Price: FreeTaxUSA’s Free Version Is More Comprehensive
TurboTax offers a Free Edition for federal and state filing that allows you to report W-2 and limited 1099-INT, 1099-DIV, and 1099-OID income. You can’t itemize, but this edition supports the Child Tax Credit (CTC), Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), student loan interest deduction, and taxable qualified retirement plan distributions. It also supports the new Schedule 1-A (deductions for car loan interest, overtime pay, qualified tips, and seniors age 65+). For Schedule C support, you need to upgrade to TurboTax Do It Yourself Premium, which costs $139 for federal returns and $64 per state. (Note: Approximately 37% of filers qualify for TurboTax Free Edition.)
FreeTaxUSA supports all major forms and schedules (including Schedule C). It’s free to file your federal return, but the company charges a reasonable $15.99 per state return. A Deluxe version, which costs $7.99, adds priority support with live chat and unlimited amended returns. I don’t expect FreeTaxUSA’s fees to change throughout the tax season.
You don’t have to pay for either app until you actually file your return, meaning you can try both before you decide between them. Remember that you have to pay a separate fee for each state return you complete. FreeTaxUSA and TurboTax are among the best free tax apps.
Winner: FreeTaxUSA
Interface and Ease of Use: Distinct Design Philosophies
I evaluate the quality of a tax website based on more than just the attractiveness of its fonts, layout, and graphics, though those certainly contribute to a site’s appeal. Functionality, navigation, and usability are also important.
TurboTax’s design is lively and fresh. The site is conversational and uses casual and understandable language. When I worked through the 1040, I was rarely at a loss about what came next, thanks to helpful navigation cues on every page. TurboTax flows easily and transparently from one topic to the next. Landing pages for the site’s main sections, such as Wages & Income, are thorough, listing the tax topics that it thinks you need to complete at the top and all other options below.
FreeTaxUSA is also elegant in terms of user interface and navigation. It abstains from TurboTax’s frequent use of graphics, so it feels snappy. It takes a no-nonsense approach in contrast to TurboTax’s friendly persona. Pages feel consistent and balanced. FreeTaxUSA offers two levels of site-wide navigation: landing pages like those in TurboTax and a comprehensive navigation overlay. Each page also has forward and back buttons. Experienced filers might prefer the site because of its simplicity and speed.
Navigation list in FreeTaxUSA (Credit: FreeTaxUSA/PCMag)
TurboTax and FreeTaxUSA use wizards and landing pages that display tax topics to walk you through Form 1040 and its assorted forms and schedules, asking questions and moving your answers to the official IRS forms in the background. Neither leaves you hanging. When you finish with a tax topic, they either return you to the current landing page or advance you to the next section. They help you feel confident when you complete a main topic area and are ready to move on by summarizing what you just submitted.
Winner: Tie
Tax Coverage: TurboTax Goes Slightly More In-Depth
Both applications cover tax topics in exceptional depth, down to forms and credits you’ve probably never heard of and are unlikely to need. While some questions (“Are you legally blind?”) don’t require much explanation, others (“Is this a repayment of a retirement distribution?”) do.
AMT page in TurboTax (Credit: Intuit/PCMag)
Each keeps a running tally of your federal and state obligations and displays them prominently. Both also show a tax summary once you complete your federal or state return, so you can see the key numbers. FreeTaxUSA even allows you to open actual tax forms like the 1040 and Schedule C. TurboTax lets you break down business expenses into the items that comprise them. TurboTax is also stronger at recording investment sales.
FreeTaxUSA now allows you to upload 1099-R, 1099-MISC, 1099-NEC, 1099-INT, 1099-DIV, and Consolidated 1099s. This saves time and helps reduce errors. Both it and TurboTax support the new 1099-DA (crypto transactions through a broker), and they’ve both, of course, incorporated all changes that were made to the tax code in 2025.
Winner: TurboTax
Help Resources: Competitive Levels of Support
IRS instructions can be difficult to understand, so TurboTax and FreeTaxUSA rewrite and simplify the guidance. Both employ understandable language in their help files, too. And both strike a conversational tone, a welcome presence when you’re slogging through tax preparation. Both sites do a final review of your tax return and isolate problem areas, displaying those fields so you can correct them.
