Is Fiken or Sage 50 better?

Neither clearly leads. Fiken starts at 219/month and Sage 50 at $29/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, Fiken or Sage 50?

Fiken starts at 219/month and Sage 50 at $29/month.

Does Fiken or Sage 50 run on more platforms?

Fiken runs on Web. Sage 50 runs on Windows.

What is Fiken best used for?

Fiken is most often used for solo accounting and invoicing for small businesses, multi-user accounting collaboration at no extra cost, invoice management with ehf e-invoice support, bank integration for transaction tracking. Of those, solo accounting and invoicing for small businesses and multi-user accounting collaboration at no extra cost are not what Sage 50 is typically brought in for.

What can Fiken do that Sage 50 cannot?

Sage 50 covers Local company data file, Nominal, sales and purchase ledgers, Bank reconciliation, VAT and sales tax handling.

Accounting · head to head

Fiken vs Sage 50

Fiken

Accounting

Norwegian accounting software for sole proprietors and small companies

From: 219/month
Rated: -

Full review Website

Sage 50

Accounting

Windows desktop accounting with the ledger held in a local data file rather than in a browser

From: $29/month
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Each has a real cost: Fiken bank integration available only as add-on (69 NOK/month); Sage 50 it is a Windows desktop application, so Mac users need a virtual machine or a hosted desktop, and every added remote worker becomes a hosting bill rather than another browser tab.
Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Fiken and Sage 50 actually diverge.

Attributes where Fiken and Sage 50 differ
Attribute	Fiken	Sage 50
Starting price	219/month	$29/month
Platforms	Web	Windows
Founded	Unknown	1981

Identical on both: pricing model (subscription), free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Accounting).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Fiken

Nothing recorded that Sage 50 does not also cover.

Only in Sage 50

Local company data file
Nominal, sales and purchase ledgers
Bank reconciliation
VAT and sales tax handling
Stock control
Job and project costing
Multi user access
Microsoft 365 integration

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Fiken

Solo accounting and invoicing for small businessesnot Sage 50
Multi-user accounting collaboration at no extra costnot Sage 50
Invoice management with EHF e-invoice supportnot Sage 50
Bank integration for transaction trackingnot Sage 50

Sage 50

An established small business that wants its accounting data physically in the building rather than on a vendor's serversnot Fiken
A construction or trade business needing job costing and stock depth that the entry level cloud products do not matchnot Fiken
A company with unreliable internet where a browser only ledger would stop work whenever the line dropsnot Fiken
A long standing user with a decade of transaction history in the file for whom migrating to anything else is the expensive optionnot Fiken

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Fiken

Bank integration available only as add-on (69 NOK/month)
Project accounting requires separate add-on (69 NOK/month)
Payroll and employee features cost extra (69 NOK/month)
Physical mail invoicing costs 25 NOK per invoice

Sage 50

It is a Windows desktop application, so Mac users need a virtual machine or a hosted desktop, and every added remote worker becomes a hosting bill rather than another browser tab.
Multi user working shares a data file over the network, so all users effectively need to be on the same local network or on the same hosted server, and file corruption in a shared file environment is a recovery from backup rather than a support ticket.
The United States and United Kingdom editions are separate products with different tax engines, so a business trading in both markets cannot run one Sage 50 across them, and experience or add ons from one edition do not transfer to the other.
Additional users are licensed individually at full price, which means a part time bookkeeper, an approver who signs off purchase invoices and a manager who only ever reads reports all cost the same as the full time finance person.
Sage's development effort has moved to its cloud accounting products, so the eventual move off Sage 50 is a re-implementation with historical data conversion and a fresh chart of accounts rather than an in place upgrade, and that project only gets larger the longer the file grows.

Pricing, plan by plan

Fiken

219/month

Base Plan$219/month
- Complete accounting functionality
- Unlimited invoice sending via email and EHF
- Unlimited user accounts

Sage 50

$29/month

Pro Accounting$50/month
- Core accounting
- 1 user
- Basic reports
Premium Accounting$85/month
- 5 users
- Job costing
- Inventory

Which should you pick?

Choose Fiken if

Nothing in the data separates Fiken from Sage 50 on the points above - pick on price and on how each one feels to use.

Fiken review

Choose Sage 50 if

You need local company data file.
You work on Windows.
You also want nominal, sales and purchase ledgers.

Sage 50 review

Questions people ask

Is Fiken or Sage 50 better?: Neither clearly leads. Fiken starts at 219/month and Sage 50 at $29/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Fiken or Sage 50?: Fiken starts at 219/month and Sage 50 at $29/month.
Does Fiken or Sage 50 run on more platforms?: Fiken runs on Web. Sage 50 runs on Windows.
What is Fiken best used for?: Fiken is most often used for solo accounting and invoicing for small businesses, multi-user accounting collaboration at no extra cost, invoice management with ehf e-invoice support, bank integration for transaction tracking. Of those, solo accounting and invoicing for small businesses and multi-user accounting collaboration at no extra cost are not what Sage 50 is typically brought in for.
What can Fiken do that Sage 50 cannot?: Sage 50 covers Local company data file, Nominal, sales and purchase ledgers, Bank reconciliation, VAT and sales tax handling.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Fiken: Is there a free trial for Fiken?

Yes, Fiken offers a 30-day free trial with no credit card required. After the trial, the base plan costs 219 NOK per month.

Source

Sage 50: Is Sage 50 cloud software?

No. The application runs on Windows and the ledger is a local file. The Sage 50cloud tiers add Microsoft 365 integration and a sync service for remote access, but the accounting itself is still desktop software.

Fiken: Do additional users cost more on Fiken?

No, Fiken includes unlimited user accounts at no extra cost on the base plan.

Source

Sage 50: Can my accountant work in it?

Yes, and many accountants in the United Kingdom and the United States know it well. Practically they will either take a backup of the company file, or connect through the remote data access service, or work on a hosted copy. Agree which of those before you start.

Fiken: What add-ons are available and how much do they cost?

Monthly add-ons include bank integration, project accounting, KID number system, and API access (69-99 NOK each). Time tracking, payroll, and expense reimbursements also cost 69 NOK per month. Annual tax filing costs 1,290 NOK for sole proprietors or 1,590 NOK for limited companies.

Source

Sage 50: Does it still require an annual subscription?

Sage moved Sage 50 to subscription licensing, so continued access and tax table updates depend on an active subscription. Confirm what happens to your ability to open historical data if you stop paying.

Fiken: What are the per-transaction costs?

SMS invoicing costs 3 NOK, e-invoicing via Vipps costs 5 NOK, physical mail invoicing costs 25 NOK, and credit checks cost 15 NOK per transaction.

Source

Sage 50: Is the United Kingdom version the same product as the United States version?

No. They share a name and a heritage but they are different codebases with different tax handling. Buy the edition for the country where you file.

Sage 50: What about payroll?

Payroll is a separate Sage product with its own subscription and per employee cost. Budget for it separately rather than assuming the accounting subscription covers it.

Sage 50: How hard is it to move to a cloud system later?

Expect to convert opening balances and a limited window of transaction history rather than the full file, and to redo the chart of accounts, the customer and supplier records and any custom reports. Most businesses do it at a year end for that reason.

Fiken vs Sage 50

Fiken

Sage 50

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Fiken

Only in Sage 50

What people use each for

Fiken

Sage 50

Where each one falls short

Fiken

Sage 50

Pricing, plan by plan

Fiken

Sage 50

Which should you pick?

Choose Fiken if

Choose Sage 50 if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Fiken

More on Sage 50

Keep looking

Other head to heads