Best Tax Software for Solo Preparers: 3 Steps for 2027

Key Takeaways

• The core decision for a solo preparer is a fixed annual license versus pay-per-return pricing, and your federal return count settles which one costs less.

• On the vendor pages we opened, TaxAct's one-user 1040 bundle has the lowest unlimited individual price, but cloud storage and document management sit in the multi-user version.

• ProConnect's Essentials 50 plan costs less than its individual pay-per-return rate once you pass about 22 returns, before taxes and the User Access license.

• ProSeries' Basic 1040 plan is the lowest fixed price we found on an opened page, but it stops at 20 returns.

• TaxSlayer Pro's own pricing pages did not open during our research, so its figures come from a third-party guide and need confirmation before you buy.

• UltraTax CS publishes no price, so treat it as a quote decision rather than a line in the comparison.

TL;DR: Count last season's federal returns, price a bundle and a pay-per-return route at that count, then confirm the portal, e-sign and export features you need before you sign anything.

What you are actually buying

Tax software for a solo preparer is a licensed program that prepares, reviews and e-files one practice's federal and state returns, priced per user, per return or as a bundle. The license is only part of the cost, because state editions, business returns, user access and, if you are paid to prepare, an annual PTIN all sit on top of it.

How we evaluated these tools

The weights below are our judgment for a one-person practice, not vendor data. Cost carries the most weight because a solo practice pays a license in full whether it files 20 returns or 200, so the price structure matters more than the headline figure.

We kept six products that a solo preparer can plausibly buy and that we could check on a vendor page or an independent source. Where a vendor page conflicted with a third-party guide, we used the vendor page and said so. We did not price CCH Axcess Tax, because Wolters Kluwer's package pages did not open during our research, and we left Lacerte out of the price table because we did not open its pricing page.

What the 2026 survey says about one-person practices

Share of surveyed AICPA preparers using Drake: 14.3% according to Journal of Accountancy (2026).

The survey reached 1,808 AICPA members who prepared 2025 income tax returns for a fee, and it found that 46.5% of Drake's users were sole practitioners, according to Journal of Accountancy (2026). The article calls Drake and ProSeries "the province of sole preparers," which is the closest published evidence for the one-person segment. It also says these shares describe survey respondents rather than verified market share, and it gives no sole-practitioner split for the other products, so do not read the rankings as a verdict on fit.

What the listed prices add up to

Vendors price in three ways: a yearly license, a per-return rate, or a quote. Read each row as the cost of one season, and add the extras the page names, such as state editions, business returns and user access.

Sale price for Drake's 1040 variants: $1,895 to $2,325 according to Drake Software (2026). The page shows a higher retail price beside each sale price and does not clearly map each price to a return count, so confirm the exact variant at checkout.

TaxAct's one-user 1040 bundle: $1,175 a year and its multi-user version at $1,375 a year both cover unlimited individual returns, according to TaxAct (2026). The multi-user version is the one that adds the Enterprise Version, Document Manager and Cloud Data Storage, so a one-person office should check whether it needs those before paying the higher figure.

Pricing checked October 19, 2026. Quote-based means the vendor page we opened did not publish a price.

Pay-per-return on TaxAct starts at $169.99 a year according to TaxAct (2026), and it adds $29.99 per 1040 return and $44 per state edition. The page lists this base price as multi-user only, which matters for a solo practice. On those rates, the one-user bundle becomes cheaper than pay-per-return at about 33 federal returns once you include one state edition, as Table 4 shows. At 32 returns, pay-per-return totals $1,173.67, just under the $1,175 bundle, and at 33 it totals $1,203.66.

ProConnect's Essentials 50 plan costs $2,478 a year plus taxes for one user and 50 individual returns, individual pay-per-return is $109.95 each, and every account needs a $210 User Access license, according to Intuit (2026). The page does not say whether a bundle includes User Access. Above 22 individual returns, the Essentials 50 plan costs less than pay-per-return before taxes: at 22 returns pay-per-return totals $2,418.90, and at 23 it totals $2,528.85.

The figures in Table 4 are arithmetic on the rates cited above. They exclude taxes and the ProConnect User Access license, and the TaxAct pay-per-return column includes one state edition.

Vendor profiles: where each product fits

The matrix below records only what the pages we opened state. "Not stated" means the page did not say. The "Best fit" lines in each profile are our analysis, and the rest are facts from the cited pages.

Drake Tax

Best fit: a one-person office that files mostly individual 1040s and wants to choose between an unlimited license and pay-per-return.

