The Tax Adviser conducts an annual survey on tax software. The link can be found here: http://www.thetaxadviser.com/issues/2017/aug/2017-tax-software-survey.html?utm_source=mnl:cpald&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=01Aug2017
Personally, I have used four of these tax software packages, having used three of them for a significant amount of time. These are: 1) Lacerte, 2) CCH Prosystem fx, 3) Drake, and 4) ProSeries. My experience with ProSeries is very limited, so I have little to say about it. Between Lacerte, CCH Prosystem fx, and Drake, each has its’ benefits and drawbacks.
Lacerte is very robust (there are only a handful of tax forms it does not handle), fairly easy to use, good customer support, and has many options that tax practitioners may find useful (such as printing out all of the input data in all of the input fields–something not found on all tax software). The downside to Lacerte, and why I quit using it was the price.
CCH Prosystem fx is slightly more robust than Lacerte (it handles more of the international tax forms than Lacerte), has good customer support, and it comes in a cloud-based version, CCH Global Prosystem fx. The cloud-based version allows multiple users to access from anywhere in the world where there is a high-speed Internet connection. The downside of CCH Prosystem fx is that it is cumbersome, glitchy, not very intuitive, and expensive. Having worked with CCH Global Prosystem fx and CCH Prosystem fx for several years, I would not recommend it.
Drake is easy to use, inexpensive, and has great customer support. There are drawbacks; it is not as robust as Lacerte or CCH Prosystem fx, and data input cannot be printed out the way it can be in Lacerte. I switched to Drake from Lacerte for Windham Solutions in 2013, and I have no plans on going back to Lacerte.