Drake Software Reviews 364

I have been using Drake Tax Software for over 30 years, and it continues to be a reliable solution for our office.
In my experience, Drake is built with the professional tax preparer in mind rather than beginners. It assumes the user has a solid understanding of tax forms and does not rely heavily on guiding the preparer step-by-step. For experienced professionals, this is actually a strength—it allows for efficiency and control rather than slowing the process down.
The software is very fast and accurate, which is critical for our operation. We are a high-volume office with 10 full-time preparers, and while we do encounter occasional issues, they are minor and do not disrupt our workflow in any significant way.
Although Drake has changed ownership, we have not seen any noticeable decline in performance or reliability. The software remains consistent with what we have come to expect over the years.
Technical support is solid. During most of the year, wait times are reasonable, and we are able to speak with knowledgeable representatives. Naturally, at the end of tax season, longer wait times are to be expected. That said, we rarely need to rely on direct support because Drake offers multiple self-help options, including an extensive knowledge base, online resources, and active user communities.
Even with minor issues, I would still choose Drake again. Compared to other tax software options we have evaluated, Drake stands out for its speed, reliability, and overall support. Many competing products tend to be slower, less intuitive for experienced preparers, and offer weaker customer support.
Overall, Drake remains a strong choice for established tax professionals, especially those managing a high-volume practice and looking for efficiency and dependability.

Every year is worse and worse... this year's glitch is that it just makes up forms now... literally... it's starting to grab data from one user and creating forms for totally separate clients... What TaxAct has done to this product is absolutely shameful... Next year I'm going to spend the big buck and buy Lacerte - I'm losing clients over this crappy shit... they want everyone to be 100% online... I refuse to be a subscription slave adn to store my client's data on a foreign server.

Drake is on a downward trajectory. I've been using Drake for over 12 years now and the last 4 to 5 years has seen a decline in pretty much all aspects of the software and service.

They raise their prices each year but their software reliability is slipping. Every year, the issue mid season updates and do not notify users. These updates are errors that changes calculations on previously filed returns. Believe me, I get it, mistakes happen, but Drake does not support their user base and proactively take responsibility for their product.

Customer service is average. It's like calling the IRS. Sometimes you get someone helpful and sometimes you get someone who answers the phone but can't help.

They are starting to push their bundling and workflow but their products are clunky at best.

As for overall software use, it works fine for a 1040 with one state. Anymore than one state and the software can quickly become very complex. More than two states, just get a different software.

Drake has been a reliable product in the past, but the decline in quality over recent years is significant and unacceptable for a professional tax preparation environment.

The volume of in-season updates is disruptive and creates unnecessary risk during the busiest time of year. Stability should be the priority during tax season, not constant patching.

There are also ongoing accuracy and workflow issues that directly impact efficiency and confidence in the software:

Ohio city estimate amounts displaying incorrectly and mapping to the wrong jurisdictions
RITA part-year filings being effectively unworkable within the software
Report Manager limitations that make basic document handling more time-consuming than necessary

These are not minor inconveniences—they affect client outcomes and significantly increase preparer workload.

It is difficult to ignore the timing of this decline alongside private equity involvement. The product increasingly feels like it is being managed for short-term priorities rather than long-term quality and user trust.

After this tax season, I will be transitioning away from Drake. I no longer have confidence that the software meets the standard required for my practice.

I strongly encourage a renewed focus on accuracy, stability, and real-world usability for tax professionals.

Drake tax software has been a game changer for my tax practice and I appreciate their devotion to customer service and a quality tax software system that is easy to learn and work with.

I have been a Drake user for 20+ years this year was by far the worst. Support is non existent. I had to call support more times this year then any year prior. It started off with a patch in the 2024 software corrupting all of our Schedule C Client files causing them to be password protected and causing the files to be unusable to be populated to current year. This required us to repopulate 2023 to 2024 so we could pull depreciation records forward to 2025 returns and add any items bought in 2024 and 2025, Support had no work around except to restart the return. Big chore for 100+ business returns some with over 100 depreciable items.
Support blamed SC for processing delays on some returns due to OBBB. But in reality it was returns with Schedule A in the return and adding back in the $750/$1500 standard deduction increase as taxable income to SC. And they tried to justify by saying that it had to be added back in on all returns.
Drake also charged us for an annual subscription for Drake Portals in March, and then charged us for a monthly subscription in April and no response after 3 weeks from the people in accounting that have to work a refund.

