August vs FileThat for Making Tax Digital

August

August's pages describe sending quarterly updates to HMRC from the app, and its MTD page says August does not file the final declaration, which your accountant or another product files after the tax year ends. When we looked at HMRC's software list on 2 November 2026 it still showed that return as intended rather than available. So we name each plan as quarterly updates only. August has a free plan for up to two tenancies, but its pricing page says MTD reporting starts on Growth, so we do not list the free plan here. August's MTD page says that when you own a property with others it splits income and costs by each owner's percentage, and its plan comparison ticks shared ownership support on every plan, so we show joint ownership. August is a landlord tool and we found nothing about self-employment income on its pages; HMRC's list does not show it for August either. August connects to Xero, so an accountant who uses Xero can work from the same income and expense records. Its full plan comparison lists multiple user access on the web on every plan, though the single-plan views mark it as coming soon on the paid plans, and it does not say your accountant can be one of those users, so we do not show direct accountant access. August runs on the web and on iPhone, and describes its Android app as basic. We did not find anything about furnished holiday lets. We checked this on 2 November 2026.

FileThat

FileThat has no subscription. Keeping digital records is free, and you buy a credit for each new quarterly update or VAT return with figures in it, at £3.99, £4.99 or £5.99 depending on your qualifying income across all your businesses. The first 500 individuals to connect to HMRC keep £3.99 for good, and until FileThat has figures to work out your band you pay the lowest price, so the price you end up paying may be higher than the cheapest one shown. We show each band as a monthly equivalent of four quarterly updates for one business. We leave out the £3.99 band from our prices because people who must use MTD have qualifying income over £50,000 now and over £30,000 from April 2027, so the bands that apply to them start at £4.99. Each trade, your UK property and any foreign property are separate businesses with their own quarterly updates, so a landlord who is also self-employed pays twice, although FileThat caps an individual's spending at £50 in a tax year, with £55 the most charged. The annual submission, final declaration and amendments are free. The 4 free credits on sign-up cover the first year of quarterly updates for one business, and FileThat's pricing page says this is why HMRC's software finder lists it with a free version. After that first year there is no lasting free plan for filing, so we do not count it as a free tier. FileThat says all your UK lets are kept apart under nicknames and filed as one property business, and that it does not split figures between joint owners, so each owner files their own share. It says a UK holiday let is filed as part of the ordinary property business now that the furnished holiday lettings rules have ended. Bank transactions come from a CSV statement you upload, as FileThat deliberately does not use Open Banking, so we do not count that as a bank feed. An accountant can sign up as an agent and file for you, and FileThat also files from a spreadsheet template if you prefer. It is a website that works in a phone's browser, and we did not find mobile apps. None of the pages we read says whether VAT is added to FileThat's own prices. We checked this on 25 October 2026.