Finder Retail Awards 2023: Best software & service brands

Chris Jager's headshot

By

Chris Jager

Updated

The Finder Retail Awards recognises Australia's favourite brands across more than 100 retail categories. We surveyed tens of thousands of real Australians to understand how they feel about their recent product purchases and used that information to reward the most popular brands.

These are the best brands in the software and services categories for 2023.

Best business accounting software brand

Best-rated business accounting software brand: Xero

This year's award for best business accounting software went to Xero. The Kiwi brand scored respectably well across all key metrics including value for money and ease of use. In addition, Xero received the highest overall rating for customer service and was recommended by 88% of surveyed customers.

Highly commended
  • MYOB
  • Intuit QuickBooks
Best fitness app

Best-rated antivirus software brand: ESET

ESET is Australia's highest-rated antivirus software brand for 2023. It topped the scoring for performance, ease of use and value for money. An impressive 94% of surveyed customers said they would recommend this brand to anyone requiring protection from viruses and malware.

Highly commended
  • Kaspersky
  • Trend Micro
Best dating app

Best-rated dating app: Coffee Meets Bagel

Australians have crowned Coffee Meets Bagel as their preferred dating app at this year's Finder Awards. It received exceptional ratings overall with the highest scores in its field for app performance, ease of use, features, value and customer service.

Highly commended
  • Hinge
  • OKCupid
Best VPN

Best-rated VPN brand: Hotspot Shield

There are plenty of virtual private networks to choose from, but only Hotspot Shield has been awarded the best-rated VPN brand in this year's Finder Awards. It was recommended by 90% of surveyed users and received excellent scores for performance, ease of use and value for money.

Highly commended
  • NordVPN
  • ExpressVPN
Best meal delivery service

Best-rated meal delivery service: Soulara

Soulara has once again taken out the top prize for food delivery at this year's Finder Awards, following its win in the same category in 2022. It received great ratings across the board, including customer service, product range and quality. But it was in the area of taste where Soulara really excelled, with a higher overall score than all of its competitors.

Finalists
  • Lite ‘n’ Easy
  • Youfoodz

How we chose the winners

The Finder Retail Awards recognises brand sentiment from customer feedback on different retail product categories. Finder worked with data and insights company Dynata to conduct thousands of customer interviews regarding their product purchasing history and satisfaction with their purchased products.

Disclaimer: Please refer to our methodology for more information about how we scored and judged Finder Retail Awards candidates. While we endeavour to assess the majority of product providers in the market, this is not always possible and it may be that not every brand in the market was included for judging.

Meet our experts

Susannah Binsted

Susannah Binsted


Head of international PR, Finder


Susannah Binsted is the international PR manager at Finder. She leads the Finder Retail Awards for 2023.
William Capada

William Capada


Insights support analyst, Finder Awards


William Capada is a data analyst for Finder's Customer Satisfaction Awards. He helps make sense of all the scoring.
Saranga Sudarshan awards analyst

Saranga Sudarshan


Insights analyst, Finder Awards


Saranga is responsible for gathering the data that fuels the Finder Awards. He ensures our winners are based on facts, not biases.
Chris Jager senior editor

Chris Jager


Senior editor, Finder shopping


Chris is a lead editor at Finder covering all things shopping and retail. He has been writing about consumer technology for 17 years.
Chris Jager's headshot
Written by

Editor

Chris Jager is the editorial lead for shopping at Finder. With over 16 years of experience as a full-time journalist, Chris has provided expertise to many leading technology publications, including PC World, Australian Gamepro, Good Gear Guide, ARN, IT News, PC Authority, CRN, GameSpy, Gizmodo, Business Insider, MSN, Kotaku, Lifehacker Australia, Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Before joining Finder, Chris was the editor of Lifehacker Australia for 5 years. He has a Bachelor of Communications in Journalism from the University of Western Sydney. Outside of Finder, you'll find him playing with retro '80s computers while juggling 3 TikTok-obsessed daughters. See full bio

Chris's expertise
Chris has written 19 Finder guides across topics including:
  • Consumer technology
  • Home entertainment
  • Online shopping
  • Video games
  • Seasonal sales events
  • Money saving hacks

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