Quick answer: FreeAgent is free for business customers of NatWest, RBS, Ulster Bank and Mettle, and has the longest MTD for Income Tax pilot track record of any UK platform. CleanBooks AI trades that banking-linked free tier for AI-led categorisation and a real-time tax estimate on every plan. If you already bank with a NatWest-group institution, FreeAgent’s price is hard to beat; otherwise the comparison comes down to automation.
FreeAgent has a genuinely unusual advantage in this comparison: for a large slice of UK sole traders and landlords, it’s free, bundled with a NatWest, RBS, Ulster Bank or Mettle business account. That changes the calculation considerably compared with any other platform.
Feature-by-feature comparison
| FreeAgent | CleanBooks AI | |
| Starting price | Free with NatWest, RBS, Ulster Bank or Mettle; otherwise from around £19/month | Free to start, £12/month after the initial period |
| MTD track record | Longest-running MTD for Income Tax pilot participant | Newer to the market, built MTD-native from launch |
| Transaction categorisation | Rule-based, manual review | AI-led via Keeva, learns your patterns automatically |
| Best suited to | Single-business sole traders, especially NatWest-group banking customers | Anyone wanting minimal manual bookkeeping regardless of who they bank with |
Pricing and eligibility for free FreeAgent access change from time to time; confirm current terms with your bank and with FreeAgent directly.
Who FreeAgent suits best
If you already bank with NatWest, RBS, Ulster Bank or Mettle, FreeAgent’s free access is difficult to justify passing up on price grounds alone, and it has one of the longest track records of any platform actually filing through HMRC’s MTD for Income Tax pilot.
Who CleanBooks AI suits best
If you don’t bank with a NatWest-group institution, FreeAgent’s standalone price (from around £19 a month) puts it roughly in line with CleanBooks AI. At that point, the decision comes down to how much manual categorisation you’re willing to do: FreeAgent’s rule-based system versus Keeva’s automatic categorisation learning your patterns without ongoing manual setup.
Ready to stop juggling spreadsheets? Start your free trial of CleanBooks AI today.