Follow up to my review: Called Drake reference my Portals overbilling issue as suggested from Drake in response to my review. The individual I spoke with said she saw where it was elevated up to process a refund multiple times, but they are way behind due to internal programing issues. So she sent email to two different supervisors to contact me today. As of 1800 hrs today no contact from Drake, and they are closed.
So the Tax and Accounting Software Company we rely on to do Tax and Accounting has had internal processing issues for weeks in their own accounting and billing department. THAT IS A SERIOUS RED FLAG.

I have been customer since 2019 and did not have any issue. Highly recommended

Have been using drake software for 9 tax years. Rarely have any issues, I try to take the classes they provide in order to use the software to be able to navigate and setup at beginning of tax season. Clients had trouble with e-signatures this past year. Called customer support had issued resolved by end of the day. The videos they supply to access for different ways to input information into software are very helpful to me and time efficient, instead of calling for answers and trying to explain what I need. I recommend drake for ease of software at reasonable price for my small business.

Drake Software is very complex, and is the only software I will trust to use for my tax firm and my business. It is very complete and easy to understand and follow. Very easy to work with, providing you with all the tools needed to be successful in your tax business.

THE SOFTARE IS GREAT BUT ME BEING WITH DRAKE OVER 20 YEARS IN MY OPINION WE SHOULD GET SOME KIND OF DISCOUNT BUT INSTEAD YOU GUYS ARE INCREASING MY RENEWAL

Drake Software is very user friendly but still requires you to have the tax knowledge ALL tax preparers should have. Drake support offers a lot of self guided and online webinar trainings to help you with every aspect of all of their software. The support team is VERY helpful, knowledgeable and very quick to respond to your needs! They have Awesome customer service!

Software is easy to use and easy to renew.

Drake user for 30+ years. Great when owned by Drake family, gone downhill somewhat after buy out. Program froze up a lot this year, telephone help is mostly useless, voice mail from hell is time consuming, stupid "exit without saving" on the exit button needs to be eliminated, price is getting a little much compared to a couple years ago. Too close to retirement to change software.

None raster service and good communication

Drake is the most stable tax preparation software on the market. I left Intuit's ProSeries in 2005 for Drake and never looked back. It was the best business decision I've ever made.

I switched to this software a number of years ago when my prior software company failed to provide helpful problem service. Drake has been great and has helpful people answer the phone when I have had a problem. I have used both the Pay-per-return service and the online software service. There was a learning curve and if you only like dealing directly with the IRS forms it may not be for you. But I have found it extremely helpful. Often prompting me to another form or adding information when needed. I have been doing taxes for over 30 years and have used numerous software providers. Drake gives me access to every state I have ever needed to use without further cost. Drake provides VERY good service at a reasonable price.

I needed to update our account information, but when I clicked "save" I had an error message that something needed to be added or changed. When I went back into account information, the items I had supposedly saved weren't, and I had to start all over again. It also required two contact numbers for the primary partner but he only has a cell phone and when I used the office phone as a second contact number, and hit save, I got an error message that the primary office number couldn't be used as a second phone for a partner so I had to start all over again because nothing had been saved. Very frustrating but typical Drake.

Drake Tax is the best software for manual data entry and ease of use. I know from my 10+ years' experience working with other CPA level tax software. Customer service is top notch, however, this last tax season wasn't at the same level as in previous years. Having the online client status manager (aka Drake Hub, new for 2026) seemed to slow down receipt of acknowledgements and Drake Workflow showed conflicting information from Drake Software but overall, this software is still number one for me.

Because of the Professional Tax and Accounting software that is the best in the industry, it is only exceeded by the World Class Support that is provided throughout the year, not just during tax season. This level of Customer Support is what all other corporations' customer support should be measured to.