Softwr

Accounting · head to head

Hnry vs Money Forward Cloud

Hnry logo

Hnry

Accounting

Accounting for sole traders and the self-employed

From
1/per $100 income
Rated
-
Money Forward Cloud logo

Money Forward Cloud

Accounting

Japanese cloud accounting, payroll and back office suite built for Japanese tax law and filing

From
On request
Rated
-

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Hnry service limited to self-employed sole traders in New Zealand only; Money Forward Cloud the product, its help documentation and its support operate in Japanese, so a finance function without a fluent Japanese reader cannot run it unaided regardless of any English language marketing, and hiring for that is the real cost of adoption.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 30 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Hnry and Money Forward Cloud actually diverge.

Attributes where Hnry and Money Forward Cloud differ
AttributeHnryMoney Forward Cloud
Starting price1/per $100 incomeOn request
Pricing modelusage-basedquote

Identical on both: free tier (No), platforms (Web), 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 Hnry

Nothing recorded that Money Forward Cloud does not also cover.

Only in Money Forward Cloud

  • Japanese consumption tax handling
  • Qualified invoice support
  • Electronic record keeping
  • Bank and card feeds
  • Automated journal proposal
  • Invoicing
  • Payroll
  • Attendance and leave

What people use each for

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

Hnry

  • Calculating quarterly tax without manual bookkeepingnot Money Forward Cloud
  • Logging expenses via photo instantlynot Money Forward Cloud
  • Sending unlimited invoices with auto-follow-upnot Money Forward Cloud
  • Automatically withholding income taxes year-roundnot Money Forward Cloud

Money Forward Cloud

  • A Japanese small or medium company moving off desktop bookkeeping and needing qualified invoice and electronic record keeping compliancenot Hnry
  • A Japanese subsidiary of a foreign group that must file locally in Japan while reporting upward in the group's own systemnot Hnry
  • A growing Japanese company that wants payroll, attendance and social insurance administration in the same suite as the ledgernot Hnry
  • A tax accountancy practice standardising its client base on one cloud product with a practitioner access rolenot Hnry

Where each one falls short

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

Hnry

  • Service limited to self-employed sole traders in New Zealand only
  • 1% + GST fee with $1,500 annual maximum cap
  • Minimum $0.50 fee per transaction for payments under $50

Money Forward Cloud

  • The product, its help documentation and its support operate in Japanese, so a finance function without a fluent Japanese reader cannot run it unaided regardless of any English language marketing, and hiring for that is the real cost of adoption.
  • The tax logic is Japanese, so it cannot serve as the accounting system for entities filing anywhere else, and a group with Japanese and foreign entities ends up running two ledgers with a manual consolidation between them.
  • Modules are licensed separately with per user and per employee components, so accounting, payroll, attendance, expenses and invoicing bought together cost several times the headline accounting plan and the bill grows with every hire.
  • Bank connectivity in Japan relies substantially on scraping and delegated access rather than on a standardised open banking interface, so feeds break after bank site changes and reconciliation stalls until the connector is fixed.
  • In Japanese small business the tax accountant usually chooses the bookkeeping software, and practitioners are divided between Money Forward, freee and Yayoi, so picking it when your accountant works in another product means either paying them to learn it or changing accountant.

Pricing, plan by plan

Hnry

1/per $100 income

No published plan breakdown. See the Hnry review.

Money Forward Cloud

On request

No published plan breakdown. See the Money Forward Cloud review.

Which should you pick?

Choose Hnry if

Nothing in the data separates Hnry from Money Forward Cloud on the points above - pick on price and on how each one feels to use.

Choose Money Forward Cloud if

  • You need japanese consumption tax handling.
  • You also want qualified invoice support.

Questions people ask

Is Hnry or Money Forward Cloud better?
Neither clearly leads. Hnry starts at 1/per $100 income and Money Forward Cloud at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Hnry or Money Forward Cloud?
Hnry starts at 1/per $100 income and Money Forward Cloud at On request.
Does Hnry or Money Forward Cloud run on more platforms?
Both run on Web, so platform support will not decide this one for you.
What is Hnry best used for?
Hnry is most often used for calculating quarterly tax without manual bookkeeping, logging expenses via photo instantly, sending unlimited invoices with auto-follow-up, automatically withholding income taxes year-round. Of those, calculating quarterly tax without manual bookkeeping and logging expenses via photo instantly are not what Money Forward Cloud is typically brought in for.
What can Hnry do that Money Forward Cloud cannot?
Money Forward Cloud covers Japanese consumption tax handling, Qualified invoice support, Electronic record keeping, Bank and card feeds.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Hnry: How much does Hnry charge?

Hnry charges 1% plus GST of independent income paid into your Hnry Bank Account, with a maximum annual fee of $1,500. Minimum fee is $0.50 per payment for transactions under $50.

Source
Money Forward Cloud: Can I use it if I do not read Japanese?

Not realistically on your own. The interface, support and the tax concepts themselves are Japanese. Companies that succeed with it have a bilingual bookkeeper or an English speaking tax accountant operating it.

Hnry: Are there joining fees for Hnry?

No, Hnry has no joining fees, upfront payments, or credit card required to sign up.

Source
Money Forward Cloud: Does it handle the qualified invoice system?

Yes. Capturing and validating supplier registration numbers and retaining invoices in the required form is one of the main reasons Japanese companies moved to it around the 2023 introduction.

Hnry: Is the Hnry fee tax deductible?

Yes, Hnry automatically claims its fees as a business expense on your behalf, making them tax-deductible.

Source
Money Forward Cloud: How does it compare with freee?

Both are Japanese cloud suites covering similar ground. freee is often described as easier for non accountants, Money Forward as closer to conventional bookkeeping and preferred by many tax accountants. The practical tiebreaker is which one your accountant already uses.

Money Forward Cloud: Can it file my corporate tax return?

The suite supports the bookkeeping and much of the preparation, and there are filing oriented products in the family, but Japanese corporate tax filing is normally done by a licensed tax accountant. Treat it as the record keeping layer, not the filer.

Money Forward Cloud: Is it usable for a company outside Japan?

No, not as an accounting system. Its value is the Japanese tax and filing logic, and none of that applies elsewhere.

Money Forward Cloud: What does it cost to add payroll?

Payroll is a separate module with its own subscription and a per employee element, as are attendance and expenses. Price the whole stack for your headcount rather than the accounting plan alone.

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