Help takes many forms in personal tax prep apps. As mentioned, some of it is available directly on interview pages. Many pages on both sites contain hyperlinked words, phrases, and symbols that open context-sensitive explanations, step-by-step instructions, and, sometimes, links to related interview pages. TurboTax displays this text in a vertical pane on the right that doesn’t obscure the screen, and now FreeTaxUSA does, too. I noticed more hyperlinked help in FreeTaxUSA than in TurboTax, even on the legally blind question.
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FreeTaxUSA also has a massive, searchable database of tax information that returns answers rapidly. You can enter a word, phrase, or form number and get a list of articles and FAQs that answer your question and provide links to related pages. The site does a good job of prioritizing the most relevant answers, but the article topics sometimes veer off into unrelated areas.
Qualified tips page in FreeTaxUSA (Credit: FreeTaxUSA/PCMag)
TurboTax offers a similar search tool, but it appears only if you click a help link in the interview. The only help icon on the toolbar takes you to the AI Assistant chatbot. You can enter a question or phrase, and the bot responds directly, often suggesting follow-up questions. But it sometimes takes several seconds, whereas FreeTaxUSA’s responses appear instantly. The chatbot never veers off topic in my experience, however.
Which works better? To assess their abilities, I asked a simple (Can I deduct the cost of my child’s braces?) and complex (What if I don’t know the cost basis for a stock I’m selling?) question of each. Both answered in detail, especially regarding the cost basis question. TurboTax’s AI-driven responses were always on-target, but I had to ask follow-up questions to get more information.
If you need help from a human, TurboTax offers additional virtual services via chat, phone, and video. As you prepare your return, you can connect with an expert virtually via the Live Assisted service to ask questions and get a final review of your return. This product also includes year-round expert support. Pricing depends on your return’s complexity and product version. For its part, FreeTaxUSA offers email and chat help for technical issues. You can get unlimited tax guidance from a CPA or EA via live chat, phone, and screen sharing for $44.99.
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Winner: Tie
Self-Employment: TurboTax Provides Superior Guidance
Both apps do an excellent job of helping you report on income and expenses related to self-employment, though you need the most expensive version of TurboTax (Do It Yourself Premium) to complete these topics. Federal filing through FreeTaxUSA, as mentioned, is free. They both accommodate sole proprietors, partnerships, and S corporations. Freelancers and independent contractors, on-demand service providers (like Uber and Task Rabbit), and other small business owners could use either site, as can individuals who must report farm and rental income.
Both walk you through self-employment topic lists and wizards skillfully, though I find TurboTax’s organization, depth of questioning, and data entry options to be more effective and flexible. The app collects your self-employment income from various sources, such as 1099-NEC, 1099-K, and cash or checks, then offers four options for entering expenses: connecting to an online bank account and importing transactions, entering expenses manually (with extra fields for background bookkeeping), importing from your Credit Karma (an Intuit-owned financial site) account, or uploading a spreadsheet (new for this year). No other software I’ve tested offers so many options.
Advertising expenses in TurboTax (Credit: Intuit/PCMag)
Although TurboTax handles self-employment topics better overall, I still recommend FreeTaxUSA for small business owners who can’t justify the former’s high costs. If you’ve completed a Schedule C before, you should be fine without TurboTax’s extra support.
Winner: TurboTax
Stop Cleaning Your Phone Wrong: Safe Tips for 2026
Mobile Access: You Don’t Miss Out on Any Features
Both TurboTax and FreeTaxUSA make it easy for you to prepare even a complex return from your phone. I didn’t notice any critical data, navigation cues, or tools missing with either.
TurboTax’s dedicated apps (available for Android and iOS) offer the same tax topics that are available on the browser-based version and incorporate a similar look and personality. The pages aren’t quite as flashy, but they are still clear and simple to navigate. FreeTaxUSA doesn’t offer dedicated mobile apps, but its site gracefully resizes for smaller screens. Once you sign in via a mobile browser, you can proceed through the same sequence of pages as on the desktop. I appreciate its smart, sleek design and slightly prefer it to TurboTax’s.
Winner: Tie
