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Accounting · head to head

DATEV vs Jify

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
Jify logo

Jify

Payroll

Earned wage access and financial wellness for Indian employers, backed by Moneyview

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

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.; Jify the employee pays a fee on every withdrawal, so a worker drawing small amounts repeatedly can pay a very high effective annual rate on money they have already earned.
  • They diverge on capability: DATEV covers Unternehmen online, Jify covers On-demand salary.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which DATEV and Jify actually diverge.

Attributes where DATEV and Jify differ
AttributeDATEVJify
PlatformsWindows, WebWeb, iOS, Android
CategoryAccountingPayroll

Identical on both: starting price (On request), pricing model (quote), free tier (No), 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 DATEV

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

Only in Jify

  • On-demand salary
  • Payroll and attendance sync
  • Automatic netting
  • Savings and gold
  • Employer dashboard
  • Financial education

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 Jify
  • A payroll department that must file social insurance and wage tax returns to German statutory deadlines without an external bureaunot Jify
  • An SME preparing an e-Bilanz and audit-ready GoBD document archivenot Jify
  • A tax firm standardising dozens of client engagements on one chart of accounts and one document workflownot Jify

Jify

  • A logistics operator whose warehouse staff repeatedly ask supervisors for informal salary advancesnot DATEV
  • A retail chain trying to cut attrition among shift workers between paydaysnot DATEV
  • A BPO with high-volume hourly staff wanting a benefit that costs the employer almost nothingnot DATEV
  • An employer replacing an unmanaged advance policy with a system that nets off automatically at payrollnot 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.

Jify

  • The employee pays a fee on every withdrawal, so a worker drawing small amounts repeatedly can pay a very high effective annual rate on money they have already earned.
  • Indian regulatory treatment of earned wage access is unresolved, and a ruling that classifies advances as credit would change licensing, disclosure and possibly the fee model mid-contract.
  • Adoption tends to concentrate among the most financially stretched staff, so an employer can find a minority of workers withdrawing constantly and normalising the fee as part of pay.
  • It depends on accurate attendance and payroll feeds, and in workforces with manual or delayed attendance data the accrual calculation either lags or over-permits withdrawals.
  • Employer-side pricing is quoted and often nominal, which makes it hard to compare suppliers on anything other than the fee the workforce will bear.

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

Jify

On request
  • Jify for employers$undefined/year
    • Employer subscription quoted, often nominal or waived
    • Employees pay a fee on each early withdrawal
    • Optional employer subsidy of the employee fee

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 Jify if

  • You need on-demand salary.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want payroll and attendance sync.
Jify review

Questions people ask

Is DATEV or Jify better?
Neither clearly leads. DATEV starts at On request and Jify at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, DATEV or Jify?
DATEV starts at On request and Jify at On request.
Does DATEV or Jify run on more platforms?
DATEV runs on Windows, Web. Jify runs on Web, iOS, Android.
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 Jify is typically brought in for.
What can DATEV do that Jify cannot?
DATEV covers Unternehmen online, Lohn und Gehalt, Rechnungswesen, Jahresabschluss. Jify covers On-demand salary, Payroll and attendance sync, Automatic netting, Savings and gold.

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.

Jify: Who pays for Jify?

Mostly the employee. Employees pay a fee per withdrawal; the employer subscription is low or waived, though employers can subsidise the fee.

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.

Jify: Is it a loan?

It is structured as access to already-earned wages rather than credit, but whether Indian regulators treat it as credit is still contested.

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.

Jify: How much can an employee withdraw?

A capped share of accrued earnings for the period, set by the employer, typically a minority of the salary earned so far.

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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