Small business cloud

✓ Vetted by Audit Friendly

Side-by-side comparison

BILL vs Lightyear

Name: Lightyear Review
Item: Lightyear
Rating: 68
Author: Audit Friendly

BILL leads on compliance depth and scalability. Lightyear leads on support and GL and ERP fit.

We earn a referral fee from some vendors. It never changes our scores, which come from our published eight-dimension rubric.

AF score

Agent readiness

In market since

2006

2017

Best fit

BILL

US SMBs and accounting firms

Lightyear

UK and ANZ SMEs on Xero or QBO

The verdict

BILL

AF score 78 / 100 · Leads on 5 of 8

Higher score, +10

Choose it if

An accounting firm running AP for many clients that wants one console
A US small business on QuickBooks Online or Xero
A company whose vendors are already on the BILL network

Try BILL

$49 to $89/user/mo (published)

Lightyear

AF score 68 / 100 · Leads on 2 of 8

Choose it if

A UK, Irish, Australian or New Zealand business on Xero
Hospitality, retail and care groups that raise POs
Accounting and bookkeeping firms running AP for many clients from one parent account

Visit Lightyear site

$199 to $319/mo (published) Read our full Lightyear review

Partner links: Audit Friendly may earn a referral fee if you sign up or take a demo through them. It never changes our scores or rankings. How we review

Scores from our independent reviews of both tools. Prices verified 12 Nov 2026.

At a glance

Fact	BILL	Lightyear
Best fit	US SMBs and accounting firms	UK and ANZ SMEs on Xero or QBO
Price	$49 to $89/user/mo (published)	$199 to $319/mo (published)
Pricing model	Published per-user tiers, per-payment fees; Enterprise quote	Published credit tiers: per document, unlimited users
Implementation	Low	Low
Time to go live	Days to 3 months (reported)	4 to 6 weeks (vendor)
Agent readiness	2 / 5	2 / 5
AF score	✓ 78 / 100	68 / 100

✓ marks a clear edge. Prices are as each vendor publishes them, verified 12 Nov 2026.

AF scores by dimension

BILL leads on

Payments & money movement

+60

AI and agent readiness

+22

Compliance depth

+12

Scalability

Pricing transparency

Lightyear leads on

Support

+24

GL and ERP fit

Even

Implementation

Even

Each dimension is scored 0 to 100 in the full reviews. The chip shows the leader's margin.

What each costs

BILL

$49 to $89/user/mo (published)

Published per-user tiers, per-payment fees; Enterprise quote

Lightyear

$199 to $319/mo (published)

Published credit tiers: per document, unlimited users

Compare plans on their own sites

BILL$49 to $89/user/mo (published)Try BILL

Lightyear$199 to $319/mo (published)Visit Lightyear site

Where each falls short

BILL is a weak fit for

A mid-market team on NetSuite, Sage Intacct or Business Central
A company paying many foreign vendors in local currency
A team that wants an AI agent working inside its AP data today

Lightyear is a weak fit for

Teams that want AP to pay suppliers
US companies that need W-9 collection, 1099 filing
Finance teams planning to run AP through an AI agent