TapTax vs APARI
Near the top of the price range, near the bottom of the readiness range
APARI appears on HMRC directory twice, as ApariSolo and ApariPro. Both are graded ready on 3 of the 16 tax-return items with 13 more in development. ApariSolo was £144 a year including VAT on a 12-month commitment when we checked in August 2026.
Estimate your self-employed tax in seconds
See what you would owe for the year, then file the real figures with TapTax in a couple of taps.
Total turnover before expenses
Under £1,000 we use the trading allowance automatically
Estimated tax bill
£6,872
15.3% effective rate for 2026/27
- Income tax
- £5,286
- Class 4 NI
- £1,586
Take-home pay
£32,128
after tax, NI and expenses
This is an estimate using HMRC-confirmed rates for 2026/27, not your official tax calculation. TapTax is MTD-compatible, so you can connect to HMRC and file the real figures in a couple of taps.
APARI appears on HMRC's directory twice, as ApariSolo and ApariPro, and reading the two listings side by side tells you more about the product than any marketing page will.
Both carry the same return-item grade: 3 of 16 ready, 13 in development. Both are graded ready on native digital record-keeping, bridging and all three business income sources. Neither has a free version and neither supports HMRC Assist. Where they diverge is agent software and calendar update periods, and the direction of the divergence is the tell. ApariPro has both. ApariSolo, the individual product, has neither.
Our pricing research in August 2026 found ApariSolo at £144 a year including VAT on a 12-month commitment. That is near the top of the dedicated MTD price range, and it is paired with the lowest ready-item count of any product on this page.
- ApariSolo was £144 a year including VAT on a 12-month commitment when we checked in August 2026, with no free tier and a 30-day trial.
- Both APARI listings are graded ready on 3 of the 16 tax-return items: employment PAYE, Construction Industry Scheme and student loan. The other 13 are in development.
- ApariSolo is graded not included on calendar update periods and on agent software; ApariPro is ready on both.
- Both are graded ready on native digital record-keeping, bridging and all three income sources including foreign property, which most of the directory cannot do.
- TapTax is £0, £4.99 or £9.99 a month with no commitment, ships iOS and Android apps, and is MTD-compatible and going through HMRC's recognition process rather than listed.
Two listings, one brand, and what the split tells you
HMRC publishes a feature grid for every listed product using its own three-state scale of ready now, in development, or not included. We scraped all 127 listings on 9 August 2026.
| Product | Free | Digital records | Bridging | Agent | Calendar quarters | Mobile app | Return items |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ApariSolo | Not included | Ready now | Ready now | Not included | Not included | Android; Apple iOS | 3/16 |
| ApariPro | Not included | Ready now | Ready now | Ready now | Ready now | Android; Apple iOS | 3/16 |
ApariSolo
£144/yr inc VAT(checked August 2026)
- Free version: no
- Android; Apple iOS: yes
- Sole trader income: yes
- UK property income: yes
- Foreign property income: yes
- Keeps digital records: yes
3/16 tax-return items ready, 13 more in development.
HMRC MTD for Income Tax directory, scraped 9 August 2026. Feature flags are vendor-declared. Vendor site
No free tier; 30-day trial and a 12-month commitment. Graded not included on calendar update periods, agent software and HMRC Assist.
ApariPro
Agent pricing on request(checked August 2026)
- Free version: no
- Android; Apple iOS: yes
- Sole trader income: yes
- UK property income: yes
- Foreign property income: yes
- Keeps digital records: yes
3/16 tax-return items ready, 13 more in development.
HMRC MTD for Income Tax directory, scraped 9 August 2026. Feature flags are vendor-declared. Vendor site
The accountant-facing listing. Graded ready on agent software and calendar update periods, with the same 3 of 16 return items as ApariSolo.
HMRC lists what each vendor declares. Feature flags, mobile-app support in particular, are vendor claims rather than verified facts, and listings change. Check with the vendor before you buy. Data: HMRC find-MTD-software service (tax.service.gov.uk), scraped 9 August 2026.
Our August 2026 research found APARI positioned increasingly towards accountants rather than direct consumers, and the two listings are consistent with that. The product graded for agents gets the calendar quarters and the agent tooling. The product sold to individuals does not.
