Softwr

Accounting · head to head

Brex vs DATEV

Brex logo

Brex

Accounting

The financial stack for growing businesses

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 Brex has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Brex the free Essentials tier is limited to two legal entities; 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: Brex covers Corporate cards, DATEV covers Unternehmen online.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Brex and DATEV actually diverge.

Attributes where Brex and DATEV differ
AttributeBrexDATEV
Starting priceFreeOn request
Pricing modelsubscriptionquote
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsWeb, Ios, AndroidWindows, Web
Founded2017Unknown

Identical on both: 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 Brex

  • Corporate cards
  • Business accounts
  • Expense management
  • Bill pay
  • Travel
  • QuickBooks
  • NetSuite
  • Xero

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.

Brex

  • Corporate cards with spend controls for startupsnot DATEV
  • Expense management and reimbursementsnot DATEV
  • Travel booking inside the spend platformnot DATEV
  • Bill pay and accounting system syncnot DATEV
  • Multi-entity spend management on the paid tiersnot DATEV

DATEV

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

Where each one falls short

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

Brex

  • The free Essentials tier is limited to two legal entities
  • Premium is $12 per user per month, so cost scales with headcount using the card
  • Enterprise and Smart Card pricing is not published
  • Eligibility criteria are not stated anywhere on the pricing page, which matters for a product that extends credit

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

Brex

Free
  • EssentialsFree
    • Global card acceptance
    • Accounting integrations
    • Real-time reporting
  • Premium$12/month
    • per user
    • Custom expense policies
    • Dynamic approval chains
  • Enterprise$null/month
    • Custom pricing

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 Brex if

  • You need corporate cards.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Ios, Android.
  • You also want business accounts.
Brex 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 Brex or DATEV better?
Neither clearly leads. Brex 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, Brex or DATEV?
Brex has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Brex and On request for DATEV.
Does Brex or DATEV run on more platforms?
Brex runs on Web, Ios, Android. DATEV runs on Windows, Web.
Can I use Brex for free?
Yes. Brex has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. DATEV starts at On request.
What is Brex best used for?
Brex is most often used for corporate cards with spend controls for startups, expense management and reimbursements, travel booking inside the spend platform, bill pay and accounting system sync. Of those, corporate cards with spend controls for startups and expense management and reimbursements are not what DATEV is typically brought in for.
What can Brex do that DATEV cannot?
Brex covers Corporate cards, Business accounts, Expense management, Bill pay. DATEV covers Unternehmen online, Lohn und Gehalt, Rechnungswesen, Jahresabschluss.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Brex: Does Brex have a free plan?

Yes. Brex Essentials is free for startups and growing companies and includes global card acceptance, AI-powered rules, accounting integrations, real-time reporting, and bill pay.

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.

Brex: What is Brex Premium pricing?

Brex Premium costs $12 per user per month and is designed for mid-sized companies. It adds custom expense policies, dynamic approval chains, AI compliance auditing, multi-entity support, and live budgets.

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.

Brex: What countries accept Brex cards?

Brex cards are accepted in 210+ countries. The Smart Card plan offers local-currency cards in 50+ countries for companies focused on procurement simplification and international payments.

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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