The honest answer to "do I need to pay for MTD software?" is no — but only if you choose carefully. Most "free" MTD options have catches that make them effectively a paid product in disguise: a bank account requirement, a property cap, a transaction limit, a feature paywall, or a free tier that exists only to feed paid upgrades. This guide is an honest comparison of every free MTD ITSA option available to UK sole traders and landlords in 2026, what each one really costs in time and switching, and which option is genuinely free for the long term.
Why does MTD software cost money?
MTD software has real underlying costs:
- Open-banking transaction feeds. Each connected bank account costs the software vendor 5–15p per month per account in API fees to the open-banking provider (Plaid, TrueLayer, Yapily, Finexer, etc).
- HMRC API throughput. MTD ITSA submissions hit production HMRC endpoints. The cost per call is small but the engineering effort to maintain compliance with HMRC's evolving spec is meaningful.
- Cloud hosting. Storage, compute, backup, security, monitoring.
- Engineering and support. The largest line item — engineers, customer support, compliance, sales for paid tiers.
- Marketing. Most paid software providers spend 30–60% of revenue on customer acquisition.
The marginal cost of serving one more user, once the platform exists, is well under £5/month for a typical sole trader and well under £10/month for a typical landlord. The retail prices of £15–£30/month reflect marketing, sales, premium positioning, and gross margin — not pure cost. This is why genuinely free tiers are economically viable: a vendor that funds development from a small minority of paid premium users can serve the majority for free.
The genuinely free options (and their hidden catches)
Below, every free MTD ITSA option we have evaluated as of May 2026, with the actual catch for each.
FreeAgent — free only with NatWest, RBS, Mettle, or Ulster
Free if you bank with NatWest Group banks. £19/month for sole trader, £29/month for Universal (landlord-supporting) plan otherwise. The "free" hook depends entirely on whether you're willing to bank with NatWest.
ANNA Money — free only with ANNA business banking
ANNA + Taxes is bundled with the ANNA business current account. To get the free MTD product, you must move your business banking to ANNA. ANNA's banking is competent (FCA-authorised, FDIC-equivalent FSCS protection on deposits) but switching banks is non-trivial. ANNA does not support property income at all.
Starling Accounting — only with Starling Business + Toolkit
Starling Accounting is part of the Starling Business Toolkit (£7/month) which is only available with a Starling business current account. So technically not free, and only available to Starling business customers. Sole-trader only — no property support.
GetGround — free, but landlord-only and incorporation-focused
GetGround is genuinely free for personal landlords. The catch is no sole-trader support — a landlord who also freelances cannot use GetGround for the freelance side. The product workflow is structured around incorporated landlords (GetGround's company formation service is the upsell), so personal landlords feel slightly off-piste.
Sage Sole Trader Free — free, sole-trader only
Sage's free tier launched in late 2025 to compete with FreeAgent. Bank-agnostic, which is welcome. Sole-trader only — no property support. The free tier is positioned as a feeder for Sage Accounting (£14/month), with selected features upsold over time.
QuickFile — free up to 1,000 ledger entries/year
QuickFile offers a permanent free tier with full MTD VAT and MTD ITSA support, bank-agnostic open banking, and no time limit. The catch is the 1,000-entry-per-year ledger cap — fine for a small sole trader (about 80 transactions/month) but tight for a landlord with multiple properties and lots of expenses. Above 1,000 entries you pay £45/year.
Clear Books Free — free, but limited features
Clear Books offers a free MTD plan for sole traders and landlords with no bank lock-in. The catch is feature scope — limited bank feeds, basic UI, no per-property accounting, no Section 24 auto-handling, no foreign property native flow. Fine as a basic compliance tool, lacking the polish of paid alternatives.
RentalBux — free for one property or one trade
RentalBux is HMRC-recognised free MTD software for landlords with one property (or sole traders with one business). Beyond one property, paid tiers apply. Reasonable for single-property landlords; not viable for portfolios.
