Median vs Puzzle
Puzzle is the cheapest modern ledger here, and it is software: you keep the books. Median is a firm that keeps them for you. The price gap is real, and so is what sits behind it.
| Median | Puzzle | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | AI-native firm that keeps its own ledger | Accounting software with its own ledger, run by you |
| Dedicated accountant | Yes, on every account | None included at any tier |
| Who reviews the categorizations | Your accountant, before you see them | You, or a firm you hire separately |
| Pricing model | Usage-based, published rate card | Flat tiers, metered by AI credits and users |
| Starting price | $55 / account + $0.60 / entry | $30 / mo, up to $360 / mo |
| AI limits | None on your accountant's work | 25 credits for the account lifetime on the two cheapest plans |
| Accounting basis | Cash or accrual | Cash and accrual on every plan |
| Tax filing | Add-on from $1,499 / yr | Not stated |
| Built for | Startups that want the work done | Founders who will do the work themselves |
Public pricing and terms as of June 2026. Models differ, so figures are not directly comparable. Confirm current details with each provider.
Where Puzzle wins
Puzzle is well built and genuinely cheap, and if you have someone who will own the books it is a strong place for them to work.
- Price. At $30 a month on the entry plan, or $25 billed annually, nothing else here comes close on the subscription line.
- Cash and accrual on every plan, including the cheapest, which several more expensive providers do not state.
- Unlimited users from the $120 tier, so your accountant and your co-founder are not extra line items.
- Two months free at the entry tier, which makes it cheap to try before committing.
Where Median wins
Everything below follows from one difference: with Puzzle you are the accountant, and with Median you have one.
- A dedicated accountant reviews the exceptions and is accountable for the result. With Puzzle, a miscategorization stays until you find it.
- No AI credit ceiling on the work being done for you. Puzzle's two cheapest plans include 25 AI credits for the lifetime of the account, so the automation you are buying it for is capped early.
- Tax filing from $1,499 a year and R&D credits at 10 percent of the credit received, built on books that are already current. Puzzle does not state tax filing.
- Your time. The comparison is not $30 against a Median invoice, it is $30 plus your evenings, or a bookkeeper's fee, against Median doing the work.
How each one is built
Puzzle is a modern general ledger built for founders and the accountants who serve them, with automation layered on top and pricing that reflects a software business: cheap, self-serve, and metered by seats and AI credits rather than by how much work your books need. Notably, Burkland lists Puzzle among the systems it will work inside, which tells you how it is positioned in practice, as the ledger a firm operates.
Median is that firm. Software does the high-volume categorization and posting every business day, a dedicated accountant reviews what it flags and owns the outcome, and tax filing and R&D credits sit alongside the books. The ledger is ours rather than yours, which is the honest cost of the model, and we will hand over a clean chart of accounts and general ledger if you leave.
Pricing compared
Puzzle publishes four flat tiers, billed monthly at $30, $72, $120 and $360, or annually at $25, $60, $100 and $300 per month. Users scale from 1 to unlimited across the tiers. AI features are metered separately by credits: 25 for the lifetime of the account on the two cheapest plans, then 100 and 300 per month on the top two. Every plan is software only, with no accountant included. Verified on puzzle.io/pricing 2026-08-17.
Median is usage-based: $55 per active financial account per month plus $0.60 per posted ledger entry, with reports, scenarios, daily bookkeeping and every seat included, and no setup fee or tiers. Tax filing is an add-on from $1,499 per year and R&D credits are success-based at 10 percent of the credit received. Median will cost more than a Puzzle subscription, and it should: one is a tool and the other is the work. Compare Puzzle plus the cost of whoever operates it against Median, not the two subscription lines.
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