Two accounting programs that install on your own computer and keep your data there. The difference is what happens at renewal — and what a second user costs.
Try BizBooks Pro Free for 30 DaysSage 50 — the product US accountants still occasionally call Peachtree — is installed on your own computer, with your company file on your own drive. That is the same choice BizBooks Pro made, and it is why this page is a like-for-like comparison rather than the usual desktop-versus-cloud argument. If you are on Sage 50 today, your books are not in anyone's cloud, and nothing here suggests otherwise.
Sage 50 is a mature product with real strengths: North America-based phone support included, Sage Security Shield, industry-specific builds in the Quantum edition, a payroll add-on that files, and a network of certified consultants who will set it up and host it for you. If you need US payroll processed inside your accounting software, that is a genuine reason to stay — we do not do payroll natively, and we would rather say so here than let you find out later.
What is worth examining is the renewal. Sage 50 is sold as a subscription with a minimum one-year commitment where, in the reseller's own words, “annual auto-renewal is REQUIRED to use the product” — the software stops when the plan stops, and next year's price is set by Sage. BizBooks Pro is also an annual subscription. The difference is that our rate is locked for 12 years from the day you start.
Sage 50 figures are the published 2026 US Desktop subscription prices from an authorized Sage reseller, checked September 15, 2026. Sage does not publish Sage 50 renewal pricing on its own site, so we have quoted only what we could source and dated it. Sage also sells a separate cloud product, Sage Accounting, which is a different program from Sage 50; we have not priced it here rather than quote a figure we could not verify.
| Feature | BizBooks Pro | Sage 50 Premium 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| One user, per year | $299 Basic / $540 Professional | $988.80 |
| Five users, per year | $1,020 (Professional + 4 seats at $120) | $2,268 |
| Where it runs | ✓ Installed on your machine | ✓ Installed on your machine |
| Your data stays on your hardware | ✓ | ✓ |
| Next year's price | ✓ Locked for 12 years | Set by Sage; auto-renewal required to keep using the software |
| US payroll inside the software | ✗ Not native | ✓ Add-on, $418–$1,013/yr by employee count |
| Phone support included | Email and ticket support included | ✓ Unlimited North America-based phone support |
| Remote access | Included for the licensed users on your network; your accountant connects free and uses no seat | Sage Drive covers one remote user; further remote users cost extra |
| GAAP & IFRS double-entry | ✓ Either standard, switchable | GAAP-oriented US product |
| Professional invoicing, bills, bank reconciliation, reporting | ✓ | ✓ |
| Industry-specific editions | ✓ Construction, law, real estate, travel, nonprofit, government | ✓ Quantum edition builds |
| Importing your history from the other | Lists by CSV; opening balances at a cutover date. No one-click Sage 50 import | n/a |
Rows we could not verify from a source we would be willing to cite — Sage 50 multi-currency by edition, Pro and Quantum list prices, and Sage's 2026 US renewal increase — are left off this table rather than guessed at. If a specific one decides your choice, ask us and we will tell you what we know and what we do not.
Both programs are annual subscriptions, and in both cases the software stops if you stop paying. What differs is who sets next year's number. Ours is fixed for 12 years from your start date and written into what you buy. Sage 50's renews automatically at the price Sage sets, and their own certified consultants tell customers in public forums that it goes up every year.
A fifth Sage 50 Premium seat is part of a $2,268 package against $988.80 for one. With us, users are $120 a year each, so five people cost $1,020 all in. The seat price is where a small office feels the difference first.
Sage sells payroll as an add-on from $418 to $1,013 a year depending on headcount, and it is a good reason to stay with them if you run payroll in-house. We do not do native payroll. If that is your requirement, take it seriously before switching — and if you outsource payroll or have no employees, you are paying Sage nothing for it either way.
BizBooks Pro Professional keeps five sets of books under a single subscription, Enterprise keeps thirty, and anything you own in common is exempt from the count — LLCs, corporations, trusts, rentals and the family's own books alike, so a group under one owner runs on one plan no matter how many there are.
There is no one-click Sage 50 import, and we are not going to pretend otherwise. We built a full QuickBooks Desktop importer because that is where our customers came from; a Sage 50 equivalent does not exist yet.
What a move looks like in practice: export your chart of accounts, customers, vendors and items from Sage 50 to CSV and import each list into BizBooks Pro; pick a cutover date, usually the start of a month or a fiscal year; enter opening balances as at that date from your Sage trial balance; and keep the Sage file as your archive for everything before it. Most people plan a weekend for it, not an afternoon. If you need years of transaction detail live in the new system rather than in an archive, tell us before you buy — that is the case where the honest answer may be to wait.
Start your free 30-day trial — no credit card, every feature switched on. Install it alongside Sage 50 and compare them on your own books before your renewal date comes round.