Considering tally gst free? Before comparing features, compare the shape of the thing: how it is delivered, how it is licensed, and where your data lives. That difference outlives every feature list, and it is what this page is about.
What Tally is, in one paragraph
Tally is desktop accounting software, installed on a Windows machine in the office and long established with Indian businesses and their accountants.
That shape suits some businesses very well. It is worth being clear about it before comparing anything else, because the delivery model decides more about your daily experience than any individual feature does.
Billixo is an independent product and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by or connected to any other software mentioned on this page. All product names, logos and brands are the property of their respective owners and are used here only to describe what people are comparing. For current features, pricing and terms of any other product, please refer to that vendor’s own website.
What "free" means, and what it usually costs
Free tiers in this market come in a few shapes and they are not equally honest. Worth knowing which you are looking at before you move a year of records into one.
A genuinely free plan has limits you can read — a volume cap, one login, a watermark — and no expiry. A trial is free for a period and then stops, which is fine if it says so. What is not fine is a plan that is free to put data into and not free to get data out of, and that is the one to check for specifically: can you export everything, in full, on the free plan?
Tally is desktop accounting software, installed on a Windows machine in the office and long established with Indian businesses and their accountants.
Here the Free plan is ₹0 with no card and no expiry. The limits are on volume, on a single login, and a small watermark on the PDF — the invoice itself is a complete GST tax invoice. Export to CSV, Excel and JSON works on the free plan, because records you cannot take with you are not records you own. Every new account also gets the full paid feature set for its first fortnight, and when that ends nothing is charged and nothing is deleted.
Comparing against installed desktop software
Tally is desktop accounting software, installed on a Windows machine in the office and long established with Indian businesses and their accountants.
Installed software has two real advantages and they are worth stating properly, because they are usually dismissed too quickly. It works with no internet, which at a counter with an unreliable line is not a preference but a requirement. And it is fast, because nothing is travelling over a network.
The costs arrive later and they are always the same three. The records are on one machine, so a failed disk, a theft or a reformat takes the business with it unless backups are genuinely happening and have been tested. A second person means a network setup or another licence. And getting at the figures from anywhere other than that desk is awkward, which is why month-end tends to happen in one place with one person.
The fair comparison is therefore not about features at all. It is: how reliable is your internet, and how many people need to bill? Answer those two honestly and the choice mostly makes itself.
What Billixo offers
- Browser-based. Nothing to install or update; the same account from any machine or phone.
- A genuinely free plan. ₹0, no card, no expiry — so you can test it properly before deciding anything.
- GST compliance built in. Every Rule 46 field on the invoice, HSN/SAC per line, and the CGST/SGST versus IGST split derived from place of supply rather than chosen.
- AI bill scanning. Photograph a supplier bill and it becomes a draft purchase record.
- AI HSN lookup from a plain description, for the codes nobody remembers.
- Inventory that moves as you bill, with low-stock warnings.
- Receivables and reminders — ageing, part payments, and a written chase you can send on WhatsApp.
- GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B summaries, exported in a format a practitioner can open directly.
- Bulk import and export — CSV and Excel in; CSV, Excel and JSON out, export free on every plan.
- Fixed-term pricing with no auto-renewal. One payment, no card kept on file.
How to compare them properly, in an afternoon
- Open a free Billixo account — no card, so this costs nothing but time.
- Enter your real business details: GSTIN and registration state, not sample data.
- Add two customers, one in your state and one outside it. This is the test that separates good tax logic from a dropdown.
- Add three of your actual products with their HSN codes.
- Raise the same invoice in both systems and time it honestly.
- Compare the two PDFs side by side as your customer would see them.
- Export a GST summary from each and open both. Whichever needs less repair is the one that will save you the month.
Running both for a month
The lowest-risk way to change billing software is not to change it on a Monday. It is to run the new one alongside the old for a full month, billing a small, real subset of customers through it.
By the end of that month you know three things a demo cannot tell you: whether it is actually faster on your invoices, whether the GST summary reconciles to what you billed, and whether anyone on your team quietly refuses to use it.
A free plan makes that month cost nothing, which is most of why it exists. Start free now.
Keeping what already works
Switching everything at once is rarely necessary. If your accountant files comfortably from one tool and your problem is only that raising invoices is slow, change only the billing.
A billing system that exports clean GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B summaries hands off cleanly to any filing tool or practitioner. The interface between the two is a file, not a platform commitment.
