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Payroll · head to head

Branch App vs DATEV

Branch App logo

Branch App

Payroll

Digital wallet and Mastercard debit card bundled with fee-free earned wage access for US workers

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
DATEV logo

DATEV

Accounting

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

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Branch App has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Branch App the fee-free promise applies most fully to funds kept in the Branch Wallet; moving money out instantly to an external bank account can carry a fee, which is easy to overlook.; 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.
  • They diverge on capability: Branch App covers On-demand pay, DATEV covers Unternehmen online.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Branch App and DATEV actually diverge.

Attributes where Branch App and DATEV differ
AttributeBranch AppDATEV
Starting priceFreeOn request
Pricing modelFree for employers, fee-free standard access for workersquote
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWeb, iOS, AndroidWindows, Web
CategoryPayrollAccounting

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated).

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 Branch App

  • On-demand pay
  • Branch Wallet
  • Branch Card
  • Branch Embedded
  • Cashless tips and mileage tracking
  • Automatic savings

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.

Branch App

  • A healthcare, retail or hospitality employer wanting fee-free earned wage access for shift workersnot DATEV
  • A gig or shift-scheduling platform wanting to embed pay features under its own brand via Branch Embeddednot DATEV
  • An employer wanting cashless tipping and mileage tracking bundled with wage accessnot DATEV
  • A worker who wants a dedicated pay-focused wallet and debit card rather than routing advances to a personal bank accountnot DATEV

DATEV

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

Where each one falls short

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

Branch App

  • The fee-free promise applies most fully to funds kept in the Branch Wallet; moving money out instantly to an external bank account can carry a fee, which is easy to overlook.
  • Because Branch Embedded lets other platforms white-label the same infrastructure, a worker or employer evaluating a differently branded wage access feature may not realise Branch is the underlying processor, complicating vendor due diligence.
  • As with all earned wage access, frequent draws are a symptom of pay not covering living costs between cycles, which the product does not itself remedy.
  • Coverage is US-only, so it does not serve international or multi-country workforces.
  • Adoption value depends on workers actually using the Branch wallet and card day to day; a worker who only wants advances deposited into an existing bank account gets a comparatively thinner experience than one who adopts the full wallet.

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

Branch App

Free
  • BranchFree
    • No employer subscription cost
    • Fee-free earned wage access to the Branch Wallet
    • Instant transfer to external accounts may carry a fee

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 Branch App if

  • You need on-demand pay.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want branch wallet.
Branch App review

Choose DATEV if

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

Questions people ask

Is Branch App or DATEV better?
Neither clearly leads. Branch App starts at Free and DATEV at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Branch App or DATEV?
Branch App has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Branch App and On request for DATEV.
Does Branch App or DATEV run on more platforms?
Branch App runs on Web, iOS, Android. DATEV runs on Windows, Web.
Can I use Branch App for free?
Yes. Branch App has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. DATEV starts at On request.
What is Branch App best used for?
Branch App is most often used for a healthcare, retail or hospitality employer wanting fee-free earned wage access for shift workers, a gig or shift-scheduling platform wanting to embed pay features under its own brand via branch embedded, an employer wanting cashless tipping and mileage tracking bundled with wage access, a worker who wants a dedicated pay-focused wallet and debit card rather than routing advances to a personal bank account. Of those, a healthcare, retail or hospitality employer wanting fee-free earned wage access for shift workers and a gig or shift-scheduling platform wanting to embed pay features under its own brand via branch embedded are not what DATEV is typically brought in for.
What can Branch App do that DATEV cannot?
Branch App covers On-demand pay, Branch Wallet, Branch Card, Branch Embedded. DATEV covers Unternehmen online, Lohn und Gehalt, Rechnungswesen, Jahresabschluss.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Branch App: Is it free for employers?

Yes, the core earned wage access offering is free for employers and standard access is fee-free for workers.

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.

Branch App: What is Branch Embedded?

A white-label version of Branch's wage access and paycard infrastructure that other software platforms can build into their own branded product.

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.

Branch App: Does it work outside the US?

No, it is a US-only product.

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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