I have used Drake the previous tax year (2013), the first year I did tax returns. Here's my view on it:
Drake has many advantages. It is a good program for simple returns; once you learn how it works, it is easy to use; it is cheap ($15 per return, that's it, no hidden fees); even if you only take the pay per return, you get the unlimited version of all previous year's programs for free; and they have great customer service, whenever I called in with a question, someone picked up right away, I never, ever had to wait for a representative.
On the other hand, once you do more complicated returns, you'll find many problems. I did a lot of foreign income to returns, and the program was missing a lot of the things I needed to file those returns. I had to come up with ways to outsmart the system to be able to file those returns.
Another example: I filed a 1065 for an LLC. The partners paid their medical insurance from the LLC. The IRS let's you treat those payments either as income, subject to FICA, or as a drawing. If it's a drawing, the partners can deduct those payments as an above the line deduction. It makes sense to take it as a drawing because it saves the FICA taxes. On the K1, those payments should be recorded in a separate category, a drawing for medical, that way the partners can claim the deduction on their 1040. But in Drake, there was no way to enter it this way. They only gave you the option to take it as income. I spent hours with their customer service people to figure out a way to no avail. They did, however, promise to fix it in next year's program…
Anyway, if you do simple 1040s, Drake is a great program. If you do more complicated returns, Drake probably isn't the program you want.
For the coming tax year, I got ProSeries. The program looks fine, but their customer service is horrible. You can wait more than a half hour to talk to someone. On the other hand, since so many people are using that program, you can find answers to most of the questions you have online. Also, they are much more expensive than Drake. You can, however, get it for cheaper if it's your first year or you used a different program until now.
One more thing: In all likelihood, you don't need Lacerte – the most expensive program put there. At least not in your beginning years. ProSerious can handle almost all the returns. ProSerious and Lacerte are both from Intuit. Lacerte is more for bigger firms who do highly complicated returns.
I hope this helps.
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