FreeTaxUSA vs TurboTax for self-employed filers: is FreeTaxUSA better than TurboTax, and which to buy

FreeTaxUSA vs TurboTax pricing in 2026

The two products are priced on different shapes, which is why the comparison confuses people. FreeTaxUSA charges nothing for the federal return no matter what is on it, makes its money on the state return and on optional support tiers, and prices every add-on separately. TurboTax charges for the federal return by complexity tier, adds a separate state charge, and folds support into higher tiers rather than selling it as an add-on.

The TurboTax figures below were read from Intuit's own product pages this month. Intuit labels them anticipated final, undiscounted prices for tax year 2025 and runs a "File by 3/31 to save" banner, so early in the season they run lower. The FreeTaxUSA figures come from SmartAsset's April 2026 comparison and PCMag's 2026 review, because freetaxusa.com blocks automated access from our servers and we would rather tell you where a number came from than pretend we checked it ourselves. Confirm the state charge on freetaxusa.com before you start, since that is the figure that decides most of this comparison.

Two things in that table decide most cases. First, TurboTax Free Edition does not cover Schedule C at all, so a freelancer or gig driver who starts in the free product gets moved to Premium partway through. Second, FreeTaxUSA's $0 federal really does include Schedule C, so the entire FreeTaxUSA cost of a one-state self-employed return is $15.99 unless you buy support. We keep a running TurboTax pricing breakdown by tier and a separate look at what TurboTax Self-Employed became and what it costs now if you want the Intuit side in more detail.

Is FreeTaxUSA better than TurboTax?

FreeTaxUSA is better than TurboTax if your main criterion is price, and both products file an accurate federal return from the same numbers. TurboTax is better if you want your W-2 and 1099 figures pulled in from a photo, a guided interview that asks about deductions in plain language, and a person on the phone when you get stuck. The refund itself should be identical in both if you enter the same data, because both apply the same tax law.

The honest way to frame it: FreeTaxUSA is a very good form-filler with a low price, and TurboTax is a guided product with a high price. What neither product sells at any tier is the thing self-employed filers most often lose money on, which is having the software read a year of documents and tell you what you can deduct that you did not think to enter. TurboTax gets partway there through its interview questions. FreeTaxUSA leaves it to you.

What a self-employed return actually costs in each product

Take a common shape: one W-2, one Schedule C with 1099-NEC income, one state. Here is the full price of getting that return filed in each product, with support bought at the level a first-time Schedule C filer usually ends up wanting.

Read the rows and the pattern is plain. FreeTaxUSA is the cheapest line in every scenario and it is not close. TurboTax is the most expensive line in every scenario. TaxFile is priced between them, and the only reason to pay $89 instead of $15.99 is if the deductions it surfaces are worth more than $73. On a Schedule C return with real expenses they usually are, and the next section explains why. On a W-2 return with a standard deduction they usually are not, and you should take FreeTaxUSA.

The two-state row is worth a second look. A self-employed filer who moved during the year, or who lives in one state and earned in another, pays FreeTaxUSA $31.98 and TaxFile $199, because TaxFile handles multiple states only on its Business plan. That is a real gap and FreeTaxUSA wins it. If that is your year, our multi-state filing page explains the nonresident-first order the returns need to go in, whichever product you use.

Which is better for Schedule C: FreeTaxUSA or TurboTax?

For Schedule C specifically, the difference is who does the finding. Both products support the full schedule. The gap is in how the numbers get onto it.

In FreeTaxUSA you type your 1099-NEC totals and your expenses into form-shaped screens. The product supports importing last year's return as a PDF from TurboTax, H&R Block or TaxAct, which is useful when you switch, but the current-year W-2 and 1099 figures are entered by hand. If you know that your cell phone, your home office square footage, your health insurance premiums and half of your self-employment tax all belong on the return, FreeTaxUSA will take them and compute the result correctly. If you do not know that, nothing on the screen will tell you.

In TurboTax Premium you can snap a photo of a W-2, a 1099-NEC or a 1099-K and have the figures auto-filled, and the interview asks about common self-employed expenses category by category. That is the practical content of the $139: less typing, and prompts that catch some of what a first-year filer would miss.

TaxFile takes the second approach further. You upload the documents, the software reads them, prepares the Schedule C and Schedule SE, and lists the deductions it found and the ones it thinks you may qualify for, with a plain-English note on each. You review every figure and approve before it is e-filed. It is still software, not advice, but on a return where an overlooked $2,000 of expenses costs about $700 at a 22% bracket plus 15.3% self-employment tax, a deduction sweep is the feature that pays for itself. The Schedule C software page walks through what the sweep looks for line by line, and the self-employed tax software page covers the plan itself.

Does FreeTaxUSA import W-2s?

FreeTaxUSA imports a prior-year return as a PDF from TurboTax, H&R Block, TaxAct and several other products, which carries over your personal details and last year's figures. Current-year W-2 and 1099 amounts are typed in by hand from the paper or PDF you received. TurboTax, by contrast, lets you photograph a W-2, 1099-NEC or 1099-K and auto-fills the boxes, and pulls investment data from hundreds of institutions. If you have a stack of forms and no patience for box-by-box entry, that is a real reason to pay more, and it is the same reason people choose TaxFile, which reads uploaded W-2s and 1099s directly.

Can I switch from TurboTax to FreeTaxUSA?

Yes, and the switch is simple. Download last year's return from TurboTax as a PDF, upload it to FreeTaxUSA when it asks for prior-year information, and your name, address, dependents, filing status and carryover figures come across. The same PDF import works from H&R Block and TaxAct. You then enter the current year's income and expenses as usual. Nothing about a prior TurboTax return locks you in, and the IRS does not care which product prepared the return it receives.

The one thing to carry over deliberately is anything TurboTax was tracking for you: depreciation schedules on equipment, a home office you have been claiming, or a net operating loss. Those figures live in last year's return, and the PDF import picks them up, but check them on the new screens rather than assuming.

Why is TurboTax so much more expensive than FreeTaxUSA?

Because you are paying for the parts around the calculation rather than the calculation. Both products compute the same tax from the same inputs. TurboTax charges for the photo import, the interview that translates tax law into plain questions, the option of a person on the phone or a preparer who does the whole thing, the brand, and the maximum-refund and accuracy guarantees. FreeTaxUSA sells the calculation and the e-file, and charges separately for each piece of help you decide you want.

That pricing shape is what makes the comparison so lopsided on a simple return and so close on a complicated one. A W-2 filer buys nothing from TurboTax that FreeTaxUSA does not give away. A Schedule C filer with a year of receipts is buying help, and the question becomes which product's help is worth the money. That is the gap TaxFile is built for: the document reading and the deduction sweep that are the reason people pay Intuit, at a price closer to the free product.

When to pick each one

This is the decision as plainly as we can put it, including the rows where TaxFile is the wrong answer.

If you are still deciding whether to file yourself at all, the going rate for a paid preparer is the other number to have in front of you: the 2025 NATP fee study puts a CPA-prepared 1040 with a Schedule C well above any line in the tables here. And before you buy anything, estimate the return first, because a filer who is getting money back and a filer who owes have different reasons to care about the software fee. Our FreeTaxUSA alternative and TurboTax alternative pages cover each product on its own against TaxFile, and the pricing page has the three plans without any comparison at all.