Bosh vs FileThat for Making Tax Digital
By the selector's own rules, Bosh and FileThat both work for sole traders, so the choice comes down to the six points where they differ. FileThat offers support for more than one property, receipt capture and access for an accountant, which Bosh does not. FileThat does not offer bank feeds or phone apps, which Bosh does. Their cheapest plans are listed as £3.99 plus VAT a month (Bosh (quarterly updates only)) for Bosh and £4.99 for each quarterly update, about £1.66 a month for four updates a year, VAT not stated (Pay per submission (qualifying income £30,000 to £50,000)) for FileThat.
Bosh suits sole traders in the building trades who would like their bank transactions sorted for them, subcontractors on the Construction Industry Scheme who want CIS tracked on the Bosh+ plan and VAT-registered sole traders who want Income Tax and VAT updates in the same app. FileThat suits sole traders and landlords who would rather pay for each quarterly update than take out a subscription, people with a trade and rental income, or property abroad, who want every income source filed from one place and VAT-registered sole traders who want their VAT returns and income tax updates to come from the same records.
The facts on this page come from each provider’s own pages and from HMRC’s software list, and how we compare products explains how we check them.
If you are thinking of moving from one to the other, the guide to changing your MTD software explains what GOV.UK says about when you can move and what happens to your records.
Where they differ
These are the points where our checks of the two products came out differently. A “No” means we did not find that feature on the provider’s own pages when we last checked them. Where we had nothing to go on for one of the two, we leave the point out here rather than guess.
| Point | Bosh | FileThat |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest plan | £3.99 plus VAT a month (Bosh (quarterly updates only)) | £4.99 for each quarterly update, about £1.66 a month for four updates a year, VAT not stated (Pay per submission (qualifying income £30,000 to £50,000)) |
| More than one property | No | Yes |
| Bank feeds | Yes | No |
| Receipt capture | No | Yes |
| Phone apps | Yes (iOS and Android) | No |
| Accountant access | No | Yes |
On the other points we compare (free plan, jointly owned property, holiday lets and former FHL and self-employment income), they give the same answer, or at least one provider does not say. The full list is under each product’s own page.
Both send MTD for VAT returns, from different plans: Bosh from the Bosh VAT (quarterly updates only) plan and FileThat from the Pay per submission (qualifying income £30,000 to £50,000) plan.
What HMRC’s software list says about both
HMRC’s list marks each feature as available now or intended for later. This is what HMRC’s list says, not something we have tested ourselves. Where HMRC lists a product under more than one name, we show the strongest answer and the listing it comes from.
| Feature | Bosh | FileThat |
|---|---|---|
| Your tax return and other income | ||
| Sending your tax return | Intended | Available |
| Foreign property | Not stated | Available |
| Construction Industry Scheme (CIS) | Intended | Available |
| Employment (PAYE) | Intended | Available |
| UK dividends | Intended | Available |
| UK interest | Intended | Available |
| Capital gains | Intended | Availablesince 2 October 2026 |
| How it works | ||
| Bridging software that connects to your records | Available | Available |
| Calendar update periods (1 April to 31 March) | Not stated | Available |
| A free version | Not stated | Available |
| Welsh language | Not stated | Not stated |
| Accessibility | ||
| Blindness or impaired vision | Not stated | Available |
| Deafness or impaired hearing | Not stated | Available |
| Motor or physical difficulties | Not stated | Available |
| Cognitive impairments | Not stated | Available |
This is HMRC’s list as it stood on 30 October 2026, at HMRC’s commit 201b34e. A date beside a feature is when HMRC’s list changed it from intended to available. HMRC’s software finder shows the current answers. How we read HMRC’s list
Does HMRC’s software list show Bosh and FileThat as available for sending your tax return?
For sending your tax return, HMRC’s software list as it stood on 30 October 2026 marks it “Intended” for Bosh and marks it “Available” for FileThat.
Does HMRC’s software list show a free version of Bosh or FileThat?
For a free version, HMRC’s software list as it stood on 30 October 2026 says nothing either way for Bosh and marks it “Available” for FileThat.
How many features does HMRC’s software list mark as available for Bosh and FileThat?
HMRC’s software list as it stood on 30 October 2026 covers 15 features, and it marks 1 “Available” for Bosh and 14 “Available” for FileThat. For Bosh, it marks 6 “Intended” and gives no answer on 8. For FileThat, it marks 0 “Intended” and gives no answer on 1.
The cheapest plan for your situation
A product’s cheapest plan is not always one you can use, because some plans are only for landlords or only for sole traders. These are the lowest prices the selector would show each reader, as each provider states them. Where a price grows with the number of properties, it is shown as a starting price. The figure over 12 months is the same plan at its regular price, worked out the way the software cost calculator does it.
Bosh
- For sole traders
- £3.99 plus VAT a month
- Cheapest plan over 12 months
- £47.88 plus VAT
We checked Bosh’s prices on 2 November 2026.
FileThat
- For sole traders
- £4.99 for each quarterly update, about £1.66 a month for four updates a year, VAT not stated
- Cheapest plan over 12 months
- £19.96, VAT not stated
We checked FileThat’s prices on 25 October 2026.
FileThat also works for landlords and people with rental and self-employment income.
Notes from our checks
Bosh
Bosh's MTD page describes sending the quarterly updates from the app and says you still finalise the year yourself by 31 January. Its home page now also talks about submitting your Self Assessment directly to HMRC, but when we looked at HMRC's software list on 2 November 2026 it still showed the year-end return as intended rather than available. Until Bosh's pages and HMRC's list agree, we name each plan as quarterly updates only. Bosh's pages are written for sole traders in the trades and we found nothing about property income; HMRC's list does not show UK property income for Bosh either, so we mark the plans as unsuitable when property income is in the picture. All prices are stated as excluding VAT. Bosh+ adds CIS and Bosh VAT adds MTD for VAT returns. The app is offered through the App Store and Google Play, and we did not find a web version. We did not find receipt capture, mileage tracking, accountant access or 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.
Neither product is ranked above the other here: the page sets out what each provider says so you can weigh it against your own situation. How we compare products
More on these two products
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