Avalara is established in the market, but comes with complexity that modern businesses don't need - hidden fees, lengthy setup, and you still own the liability.
Setup Takes Months
Avalara's price includes only Standard Implementation, a chat with an implementation agent. A scheduled implementation call, configuration review, and help resolving setup issues are sold separately as Guided Implementation.
Per-State Pricing That Adds Up
Avalara's published plans start at $69 to $79 per state per month and only cover companies under $50M in revenue. In 10 states, Core Compliance runs $7,990 to $9,480 a year, plus $4,030 to register. Above $50M, or for VAT, it's a custom quote, so total cost is hard to predict.
Customer Service Issues
Customers who switched to Kintsugi from Avalara tell us they dealt with poor support and fees they didn't expect. Avalara's included Standard Support is online cases with a 24-hour first response on weekdays and no phone; phone, live chat, and faster responses cost extra.
Locked Into Contracts
Customer reviews describe predatory contract practices, with businesses feeling misled and trapped in agreements that are difficult to exit.
Vast-Association8113Horrible employees, horrible service, horrible value for the dollar. Predatory business practices. They lie, mislead, and use any tactic to trap you in the contract. avoid at all costs! There are many significantly less expensive and better options out there.
2 Reply Award Share
LIAPHXDon't do it! Avatax is TERRIBLE. Implementation is bitch. Support is horrible. Managed returns are a joke - they've done our returns incorrectly despite asking them to correct (obvious) categories and now we have to amend multiple states and they are trying to charge us (this is an onboarding issue they need to fix.) They cant do NM and HI sourcing correctly. Had to set up custom rules which they agreed with. Without any knowledge of sales tax laws, you wouldn't know, but they are seriously fucking things up. DONT DO IT.
2 Reply Award Share
'Don't use this software'
2.0/5Not good. Attempted to cancel, but had to jump through hoops and we are still being charged monthly. We had multiple changes in our dedicated support rep, and he would constantly cancel our scheduled meetings.
Pros: Initially I thought Avalara was nice because it would calculate taxes on our behalf, then I realized the taxes calculated were wrong.
Cons: Customer Support was horrendous and slow. Platform was difficult to navigate at times and it is overpriced.
