What do you dislike about Avalara?
I cannot recommend Avalara to anyone. If you are considering using their services, please read this review carefully to avoid the nightmare my small business has endured.
Avalara provides sales tax compliance software—an essential, time-sensitive service for any business. In 2021, we upgraded to Shopify Plus specifically to use Avalara’s Avatax at the recommendation of our CPA. This program promised unlimited transactions for $250/month. Now, Avalara claims this is false, asserting they can charge us per API call. They are changing their billing model midstream, despite having sold us something entirely different. Recently, they emailed us about discontinuing this program in April 2025, but they’ve already been finding ways to shirk their obligations for over a year.
In 2021, Avalara also sold us a Netsuite license, claiming it was necessary to capture wholesale transactions on sales tax reports. We explicitly explained that Shopify orders were imported into Netsuite, but no tax transactions were needed for these orders—only our wholesale orders in Netsuite required reporting. Avalara assured us this was fine. We even paid for custom programming to ensure this integration only triggered actions for our 6–12 monthly wholesale orders. However, it turns out Avalara requires access to all Netsuite records if their software is installed, resulting in charges every time we edit, update, or change a record. This makes the setup they sold us impossible and has led to massive overbilling.
Now, Avalara is trying to charge us over $8,000/year for tax compliance in just four states—16 to 53 times more than the tax liability we owe. This staggering overbilling stems from hidden fees, deceptive billing practices, and a shift to charging for every API call without properly disclosing this upfront. Despite notifying them multiple times, they continue to auto-bill our credit card without permission.
Customer service is abysmal. We’ve spent over a year emailing Avalara to resolve billing issues caused by their software and have been ignored for months on end. When they do respond, their replies fail to address the substance of our concerns. Recently, they outsourced customer support to a team in India, further worsening communication. This team has admitted they lack the knowledge to resolve detailed technical issues, yet they act as though they are experts.
In July 2023, we disabled the Netsuite license following Avalara’s instructions. Despite this, API transactions are still being generated, leading to additional charges. We’ve repeatedly requested to cancel the Netsuite license entirely but cannot get a response. This month alone, Avalara has billed us $1,477.69 in fraudulent charges.
We’ve documented our issues extensively, sent detailed timelines of Avalara’s lack of responses, and asked for help over and over. Instead of addressing their failures, Avalara continues to ignore us, delay, or issue vague acknowledgments without solutions.
This company has caused me nothing but pain, frustration, and financial harm. They market themselves as a solution for small businesses but have acted in bad faith at every step. Their pricing is extortionate—far exceeding the value they provide—and they’ve demonstrated no accountability for their errors. At this point, I believe their practices verge on fraudulent.
To add insult to injury, Avalara recently suggested I hire an attorney to escalate my issues further. No small business owner should have to endure this level of mistreatment.
Avoid Avalara at all costs. Their billing practices are opaque and predatory, and their customer service is nonexistent. This company is a disaster that deserves to go out of business. If you value transparency, accountability, or fair pricing, do not trust Avalara with your tax compliance needs. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.
