TurboTax alternative that prepares your return for you

Why do people look for a TurboTax alternative?

TurboTax is the most widely used consumer tax product in the United States and it earns that position: the interview is polished, the situation coverage is broad, and the import connections to payroll providers and brokerages save real time. The reasons people leave are rarely about capability.

TaxFile answers the last one differently, which is the difference worth testing. Rather than asking whether you drove for work, it reads the documents you upload and surfaces the deductions and credits that follow from what is in them, then shows its reasoning next to each figure. You still review and approve everything before anything is filed.

Where TurboTax is genuinely the better choice: if your return includes capital gains on Schedule D, rental income on Schedule E, cryptocurrency, foreign income, or you need a prior year or amended return, TaxFile does not handle any of those and TurboTax does. TaxFile prepares W-2, 1099, Schedule C and Schedule SE returns, federal and state, for the current tax year. If your situation sits outside that, use the tool that covers it.

How much does it cost to file taxes with TurboTax?

TurboTax does not have one price. It sells three ways: Do It Yourself, where you enter the return; Expert Assist, where a tax pro reviews your work; and Expert Full Service, where an expert prepares and signs it for you. Each level costs more than the one below, and on every paid tier the state return is charged separately.

These are the list prices published on Intuit's own product pages, checked in August 2026 for tax year 2025. Intuit describes them as anticipated final, undiscounted prices, and it discounts early in the season, so what you see in January is often lower than what you pay in April.

State filing is extra on everything except the Free Edition, listed at $0 to $139 on the do-it-yourself range and up to $209 alongside Expert Assist. The number most people should look at is the one for their own situation rather than the headline: a self-employed filer with one state is comparing $139 plus a state fee against TaxFile's $89 with your state return included, not comparing free tiers.

The structure matters more than any single number, because the structure is what produces the surprise. Three things move you up a tier, and all three are common.

The prompt usually arrives partway through, once you have already entered most of your figures, which is why so many people search for what TurboTax cost them rather than what it costs. If you want the whole market laid out before you commit, the tax preparation fees page covers what software, storefront chains and CPAs each charge, with the survey data behind the averages. The most common head-to-head, TurboTax against the free-federal product, is priced scenario by scenario on the FreeTaxUSA vs TurboTax page.

TaxFile prices the other way round. $39 a year for a simple federal return, $89 for self-employed, $199 for business, with your state return included. Entering 1099 income does not move you to a different tier, because the self-employed price is the price whether you have one 1099 or nine. There is no free tier, which is the honest trade: if your return is a single W-2 and you want to pay nothing, TurboTax Free Edition or Cash App Taxes will serve you better than we will.