Best Hnry Alternatives for NZ Sole Traders in 2026

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Hnry costs 1% of everything you earn, capped at $1,500 + GST per year. For a sole trader pulling $80,000 annually, that's $800 + GST — about $920 all up. Not outrageous, but not nothing either.

The bigger question is whether you actually need everything Hnry bundles in. Hnry is essentially a managed payroll and tax service for self-employed people. Your clients pay into a Hnry bank account, Hnry deducts your provisional tax, GST, and ACC, and pays you the rest as a "salary". You don't have to think about tax. That's its whole pitch.

If that appeals to you, great. But plenty of NZ sole traders want more control over their cash, or just need basic accounting without paying a percentage of their income forever. Here are the main alternatives worth considering.

Solo NZ — best for DIY control at a flat rate

Solo is a NZ-built accounting app that gives you live tax calculations without taking a cut of your income. You pay a flat subscription: $15/month + GST (Basic) or $27/month + GST (Premium), with a 16% discount if you pay annually.

At $50,000 income, Hnry costs $500/year. Solo Basic costs $180/year. That's a $320 annual saving — and the gap widens as your income grows.

What Solo does: income tax returns, GST returns, invoices, bank account connection, ACC estimates, and P&L reporting. It calculates your tax liability in real time so you always know what you owe. You still file yourself (or copy the figures into myIR), but Solo tells you exactly what to enter.

What it doesn't do: Solo won't pay your taxes automatically. You're responsible for setting aside funds and making provisional tax payments when they're due. If that feels stressful, Hnry's auto-deduct model might be worth the premium.

Best for: Sole traders who want to stay in control of their money, are comfortable using myIR, and don't want to pay a percentage of income as a perpetual fee.

Xero — best if you're growing or need an accountant

Xero is the dominant small business accounting platform in NZ. The Ignite plan ($35/month + GST) covers invoicing, bank reconciliation, expense tracking, and connects with most NZ-based accountants.

Xero is not a tax-filing service. You still need an accountant (or to use myIR yourself) to file income tax and GST returns. The software organises your books; you or your accountant does the compliance work.

For sole traders already working with an accountant, Xero is often the obvious choice because your accountant uses it too. It reduces the friction of handing over your books at year end significantly.

The trade-off versus Hnry: with Xero plus a budget accountant (say $600/year for a sole trader), you're looking at $1,020/year at the Ignite rate. That's more than Solo but gives you proper professional oversight. At $80K income, it's roughly comparable to Hnry in total cost.

Best for: Sole traders with an existing accountant relationship, or those planning to grow into a company structure.

Afirmo — best if you want an all-in-one managed service

Afirmo bundles software and accounting services into a single annual subscription, similar in philosophy to Hnry but structured differently.

The Boost plan is aimed at non-GST-registered sole traders. The Rocket plan adds GST returns (up to 2 per year) and is the most relevant for GST-registered freelancers. Pricing is annual and isn't shown upfront on the website — you need to contact them for a quote, which is a friction point.

Unlike Hnry, Afirmo doesn't intercept your bank account or hold your tax money. Your clients pay you directly. Afirmo helps you calculate what you owe and files your returns, but you're responsible for making the actual IRD payments yourself.

Afirmo has been growing steadily and is NZ-owned. Their referral partner programme pays commission, though terms aren't public.

Best for: Sole traders who want managed returns without the Hnry-style "payroll" model, and who prefer a flat fee to a percentage.

Traditional accountant plus spreadsheet

The cheapest option is a good spreadsheet (or even just myIR's built-in tools) combined with a one-off or annual accountant engagement.

A basic sole trader income tax return from a NZ accountant typically runs 400–800 + GST depending on complexity and how organised your records are. If you're earning less than $50,000/year and don't have complex expenses, this approach keeps your costs low.

The downside is discipline. You need to track income and expenses yourself, estimate provisional tax payments, and remember IRD deadlines. Most accountants will send reminders, but the legwork is on you.

Best for: Sole traders with straightforward finances, low income, or those who want to minimise software subscriptions and are comfortable with a bit of admin.

Hnry is still good — for the right person

To be clear: Hnry is a genuinely good product. The auto-deduct tax model is a real mental load reduction. If you hate thinking about tax, find provisional tax confusing, and want to just get paid without worrying about IRD deadlines, Hnry's 1% fee can be worth it.

The 1% cap at $1,500 also means it gets proportionally cheaper as income rises. Earn $200K+? You're paying 0.75% or less.

Where Hnry loses: the non-standard bank account your clients pay into can confuse some clients (especially larger businesses used to standard bank transfers), and the percentage model stings when you're earning $60–80K and could be paying $180/year for Solo instead.

Which one should you use?

If you're a new sole trader with no existing accounting setup, Solo is worth trialling first — it's cheap, NZ-built, and the free trial costs nothing. If you get to month two and find you're spending an hour on tax each quarter and wishing someone else handled it, that's when Hnry starts making more sense.

The main thing to avoid is paying for overlap. Don't pay for both Hnry and an accountant unless you have a specific reason — Hnry is the accountant. And don't pay for Xero if you're not going to use it for its bank reconciliation features — at that point Solo does the same job for less.

Have you switched from Hnry to something else? The r/PersonalFinanceNZ community has active threads comparing these options if you want real user opinions alongside this comparison.