plus an export you can take to TurboTax or a CPA. To file with Keeper you move to an annual plan: Standard at $199, or Premium at $399 if you have three or more states, rental property, K-1s or want audit protection and prior-year amendments. Prices from keepertax.com in August 2026; confirm before you buy.
Is Keeper the same as an income tracker?
Not really. Keeper is a deduction finder and tax filer: it looks at money going out to spot write-offs. An income tracker like Earnly looks at money coming in, and specifically at what each platform paid you after its cut. They sit on opposite sides of the same profit-and-loss line, which is why plenty of creators use one for taxes and the other for income.
Does Keeper show fees from YouTube, Etsy or Twitch?
No. Keeper records a platform payout as a plain deposit and does not break out the fee the platform took before paying you. If you want to see that a Gumroad Discover sale cost 30% while a direct one cost about 13%, as our breakdown of Gumroad fees lays out, or line up gross against take-home per platform, that is the gap Earnly fills with its per-platform fee breakdown.
Can I use Keeper and Earnly together?
Yes, and it is a common setup. Keeper handles deductions and filing at tax time, while Earnly tracks what you earn across platforms all year, with fees and expected pay dates. If you are working out which platforms will send you paperwork, our guide to 1099 forms for content creators covers the thresholds. Earnly does not find write-offs or file taxes and does not pretend to; it is the income half of the picture.