Hammock — 14-day free trial, then paid
Hammock is property-focused and well designed but the "free" tier is actually a 14-day trial. After that, £8.99–£24.99/month based on portfolio size.
Landlord Studio GO — free for up to 3 units
Landlord Studio's free GO tier covers three units. Beyond three you pay $12/month per portfolio. The product is built for the US rental market with UK MTD bolted on.
VoxaMTD — free for sole traders, landlords, and hybrid earners, any bank, no caps
VoxaMTD's free tier covers MTD ITSA quarterly updates, EOPS, final declaration, bank feeds, AI categorisation, per-property accounting, Section 24 handling, foreign property, and unlimited transactions across unlimited income sources. No bank requirement, no transaction cap, no property cap, no time limit. The paid Alex AI tier adds Alex (the voice AI accountant) and other premium features but is fully optional.
FreeAgent — free only with NatWest
FreeAgent is the most-cited "free MTD" option but the ties are tight. To benefit from the free tier you must hold a current account with NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland, Mettle (NatWest's digital business banking offshoot), or Ulster Bank Northern Ireland. Outside this group, FreeAgent is paid. The bundling has been in place since NatWest acquired FreeAgent in 2018 and there is no public roadmap to expand free access. We covered the full background and migration path in our FreeAgent alternatives guide.
ANNA Money — free only with ANNA banking
ANNA's MTD product (ANNA + Taxes) is included in the ANNA business current account at no additional charge. Switch your business banking to ANNA and you get the MTD product free. The product itself is competent for sole traders. Critical limitation: no property income support. A landlord cannot file rental quarterly updates from ANNA.
Starling Accounting — free only with Starling business account
Starling's bookkeeping is included in the Starling Business Toolkit (£7/month, business account only). Often described as "free" because £7/month is small relative to FreeAgent at £19/month, but it is not actually free, and it requires a Starling business current account. Sole-trader-focused — no native property income flow.
GetGround — free but landlord-only
GetGround is genuinely free for individual landlords with no bank requirement and no property cap on the personal-landlord product. The caveat is the lack of sole-trader support. For pure landlords with no freelance income, GetGround is a reasonable free choice. For hybrid earners, you would need a second tool for self-employment, defeating the "free" angle.
VoxaMTD — free for everyone, forever
VoxaMTD's free tier is the only one we found that satisfies the full set of practical requirements:
- HMRC-recognised for MTD ITSA quarterly updates, EOPS, and final declaration.
- No bank account requirement — works with any UK bank via FCA-registered open banking.
- No transaction cap on the free tier.
- No property cap — unlimited UK and foreign property.
- Sole-trader, landlord, and hybrid filer scenarios all supported in one app.
- Per-property accounting with Section 24 finance-cost auto-handling.
- AI transaction categorisation tuned for UK sole-trader and landlord categories.
- No time limit — free in 2026, free in 2027, free forever.
- No card required to sign up.
The free tier is funded by the optional Alex AI tier (voice accountant, premium support, advanced reporting) and by the agent-portal product for accountants (£3/client/month). The economics work because the marginal cost of an additional free user is small once the platform is built, and the paid upgrades capture enough revenue to fund development.
What does "free for life" actually mean?
Three commitments behind VoxaMTD's free tier:
- No degradation. Free-tier users get the same MTD compliance flow that paid users get — same quarterly submission, same EOPS, same final declaration, same bank feeds, same AI categorisation. Alex AI adds extras (Alex) on top, it does not remove features from free.
- No future paywall. Pricing for the free tier is part of the company's public commitment. We will not retroactively gate the basic compliance flow behind a paid plan after users have built their record-keeping in our system.
- No data lock-in. Every account can export their data as CSV at any time at no charge. If you ever want to leave VoxaMTD, you take your records with you.
If you would like to start now without putting in a card, sign up for free. Setup takes 10 minutes and the first quarterly submission costs nothing — and never will.