When businesses begin exploring sales tax automation, Avalara and TaxJar are often the first names they encounter. They’re both powerful platforms and dominant players in the market.
But despite their popularity, many businesses-especially ecommerce sellers-find themselves searching for alternatives to Avalara and TaxJar. Why?
Here are the most common reasons:
1. Cost
With Avalara, it’s common to pay $300–$350 just for a single sales tax registration, plus $55+ per state return, and that’s before monthly platform fees. Meanwhile, TaxJar’s Professional plan charges $99/month for just 200 transactions. These costs can quickly add up—especially for high-volume or multichannel sellers.
2. Setup Friction and Poor Support
While both sales tax automation platforms can eventually handle filing for you, the initial onboarding process often requires extensive manual effort. Gaining access to your sales tax accounts in each state can be tedious, and support is often limited unless you’re on their most expensive plans. Businesses frequently report missing deadlines or getting penalized simply because they didn’t expect how much they’d need to be involved early on.
3. Software Reliability Concerns
Automated tax tools are supposed to simplify your life, but updates and bugs sometimes have the opposite effect. There have been cases where software updates unintentionally disabled tax collection on live stores, leaving businesses liable to pay sales tax out of pocket. Unfortunately, neither Avalara nor TaxJar takes responsibility for those errors. This is a major drawback of those sales tax automation solutions.
Sales Tax Engine or Sales Tax Service: What’s the Difference?
Before comparing alternatives, it’s worth being clear about what you are actually shopping for, because “sales tax software” covers two quite different things.
A sales tax engine calculates tax in real time. When a customer reaches checkout, the engine works out the correct rate for that address, that product and that moment, and returns a number. Avalara’s AvaTax and TaxJar’s calculation API are both engines. So are Vertex, Sovos and Stripe Tax.
A sales tax service handles what happens after the sale: registrations, returns, remittance, notices, deadlines. This is the part that takes real time every month and where the penalties live.
Most sellers need both, but not always from the same place. If you sell on Shopify, Amazon or Walmart, you already have calculation built in. What you usually do not have is anyone making sure the returns get filed correctly in every state where you have obligations.
Where it goes wrong: businesses buy an engine, assume tax is now “handled”, and discover twelve months later that nobody was filing. Calculation and compliance are not the same thing. An engine that charges the right amount at checkout does nothing about a return that was never submitted.
What to ask a provider:
| Question | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Is this an engine, a service, or both? | Determines what is still your job |
| Does calculation happen at checkout, or only at reporting? | Affects whether customers are charged correctly |
| Who monitors nexus thresholds as I grow? | Software rarely does this on its own |
| Who responds when a state sends a notice? | Engines do not answer letters |
| What happens if the software gets it wrong? | Most platforms disclaim liability for their own errors |
That last one is worth pressing on. As covered above, there have been cases where a software update disabled tax collection on live stores and the seller was left liable for the uncollected tax.
Better Rated Alternatives to Avalara and TaxJar
Here are four alternatives that combine strong customer ratings, transparent pricing, and reliable service:
1. RJM Tax Exemption
- Best For: Online businesses selling across multiple platforms, whether that’s their own website, Amazon, Walmart, Shopify or other marketplace facilitators. RJM specialise exclusively in ecommerce sales tax, combining compliance technology with a named consultant on every account.
- First month of sales tax filing free, up to $1,000 value. No risk, cancel anytime.
- Trustpilot Rating: ⭐ 4.9 / 5 (511+ reviews)
Pros:
- Price match guarantee
- First month of sales tax filing free (up to $1,000 value)
- Cancel anytime
- Free consultation and detailed tax liability assessment
Cons:
- U.S. only (no international VAT)
- Service-based; less self-serve control
Cost:
- Starts at $80/month (includes 12 filings per year)
- Monitoring & tracking included
- Your own dedicated sales tax professional
- Additional filings: $40 each
User Quote:
“RJM handled 10+ state registrations, caught us up on old filings, and dealt directly with state reps when we had issues. Absolutely worth every dollar.”
2. TaxValet
- Best For: U.S. ecommerce businesses using Shopify, WooCommerce, or Etsy.
