Drake and Lacerte are two of the most widely used professional tax platforms in the US. But both are traditionally desktop, server-based applications. That means your remote team’s access, your seasonal staffing flexibility, and your tax-season performance all hinge on the quality of your underlying infrastructure, not just the software itself.
This guide covers the differences between Drake vs. Lacerte, what changes (and what doesn’t) when you move either platform to the cloud, and what to look for in a hosting provider.
How Do Drake Tax Software and Lacerte Tax Software Compare?
Drake vs. Lacerte comes down to firm size and return complexity. Drake tax software runs on a flat-rate, unlimited-return model, which is popular with solo practitioners and high-volume small/mid-size firms. Its lightweight data-entry interface keeps resource demands low, and it offers its own Drake Hosted/Drake Tax Online options.
Lacerte tax software, built by Intuit, targets larger firms handling complex, multi-state, and multi-entity returns. It’s more feature-rich, integrates deeply with QuickBooks, and carries a heavier resource footprint along with per-return/per-user licensing.
Why Are CPA Firms Moving Tax Software to the Cloud?
A few practical pressures are driving the shift:
- Remote and hybrid staff need secure, consistent access to the same return data from any location.
- Seasonal or multi-location preparers can be remotely onboarded immediately, with no hardware shipping.
- Tax season performance matters most during the weeks you can least afford downtime.
- It’s easier to meet compliance requirements under IRS §7216 and the FTC Safeguards Rule with data-center-grade encryption, access controls, and monitoring.
How Does Drake Tax Software Perform in a Hosted Environment?
Drake tax software’s lightweight interface translates to a smaller resource footprint per user, keeping hosted performance snappy even with multiple concurrent users.
Although Drake offers a native hosted/online option, many firms choose an independent hosting provider for superior control and seamless integration. This allows them to consolidate Drake, QuickBooks, document management, and email into a single, unified workspace. This prevents version conflicts and eliminates the need to toggle between environments.
How Does Lacerte Tax Software Perform in a Hosted Environment?
Lacerte tax software is resource-intensive, especially when processing large return files during the March–April sprint. A properly sized dedicated hosting environment addresses this directly by scaling for peak filing workloads rather than average daily use.
Larger firms with role-based access needs benefit from centralized user management in a hosted environment. Because Lacerte integrates so tightly with QuickBooks, most firms want both applications in the same hosted environment, eliminating manual exports and data sync headaches that come from running connected tools on separate systems.
What Actually Changes When You Host Drake vs. Lacerte?
Less than you’d expect. The software doesn’t change when you move to cloud hosting. Your forms, workflows, and licensing relationships with Drake or Intuit stay exactly the same, and so does pricing. For both platforms, hosting decisions are about access, performance, and infrastructure management, rather than changing license economics.
What shifts: where the server lives (a data center instead of your office closet), how staff accesses it (via a hosted virtual desktop from any device), who maintains the infrastructure, and your backup and disaster recovery posture. When you move to cloud hosting, these differences can make major improvements in performance and security.
How CyberlinkASP Hosts Drake and Lacerte for CPA Firms
If you’re looking for a dedicated hosting provider, CyberlinkASP hosts both Drake tax software and Lacerte tax software as virtual desktops, accessible from any device, in US-based SSAE 18-compliant data centers. The setup includes:
- 99.99% uptime SLA—backed by a money-back guarantee, built for the weeks when deadlines allow no margin for error
- 24/7 US-based support—a real person answers during tax season emergencies, not a ticketing queue
- Full practice stack in one place—tax software, QuickBooks, document management, and email all hosted together
- Managed backups and disaster recovery—aligned with the compliance obligations CPA firms have to meet
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I have to switch from Drake to Lacerte (or vice versa) to host in the cloud?
No. Hosting is a great option, independent of which platform you run. You keep your current software, version, and workflows; only the server location changes.
Does hosting change my licensing costs with Drake or Intuit?
No. Your existing license stays in place. Hosting covers infrastructure, remote access, and management, not the software license itself.
Can you host QuickBooks and document management alongside my tax software?
Yes. Consolidating your full practice stack in one hosted environment is a core benefit, especially for Lacerte firms that depend on tight QuickBooks integration.
Is a hosted environment secure and compliant enough for taxpayer data?
Hosting in SSAE 18-compliant data centers with AES-256 encryption, multi-factor authentication, role-based access controls, and activity logging supports IRS §7216 and FTC Safeguards Rule obligations.
Will performance hold up during peak filing season?
A properly sized hosted environment with a 99.99% uptime SLA is built for exactly those peak-load weeks. At CyberlinkASP, infrastructure is sized for March–April volumes, not average daily usage.
What happens to my data if my office server fails?
In a hosted model, your client data lives in the data center with managed backups and disaster recovery. This protects you from the possibility of an on-site equipment failure taking your data down with it.
Take Your Firm Off the Server Treadmill
Drake vs. Lacerte is a software decision. Hosting is an infrastructure decision. The two are independent, and moving either platform to the cloud doesn’t disrupt your team’s workflows or vendor relationships. It removes the on-premises maintenance burden and gives your staff reliable, anywhere access.
Ready to leave server maintenance behind? Whether you use Drake, Lacerte, or both, CyberlinkASP provides the enterprise-grade security, 99.99% uptime, and 24/7 support your firm needs to scale smoothly during peak season. Reach out to CyberlinkASP to see what a hosted environment would look like for your firm.