Every European accounting software tool reviewed
Paris, France
Founded 2020
From about €29/month; accountant-led pricing varies
Demo on request
Best for: French SMEs and startups working with an external accountant
Pennylane changes the accountant relationship rather than the bookkeeping, and that is why it sits at the top of this category.
In Pennylane the business handles invoicing, receipt capture and spending while the accountant works on categorisation, corrections and closing — in the same live ledger, at the same time. Questions are raised inline against a specific transaction instead of in an email thread, which removes most of the friction from the relationship and gives the business a current financial picture rather than a quarterly one.
Pennylane SAS was founded in Paris in 2020 and handles French requirements natively: VAT returns, the French chart of accounts, FEC export and the demands of the French tax administration, with preparation for France's e-invoicing mandate already underway.
Beyond the ledger, bank feeds, supplier invoice management, spend approval and dashboards make Pennylane function as a finance system, which delays the point where a growing startup needs a separate spend management tool. Adoption among French accounting practices is substantial, and many now recommend it because having clients on one platform rather than five is a real efficiency gain.
What Pennylane does well
- Business and accountant share one live ledger
- Native French compliance and FEC export
- Bank feeds and receipt capture included
- Spend management beyond bookkeeping
- Strong adoption among French practices
Where Pennylane falls short
- France-specific; not useful elsewhere
- Pricing often mediated by your accountant
- Young company in a conservative domain
Standout feature. The shared live ledger: Pennylane is the only tool in this category where the accountant works inside the same system at the same time, rather than receiving an export after the quarter has closed.
Freiburg, Germany
Founded 1989
From about €9/month; tiers by feature set
Free trial available
Best for: German freelancers, tradespeople and SMEs
Lexware Office does the two things a German tax adviser will ask for, and does them without leaving the application. Bookings export to DATEV in the format the Steuerberater expects, and advance VAT returns are filed directly to the tax office through ELSTER.
Those two integrations remove the recurring administrative friction that defines German small business accounting. GoBD compliance — the German rules on auditability and retention of digital records — is handled by the system rather than being the business's responsibility to demonstrate, which means the digital receipt is the legal record and the paper can go.
Lexware Office is operated by Haufe-Lexware GmbH in Freiburg, a German software publisher since 1989, and hosts in Germany.
Day to day it covers invoicing with the mandatory German fields, quotes, bank feeds with automatic matching, and receipt capture by photo with OCR — turning shoebox accounting into a five-minute weekly task for a tradesperson or freelancer. Payroll is available as an add-on, tax adviser access is standard, and e-invoicing support addresses Germany's B2B mandate. Pricing starts around €9 per month with tiers by feature set.
What Lexware Office does well
- Native DATEV export
- ELSTER VAT filing built in
- GoBD compliant
- Receipt capture with OCR
- Established German vendor since 1989
Where Lexware Office falls short
- Germany-only in scope
- No self-hosting
- Limited for inventory or complex operations
Standout feature. Filing to the tax office from inside the app: Lexware Office sends the advance VAT return through ELSTER directly, so the return never becomes a separate task in a separate portal.
Enschede, Netherlands
Founded 2008
From about €12/month; free tier for very low volume
Free tier
Best for: Dutch freelancers and small businesses
Moneybird is the Dutch accounting product that small businesses do not resent using, and for a freelancer that is most of the value.
Invoices carry the fields Dutch rules require, go out with an iDEAL payment link, and chase themselves with automatic reminders — and being paid faster is worth more to a freelancer than any accounting feature. Recurring invoices handle retainers without monthly manual work. Bank feeds import transactions and suggest matches against invoices and receipts, a photographed receipt is read and categorised, and the quarterly BTW return is prepared from the ledger rather than reconstructed at the deadline.
Moneybird BV was founded in Enschede in 2008 and keeps data in the Netherlands.
Everything about it is Dutch by design: iDEAL, Dutch VAT rules, Dutch terminology and Dutch support — unglamorous specifics that are the difference between software that fits and software a business adapts to. Accountant access is built in, so the bookkeeper works in the same system instead of receiving an export. Pricing starts around €12 per month with a free tier for very low volume and is published openly.
