Accounting · head to head
DATEV vs Sage 50
DATEV
Accounting
German accounting, payroll and tax software built around the tax adviser rather than the business
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
Sage 50
Accounting
Windows desktop accounting with the ledger held in a local data file rather than in a browser
- From
- $29/month
- Rated
- -
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.; Sage 50 it is a Windows desktop application, so Mac users need a virtual machine or a hosted desktop, and every added remote worker becomes a hosting bill rather than another browser tab.
- They diverge on capability: DATEV covers Unternehmen online, Sage 50 covers Local company data file.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which DATEV and Sage 50 actually diverge.
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 Sage 50
- Local company data file
- Nominal, sales and purchase ledgers
- Bank reconciliation
- VAT and sales tax handling
- Stock control
- Job and project costing
- Multi user access
- Microsoft 365 integration
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 Sage 50
- A payroll department that must file social insurance and wage tax returns to German statutory deadlines without an external bureaunot Sage 50
- An SME preparing an e-Bilanz and audit-ready GoBD document archivenot Sage 50
- A tax firm standardising dozens of client engagements on one chart of accounts and one document workflownot Sage 50
Sage 50
- An established small business that wants its accounting data physically in the building rather than on a vendor's serversnot DATEV
- A construction or trade business needing job costing and stock depth that the entry level cloud products do not matchnot DATEV
- A company with unreliable internet where a browser only ledger would stop work whenever the line dropsnot DATEV
- A long standing user with a decade of transaction history in the file for whom migrating to anything else is the expensive optionnot 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.
Sage 50
- It is a Windows desktop application, so Mac users need a virtual machine or a hosted desktop, and every added remote worker becomes a hosting bill rather than another browser tab.
- Multi user working shares a data file over the network, so all users effectively need to be on the same local network or on the same hosted server, and file corruption in a shared file environment is a recovery from backup rather than a support ticket.
- The United States and United Kingdom editions are separate products with different tax engines, so a business trading in both markets cannot run one Sage 50 across them, and experience or add ons from one edition do not transfer to the other.
- Additional users are licensed individually at full price, which means a part time bookkeeper, an approver who signs off purchase invoices and a manager who only ever reads reports all cost the same as the full time finance person.
- Sage's development effort has moved to its cloud accounting products, so the eventual move off Sage 50 is a re-implementation with historical data conversion and a fresh chart of accounts rather than an in place upgrade, and that project only gets larger the longer the file grows.
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
Sage 50
$29/month- Pro Accounting$50/month
- Core accounting
- 1 user
- Basic reports
- Premium Accounting$85/month
- 5 users
- Job costing
- Inventory
Which should you pick?
Choose DATEV if
- You need unternehmen online.
- You work on Windows, Web.
- You also want lohn und gehalt.
Choose Sage 50 if
- You need local company data file.
- You work on Windows.
- You also want nominal, sales and purchase ledgers.
Questions people ask
- Is DATEV or Sage 50 better?
- Neither clearly leads. DATEV starts at On request and Sage 50 at $29/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, DATEV or Sage 50?
- DATEV starts at On request and Sage 50 at $29/month.
- Does DATEV or Sage 50 run on more platforms?
- DATEV runs on Windows, Web. Sage 50 runs on Windows.
- 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 Sage 50 is typically brought in for.
- What can DATEV do that Sage 50 cannot?
- DATEV covers Unternehmen online, Lohn und Gehalt, Rechnungswesen, Jahresabschluss. Sage 50 covers Local company data file, Nominal, sales and purchase ledgers, Bank reconciliation, VAT and sales tax handling.
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.
Sage 50: Is Sage 50 cloud software?
No. The application runs on Windows and the ledger is a local file. The Sage 50cloud tiers add Microsoft 365 integration and a sync service for remote access, but the accounting itself is still desktop software.
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.
Sage 50: Can my accountant work in it?
Yes, and many accountants in the United Kingdom and the United States know it well. Practically they will either take a backup of the company file, or connect through the remote data access service, or work on a hosted copy. Agree which of those before you start.
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.
Sage 50: Does it still require an annual subscription?
Sage moved Sage 50 to subscription licensing, so continued access and tax table updates depend on an active subscription. Confirm what happens to your ability to open historical data if you stop paying.
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.
Sage 50: Is the United Kingdom version the same product as the United States version?
No. They share a name and a heritage but they are different codebases with different tax handling. Buy the edition for the country where you file.
Sage 50: What about payroll?
Payroll is a separate Sage product with its own subscription and per employee cost. Budget for it separately rather than assuming the accounting subscription covers it.
Sage 50: How hard is it to move to a cloud system later?
Expect to convert opening balances and a limited window of transaction history rather than the full file, and to redo the chart of accounts, the customer and supplier records and any custom reports. Most businesses do it at a year end for that reason.
Related pages
Other head to heads
- DATEV vs Lexware
- DATEV vs sevdesk
- DATEV vs Paychex
- DATEV vs QuickBooks
- DATEV vs ADP
- DATEV vs Bill.com
- DATEV vs FloQast
- DATEV vs Xero
- DATEV vs Zoho Books
- DATEV vs Money Forward Cloud
- DATEV vs RazorpayX
- DATEV vs Conta Azul
- DATEV vs Creem
- DATEV vs Dinero
- DATEV vs Divvy
- DATEV vs Dodo Payments
- DATEV vs Empower
- DATEV vs Airbase
- DATEV vs Ramp
- DATEV vs Melio
- DATEV vs Invoicera
- DATEV vs Invoice2go
- DATEV vs Invoicely
- DATEV vs Lago
- DATEV vs Metronome
- DATEV vs Modern Treasury
- DATEV vs Moss
- DATEV vs Stigg
- Sage 50 vs Lexware
- Sage 50 vs sevdesk
- Sage 50 vs Paychex
- Sage 50 vs QuickBooks
- Sage 50 vs ADP
- Sage 50 vs Bill.com
- Sage 50 vs FloQast
- Sage 50 vs Xero
- Sage 50 vs Zoho Books
- Sage 50 vs Money Forward Cloud
- Sage 50 vs RazorpayX
- Sage 50 vs Conta Azul
- Sage 50 vs Creem
- Sage 50 vs Dinero
- Sage 50 vs Divvy
- Sage 50 vs Dodo Payments
- Sage 50 vs Empower
- Sage 50 vs Airbase
- Sage 50 vs Ramp
- Sage 50 vs Melio
- Sage 50 vs Invoicera
- Sage 50 vs Invoice2go
- Sage 50 vs Invoicely
- Sage 50 vs Lago
- Sage 50 vs Metronome
- Sage 50 vs Modern Treasury
- Sage 50 vs Moss
- Sage 50 vs Stigg