Is MYOB or Sage 50 better?

Neither clearly leads. MYOB starts at 12/year and Sage 50 at $29/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, MYOB or Sage 50?

MYOB starts at 12/year and Sage 50 at $29/month.

Does MYOB or Sage 50 run on more platforms?

MYOB runs on Web. Sage 50 runs on Windows.

What is MYOB best used for?

MYOB is most often used for tracking income and unlimited expenses for tax lodgement, processing payroll with automated superannuation contributions, managing gst compliance and business activity statement filing, reconciling bank transactions and monitoring cash flow. Of those, tracking income and unlimited expenses for tax lodgement and processing payroll with automated superannuation contributions are not what Sage 50 is typically brought in for.

What can MYOB 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

MYOB vs Sage 50

MYOB

Accounting

Australian accounting and business management software for small and mid-sized businesses

From: 12/year
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: MYOB every published price is promotional and reverts to a higher regular rate after an introductory period, for example Business Pro rises from AUD 21/month to AUD 70/month after 6 months; 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 MYOB and Sage 50 actually diverge.

Attributes where MYOB and Sage 50 differ
Attribute	MYOB	Sage 50
Starting price	12/year	$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 MYOB

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.

MYOB

Tracking income and unlimited expenses for tax lodgementnot Sage 50
Processing payroll with automated superannuation contributionsnot Sage 50
Managing GST compliance and Business Activity Statement filingnot Sage 50
Reconciling bank transactions and monitoring cash flownot Sage 50

Sage 50

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

Where each one falls short

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

MYOB

Every published price is promotional and reverts to a higher regular rate after an introductory period, for example Business Pro rises from AUD 21/month to AUD 70/month after 6 months
Adding payroll employees beyond the included allowance costs an extra AUD 3/month per additional employee on top of the plan price

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

MYOB

12/year

Solo by MYOB$99/year
- First year $12 (70% off)
Business Lite$315/year
- First year $94.50 (70% off)
- Payroll $3/month per employee max 2
Business Pro$70/month
- First 6 months $21 (70% off)
- Unlimited payroll employees
- 14-day free trial
Business AccountRight Plus$165/month
- First 3 months $66 (60% off)
- Unlimited payroll
- 14-day free trial

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 MYOB if

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

MYOB 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 MYOB or Sage 50 better?: Neither clearly leads. MYOB starts at 12/year and Sage 50 at $29/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, MYOB or Sage 50?: MYOB starts at 12/year and Sage 50 at $29/month.
Does MYOB or Sage 50 run on more platforms?: MYOB runs on Web. Sage 50 runs on Windows.
What is MYOB best used for?: MYOB is most often used for tracking income and unlimited expenses for tax lodgement, processing payroll with automated superannuation contributions, managing gst compliance and business activity statement filing, reconciling bank transactions and monitoring cash flow. Of those, tracking income and unlimited expenses for tax lodgement and processing payroll with automated superannuation contributions are not what Sage 50 is typically brought in for.
What can MYOB 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

MYOB: How much does MYOB cost?

MYOB pricing starts at $12 AUD per year (first year only) for Solo, with plans ranging to $165 AUD per month for AccountRight Plus after introductory periods expire.

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.

MYOB: What is MYOB's introductory pricing?

MYOB offers 60-70% off introductory pricing for the first 3-12 months depending on plan selection, after which regular pricing applies with no lock-in contracts.

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.

MYOB: Does MYOB include payroll pricing?

Payroll starts at $3/month per employee (limited on lower tiers) and is included unlimited on Business Pro and AccountRight Plus plans.

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.

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.

MYOB vs Sage 50

MYOB

Sage 50

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in MYOB

Only in Sage 50

What people use each for

MYOB

Sage 50

Where each one falls short

MYOB

Sage 50

Pricing, plan by plan

MYOB

Sage 50

Which should you pick?

Choose MYOB if

Choose Sage 50 if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on MYOB

More on Sage 50

Keep looking

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