What Moneybird does well
- Genuinely good design and usability
- iDEAL payment links on invoices
- Dutch VAT returns prepared automatically
- Accountant access built in
- Transparent, published pricing
Where Moneybird falls short
- Netherlands only
- No inventory, projects or payroll
- Growing businesses will outgrow it
Standout feature. iDEAL links on the invoice itself: Moneybird is the only tool here that closes the gap between sending an invoice and being paid with the payment method Dutch customers actually use.
Offenburg, Germany
Founded 2013
From about €9/month; tiers by feature set
Free trial available
Best for: German freelancers and small businesses with high receipt volume
sevDesk wins on receipt automation, and for a business drowning in supplier invoices that is the only comparison that matters.
The OCR in sevDesk is trained on German documents and handles the layouts and VAT presentation that German suppliers actually use, which is why it outperforms a generic engine on exactly the paperwork a German business receives. Combined with bank feeds and automatic matching, the routine work of small business bookkeeping largely disappears into a review queue, and GoBD-compliant archiving means the digital receipt is the legal record.
sevDesk GmbH was founded in Offenburg in 2013 and hosts in Germany. Compliance covers DATEV export for the tax adviser, ELSTER filing for VAT returns, correct handling of the Kleinunternehmerregelung and reverse charge, and e-invoicing support for the German B2B mandate.
Being newer than most German accounting software, sevDesk feels it: for a freelancer or small agency choosing between sevDesk and Lexware Office, the interface and the mobile app are usually what decides it. Pricing starts around €9 per month, though double-entry bookkeeping and some compliance features sit in higher tiers.
What sevDesk does well
- Excellent German-trained receipt OCR
- Automatic bank matching
- DATEV export and ELSTER filing
- GoBD-compliant digital archiving
- Modern interface and mobile app
Where sevDesk falls short
- Germany only
- Basic inventory and project features
- Key features require higher tiers
Standout feature. OCR trained on German documents: sevDesk reads the VAT presentation and layouts German suppliers actually use, which is why its automation rate holds up where a generic engine drops to manual entry.
Vaxjo, Sweden
Founded 2001
Modular, from about SEK 99/month per module
Free trial available
Best for: Swedish SMEs and the accounting firms that serve them
Fortnox is a platform rather than a bookkeeping product, and payroll is the reason. Accounting, invoicing, payroll, time reporting and expense management are separate modules on one system, so a growing business adds capability without migrating.
Payroll in particular sets Fortnox apart: Swedish payroll rules, collective agreements and reporting to Skatteverket are handled natively, where nearly every other accounting product in this category requires a separate provider. Peppol-based e-invoicing is supported, which Swedish public-sector suppliers already require and which the wider EU is moving toward.
Fortnox AB was founded in Växjö in 2001 and hosts in Sweden.
Several hundred applications integrate with the platform — e-commerce, CRM, point of sale, project management and industry-specific systems — so for a Swedish business the odds that its other software already connects are high, and an open API covers the rest.
Pricing is modular from about SEK 99 per month per module, which means the real monthly cost is well above the headline once the necessary modules are in place. For a business filing in Sweden, Fortnox is the default and the question is which modules rather than whether.
What Fortnox does well
- Market leader with universal accountant familiarity
- Payroll included as a module
- 400+ integrated applications
- Peppol e-invoicing supported
- Open API for custom integration
Where Fortnox falls short
- Sweden only
- Modular pricing adds up
- Interface functional rather than polished
Standout feature. Native Swedish payroll: Fortnox is the only tool in this category that handles collective agreements and Skatteverket reporting itself, instead of handing payroll to a second vendor.
Barcelona, Spain
Founded 2016
From about €15/month; higher tiers by module
Free trial available
Best for: Spanish SMEs wanting one system instead of four
Holded is the Spanish answer to running four subscriptions that never quite agree with each other.
A quote created in the CRM becomes an invoice in accounting, which reserves stock in inventory and books revenue against a project — and because it is one database, none of that requires integration or reconciliation. The trade-off is depth: each module is competent rather than best-in-class, which is usually the right trade for a fifteen-person company and the wrong one for a specialist operation whose CRM or warehousing carries real complexity.
Holded was founded in Barcelona in 2016 and was acquired by Visma, the Norwegian business software group, which strengthens its long-term position while keeping ownership European; it is still operated from Barcelona with Spanish support.
Spanish VAT, the required modelos and Verifactu — Spain's invoicing certification regime — are handled natively, which is exactly where international packages struggle in Spain. Pricing starts around €15 per month, though most modules sit in higher tiers, so the entry price is not representative of a real configuration.
