I used QuickBooks since its days on MS-DOS, but never again. Yes, the Evil Empire squandered all the significant customer loyalty and goodwill they had build up over decades, disrespecting their customer base to the point that I hope they crash and burn!!

I hate all of things you bring up as negatives about cloud-based software but I've found a few benefits to offset some of them....in other words, to me it's not a binary choice.

We officially switched to ZarMoney on Jan. 1st. Nifty accounting features, structured a lot like QuickBooks desktop (with some useful changes/additions), but weak financial reporting.

And like you say, if they go belly up or decide to upscale the monthly fee ($20 for 2 users) my data may suddenly be inaccessible.

To anyone who felt that we'd have historic accounting records forever the advent of cloud-based accounting has been a sharp blow to the head. Eventually, we may all have to become "accounting nomads"...keep a portable copy of our accounts, Items, and other lists ready to bug out at the drop of a hat, to move to a new tent.