That is worth knowing before you buy, because it changes what you are buying. A firm choosing ApariPro for a client book is a well-served customer. An individual sole trader choosing ApariSolo is buying the version of the product that receives the smaller share of attention.
3 ready, 13 in development, and why the distinction is not a technicality
Three of sixteen is a low ready count, and it is worth being precise about what the other thirteen mean.
98of 127 (77%)carry at least one "in development" promiseHMRC MTD for Income Tax directory, scraped 9 August 2026In development is HMRC's middle grade. It means the vendor has told HMRC it is committed to supporting that item for the 2026-27 return, and has not shipped it. It is a stated intention with a deadline attached, not a working feature. Nearly the whole directory carries at least one, so this is normal rather than alarming, but it never counts towards a ready total and you cannot file with an intention.
Read practically, APARI today can complete employment PAYE, Construction Industry Scheme and student loan. Everything else on the return, including bank interest and dividends, which almost everyone has, is graded in development. If the vendor delivers on schedule that position changes entirely during the 2026-27 year. If you need to finish a return before then, it does not.
The uncomfortable part is the pairing. At £144 a year including VAT, APARI is priced above most of the dedicated MTD field, above untied Pro at £129.99 and more than seven times MTD 4 Income Tax at £20, while sitting near the bottom of the readiness distribution. Price and readiness are loosely correlated in this market at best, and here they run in opposite directions.
89of 127 (70%)cannot complete a single tax-return itemHMRC MTD for Income Tax directory, scraped 9 August 2026To be fair to APARI: it is above that group, and being above it matters. The 89 products that cannot complete a single item are the real bottom of the distribution, and APARI is not among them.
The calendar-quarters gap on ApariSolo
- Calendar update period
- MTD for Income Tax lets you report quarters either on HMRC's standard periods, running 6 April to 5 April, or on calendar periods, running 1 April to 31 March. Calendar quarters line up with month ends, which is how bank statements, invoices and almost all bookkeeping already work, so they remove a recurring reconciliation nuisance every April. Support is a per-product choice HMRC grades separately: 23 of the 127 listed products cannot do calendar quarters at all.
ApariSolo is one of them. In day-to-day terms that means your quarterly figures have to be cut on 5 April rather than 31 March, so early April transactions get split across two update periods each year and never quite match a month-end statement. It is a small friction repeated four times a year, forever, and it is exactly the kind of detail that does not appear in a price comparison.
TapTax supports both standard and calendar update periods, and we wrote up which to choose in standard vs calendar quarters for MTD.
Pricing in detail, checked August 2026
| TapTax Free | TapTax Starter | TapTax Pro | ApariSolo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | £0 | £4.99/mo | £9.99/mo | £144/yr inc VAT |
| Approx. annual cost | £0 | £49 | £99 | £144 |
| Commitment | None | None | None | 12 months |
| Free tier | Permanent | n/a | n/a | None; 30-day trial |
| Return items ready | 6 to 8 of 16 (our estimate) | 6 to 8 of 16 (our estimate) | 6 to 8 of 16 (our estimate) | 3 of 16 (HMRC grade) |
| Return items in development | n/a | n/a | n/a | 13 (HMRC grade) |
| Sole trader income | Yes | Yes | Yes | Ready (HMRC grade) |
| UK property | Yes | Yes | Yes | Ready (HMRC grade) |
| Foreign property | Yes | Yes | Yes | Ready (HMRC grade) |
| Digital record-keeping | Yes | Yes | Yes | Ready (HMRC grade) |
| Bridging from a spreadsheet | No, by design | No, by design | No, by design | Ready (HMRC grade) |
| Calendar quarters | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not included |
| Agent software | No | No | No | Not included |
| HMRC Assist | No | No | No | Not included |
| Mobile app | iOS and Android | iOS and Android | iOS and Android | Declared, web-led |
| Open banking import | Yes | Yes | Yes | Not listed by HMRC |
| HMRC directory status | Not listed; recognition in progress | Not listed; recognition in progress | Not listed; recognition in progress | Listed |
APARI pricing is from our own vendor research as checked in August 2026. Feature grades in its column are HMRC's, from the 9 August 2026 scrape. TapTax pricing is our own published pricing. The TapTax annual figures are its published annual-plan prices, £49 for Starter and £99 for Pro, rather than twelve times the monthly rate.
