Accounting Software · reliability comparison
QuickBooks Online vs Xero: which is more reliable? (2026)
QuickBooks Online is more reliable than Xero, scoring 87.8 vs 48.6 out of 100. Over the last 90 days QuickBooks Online reported 5 incidents and Xero reported 27, with effective uptime of 99.89% and 98.61% respectively. QuickBooks Online resolves incidents faster on average (2h 14m).
Data updated Nov 1, 2026 · How we score
| Metric | QuickBooks Online | Xero |
|---|---|---|
| Reliability score | 87.8 | 48.6 |
| Rank (accounting software tools) | #3 | #5 |
| Uptime (90 days) | 99.89% | 98.61% |
| Incidents (90 days) | 5 | 27 |
| Partial / major outages | 2 | 11 |
| Avg time to resolve | 2h 14m | 5h |
| Outages we detected | 0 | 0 |
| Transparency score | 100/100 | 100/100 |
Where QuickBooks Online and Xero differ
- Xero reported 5.4× as many incidents as QuickBooks Online over the last 90 days (27 vs 5).
- Xero had 11 partial or major outages, compared with 2 for QuickBooks Online.
- QuickBooks Online fixes problems faster: 2h 14m on average, against 5h for Xero (2.2× quicker).
- QuickBooks Online's longest outage on record lasted 5h 1m (Feb 24, 2026); Xero's lasted 3d (May 7, 2026).
90-day uptime
QuickBooks Online
Xero
- No incidents
- Degraded
- Partial outage
- Major outage
- No data
Recent QuickBooks Online incidents
- InformationalSep 16, 2026 · resolved in 5h 32m
Duplicate transactions affecting some Payroll and Payments customers
Affected: United States, United States
- Partial outageSep 2, 2026 · resolved in 4m
Some users may encounter issues when trying to Login to QuickBooks Online
Affected: United States, EMEA, Canada
- Degraded performanceAug 31, 2026 · resolved in 2h 4m
Some QuickBooks users receive errors and are unable to view transactions when searching.
Affected: United States
- Partial outageAug 19, 2026 · resolved in 2h 23m
Quickbooks Online Latency Issue
Affected: United States, EMEA, Canada
- Degraded performanceAug 5, 2026 · resolved in 4h 26m
Affected: EMEA
Recent Xero incidents
- Major outageOct 28, 2026 · resolved in 1h 1m
Global: Xero - customers are experiencing issues across Xero
Affected: Xero Platform and Settings
- Degraded performanceOct 26, 2026 · resolved in 2h 24m
Global: Xero - some customers may be experiencing intermittent errors in Xero.
Affected: Xero Platform and Settings
- Degraded performanceOct 15, 2026 · resolved in 37m
Global: Subscriptions - some customers are unable to purchase and management subscriptions
Affected: Xero Platform and Settings
- Partial outageOct 14, 2026 · resolved in 25m
Affected: Xero Platform and Settings, Invoicing, Bills & Quotes, Contacts
- Degraded performanceOct 13, 2026 · resolved in <1m
Global: Xero Partner Hub - Some slowness or unable to access pages in Partner Hub
- Degraded performanceOct 9, 2026 · resolved in <1m
Global: Xero Partner Hub - Some slowness or unable to access pages in Partner Hub
Other accounting software tools to consider
- Oracle NetSuite · #1 · 99.97% uptime
- Wave · #2 · 99.93% uptime
- FreshBooks · #4 · 99.74% uptime
- Pandle · #6 · 97.60% uptime
See the full most reliable small business accounting software ranking →