What Holded does well
- Accounting, CRM, inventory and projects in one
- Native Spanish VAT, modelos and Verifactu
- No integration between modules needed
- Backed by the Visma group
- Reasonable entry pricing
Where Holded falls short
- Each module less deep than a specialist tool
- Spain-specific compliance
- Most modules require higher tiers
Standout feature. Verifactu handled natively: Holded implements Spain's invoicing certification regime as a core feature, which is the requirement that most often disqualifies an international package in Spain.
Delft, Netherlands
Founded 1984
From about €50/month; scales by module and users
Free trial available
Best for: Growing Dutch and Belgian companies that have outgrown simple bookkeeping
Exact Online is the only full ERP in this category, and the only product here a Dutch company will not outgrow.
Beyond accounting and invoicing it covers inventory, manufacturing, projects, HR and payroll, multi-country and multi-currency operation — the capabilities a business needs once it has to know what is in the warehouse while quoting, or what a project has cost against its budget before it is invoiced. That is a different kind of tool from a ledger, and the price and implementation effort reflect it.
Exact Group BV was founded in Delft in 1984, which gives it four decades of continuity in a domain where longevity is a real purchasing criterion, and it hosts in the Netherlands and the EU.
The decisive asset for many Dutch companies is not the feature list but the accountant network: Exact Online has the largest in the Netherlands, and a business whose accountant already works in it inherits that efficiency. A large app store and a solid API cover integration. Pricing starts around €50 per month and scales substantially with modules and users, and implementation is usually a partner project.
What Exact Online does well
- Full ERP scope beyond bookkeeping
- Largest Dutch accountant network
- Multi-country and multi-currency
- Large app store and solid API
- Four decades of continuity
Where Exact Online falls short
- Expensive and scales steeply
- Implementation effort, often a partner
- Dated interface
Standout feature. The accountant network: Exact Online is the only tool in this category where the deciding factor is usually that your accountant already works in it, which is worth more than any feature comparison.
Rapperswil, Switzerland
Founded 2013
Basic CHF 35/month billed annually (CHF 45 monthly) up to Ultimate CHF 119/month (CHF 129 monthly), excl. VAT
30-day free trial, no credit card
Best for: Swiss small businesses that need their ledger held in Switzerland
bexio is the Swiss entry here and the only product in this category whose vendor states that customer data sits in one named country: the privacy policy puts it exclusively in Switzerland.
The qualification arrives in the same document, which is why bexio does not rank higher. Encrypted backups are held in data centres "in Switzerland and abroad", with neither the countries nor the provider named, and no sub-processor list is published at all. For a buyer whose question is where a copy of the ledger can end up, the answer stops halfway.
bexio AG operates from Alte Jonastrasse 24 in Rapperswil. It began in 2013 as easySYS, took the bexio name in 2015, and has been owned since 2018 by die Mobiliar, the Swiss insurer, which calls it an independent subsidiary — Swiss ownership, then, but not an independent company.
Pricing is published in full and without gaps: Basic at CHF 35 per month billed annually or CHF 45 billed monthly, rising to Ultimate at CHF 119 or CHF 129, all excluding VAT, with a 30-day trial that does not ask for a card.
The package reaches past bookkeeping into contacts, projects and stock, with payroll and bexio Pay as add-ons, so a small Swiss firm can run its admin in one place instead of three. What it cannot do is serve an EU filing: Switzerland is outside the EEA, covered by an adequacy decision, and the product is built for Swiss rules. No independent certification such as ISO 27001 is published, and the code is closed.
What bexio does well
- Customer data stated to be held exclusively in Switzerland
- Full price list published, CHF 35 to CHF 119 per month
- 30-day trial with no credit card
- Contacts, projects and stock in the same package
- Swiss company in Rapperswil, owned by a Swiss insurer
Where bexio falls short
- Backups held "in Switzerland and abroad", countries and provider not named
- No sub-processor list published
- No independent certification published
- Outside the EEA, relying on the adequacy decision for Switzerland
- Closed source
Standout feature. One named country for the live data: bexio states that customer data is held exclusively in Switzerland, and the backup clause is the single question to put to them before signing.