- Rating: ⭐ 4.8 / 5 (G2)
Pros:
- Hands-off, fully automated tax return filing
- Flat monthly fee with no surprise costs
- Excellent customer service and setup experience
Cons:
- U.S. only—no VAT/GST support
- Limited analytics or advanced reporting
- Pricing may be high for low-volume sellers
Cost: $300–$500/month depending on complexity
User Quote:
“TaxValet Delivers Sales Tax Peace of Mind with a Truly Responsive Team”
3. TaxCloud
- Best For: This sales tax automation platform is ideal for budget-conscious U.S. ecommerce sellers.
- Trustpilot Rating: ⭐ 4.5 / 5 (180+ reviews)
Pros:
- Free plan for SST states
- Affordable monthly pricing and return filing
- Integrates with major ecommerce and accounting platforms
Cons:
- Premium plan ($79/month) includes only 2,400 orders/year; costs rise steeply after that
- UI is dated and sometimes clunky
- Filing fees apply on some plans (~$45/return)
Cost: $19–$79/month + per-return fees as applicable
User Quote:
“Great for getting started, but once we passed 2,500 orders, the costs jumped unexpectedly. We had to reconsider pretty fast.”
4. Vertex
- Best For: Large and mid-sized businesses needing enterprise-grade sales tax automation.
- Rating: ⭐ 4.3 / 5 (G2, Software Advice)
Pros:
- Deep ERP integrations (SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics)
- Handles U.S. sales tax and global VAT/GST
- Scalable for multi-entity, multi-country setups
Cons:
- Starting price around $5,000/year; mid-market pricing often $10k+
- Requires setup support or in-house technical staff
- Complex interface for non-enterprise users
Cost: $5,000–$50,000+/year depending on scope
User Quote:
“Vertex handles extremely complex tax setups—nothing else we evaluated came close to their integration with our SAP environment.”
Summary Comparison Table
| Provider | Rating | Cost Estimate | Best For | Key Strength |
| RJM Tax Exemption | ⭐ 4.9 / 5 | From $80/month First month free (up to $1,000) | Online business selling on one or multiple platforms | Software and real specialists, not one or the other. Personalised onboarding, nexus monitoring and fast human support |
| TaxValet | ⭐ 4.8 / 5 | $300–$500/month | Ecommerce stores needing simplicity | Fully automated sales tax filing, hands-off solution |
| TaxCloud | ⭐ 4.5 / 5 | $79/month (2,400 order cap)Higher volume = sharp increase | SMBs & budget-conscious retailers | Free SST support, low-cost entry plan |
| Vertex | ⭐ 4.3 / 5 | $5,000–$50,000+/year | Large enterprises with complex needs | Global compliance, ERP-grade integrations |
Software, Service, or Both?
The four options above sit in different places on that spectrum, which is really what you are choosing between.
| Provider | Engine | Filing service | Human support |
|---|---|---|---|
| Avalara | Yes | Yes, at additional cost | Tiered by plan |
| TaxJar | Yes | Yes, at additional cost | Tiered by plan |
| Vertex | Yes, enterprise-grade | Yes | Enterprise account teams |
| TaxCloud | Yes | Yes | Limited on lower plans |
| TaxValet | No | Yes | Yes |
| RJM | Technology plus a named consultant | Yes | Yes, a dedicated person |
The pattern is fairly consistent. The pure software platforms give you calculation and a dashboard, and the human element costs extra or arrives only at enterprise pricing. The service-led providers give you a person, and lean on the platform you already sell through for calculation.
RJM sits deliberately between the two. Calculation happens where it should, at the point of sale on the platform you already use. The monthly compliance work is handled by a named consultant who knows your account, not a support queue.
Why not just buy the biggest engine? Because for most ecommerce sellers the calculation was never the hard part. Shopify and the marketplaces already do it. The hard part is knowing where you have obligations, keeping the filings current, and having somebody to call when a state sends a letter. That is a people problem with software behind it, not a software problem.
Final Analysis:
After reviewing costs, support quality, service scope, and customer satisfaction, RJM Tax Exemption stands out as the best sales tax automation alternative to Avalara and TaxJar for small to medium-sized ecommerce businesses.
RJM offers personalized service, transparent pricing, and the peace of mind that comes with having real experts handle your compliance needs. For growing sellers who want to stay focused on their business—not tax portals or filings—RJM is a powerful partner worth considering. Your first month of sales tax filing is free, up to $1,000 in value, so you can see how it works before committing to anything. Reach out to us to find out more.
