Keeper is an app that helps independent contractors, freelancers, and employees file their tax returns while keeping track of work-related expenses.

The company offers both an iOS and Android and Android app to use so you can keep up with what you’re spending and how that may relate to your taxes.

See how Keeper compares with our list of the best tax software here.

If you're looking for an app to help keep you organized and prepared come tax time, Keeper can be slightly pricey, but maybe worth it for you. It all depends on your specific needs. Here's what to know.

What Is Keeper?

Keeper, formerly called Keeper Tax, is an app can do things like scan your bank and credit card statements to look for ways to track and write off expenses, with the hope of lowering your tax bill. It also handles your tax filing and offers tax professionals to provide answers to questions related to filing.

The company, founded in 2018 by Paul Koullick and David Kang, has rebranded from Keeper Tax to just Keeper. The app is highly rated on both the App Store (4.8 out of 5) and Google Play (4.6 out of 5).

How Does Keeper Work?

Keeper is an app that you need to download on your phone. You link your bank and credit card accounts to the app so it can start automatically scanning your purchases to see what kind of write offs you might be eligible for.

When you sign up for Keeper, you’re asked a series of questions before you can move on to the next screen. For example, it asks if you’re freelance, an employee, or a business owner. It also asks if you use your vehicle or travel for work.

How Much Does Keeper Cost?

There’s a free seven-day trial with Keeper. Once that ends here are your pricing options:

• Monthly subscription: $16
• Simple return: $99
• Tax return with business income: $192

Their monthly plan is $16 per month, which includes the expense-tracking features. For a one-time fee of $39, you can export your write-offs for your own records so you can have them on hand when you file your taxes.

Keeper offers a yearly plan, which includes everything on the monthly plan, plus the option to file your taxes with them at no additional cost.

Notable Keeper Features

Let’s take a look at some key features from Keeper.

Tax Pro Help

When you use a platform to help you file your taxes, oftentimes, you may not have access to a live expert. Or if you do, you’re required to upgrade to a higher tier. The nice thing about Keeper is that you have access to a tax expert who can answer questions for you. It may not be over the phone, but at least you can have someone help you with your specific issue.

Keeper prides itself on being a top educational content producer for those with 1099 taxes, so they may also be able to serve you with a video, article, or provide you with a calculator.

Audit Protection

Beyond an expert to answer your questions, you may want to know what would happen if you were to be audited by the IRS. Keeper provides audit protection, which means their team of tax assistants will help gather any necessary documents to send to the IRS. They will also provide you with access to their CPAs and tax experts who can answer your questions.

Write-Off Detection

Keeper offers write-off detection, which scans your credit card and bank accounts and notify you if there is something you can write off. Keeper looks at up to 18 months of transactions to automatically show you which tax breaks you may have missed. Then, all of the deductions are categorized and automatically added to your tax return. Keeper also double checks the deductions to make sure they won’t raise red flags.

There are a few steps involved before you can use this feature, including letting Keeper know what kind of work you do. Then you need to link your accounts to Keeper so it can start checking.

Tax Bill Prediction

No one likes feeling surprised by a huge tax bill, which is why Keeper gives you year-round estimates on how much you will likely owe or lets you know how much your refund will be.

You must input your status, your state, W-2, and 1099 incomes to get an instant calculation of this number. Their calculations include all federal and state, as well as deduction and credits.

This is a helpful feature because you know how much to save or how much you’re getting back so you can prepare your budget ahead of time.

Tax Filing

Since Keeper already scans your tax write-offs and gets you ready for tax season, filing your taxes with Keeper may make sense. It offers automatic tax form uploads, pre-fills documents for you, and in general, is a very user-friendly experience for filers.

You can even file your entire taxes over your phone. Keeper says on average, it takes users 22 minutes to file their taxes. Once you submit, a tax professional reviews your documents before you submit it to the IRS.

How Does Keeper Compare?

Even though Keeper is an easy-to-use platform that helps you with bookkeeping and filing, it has limited accounting features. In other words, you’d pay $192 for the year for managing your expenses but you wouldn’t be able to tap into in-depth reports and features you could get with Quickbooks, for example. It’s also on the pricier side, at $16 a month.

For a cheaper option, you could check out Hurdlr, which is a similar accounting, bookkeeping, and income taxes app that is totally free with the option to upgrade to Premium at $8.34 per month (billed annually) or choose to go with their month-to-month option at $10 a month. Hurdlr has a similarly-priced tier, Pro, at $16.67 per month (billed annually).

Everlance helps freelancers track their business expenses and revenues. The app makes it easy to fill out a Schedule C for your taxes. Everlance offers a free 10-day Premium trial, but many of the features are available in their free version. Everlance Premium features special customer service access, PDF reports, and automatic trip tracking. Premium costs $8 per month or $12 per month for Premium Plus.

If your taxes aren’t that complicated, you could file completely for free. Check out our favorite options to file your taxes for free.

There are plenty of other less expensive options that allow you to export your data without a $39 added cost. Turbotax tops The College Investor’s list as the best and easiest tax software to use. You can import PDFs and spreadsheets directly from your employer, financial institutions, and investment companies to download your tax data.

If you want a human to help guide you through the process, you may consider H&R Block, which has a robust software with the ability to import most tax PDFs, like Turbotax, but also has the added benefit of thousands of physical locations across the country. Here’s our review of H&R Block.

Visit The College Investor’s Tax Center to learn more about the best tax software, resources, and tools, plus what to understand about your tax return.

How To Sign Up

You’re asked for an email address and a phone number. Then, you’re given an option of whether you want to link your checking or credit card accounts to find eligible write-offs, if you freelance, for example.

After answering the questions and inputting your email address, you’re asked to download the app through a QR code on your computer, or you can go directly to the App Store or Google Play to download the app.

Free Tax Resources And Customer Service

Keeper is big on educating you on what to know about your taxes to help you save money and reduce your taxable income. The way they do this is through their Free Tax Resources page, which houses knowledge articles, free calculators, tools, articles, and FAQ on their website.

For more specific answers to customers’ questions, visit their help site.

Is Keeper Actually A Keeper?

Keeper is an impressive expense tracking plus tax filing combo. If you freelance, have 1099 income, and your finances are relatively straightforward (i.e., you file a Schedule C), you may appreciate the app. Keeper is easy to use and the expense-tracking features may be worthy of the $16 monthly fee.

However, if you have a more complicated work, income, and financial situation—for example, if you own rental real estate or buy and sell crypto regularly, you may consider a more robust software like TurboTax or H&R Block.

Keeper Features