Is DATEV or Orb better?

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

Which is cheaper, DATEV or Orb?

DATEV starts at On request and Orb at On request.

Does DATEV or Orb run on more platforms?

DATEV runs on Windows, Web. Orb runs on Web, API.

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 Orb is typically brought in for.

What can DATEV do that Orb cannot?

DATEV covers Unternehmen online, Lohn und Gehalt, Rechnungswesen, Jahresabschluss. Orb covers Usage metering, Automated billing, Pricing modeling, Revenue recognition.

Accounting · head to head

DATEV vs Orb

DATEV

Accounting

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

From: On request
Rated: -

Full review Website

Orb

Accounting

Revenue design platform automating usage-based billing and pricing strategy

From: On request
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.; Orb custom pricing model requires sales consultation, no transparent public pricing
They diverge on capability: DATEV covers Unternehmen online, Orb covers Usage metering.
Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which DATEV and Orb actually diverge.

Attributes where DATEV and Orb differ
Attribute	DATEV	Orb
Pricing model	quote	Custom pricing based on billing volume and events
Platforms	Windows, Web	Web, API

Identical on both: starting price (On request), 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 Orb

Usage metering
Automated billing
Pricing modeling
Revenue recognition
Spend controls
Pricing calculator
NetSuite integration
Data warehouse sync

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

Orb

Implementing usage-based billing for cloud infrastructure providersnot DATEV
Modeling and testing multiple pricing strategies before launchnot DATEV
Automating revenue recognition for financial reportingnot DATEV
Managing complex hybrid pricing (seats plus usage) at scalenot DATEV
Providing customers real-time spend controls and usage visibilitynot 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.

Orb

Custom pricing model requires sales consultation, no transparent public pricing
Pricing based on both events and billing volume adds complexity to cost estimation
Enterprise-focused positioning may be overkill for simple subscription use cases
Requires integration with existing accounting systems for full value
Limited information on free tier or trial availability

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

Orb

On request

Core$undefined/custom
- Real-time event ingestion (up to 250K+ events/second)
- Real-time alerting
- Hybrid and usage-based billing
Advanced$undefined/custom
- All Core features
- Data warehouse sync
- Salesforce integration
Enterprise$undefined/custom
- All Advanced features
- Enterprise-grade SLAs
- Dedicated support

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 Orb if

You need usage metering.
You work on Web, API.
You also want automated billing.

Orb review

Questions people ask

Is DATEV or Orb better?: Neither clearly leads. DATEV starts at On request and Orb at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, DATEV or Orb?: DATEV starts at On request and Orb at On request.
Does DATEV or Orb run on more platforms?: DATEV runs on Windows, Web. Orb runs on Web, API.
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 Orb is typically brought in for.
What can DATEV do that Orb cannot?: DATEV covers Unternehmen online, Lohn und Gehalt, Rechnungswesen, Jahresabschluss. Orb covers Usage metering, Automated billing, Pricing modeling, Revenue recognition.

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.

Orb: How does Orb pricing work?

Orb uses custom pricing based on your billing volume (total value of invoices) and events (raw data records ingested). Specific costs must be discussed with their sales team.

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.

Orb: What is the difference between Core, Advanced, and Enterprise plans?

Core includes event ingestion and basic billing automation. Advanced adds data warehouse sync and Salesforce/NetSuite integrations. Enterprise adds SLAs, dedicated support, and mission-critical guarantees.

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.

Orb: Can Orb handle hybrid pricing models?

Yes. Orb supports hybrid pricing combining seat-based, usage-based, and flat-rate components, making it suitable for complex monetization strategies.

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.

DATEV vs Orb

DATEV

Orb

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in DATEV

Only in Orb

What people use each for

DATEV

Orb

Where each one falls short

DATEV

Orb

Pricing, plan by plan

DATEV

Orb

Which should you pick?

Choose DATEV if

Choose Orb if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on DATEV

More on Orb

Keep looking

Other head to heads