Implementation: the pay-per-return option lists $379.99 for 10 individual returns, with $49.99 per added individual return and $74.99 per business return, and Drake Tax Online lists $299.99 for the first user with $99 per added user, and the Practice Essentials bundle with portals, workflow and e-sign starts at $599, according to Drake Software (2026).

Limitations: the page marks several add-ons, including bank products and audit defense, as "additional fees apply" with no figures listed. Confirm each one before you assume the license total is the season total.

Evidence: Drake is among the most-used products in the survey above, and the survey's description of sole preparers applies to it directly.

TaxAct

Best fit: a solo preparer who wants a fixed price for unlimited individual 1040s with all state editions included in the bundle.

Limitations: the pay-per-return base is listed as multi-user only, and the one-user 1040 bundle leaves out Document Manager and Cloud Data Storage, which the multi-user version adds.

Implementation: the page's FAQ says returns beyond a bundle's limit are typically charged on a pay-per-return basis, so check the overage rule against your expected count before you buy the smaller bundle.

Evidence: TaxAct and TaxSlayer Pro both show small shares in the survey, so there is less peer evidence for either one than for Drake or ProSeries.

TaxSlayer Pro

Best fit: a solo preparer who wants unlimited 1040 filing and browser access, and does not need the corporate suite.

Pricing: the Classic package on TaxSlayer Pro costs $1,395 a year, the Web package $1,595 a year and the Premium package $1,695 a year, according to Sagenext (2026).

Limitations: TaxSlayer's own pricing pages did not open during our research, so confirm the tiers, billing and inclusions on the vendor site. The guide says billing is annual, while one search summary described a one-time fee, so ask for the billing term in writing.

ProConnect

Best fit: a solo preparer who expects 50 or fewer individual returns and wants a single-user plan with a fixed season cost.

Limitations: bundle prices exclude applicable taxes, business returns cost extra, and the pricing page carries a "current pricing ends 3/1" banner without a year, so confirm the year before you budget.

Implementation: budget for User Access, which the page says every account requires. The page also says all bundles include Intuit Sign digital signatures.

ProSeries

Best fit: a preparer whose volume stays at 20 individual 1040s or fewer and who wants the lowest fixed price we found on an opened page.

Pricing: the Basic 1040 plan on ProSeries costs $729 a year for one user and 20 individual 1040s, according to Intuit (2026). The page lists higher unlimited options, but the figures we extracted for them conflict, so confirm the exact price before you quote it.

Limitations: the 20-return cap ends the plan, and the page gives no per-return dollar figure, so its pay-per-return rate is quote-based.

UltraTax CS

Best fit: a practice that expects to add users or multistate work and can wait for a written quote.

Pricing: UltraTax CS publishes no price. Thomson Reuters says custom pricing depends on the number of users, and also on returns and jurisdictions, per its UltraTax CS product page.

Limitations: the product page does not say whether UltraTax CS runs in the cloud or on the desktop, so ask before you compare hosting.

Implementation: the page lists integrations with SafeSend One, 1040SCAN, SPbinder and CoCounsel Tax, plus a preparation checklist. If you expect to outgrow a solo setup, best tax software for CPA firms covers the next tier of products.

Where the hours go after the software is chosen

Picking a package does not remove the follow-up that sits outside it, such as chasing missing documents, sending status notes and reconciling e-file acceptances. For the intake side, best tax document software for accounting firms compares document tools, and how to automate tax document collection covers the reminder side.

Suppose a solo preparer files 180 individual returns in a season and sends each client three manual document reminders at 6 minutes each: 180 × 3 × 6 = 3,240 minutes, or 54 hours. If automation sends the first two reminders and you handle only the third by hand, the work falls to 180 × 1 × 6 = 1,080 minutes, or 18 hours, a saving of 36 hours before setup time. Where intake runs through HubSpot, the trigger could be a webhook subscription, and HubSpot's webhook docs list association events such as ASSOCIATION_ADDED, which you would confirm supports your object type before you design around it. These figures are an illustration, not a measured result.

Proposed workflow, missing documents: the trigger is a document request with no upload after a number of days you set. The action is a reminder drafted from your template and sent from the email account you connect, with the send logged to a client row and a review task created for any second reminder. The output is a daily list of open items per client that you read before anything else goes out. Prerequisites: an email connector, a client tracker such as a sheet or CRM record, and a document-request source with export access, which you must confirm for your tax package and portal. Human review: you approve every reminder after the first and anything that mentions a deadline or penalty. A design from US Tech Automations would start by confirming which connectors exist, because its product page names Gmail, Google Sheets, HubSpot, QuickBooks and Stripe among connected systems but does not list a tax-preparation package.