Edinburgh, United Kingdom
Founded 2007
Landlords £10 / sole traders £19 / partnerships and LLPs £27 / limited companies £33 per month, excl. 20% VAT; free with a qualifying NatWest, RBS, Ulster Bank or Mettle account
30-day free trial
Best for: UK sole traders, landlords and limited companies, especially NatWest-group customers
FreeAgent prices by what kind of business you are rather than by feature tier: £10 a month for landlords, £19 for sole traders, £27 for partnerships and LLPs and £33 for limited companies, all excluding 20% VAT, with a 30-day trial and a 50% discount over the first six months.
Hold a qualifying NatWest, RBS, Ulster Bank or Mettle account and the software costs nothing at all, which is how a large share of its users arrive; accountants get a practice dashboard free. Priced by legal form, it is the rare package where a landlord is not paying for a limited company's features.
FreeAgent Central Ltd was incorporated in Edinburgh on 19 February 2007, company number SC316774, and has belonged to NatWest Group since 2018, operationally independent by its own account. That ownership is also the explanation for the free tier: this is a retention product for a bank, and the bank is the owner rather than a partner.
The hosting is why FreeAgent ranks last here. Its own sub-processor page names AWS in the US, the UK and EU/Ireland, Google Cloud in the US and the EU, and DigitalOcean in the US and the EU, without saying which region actually holds customer data — so no single location can be stated, and the United States is listed for all three providers.
The UK itself sits outside the EEA under an adequacy decision. No certification is published, the code is closed, and the product files to HMRC and nowhere else.
What FreeAgent does well
- Prices published per business type, £10 to £33 per month
- Free with a qualifying NatWest, RBS, Ulster Bank or Mettle account
- 50% off the first six months, plus a 30-day trial
- Free practice dashboard for accountants
- Edinburgh company, on the register since 2007
Where FreeAgent falls short
- No single data location stated anywhere
- AWS, Google Cloud and DigitalOcean all listed with US regions
- Owned by NatWest Group, a bank
- No independent certification published
- UK only, and outside the EEA
Standout feature. Free if you bank with the owner: a NatWest, RBS, Ulster Bank or Mettle account removes the subscription entirely — the strongest offer in this list, and the reason to read the sub-processor page before accepting it.
Copenhagen, Denmark
Founded 2013
Starter free (revenue up to DKK 100,000 over 12 months) / Starter+ DKK 245 / Pro DKK 345 / Total DKK 545 per month billed annually, excl. VAT
Free Starter plan; 30 days of Pro free on signup
Best for: Danish micro-businesses below DKK 100,000 of revenue
Dinero is free until a Danish business passes DKK 100,000 of revenue over twelve months, and that is a plan rather than a trial — the most honest entry point in this category. Above that line, Starter+ is DKK 245, Pro DKK 345 and Total DKK 545 per month billed annually, excluding VAT, and every new account gets 30 days of Pro on signup. The whole price list is published, which is not a given among the Nordic products.
Visma Dinero ApS trades from Gærtorvet in Copenhagen, founded in 2013 out of the earlier Kassekladde.dk and bought by the Norwegian Visma group in November 2016.
Worth knowing before shortlisting: Holded, also in this category, is a Visma brand too, so two of these twelve products answer to the same owner. The data processing agreement is unusually precise about where data sits — the application and its databases on Google Cloud in Germany, the Netherlands and Finland, and databases and AI models on Microsoft Azure in the Netherlands, Sweden and Germany.
Precise is not the same as European. Every region named is inside the EU, but both operators are American, which is exactly the distinction this directory draws between a company on European hardware and a company on American cloud with a European region selected. Mailchimp in the United States appears on the sub-processor list under standard contractual clauses. No independent certification is published, the code is closed, and the product files Danish returns and nothing else.
What Dinero does well
- Free plan up to DKK 100,000 of revenue, not a time-limited trial
- Published prices from DKK 245 to DKK 545 per month
- Processing regions named country by country in the DPA
- Every named hosting region is inside the EU
- Danish company in Copenhagen, backed by Visma
Where Dinero falls short
- Hosting runs on Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure, both American operators
- Mailchimp in the US on the sub-processor list under SCCs
- No independent certification published
- Second Visma brand in this category, alongside Holded
- Denmark only
Standout feature. A processing agreement that names countries: Dinero lists Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and Sweden per workload instead of writing "the EU" — which makes it easy to verify, and equally easy to see that the operators are Google and Microsoft.
