This guide is about e-filing Form 1099-NEC and similar information returns as the payer, for a freelancer or small business that hires contractors, not about filing your own personal income-tax return. All three tools here charge per form rather than a flat subscription, and the real differences show up in what's bundled: TaxBandits is cheapest at low volume and files free in combined-filing states, Avalara bundles free W-9 collection and free e-delivery that Tax1099 charges for separately, and Tax1099 has by far the deepest integration list and review history of the three, alongside a real filing-reliability complaint worth reading before you trust it blind.
Do you need paid software at all
Start with the free option before paying anyone. The IRS’s own IRIS (Information Returns Intake System) e-files 1099s, W-2Gs and 1098s at no cost, through either a manual Taxpayer Portal (up to 100 returns per submission) or an Application-to-Application channel built for software integrations (irs.gov/filing/e-file-forms-1099-with-iris). It has no TIN matching, no W-9 collection and no accounting-software integration, and the interface is rougher than any of the three paid tools below, but a freelancer filing two or three forms once a year can skip paying anyone entirely.
Paper filing isn’t really an option for most payers anymore. Since tax year 2023, anyone with 10 or more information returns in total, 1099s, W-2s and other information-return types counted together, not 10 of each form separately, must file electronically (irs.gov/filing/e-file-information-returns). Pay seven contractors and issue W-2s to three employees, and you’re already at 10.
The dollar threshold for actually needing to issue a 1099-NEC changed too. Payments for services of $2,000 or more made after December 31, 2025 must be reported on Form 1099-NEC, up from the old $600 line, and 1099-MISC payments for rents, prizes and other income use the same new $2,000 figure for payments made after that date, per the IRS Instructions for Forms 1099-MISC and 1099-NEC (Rev. December 2026, irs.gov/instructions/i1099mec). That threshold is fixed at $2,000 for 2026 payments; the IRS begins adjusting it for inflation with the 2027 threshold. Both the recipient copy and the IRS copy of Form 1099-NEC are due by January 31 under the standard rule, and since January 31, 2027 is a Sunday, the real deadline for tax year 2026 forms is Monday, February 1, 2027. 1099-MISC follows a split schedule: furnish the recipient copy by that same shifted date, but you get until March 31, 2027 to e-file with the IRS.
The three tools price the same job, federal e-filing of Form 1099-NEC, on a volume-tiered per-form rate card, and all three publish those tiers on their public pricing pages. One disclosure before the numbers: none of the three confirm at an actual checkout whether the discounted rate applies to every form in the batch once you cross a volume threshold, or only to the forms above it. We priced every total below at the whole-batch rate, since that’s how each card reads and how third-party comparisons describe it, but treat the totals as approximate, not guaranteed.
5 forms
| Tool | Federal e-file | State filing | Postal mail, domestic |
|---|
| Tax1099 | $14.95 ($2.99/form) | ~$14.95, not clearly separate from federal on the pricing page | $9.75 ($1.95/form) |
| TaxBandits | $13.75 ($2.75/form) | $0 if your state participates in the IRS Combined Federal/State program, else $4.75 ($0.95/form) | $9.25 ($1.85/form) |
| Avalara 1099 & W-9 | $15.50 ($3.10/form) | $7.45 flat ($1.49/form, any volume) | $9.20 standard window / $14.45 peak week (Jan 27-31) |
25 forms
| Tool | Federal e-file | State filing | Postal mail, domestic |
|---|
| Tax1099 | $64.75 ($2.59/form) | ~$64.75, same ambiguity as above | $48.75 ($1.95/form) |
| TaxBandits | $43.75 ($1.75/form) | $0 if CF/SF state, else $23.75 ($0.95/form) | $46.25 ($1.85/form) |
| Avalara 1099 & W-9 | $57.50 ($2.30/form) | $37.25 flat ($1.49/form) | $46.00 standard / $72.25 peak week |
Recipient delivery by email changes the ranking. Avalara includes e-delivery free, so its 5-form total stays at $15.50 if you never touch postal mail; Tax1099 and TaxBandits both charge $0.50 per form for the equivalent, pushing their email-only totals to $17.45 and $16.25. Add state filing and the order can flip again: TaxBandits’ free Combined Federal/State filing beats Avalara’s flat $1.49-per-form state fee in any state that participates, while Tax1099’s state cost is murky enough on its own pricing page that it’s worth confirming directly before you commit to a number.
