Drake Tax

The number that decides most Drake evaluations is $3,295. That is Drake Tax Pro multi-user, $3,145 for a single user, and it covers unlimited individual and business returns, every state, and federal and state e-filing with no per-filing charge. Below it sit Pro 250 at $2,495 for up to 250 total returns, a 1040-only tier at $2,445 with business returns billed per return, a capped 1040 150 package at $1,995, and a $379.99 pay-per-return license that includes ten individual returns. Extra returns run $49.99 individual and $74.99 business. A firm doing 300 returns and a firm doing 1,500 pay the same on the Pro tier, which is the whole argument.

Day to day it is a Windows application with fast recalculation, hundreds of diagnostics, importable W-2, 4562, 8949 and Schedule K-1 data, customizable data entry screens and client letters, and LookBack and LinkBacks for pulling prior-year figures and tracing where a number came from. Drake Tax Planner handles multi-year and filing status scenarios. The vendor, founded in 1977 in Franklin, North Carolina and now part of Taxwell, reports more than 70,000 preparers and over 36 million federal and state returns processed in a season.

The trade-offs are concrete. It runs on Windows, so a Mac firm needs Drake Tax Online or the hosted option, and hosting is a separate bill through Rightworks at $114 per user per month for one to nine users, dropping to $99 at ten and $89 at twenty, on top of the software license. Data entry is dense and unglamorous, and a preparer used to an interview-style flow will find the learning curve real. Drake's own scan-and-populate, SmartExtract, is still in beta and free for 2025 returns, which means firms serious about document automation today are still buying GruntWorx separately. Free conversions cover ten competing packages but only 1040 from CrossLink, TaxSlayer Pro and TurboTax, and Drake does not publish what carries across on depreciation schedules or carryforwards, so that question belongs on the call before signing.

Against Lacerte and ProSeries, Drake's advantage is price transparency and the absence of per-state and per-module charges that make Intuit's total hard to predict until the renewal quote arrives. Against ATX, Drake includes every state where ATX 1040 gives three. What Drake gives up to UltraTax CS and CCH Axcess Tax is the integrated document management and workflow layer, though Drake Portals, Workflow and E-Sign bundle at a discount and cover a good deal of it for a small firm.

Top-pick stands, and the evidence supports it: current published pricing, an unlimited tier that stays flat as volume grows, all states in the box, no e-file fees, a documented conversion list and a vendor with fifty years of filing seasons behind it. For a US firm of 2 to 30 this remains the default starting point in the category.