Proposed workflow, e-file status: the trigger is an acceptance or rejection status from the tax package's export or notification feed, if your product offers one. The action updates the client row in your tracker and places a drafted client note in an approval queue. The output is a weekly status summary you read before the week closes. Prerequisites: a status feed or export that your chosen product actually provides, which some of the products above may not, and an approval step in your tracker. Human review: you write or approve every rejection note, because the reason for a rejection needs a preparer's judgment, and the workflow should never send one on its own.

Build it yourself, or pay for a design? A no-code build in Zapier, Make or n8n can cover both flows. Make's error-handling guide documents error handlers and automatic retries with longer delays, but the page we opened does not describe run-history retention, so check your plan's log limits before you rely on it. Either way, you own the parts that decide whether the workflow is safe: idempotency, so a retry never sends a second reminder; escalation paths; access controls for client files; and maintenance after each tax-package update. A managed design can configure retries, approvals and logs to a written specification with named prerequisites, but you still decide who can see client data and who approves each message.

Who should choose what

Who this is for: a one-person practice that files mostly individual 1040s, wants a fixed season cost, and is choosing between a bundle and pay-per-return. Red flags: you file mostly business returns, you need several logins in year one, or your current tool exports no client data at all.

Choose Drake if you file mostly individual 1040s and want to see both the unlimited and pay-per-return routes on one page. Choose TaxAct if the single-user bundle's price matters most and you do not need cloud storage. Choose ProConnect if you want an Intuit plan capped at 50 returns and can budget for User Access. Choose ProSeries if your volume stays at 20 individual 1040s or fewer. Choose TaxSlayer Pro if its figures check out on the vendor site and you want browser access. Choose UltraTax CS only after you have a written quote.

When NOT to use US Tech Automations: skip it if your volume is small enough that the tax package's own portal and a calendar cover follow-up. Skip it if you already run a Zapier or Make flow with run logs and an approval step that works, since rebuilding it adds risk for little gain. Skip it if your bottleneck is preparation time inside the software, because workflow automation routes reminders and tasks but does not prepare the return.

Mistakes that inflate the bill

• Comparing headline prices only. State editions, business returns and user access decide the total on several of these pages.

• Buying an unlimited plan for a volume you do not file. Run the crossover in Table 4 before you pick the bundle.

• Trusting third-party roundups over vendor pages. In our research, several guides quoted figures that did not match the vendors' own pages.

• Skipping billing terms. Some pages mark a retail price that takes effect on a future date, so the price you see today may not be the price you pay next season.

• Forgetting the PTIN. If you are paid to prepare, budget the renewal every year.

Three steps to choose before the season

1. Count last season's federal returns and state editions, and plan on that number rather than a hoped-for one.

2. Run the crossover on two routes, a fixed bundle and pay-per-return, at that count, using Table 4 as the pattern.

3. List the features you will use, including portal, e-sign, document storage and export, and get a written quote for every quote-based product before you commit.

Frequently asked questions

Which tax software is cheapest for a solo preparer?

No single product is cheapest at every volume, and the lowest fixed price on an opened page sits on a plan with a return cap, so count your returns before you compare headline prices.

Is pay-per-return or an annual bundle better for one preparer?

Pay-per-return is cheaper at low volume, and the annual bundle wins past the crossover, which falls at about 33 federal returns on TaxAct's published rates with one state edition and at about 23 on ProConnect's, before taxes and User Access.

Does TaxSlayer Pro publish its prices?

Its own pricing pages did not open during our research, so the TaxSlayer figures in this guide come from a third-party guide and need confirmation on the vendor site before you buy.

Do I need a PTIN to use this software?

Yes, if you are paid to prepare or help prepare a federal return, you need a valid PTIN, and the IRS lists the current renewal fee at $18.75 according to IRS (2026).

Should a solo preparer choose UltraTax CS?

Only if you expect to add users or multistate work soon, because UltraTax CS publishes no price and you would need a written quote before comparing it with the others.

Choose by count, then confirm the features

Start with last season's federal return count, price the fixed and per-return routes at that count, and then check the features you will use. If a product is quote-based, get the figure in writing before it goes into your comparison. For the follow-up work that sits outside the tax package, see how US Tech Automations configures this against your own tax package and its export options, and keep the human review points in place.