QuickBooks is one of the most popular accounting tools. It is a fast and reliable accounting application that is used by many organizations for their accounting needs. You can use QuickBooks either on your in-house server or host it on the cloud. QuickBooks hosting is provided by a cloud hosting provider.
While the functionality remains the same, hosting is what makes them different from each other. With in-house QuickBooks, the software is installed on required user machines. In the case of QuickBooks hosting, a hosting provider offers you a virtual space to host the application. Let us see top 5 differences between the two.
- Small Business Setups:
A small organization or new organization has limited resources available. Plus, the number of employees and clients are less too. In such setups, it is better to go with QuickBooks hosting as hosting does not require large in-house infrastructure setup.
In-house QuickBooks requires large infrastructure setups, whereas hosted QuickBooks saves you from the hassle of setting up large infrastructure setups.
- Maintenance of the server:
In-house QuickBooks needs to maintained and managed by an in-house team of experts. This keeps your dedicated resources occupied throughout. The cloud-hosted QuickBooks requires your services provider to maintain and update the server.
Experts in your organization can invest their time in other developments within the company. Cloud-hosted QuickBooks can expand smoothly to meet the business requirements of a business.
- Data Backup and Storage:
Data on the digital devices might crash and lead to a major setback for an organization. It is the most important asset of a company. Taking a backup of the information stored in the Cloud hosted QuickBooks is the responsibility of the service provider. While in the case of in-house QuickBooks, a massive installation of information needs to be stored on the servers across multiple locations.
You are responsible for maintaining a data backup of your in-house QuickBooks. The cost of managing multiple servers across locations is quite high, which is too much for small business setups. Regular data backup of the information helps to recover it when required.
- Time and Money:
Both time and money play important role in a business setup. In-house QuickBooks needs a good amount of money for the infrastructure, maintenance, data backup, and recovery. You will also need to hire in-house IT team to solve the server issues. Whereas, the Quickbooks cloud hosting services do not require any extra effort. Simply pay the monthly charges to your service provider and relax. If you go with the cloud-hosted QuickBooks, you do not need to make any extra efforts.
Most of the companies go with the cloud-hosted QuickBooks to save money and time.
- Technical Support:
The industry is growing at a fast pace and everything is becoming dynamic. It has become important to work day and night and be available anytime for the clients. With in-house QuickBooks, it becomes difficult to maintain 100 percent uptime. You need a large team, working only on the QuickBooks every time. If you want 100 percent uptime then you will need to replicate same work on different servers so that if one crashes then the other one can be used.
All these requirements are fulfilled by the hosting providers. Since they cater to a large array of clients, they can fulfill all the necessary IT requirements. Additionally, a 24/7 client support is also available.
The above analysis clearly states that going for in-house QuickBooks is not a feasible option. The cloud-hosted QuickBooks is beneficial for individual companies, CPAs, and accountants.
