Is DATEV or freee better?

Neither clearly leads. DATEV starts at On request and freee at 980/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, DATEV or freee?

DATEV starts at On request and freee at 980/month.

Does DATEV or freee run on more platforms?

DATEV runs on Windows, Web. freee runs on Web.

What is DATEV best used for?

DATEV is most often used for a german gmbh that wants its steuerberater to keep doing the books but wants receipts to stop travelling in a shoebox, a payroll department that must file social insurance and wage tax returns to german statutory deadlines without an external bureau, an sme preparing an e-bilanz and audit-ready gobd document archive, a tax firm standardising dozens of client engagements on one chart of accounts and one document workflow. Of those, a german gmbh that wants its steuerberater to keep doing the books but wants receipts to stop travelling in a shoebox and a payroll department that must file social insurance and wage tax returns to german statutory deadlines without an external bureau are not what freee is typically brought in for.

What can DATEV do that freee cannot?

DATEV covers Unternehmen online, Lohn und Gehalt, Rechnungswesen, Jahresabschluss.

Accounting · head to head

DATEV vs freee

DATEV

Accounting

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

From: On request
Rated: -

Full review Website

freee

Accounting

Japanese integrated cloud accounting software for sole proprietors and corporations

From: 980/month
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Each has a real cost: 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.; freee pricing varies significantly across multiple product categories and tiers
Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which DATEV and freee actually diverge.

Attributes where DATEV and freee differ
Attribute	DATEV	freee
Starting price	On request	980/month
Pricing model	quote	subscription
Platforms	Windows, Web	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 DATEV

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

Only in freee

Nothing recorded that DATEV does not also cover.

What people use each for

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

DATEV

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

freee

Filing Japanese tax documents electronically each yearnot DATEV
Calculating payroll and year-end adjustments automaticallynot DATEV
Creating opening documents without visiting tax officenot DATEV
Tracking company expenses across departments centrallynot DATEV

Where each one falls short

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

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.

freee

Pricing varies significantly across multiple product categories and tiers
Some corporate tiers (Advance) reach ¥39,780+/month

Pricing, plan by plan

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

freee

980/month

freee會計 Starter$980/month
- Individual business owner accounting tier
freee會計 Corporate Solo$2980/month
- Corporate accounting tier
freee人事労務$400/month per employee
- HR and payroll module per-employee pricing
freee勤怠管理$300/month per employee
- Attendance tracking per-employee

Which should you pick?

Choose DATEV if

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

DATEV review

Choose freee if

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

freee review

Questions people ask

Is DATEV or freee better?: Neither clearly leads. DATEV starts at On request and freee at 980/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, DATEV or freee?: DATEV starts at On request and freee at 980/month.
Does DATEV or freee run on more platforms?: DATEV runs on Windows, Web. freee runs on Web.
What is DATEV best used for?: DATEV is most often used for a german gmbh that wants its steuerberater to keep doing the books but wants receipts to stop travelling in a shoebox, a payroll department that must file social insurance and wage tax returns to german statutory deadlines without an external bureau, an sme preparing an e-bilanz and audit-ready gobd document archive, a tax firm standardising dozens of client engagements on one chart of accounts and one document workflow. Of those, a german gmbh that wants its steuerberater to keep doing the books but wants receipts to stop travelling in a shoebox and a payroll department that must file social insurance and wage tax returns to german statutory deadlines without an external bureau are not what freee is typically brought in for.
What can DATEV do that freee cannot?: DATEV covers Unternehmen online, Lohn und Gehalt, Rechnungswesen, Jahresabschluss.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

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.

freee: What is freee's accounting software pricing?

Individual business owners start at ¥980/month for Starter, while corporate accounting begins at ¥2,980/month for Solo Corp, with prices extending to ¥39,780+/month for Advance plans.

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.

freee: Does freee charge per employee for HR and payroll?

Yes, freee人事労務 (HR/Payroll) costs ¥400-¥1,100 per employee per month, and freee勤怠管理 (Attendance) costs ¥300 per employee per month.

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.

freee: Are there free freee products?

Several freee products are completely free, including freee開業 (Business Opening), freee請求書 (Invoicing), freeeカード (Card), and certain features like payroll rules creation.

Source

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.

freee: Does freee offer a free trial?

Freee offers a 30-day free trial for its accounting software and provides annual payment discounts on most plans.

Source

DATEV vs freee

DATEV

freee

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in DATEV

Only in freee

What people use each for

DATEV

freee

Where each one falls short

DATEV

freee

Pricing, plan by plan

DATEV

freee

Which should you pick?

Choose DATEV if

Choose freee if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on DATEV

More on freee

Keep looking

Other head to heads