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Accounting · head to head

Billin vs DATEV

Billin logo

Billin

Accounting

Spanish online invoicing software for freelancers and small businesses

From
€6.6/month
Rated
-
DATEV logo

DATEV

Accounting

German accounting, payroll and tax software built around the tax adviser rather than the business

From
On request
Rated
-

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Billin plan Basico caps usage at just 5 clients, 1 user and 10 products for EUR 6.60/month, well below what most active small businesses need; DATEV dATEV does not publish transparent per-customer pricing the way a SaaS vendor does; your real cost is buried in your tax adviser's fee note, so comparing it against Lexware or sevdesk on price is genuinely hard.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Billin and DATEV actually diverge.

Attributes where Billin and DATEV differ
AttributeBillinDATEV
Starting price€6.6/monthOn request
Pricing modelsubscriptionquote
PlatformsWebWindows, Web

Identical on both: free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (Accounting).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Billin

Nothing recorded that DATEV does not also cover.

Only in DATEV

  • Unternehmen online
  • Lohn und Gehalt
  • Rechnungswesen
  • Jahresabschluss
  • DATEV DMS
  • Meine Steuern
  • DATEV-Schnittstelle

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Billin

  • Invoice managementnot DATEV
  • Multi-user accounting for freelancers and small businessesnot DATEV

DATEV

  • A German GmbH that wants its Steuerberater to keep doing the books but wants receipts to stop travelling in a shoeboxnot Billin
  • A payroll department that must file social insurance and wage tax returns to German statutory deadlines without an external bureaunot Billin
  • An SME preparing an e-Bilanz and audit-ready GoBD document archivenot Billin
  • A tax firm standardising dozens of client engagements on one chart of accounts and one document workflownot Billin

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Billin

  • Plan Basico caps usage at just 5 clients, 1 user and 10 products for EUR 6.60/month, well below what most active small businesses need
  • Plan Pro still caps clients at 50 and users at 3 for EUR 14/month, so any business with more clients must move to the unlimited EUR 23/month tier

DATEV

  • DATEV does not publish transparent per-customer pricing the way a SaaS vendor does; your real cost is buried in your tax adviser's fee note, so comparing it against Lexware or sevdesk on price is genuinely hard.
  • The board has decided to wind down the Austria-specific portfolio: existing products remain usable to 31 December 2028, are free of charge during 2029, and cannot be used after 31 December 2029, so any Austrian entity on DATEV has a forced migration dated in advance.
  • It is built for German statutory practice, so a group with subsidiaries outside the DACH region will run DATEV for Germany and something else everywhere else, with a consolidation step in between.
  • Large parts of the suite are still Windows desktop software installed on a workstation or terminal server, which means IT overhead most companies no longer budget for when they think they are buying cloud accounting.
  • The lock-in is social as well as technical: because your adviser holds the installation and the history, changing accounting software usually forces you to change or retrain your adviser, which is a far bigger decision than a software migration.

Pricing, plan by plan

Billin

€6.6/month
  • Plan Básico$80/year
    • 0-5 clients
    • 1 user
    • Max 10 products
  • Plan Básico$96/month
  • Plan Pro$168/year
    • 6-50 clients
    • 3 users
    • Max 50 products
  • Plan Pro$204/month

DATEV

On request
  • DATEV Unternehmen online$undefined/month
    • Receipt and bank data exchange with your tax adviser
    • Cash book and master data modules
    • Ordered and usually rebilled through the adviser
  • DATEV Mittelstand$undefined/month
    • In-house financial accounting and invoicing
    • Payroll modules licensed separately
    • Per-workplace licensing
  • Lohn und Gehalt$undefined/month
    • German payroll runs and statutory electronic filings
    • Priced by number of payslips
    • Typically operated by the adviser on the client's behalf

Which should you pick?

Choose Billin if

Nothing in the data separates Billin from DATEV on the points above - pick on price and on how each one feels to use.

Choose DATEV if

  • You need unternehmen online.
  • You work on Windows, Web.
  • You also want lohn und gehalt.

Questions people ask

Is Billin or DATEV better?
Neither clearly leads. Billin starts at €6.6/month and DATEV at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Billin or DATEV?
Billin starts at €6.6/month and DATEV at On request.
Does Billin or DATEV run on more platforms?
Billin runs on Web. DATEV runs on Windows, Web.
What is Billin best used for?
Billin is most often used for invoice management, multi-user accounting for freelancers and small businesses. Of those, invoice management and multi-user accounting for freelancers and small businesses are not what DATEV is typically brought in for.
What can Billin do that DATEV cannot?
DATEV covers Unternehmen online, Lohn und Gehalt, Rechnungswesen, Jahresabschluss.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Billin: What are Billin's plan costs?

Billin offers three plans: Básico at €80/year (€6.60/month), Pro at €168/year (€14/month), and Ilimitado at €276/year (€23/month). Annual billing includes 18% savings compared to monthly.

Source
DATEV: Can I buy DATEV directly without a tax adviser?

In practice, no for most of the range. Membership of the cooperative is restricted to the tax and legal professions, and companies get access through their adviser or as a client of one.

Billin: Is there a free trial for Billin?

Yes, Billin offers a 30-day free trial with all features included. No credit card is required to start.

Source
DATEV: Is DATEV usable outside Germany?

It operates in Austria, Italy, Spain, Poland, Czechia, Slovakia and Hungary, but the depth is German. The Austrian product line is being discontinued with a hard end date of 31 December 2029.

Billin: How many users does each Billin plan include?

Básico includes 1 user, Pro includes 3 users, and Ilimitado includes unlimited users.

Source
DATEV: What is the DATEV-Schnittstelle everyone mentions?

It is the standard export format German invoicing and ERP tools produce so bookkeeping data can be handed to a DATEV-based adviser. Supporting it is effectively a requirement to sell accounting-adjacent software in Germany.

DATEV: Does DATEV handle e-invoicing under the German B2B mandate?

Yes, the accounting and invoicing modules were extended for the XRechnung and ZUGFeRD formats that the German B2B e-invoicing rules require.

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