Pricing
Flat monthly pricing per seat: staff all year, preparers for the season
Below are our starting prices. The exact number depends on how many preparers you have and which applications you run, so you get it in writing after a free assessment, before anything begins.
Staff seats: three ways to run your firm in the cloud
For the people who work inside your firm, on a full cloud desktop. Every plan includes Drake Tax, MFA, encryption, nightly backups, monitoring and bilingual support. Preparers who work from their own computer have their own seat, below.
Drake Cloud
Drake Tax in the cloud, nothing else changes
- Drake Tax Pro on a secure cloud desktop
- Microsoft license for the cloud desktop included
- Yearly Drake update and prior years
- MFA, encryption and monitoring
- Nightly backups, 30-day retention
- Printers, scanners and dual monitors
- Help desk in English and Spanish
Drake Cloud + Microsoft 365
The cloud desktop plus the whole office workplace
- Everything in Drake Cloud
- Microsoft 365 license included
- Business email in your domain
- Shared client folders and a personal drive per user
- Chat, calls and meetings for the office
- Threat protection and device controls
- WISP documentation package
Complete Office
Drake, QuickBooks, Microsoft 365 and managed IT
- Everything in Drake Cloud + Microsoft 365
- QuickBooks and other Windows apps
- Managed and encrypted devices
- Business phone lines available as an add-on
- Monitoring, patching and security alerts
- Annual security and WISP review
Setup and migration included. No implementation fee, no contract.
Preparer seat
Preparers who work from their own computer
Seasonal or external preparers do not need a full cloud desktop. They open Drake as a published application on their own computer, at home or in another office, and nothing is ever stored on it. You add them in December and remove them in May.
- Drake Tax as a published app on their own Windows or Mac
- Microsoft license included, only for the months you keep the seat
- MFA on every sign-in, device registered with your firm
- Nothing saved locally: no downloads, no copy-paste out of Drake
- Same client database as your staff, same e-file
- Printing to their local printer
- Help desk in English and Spanish
Counts toward the 2-seat minimum. No email, files or phone lines; add a staff seat if a preparer needs them.
Cost calculator
What would your firm pay?
Move the sliders. Staff seats run all year; preparer seats only during the season. A preparer never pays for a full desktop they do not use.
How you pay
Annual: staff seats are paid once a year with the discount; preparer seats stay monthly and only in season.
1Configure your firm
People who work inside your firm, all year
Seasonal or external, on their own computer
2Choose your plan
What each plan includes
Drake Cloud
- Drake Tax Pro on a secure cloud desktop
- Microsoft license for the cloud desktop included
- Yearly Drake update and prior years
- MFA, encryption and monitoring
- Nightly backups, 30-day retention
- Printers, scanners and dual monitors
- Help desk in English and Spanish
Drake Cloud + Microsoft 365
- Everything in Drake Cloud
- Microsoft 365 license included
- Business email in your domain
- Shared client folders and a personal drive per user
- Chat, calls and meetings for the office
- Threat protection and device controls
- WISP documentation package
Complete Office
- Everything in Drake Cloud + Microsoft 365
- QuickBooks and other Windows apps
- Managed and encrypted devices
- Business phone lines available as an add-on
- Monitoring, patching and security alerts
- Annual security and WISP review
3Your estimated cost
Based on your selection$0 /year
In season / month
$0
Off season / month
$0
How it adds up
- 0 staff seats × $0 × 12 mo $0
- 0 preparer seats × $49 × 0 mo $0
Microsoft license included in every seat. Drake and QuickBooks licenses are billed by Drake and Intuit, as today.
Annual hosting savings
$0
Hosting only, versus the official partner’s list price by volume, before what your plan adds.
4Hosting versus hosting: why the preparer seat matters
Same scope on every bar: a cloud desktop with Drake for every user. With the official hosting everyone pays the same seat, even if they only open Drake in season; here that user is a preparer seat. Your plan may add more; that is shown separately below.
What your plan adds on top
Starting prices for a typical firm. Setup, migration and the Microsoft license for each seat are included. Volume pricing and add-ons are quoted after the free assessment. Drake and QuickBooks licenses are separate.
What you can count on
No matter the plan
Firm quote, setup included
Monthly price per seat agreed before the migration starts. Setup and migration included. No hidden fees, no surprise invoices during tax season.
Your environment, your data
The cloud environment belongs to your firm. If you leave, you keep it and we hand over the keys.
Security included, not sold as an add-on
MFA, encryption, backups and monitoring are in every plan. The IRS does not consider them optional, and neither do we.
No long contracts
Month to month after the first season. We keep clients by doing the work well, not by locking them in.
Pricing FAQs
Straight answers about how we charge.
What does "starting price" mean?
It is the per-user price for a typical firm of three to ten preparers. Larger firms get volume pricing. Firms with unusual applications or very large data get a specific quote. Either way, the number is in writing before we start and does not change unless you add scope.
What is the difference between a staff seat and a preparer seat?
A staff seat is a full cloud desktop for someone who works inside your firm: Drake, email, files, chat and calls, and in the Complete Office plan a managed device. A preparer seat is for someone who works from their own computer and only needs Drake: the app is streamed to them, nothing is stored on their machine, and the seat costs less because it uses a fraction of the capacity. Most firms have a few staff seats all year and add preparer seats for the season.
Is there a setup or migration fee?
No. Building your environment, installing Drake, moving your data, prior years and client files, and training your team are included in the monthly price. You pay the first month when you go live, nothing before.
Who pays Microsoft and Drake?
Microsoft is included: every seat comes with the Microsoft license it needs, and the cloud infrastructure is in the per-seat price, so you never get a separate Microsoft or cloud bill from us. Drake and QuickBooks you keep paying as today, directly to Drake and Intuit, and those licenses stay in your name.
Can I reduce users after tax season?
Yes. Seats are monthly. Remove seasonal preparers in May and add them back in December. The minimum is two seats so the environment stays alive for the firm.
Is there a discount for paying annually?
Yes. Staff seats paid once a year get 10% off. Preparer seats stay monthly, because you only keep them during the season. Pick "Annual" in the calculator to see both numbers side by side.
How does this compare to Drake hosting companies?
Their per-user prices for a Windows desktop with Drake are in the same range as our Drake Cloud plan. The difference is what surrounds it: an environment that belongs to your firm, the whole office workplace integrated, security operated by a cybersecurity company, WISP documentation, and support in Spanish.
Get your firm quote
Tell us how many preparers you have and what you run today. We come back with a monthly price and a migration date.