Luca vs FreeAgent — comparison for UK sole traders & contractors
FreeAgent is the most popular UK accounting tool for sole traders, freelancers and small limited companies — especially those banking with NatWest/RBS, who get it free. Luca is the AI-first challenger. Here's how they compare.
30-second summary
| Feature | FreeAgent | Luca |
|---|---|---|
| Owned by | NatWest Group | eTail Support (UK indie) |
| Sole trader price | £10/mo (or free with NatWest) | £20/mo or self-host free |
| Limited company price | £19/mo | £20/mo |
| AI bookkeeping | ✗ | ✓ |
| Self Assessment built in | ✓ | In progress |
| Corporation Tax built in | ✓ | In progress |
| Open source | ✗ | ✓ |
The "free with NatWest" question
FreeAgent comes free with NatWest, RBS, Mettle and Ulster Bank business accounts. If you bank with one of those, FreeAgent's effective price is £0 and Luca's £20/mo can't compete on cost alone.
The reason to consider Luca anyway: your bookkeeping time. FreeAgent makes bookkeeping easy; Luca does it for you. If your time is worth more than £20/month, Luca pays for itself in the hours you save.
What FreeAgent is genuinely better at
- Self Assessment / SA filing. FreeAgent has end-to-end SA filing built in for sole traders. Luca's SA support is in development.
- Corporation Tax filing. FreeAgent files CT600 directly with HMRC. Luca's CT filing is in development.
- Contractor/IR35 features. FreeAgent has dedicated tooling for contractors inside IR35.
- Mature mobile app. FreeAgent's iOS/Android apps are excellent.
- Free with NatWest banking. Hard to beat free.
What Luca is better at
- AI doing the actual work. Categorisation, reconciliation, expense classification automated.
- Pricing simplicity for non-NatWest banks. If you bank with Starling, Tide, Wise, Revolut, you'd pay FreeAgent's full £19/mo — same as Luca's all-inclusive plan.
- Cryptographic audit trail. Tamper-evident Merkle-chain ledger.
- Open source & self-hostable. No vendor lock-in.
- Multi-channel eCommerce. If you sell on Amazon, Shopify or eBay alongside contracting work, Luca handles that better than FreeAgent does.
Who should stick with FreeAgent
- Sole traders banking with NatWest/RBS/Mettle/Ulster — you can't beat free
- Contractors who need IR35-specific tooling and end-to-end SA/CT filing today
Who should consider Luca
- Sole traders or limited companies banking outside the NatWest group
- Founders whose bookkeeping time is the bottleneck, not the cost
- eCommerce sellers who'd benefit from multi-channel native handling
- Anyone who values open source and data sovereignty
FAQ
Can I use Luca and FreeAgent together?
You could — FreeAgent for tax filing, Luca for the day-to-day bookkeeping — but it's clunky. Better to pick one.
Will Luca file my Self Assessment?
Not yet in beta. SA filing is on the roadmap. For now, Luca exports the data your accountant or HMRC SA tool needs.
Is Luca better for limited companies than FreeAgent?
Depends what you value. FreeAgent does end-to-end CT filing inside the platform. Luca does the bookkeeping autonomously and exports for your accountant to file. If you do your own CT600, FreeAgent is more convenient. If you have an accountant filing for you, Luca's autonomous bookkeeping saves more time.
Not banking with NatWest?
If FreeAgent isn't free for you, the £19 vs £20 trade-off changes everything. Book a quick call — we'll talk through whether Luca makes sense for your specific setup.