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Accounting · head to head

DATEV vs Rain Instant Pay

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
Rain Instant Pay logo

Rain Instant Pay

Payroll

US earned wage access with a free ACH option and a paid instant transfer

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.; Rain Instant Pay the free option takes one to three business days, so in practice employees who need money urgently pay the instant fee, which makes the free tier close to theoretical.
  • They diverge on capability: DATEV covers Unternehmen online, Rain Instant Pay covers Earned wage calculation.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which DATEV and Rain Instant Pay actually diverge.

Attributes where DATEV and Rain Instant Pay differ
AttributeDATEVRain Instant Pay
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 Rain Instant Pay

  • Earned wage calculation
  • Instant transfer
  • Free ACH transfer
  • Payroll deduction file
  • Employer dashboard
  • Tip and off-cycle payouts

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

Rain Instant Pay

  • A senior living operator trying to fill open shifts by offering same-day access to earned paynot DATEV
  • A restaurant group replacing paper cheque advances and cash tip payoutsnot DATEV
  • A staffing agency competing for hourly workers who compare pay access when choosing assignmentsnot DATEV
  • An employer with high first-90-day turnover wanting a retention lever that does not raise wage costnot 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.

Rain Instant Pay

  • The free option takes one to three business days, so in practice employees who need money urgently pay the instant fee, which makes the free tier close to theoretical.
  • Fees of two to four dollars on small withdrawals represent a high effective cost to the worker, and employers who market it as a free benefit are describing their own invoice, not the employee experience.
  • Access is capped at roughly half of earned wages per pay period, which frequently falls short of what an employee in genuine difficulty needs and pushes them to other credit anyway.
  • It requires reliable time and attendance integration, and employers with manual timekeeping or multiple payroll systems face a long implementation before anyone can draw a cent.
  • US state-level earned wage access regulation is still changing, and a company operating across many states can find rules on fees and disclosures differ by jurisdiction mid-contract.

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

Rain Instant Pay

On request
  • Rain Instant Pay$undefined/year
    • Employer cost quoted, commonly no subscription fee
    • Employee pays roughly 1.99 to 3.99 per instant transfer
    • Standard ACH transfer free to the employee, one to three days

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 Rain Instant Pay if

  • You need earned wage calculation.
  • You work on Web, iOS, Android.
  • You also want instant transfer.
Rain Instant Pay review

Questions people ask

Is DATEV or Rain Instant Pay better?
Neither clearly leads. DATEV starts at On request and Rain Instant Pay at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, DATEV or Rain Instant Pay?
DATEV starts at On request and Rain Instant Pay at On request.
Does DATEV or Rain Instant Pay run on more platforms?
DATEV runs on Windows, Web. Rain Instant Pay 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 Rain Instant Pay is typically brought in for.
What can DATEV do that Rain Instant Pay cannot?
DATEV covers Unternehmen online, Lohn und Gehalt, Rechnungswesen, Jahresabschluss. Rain Instant Pay covers Earned wage calculation, Instant transfer, Free ACH transfer, Payroll deduction file.

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.

Rain Instant Pay: Does the employer pay anything?

Usually not a subscription. The revenue comes from employee instant transfer fees, unless the employer chooses to subsidise them.

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.

Rain Instant Pay: How much does an employee pay?

Nothing for a standard ACH transfer taking one to three days, and roughly 1.99 to 3.99 for an instant transfer to a debit card.

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.

Rain Instant Pay: How much can be withdrawn?

Typically up to about 50 percent of wages earned so far in the current pay period.

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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