Billixo is an independent product and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by or connected to any other software mentioned on this page. All product names, logos and brands are the property of their respective owners and are used here only to describe what people are comparing. For current features, pricing and terms of any other product, please refer to that vendor’s own website.
CGST, SGST and IGST — worked out, not chosen
Whether a sale attracts CGST and SGST or IGST is not a preference. It follows from the place of supply: same state as your registration means the tax splits into central and state halves, a different state means one integrated tax at the combined rate.
That sounds simple and goes wrong constantly, because it is a dropdown in most billing software and a dropdown is something a tired person clicks past. In Billixo the split is derived from the state on the customer record against the state on your registration, and it changes the moment either does.
The consequence of getting it wrong is real: an IGST invoice raised as CGST/SGST has to be credited and reissued, and if the return has already gone in, amended.
HSN and SAC codes, and how many digits you need
Every line on a tax invoice needs an HSN code for goods or a SAC for services. How many digits depends on your aggregate turnover in the preceding financial year — smaller businesses report fewer digits than larger ones, and B2B and B2C invoices are treated differently.
Because the requirement is tied to turnover and has been tightened in stages, the practical answer is to store the fullest code you can against each product once, and let the software report at the level required. A six-digit code can always be truncated; a two-digit one cannot be expanded.
Billixo keeps the code on the product record and carries it onto every line automatically, and its AI HSN lookup will suggest one from a plain description when you genuinely do not know.
Bill scanning, in practice
The single largest time cost in most small businesses is not raising invoices — it is entering purchases. A photograph of a supplier bill goes in and a structured draft comes out: supplier, GSTIN, line items, rates, tax split and total.
You check it. That is the workflow, and it is deliberate: an extraction you did not read is a liability, not a saving. But checking a filled form takes fifteen seconds and typing one takes three minutes, and that difference compounds over a month of purchases.
Who it is built for
Small and mid-sized Indian businesses that are registered under GST and bill regularly. One person doing everything, or a counter with three people billing at once and an accountant who needs the month to close cleanly.
The design assumption throughout is that whoever raises the invoice is busy and is not a tax specialist. So the tax is computed rather than asked for, the compliance fields are populated rather than presented as questions, and the report the accountant wants is a download rather than a request.
Try it free — the free plan needs no card and does not expire.
The price, plainly
Free is ₹0 and stays ₹0. The paid plans are bought for a fixed term, paid once, with no auto-renewal and no card kept on file — when a term ends the account drops back to Free until you decide to buy again.
There is no per-invoice charge, no per-user surprise on the free plan, and no feature that is technically included but practically throttled. What the plan says you get is what you get.
Compare the plans on the home page, or just start free now and look at the ceiling from the inside.
Reliability, backups and getting your data out
Cloud billing software is only as good as its worst day. Two things matter more than any feature list: that your data is backed up somewhere you can reach, and that you can export it in a format something else can read.
Exports here are CSV, Excel and JSON, on every plan including the free one, covering customers, products, invoices and payments. That is the honest test of whether software respects you — not what it promises, but what it lets you take when you leave.
Frequently asked questions
What if my internet goes down?
A browser-based system needs a connection at the moment you bill — that is the honest trade-off against desktop software. If billing must continue through an outage, that is a legitimate reason to stay with an installed product.
Will my CA be able to work with it?
Yes. GSTR-1 and GSTR-3B summaries export in formats a practitioner can open and reconcile directly, which is most of what a CA actually wants from a client’s billing software.
Is Billixo affiliated with Tally?
No. Billixo is an independent product with no affiliation, endorsement or connection to Tally. All product names and brands are the property of their respective owners, and anything current about Tally should come from Tally’s own website.
Are the invoices valid for GST?
Yes. Every invoice carries the fields Rule 46 requires — GSTIN, HSN/SAC on each line, place of supply, the correct CGST/SGST or IGST split, and a consecutive invoice series that restarts each financial year.
Can I move my existing customers and products in?
Yes. Bulk import from CSV or Excel on any paid plan, and export back out in CSV, Excel or JSON at any time, including on Free. Most people bring their party and item lists across in one pass and carry outstanding invoices as opening balances.
See it working on your own bills
The fastest way to judge billing software is to bill with it. Photograph one supplier invoice, raise one sales invoice, and look at the PDF your customer would receive.
Open the software demo → — free account, no card, about a minute to set up.
More details on the home page → — what it does, what it costs, and where the limits are.
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