Tax1099 is the safest default if integration depth and review volume matter most to you: it connects to more accounting platforms than either competitor and carries 740 combined Trustpilot and Capterra reviews, against single-to-low-double digits for the other two. That size comes with a real asterisk, a July 2026 report of paid filings that never reached the IRS and a recurring complaint about slow support during the January-February peak, so anyone filing close to a deadline should verify the filing landed, not just trust the dashboard.
TaxBandits wins on price at small volume and on state filing, where its free Combined Federal/State option beats both competitors’ flat per-form charges in any participating state. Its no-surge-fee policy and free corrections are genuinely useful during peak season. The honest tradeoff is proof: with only 18 Trustpilot reviews, 2 on G2 and none on Capterra, you’re trusting a thinner track record than Tax1099’s, and a handful of one-star reviews describe a sandbox mode confusing enough that filers believed they’d filed when they hadn’t.
Avalara 1099 & W-9, the product built for years as Track1099, is the pick if W-9 collection from new contractors is your actual recurring headache: 25 to 2,000 free collections a year by plan, against a $1-per-form charge elsewhere. It also bundles free e-delivery, which makes it cheapest overall for an email-only filer at low volume despite having the highest sticker price per form. Its reviews are the thinnest of the three, 8 total across every platform, and it has no standard content-affiliate program, which doesn’t affect your filing but explains why you’ll see it recommended less often than the other two.
How we picked
Every price, tier and review count in this guide came from each vendor’s own pricing page, checked directly on 2026-10-23, cross-referenced against G2, Capterra and Trustpilot. Deadline and threshold facts are sourced only from irs.gov, not third-party tax-prep sites, and are flagged where a figure, like the February 1, 2027 shift, is calculated from a standing IRS weekend rule rather than printed verbatim on a tax-year-2026-specific page yet.
The ranking is editorial, not a function of which tool pays us a commission. ToolsGavel may earn a commission if you sign up through a link on this page; that never changes the order the tools appear in, or the problems we flag.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need paid software to e-file 1099s, or can I use a free IRS tool?
The IRS runs IRIS (Information Returns Intake System), a free e-filing portal with a manual Taxpayer Portal and an Application-to-Application channel for software integrations (irs.gov/filing/e-file-forms-1099-with-iris). It has no TIN matching, no W-9 collection and no QuickBooks or Xero integration, and reviewers describe a rougher interface than any paid tool here, but it costs nothing and the Taxpayer Portal accepts up to 100 returns per submission. If you only file a handful of forms once a year and don't need the extras, IRIS is a legitimate zero-cost option before you pay for any of the three tools below.
Do I have to e-file, or can I mail paper 1099s?
Since tax year 2023, any filer with 10 or more information returns in total, counting 1099s, W-2s and other information-return types together rather than 10 of each form separately, must file electronically rather than on paper (irs.gov/filing/e-file-information-returns). A freelancer who hires even a handful of contractors, especially alongside any W-2 employees, crosses that 10-return line faster than it sounds, which is the regulatory reason paid e-filing software exists as a category at all.
What's the 2026 reporting threshold for 1099-NEC, and when is it due?
Payments for services of $2,000 or more made after December 31, 2025 must be reported on Form 1099-NEC, up from the old $600 threshold, per the IRS Instructions for Forms 1099-MISC and 1099-NEC (Rev. December 2026, irs.gov/instructions/i1099mec); the figure is set to adjust for inflation starting with the 2027 threshold. Both the recipient and IRS copies of Form 1099-NEC are due by January 31 under the standard rule, and since January 31, 2027 falls on a Sunday, the effective deadline for tax year 2026 forms is Monday, February 1, 2027. This isn't tax advice, so confirm your specific filing obligations against the current IRS instructions or a tax professional.
Which 1099 e-filer is cheapest for a small batch of forms?
TaxBandits is cheapest at the smallest common size: $13.75 for 5 forms, against Tax1099's $14.95 and Avalara's $15.50. The order flips depending on what you add: Avalara's free e-delivery makes it the cheapest total for an email-only filer at $15.50 against TaxBandits' $16.25 once you add TaxBandits' e-delivery fee, and TaxBandits' free state filing in combined-filing states can beat both once state costs enter the picture.
