Cheap MTD Software for Sole Traders: What Actually Costs Less in 2026/27

The free submitters, the £36/year options, and the setup that beats paying monthly for an app you don't need.

The cheapest legal setup: two tools, not one

All MTD requires is digital records — every transaction with an amount, a date and a category — plus HMRC-recognised software to send the quarterly update. Nothing says both jobs need the same tool.

Records: a spreadsheet. One-off cost or free, and it can be exactly as simple as your business needs.
Submission: a bridging tool that takes your category totals and files them. Some cost less per year than one month of a bookkeeping app.

⚠️ One rule to know: your records and your submitter must be digitally linked. Importing a CSV counts. Typing your totals into a web form by hand does not — that is "transcription" and HMRC's guidance excludes it.

Submitters compared (prices as at September 2026)

Tool	Price	Notes
AffordableMTD	Free for 2026/27	Then around £100/year. The cheapest start if you're happy to review pricing later.
MTDfB	From ~£36/year	Budget paid option.
123 Sheets	~£20 intro, ~£40/year	Spreadsheet-first: they provide the sheet and the submission.
Bridging vendors (MTDsorted, mtd.tax and others)	Varies, some free tiers	Several give you a free spreadsheet and charge only for filing.
Calida / FreeAgent	~£19/month	Full bookkeeping — bank feeds, invoicing. Overkill if you just need MTD.
untied / Coconut / GoSimpleTax	£65–£130/year	Middle ground: bookkeeping plus submission in one app.

Check any tool against HMRC's recognised software list before paying — search "HMRC recognised software Making Tax Digital Income Tax" on GOV.UK.

Why not just pay for a full app?

If you want bank feeds, invoicing and mobile apps in one place, the £65–£130/year tools earn their price. But plenty of sole traders already have a system that works — a spreadsheet, a shoebox of invoices, a bank statement. For them, MTD only adds one requirement: send category totals quarterly. That is a ten-minute job once the records are in shape.

The real cost trap is paying £20+/month for features you'll never open, because a deadline panic made the first Google result look like the only option.

What the spreadsheet needs to do

Record amount, date and category per transaction — categories matching HMRC's quarterly update lists.
Total each category per quarter, so the update is a copy-paste, not a re-count.
Keep the data exportable as CSV, so the digital link to your submitter is clean.

Our tracker does exactly that

MTD Sole Trader Tracker 2026/27: HMRC category dropdowns, Q1–Q4 totals, tax estimate. On Etsy from £8.99 in the current sale — plus a free PDF invoice extractor.

See the spreadsheets