Oslo, Norway
Founded 2014
NOK 219/month excl. VAT, no contract; add-ons such as bank integration and payroll from NOK 69/month
30-day free trial
Best for: Norwegian sole traders and small companies that want one flat price
Fiken charges NOK 219 a month excluding VAT with no contract, and includes unlimited invoices by email and EHF plus extra users at no extra cost. Bank integration and payroll are add-ons from NOK 69 a month, and there is a 30-day trial. In a category that usually bills per user and per module, a single predictable number is the product's main argument, and for a Norwegian sole trader it is a good one.
Fiken AS was registered on 3 February 2014 and trades from Karl Johans gate 41A in Oslo under org.nr. 913 312 465.
Brønnøysundregistrene shows a standalone AS with no parent company, which puts Fiken in a small group here — most of the alternatives belong to an insurer, a bank or a software group.
One oddity turned up while checking: the footer of Fiken's own pricing page prints 913 412 354, a number that does not exist in the register. A typo rather than anything sinister, but it is the sort of detail worth noticing on a page that is asking for trust.
The hosting statement is the weak part, and it is why Fiken sits this low.
The privacy policy says Fiken aims to keep data within the EEA rather than saying that it does, and the main hosting provider is not named anywhere; the sub-processor page lists AWS, Google and Microsoft for backups without stating a single region.
None of that is evidence of data leaving Europe, but nothing rules it out either, and a buyer who needs a location in writing will not find one. Norway is in the EEA but not the EU, no certification is published, and the code is closed.
What Fiken does well
- One flat price of NOK 219 per month, no contract
- Unlimited invoices by email and EHF included
- Extra users cost nothing
- Independent Norwegian AS with no parent company
- 30-day trial
Where Fiken falls short
- EEA residency stated as an aim, not a commitment
- Main hosting provider not named at all
- AWS, Google and Microsoft listed for backups without regions
- No independent certification published
- Norway only, and in the EEA rather than the EU
Standout feature. "Aims to" is not "does": Fiken is the clearest case in this list of a vendor whose ownership and pricing check out cleanly while its hosting statement commits to nothing a customer could hold it to.
Geldrop, Netherlands
Founded 2002
ZZP €9.95 / Standaard €14.50 / Standaard + Factureren €24.00 per month (VAT basis not stated); free for the first 15 months for new businesses
14-day free trial
Best for: Dutch freelancers and small firms that want Dutch-hosted books at the lowest published price
e-Boekhouden.nl keeps Dutch books on servers in Dutch cities for €9.95 a month, and that combination is the whole argument for it.
The ZZP plan is €9.95, Standaard €14.50 and Standaard + Factureren €24.00 per month; the price list does not say whether those figures include VAT, which is worth settling before you budget. A new business gets the first 15 months free, and there is a 14-day trial ahead of that. The package covers the VAT return and bank feeds — bookkeeping, and nothing beyond bookkeeping.
The operating company is SkillSource B.V. in Geldrop, with no parent named anywhere on its own pages: an independent Dutch B.V., which is rarer in this category than it sounds now that Visma owns two of the products here.
The year 2002 belongs to the platform rather than to the company — it is the date the founder started one of the first Dutch online bookkeeping services, not an incorporation date. The service level agreement places the servers in data centres in Amsterdam, Eindhoven and Den Bosch, with a nightly backup to two geographically separated servers and a 99.9% availability commitment, and the terms restrict processing to the EEA.
What is missing is anyone else's word for any of it. No ISO 27001 or comparable certification is published, and the SLA names three cities but not the company that operates the data centres, so the hosting claim rests entirely on the vendor's own statement. The source is closed. For a freelancer filing Dutch VAT at €9.95 a month that is a reasonable trade; for a buyer with a procurement checklist, the unnamed operator is where the conversation stalls.
What e-Boekhouden.nl does well
- ZZP plan published at €9.95 per month
- Free for the first 15 months for a new business
- Servers placed in Amsterdam, Eindhoven and Den Bosch
- Independent Dutch B.V. with no parent company named
- 99.9% availability committed in the SLA
Where e-Boekhouden.nl falls short
- The operator of those data centres is not named
- No ISO 27001 or comparable certification published
- The price list does not state whether VAT is included
- Dutch filing only; useless elsewhere
- Closed source
Standout feature. Cities rather than a region: the SLA names Amsterdam, Eindhoven and Den Bosch instead of writing "the EU", which is more than most vendors at this price commit to in writing — even though the operator behind those addresses stays unnamed.