£144 against £49 is a difference of £95 a year, both paid annually, and against TapTax's free tier it is £144 against nothing. In this market that difference usually buys completeness, automation or a human. Set against the grades above, it is difficult to see which of the three it is buying here, and the 12-month commitment removes the usual remedy of leaving after a quarter.
Price is not evidence of capability in this market, in either direction. The cheapest product on the directory is one of only three that can complete the whole return, and the most expensive per person is graded ready on three items out of sixteen.
Where APARI genuinely wins
Income sources, bridging and the accountant route.
Both listings are graded ready on sole trader, UK property and foreign property income. Only a minority of the directory manages all three, so anyone with an overseas rental starts from a much shorter list than the 127 headline suggests, and APARI is on it. Both are also graded ready on bridging as well as native record-keeping, so a spreadsheet workflow can continue. TapTax does neither of the bridging pieces by design.
The stronger case is ApariPro rather than ApariSolo. If your accountant already works in APARI, or wants to, then agent software plus calendar quarters plus a firm handling your return is a genuinely different offer from any self-serve app, and the right comparison then is with your accountant's fee rather than with a £5 subscription. Both listings are on HMRC's directory today and TapTax is not.
Where TapTax fits better
Price, commitment, quarters and the phone.
TapTax is £0 on its free tier and £4.99 a month at Starter, with no minimum term, so the cost of finding out it is wrong for you is a month rather than a year. It supports calendar as well as standard update periods, which ApariSolo does not. It ships native iOS and Android apps, and it is built so the year's data arrives on its own: open banking pulls transactions in as they happen, AI categorisation proposes the treatment, receipt capture works from the camera, and CSV import with presets for 16 UK banks covers accounts the feed does not reach.
On return items, TapTax is ahead of APARI today at roughly six to eight of 16 against 3, and behind the leaders at 15 and 16. We publish that honestly on every page rather than choosing the comparison that flatters us.
Before you commit to anything with a 12-month term, work out the size of the problem with the sole trader tax calculator, which includes Class 4 NIC.
Who should choose which
Your accountant uses APARI. ApariPro, through them. Agent software and calendar quarters are graded ready on that listing, and a firm running your return is a different product from an app.
Wants to keep records in a spreadsheet. APARI, which is graded ready on bridging. TapTax does not do bridging by design, though its CSV import will take a spreadsheet export.
Has an overseas rental. Both work, which already puts them ahead of most of the market. Compare on price, commitment and quarters instead.
Cutting quarters to calendar month ends. Not ApariSolo, which is graded not included on calendar update periods. ApariPro or TapTax.
Has interest, dividends or pension income on the return. Not APARI today. Those items are graded in development, and the products that can finish that return now are the 15-of-16 and 16-of-16 cohort covered in our analysis of all 127 listed tools.
Watching the cost. TapTax Free at £0 or Starter at £49 a year, MTD 4 Income Tax at £20 a year, or one of the genuinely free options. £144 a year with a 12-month commitment is the expensive end of this market, not the middle.
Must file a live submission this week. APARI, or another listed product. TapTax's recognition is in progress and we will not tell you otherwise.
The bottom line
APARI is a dedicated MTD product with real strengths: all three income sources, bridging alongside native record-keeping, and an accountant-facing listing that is better specified than its consumer one. If your accountant works in it, that is a sound reason to use it and the price conversation belongs with them.
For an individual buying ApariSolo directly, the numbers are harder to defend. £144 a year including VAT, on a 12-month commitment, with no free tier, no calendar quarters and 3 of the 16 return items ready, sits against a market where £20 buys all 16 and £0 buys 15. That is not a criticism of the engineering, it is an observation about where this product's attention has gone, and our August 2026 research suggests it has gone to accountants.
TapTax is cheaper, has no minimum term, does calendar quarters, ships on both app stores and automates the year's data collection. On return items we are ahead of APARI and behind the leaders. And TapTax is MTD-compatible and going through HMRC's recognition process rather than listed today, which is the one place APARI is unambiguously ahead.
People also ask
Frequently asked questions
Other comparisons
Tap. File. Done.
TapTax connects to your bank, categorises expenses automatically and submits quarterly updates to HMRC. Free plan, no card required.