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Cofiled vs hiring a CPA: which is right for you?

A local CPA is a real professional, and so is the one who signs your Cofiled return. The difference is the appointments, the bill, and the second job a CPA quote never mentions: the bookkeeping.

Updated September 2026 · 4 min read

This is the closest comparison, because both end with a licensed professional's name on your return. But it isn't a fair fight on price, and here's why. A CPA files the return you bring them. They assume you show up with your year already sorted into clean books. If you don't, that's a separate bill for a bookkeeper, or a second unpaid job for you. Cofiled folds the bookkeeping in for free, so the CPA quote and the Cofiled price aren't measuring the same thing.

The second exam a CPA quote hides

Filing is only the last step. Before a CPA can touch your return, someone has to sort a year of income and expenses into categories, a whole separate skill most people were never taught. That's bookkeeping, and it's its own quiet exam: did I put this in the right bucket, did I miss a write-off, do I now have to hire someone just to answer that? A CPA usually hands that job back to you, or points you to a bookkeeper who bills for it. So the honest price of the CPA route is the filing fee plus that second cost, in dollars or in your own hours.

Cofiled does the bookkeeping for you and doesn't charge for it. You send the bank statements, we sort the year and find the write-offs, and it flows straight into the return the CPA signs. One price, one place, no second hire.

When a local CPA is worth it

Some situations really do need a specialist sitting with your file: a business with employees, partnerships across several states, an estate, or an audit already underway. If that's you, a dedicated CPA earns the fee. We'll say so plainly, and we'll tell you when your return crosses that line.

When Cofiled is the better fit

For the returns most people actually have, a job, some gig or rental income, a year or two behind, you get the same professional accountability without the appointments or the hourly meter. You see every number on the real forms before you pay, which a shoebox handed across a desk never lets you do.

• –The same thing a CPA gives you, a signed and filed return, for a flat $99.
• –No appointment and no chasing your preparer for a status update.
• –You read the finished draft yourself before anything is filed.
• –Behind a few years? We pull your transcripts and file 2019 through 2026.

The bottom line

It isn't software versus a professional. Both put a licensed CPA on your return. The difference is what's inside the price. A CPA files the books you bring; Cofiled sorts the books and files the return, for $99, done. For most gig, rental, and side-income filers, that's not a close call. The pricing guide has the full breakdown.