Intuit

Intuit’s enduring advantages are strongest in small‑business finance. QuickBooks is deeply embedded in customer workflows, intertwined with accountants, payroll, payments, tax, and hundreds of third‑party apps. This creates high switching costs, a partner‑driven network effect, and data scale that increasingly powers AI‑assisted automation.

TurboTax benefits from brand and assisted experts (TurboTax Live), while Credit Karma contributes data scale and a demand funnel. Fiscal 2025 segment data show Global Business Solutions at 11.1 billion dollars revenue and Online Ecosystem at 8.3 billion dollars, confirming the platform nature of the moat.

We add an ecosystem‑compounding tilt as Intuit deploys “AI agents” across tasks. Counterpoints: in consumer tax, the IRS Direct File program and marketing constraints could erode the edge at the low‑end over time, and Mailchimp’s competitive intensity remains elevated.

Overall, multiple moat types (switching costs, network/partner effects, brand, and scale) justify a high score with a modest policy haircut.