Overview

Kintsugi combines sales-tax calculation, nexus monitoring, registration, return filing, and remittance. Its Free plan tracks global physical and economic nexus, audits historical liability, assesses risk, and alerts businesses when thresholds are reached. That makes it useful for discovering where obligations may exist before a company is ready to outsource filings.

Starter turns those findings into an operating workflow for the United States. It supports automated registrations, filings, and remittance, with auto-file, auto-register, and deregistration where supported. Refunds, amendments, and exemption certificate management make it more suitable for an ongoing compliance program than a monitoring-only tool.

Kintsugi supports sales tax rather than a broad set of tax types on these plans. Businesses that need several countries, premium connectors, or enterprise access controls need Premium. The maker, founded in 2022, is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

Key features

Exposure and nexus controls

Free monitors physical and economic nexus globally, provides risk assessment and threshold alerts, and supports exposure and historical-liability audits. Those functions help finance teams decide where registration deserves attention, but they are investigative controls rather than a substitute for filing and remittance.

Data and setup

AI-powered product categorization, CSV transaction imports, and no-code integrations give smaller teams several ways to assemble transaction data. The combination is particularly useful when a business is not ready to build a larger tax-technology integration.

Automated US compliance

Starter covers US sales-tax registration, return filing, and remittance, including automated handling of refunds and amendments. Deregistration is available where supported, so coverage still depends on the relevant jurisdiction. Exemption certificate management addresses a recurring administrative requirement alongside the filing workflow.

Premium connectivity and reach

Premium adds multi-country compliance across the US, Canada, EU, UK, and more than 100 countries. It also includes real-time calculation through premium connectors, VDA back-filing options, advanced exemption certificate management, API, SDK, and SSO access, plus SLA-backed premium support. This is the tier for organizations whose requirements exceed basic US sales-tax operations.

Pricing

Plan	Price	What it includes
Free	Free; not billed	Global nexus monitoring, historical-liability auditing, risk and threshold alerts, AI categorization, CSV imports, and no-code integrations. No credit card is required.
Starter	75.00 USD per month	Automated US registrations, filings, and remittance; auto-file, auto-register, and supported deregistration; refunds, amendments, and exemption certificate management.
Premium	Custom pricing	Multi-country compliance, premium real-time connectors, VDA back filing, advanced exemption certificates, API, SDK, SSO, and SLA-backed support.

Free is the sensible choice for exposure tracking or early expansion because it has no subscription charge and no card requirement. Starter suits a business ready to delegate recurring US obligations, but each filing or registration is billed as one action after the billing period ends, so activity-based costs matter in addition to the monthly price. Premium is aimed at larger or more international teams; its price is custom, and the additional capabilities are concentrated there.

Platforms

Kintsugi is offered as an API platform. That favors businesses integrating tax workflows into their own systems rather than buyers seeking a primarily standalone web application.

Who it's for

Choose it for a growing business that needs to understand US nexus, register in the right states, and automate returns and remittance. Free also works for teams still measuring exposure. Look elsewhere if your requirements center on tax types beyond sales tax without the Premium tier, or if action-based billing is unsuitable.

Pros and cons

Pros

Clear monitoring-to-compliance path: exposure analysis can lead directly into registration and filing workflows.
Useful free entry point: global nexus monitoring and historical audits require no payment or credit card.
Strong US automation: Starter includes filing, remittance, refunds, amendments, and supported deregistration.
International expansion option: Premium covers the US, Canada, EU, UK, and more than 100 countries.

Cons

Sales-tax focus: it is not positioned as a general multi-tax platform on the lower tiers.
Action-based Starter billing: filings and registrations are charged as actions after the billing period.
Premium gates key enterprise features: SDK, SSO, premium connectors, VDA back filing, and SLA support require custom-priced Premium.
API orientation: businesses wanting a web-first tool may find the platform less aligned with their workflow.

Alternatives

Sales Tax Software is the broader category to compare when you want to assess Kintsugi alongside other sales-tax products.

Tax Engine Software is the better starting point when your priority is tax calculation infrastructure rather than Kintsugi's monitoring and filing progression.

Tax Compliance Software suits readers comparing compliance-focused services beyond this sales-tax specialist.

VAT Software is the relevant category when VAT is central to your requirements.

ShipVAT fits teams wanting an API and web option with a free plan, a free trial, 100 API calls per month, and tax calculation across supported jurisdictions.

Zamp is worth considering for teams wanting a 30-day sandbox before moving toward audit-ready US compliance.

Yonda Tax suits buyers seeking free nexus monitoring with worldwide liability calculations and tax advice and support.

AccurateTax is an alternative for businesses that want web and API access, sales-tax calculations, usage reports, and a stated 99.99% uptime on its Basic Service.

DAVO Sales Tax is a web-based option built around daily set-asides, automated filing, and automated payment.

CCH SureTax is suited to organizations choosing among technology-only, file-and-remit, or fully outsourced models.

Taxolio fits a buyer seeking managed compliance priced at $99.00 USD per month for two states, with additional states priced separately.

Taxually is an alternative for teams needing discrete tax-authority payment or yearly reporting services.

Verdict

Kintsugi is a strong fit for API-oriented businesses that need to monitor nexus and then automate US sales-tax registration, filing, and remittance. Its free monitoring makes early exposure work accessible, while Starter provides a direct route into recurring US compliance. Look elsewhere if you need a web-first experience, a broader tax remit on lower tiers, or pricing that does not add action charges to the monthly plan.

	Clarus	Kintsugi
Free plan		Yes
Paid from		$75/mo
Platforms	api	api
Supported tax types	sales tax	sales tax
Return filing	Yes	Yes
Filing support level	assisted	automated
Sales tax calculation	Yes	Yes
API access	Yes	Yes
Free plan		Yes
Tax registration		Yes

Clarus vs Kintsugi

Clarus

Kintsugi