TL;DR: sevDesk in 30 seconds
- sevDesk is a cloud accounting tool from Offenburg, Germany, built for freelancers and small companies: invoices, receipts, bank matching, German VAT returns via ELSTER and a hand-over to your tax advisor. More than 170,000 businesses use it, and since 2025 it belongs to the French software group Cegid.
- The free plan covers three e-invoices a month. Paid plans cost €12.90, €25.90 and €34.90 net, and the price is the same for every contract length. The old discounts for long commitments were dropped in September 2025.
- What you get instead are introductory discounts: up to 70 percent for twelve months if you commit for 24 months. After that the full price applies, and the contract renews automatically for another 24 months.
- That renewal is the single most criticised point on Trustpilot: a 14-day notice period, no leniency, two more years. Once you know it, you can avoid it.
- For online sellers: Shopify works through partner apps, Amazon, eBay and Etsy only through Billbee, and there is no built-in fee splitting for marketplace payouts. If marketplaces are your main channel, BuchhaltungsButler or easybill fit better.
- Our rating: 3.7 out of 5. Excellent usability and a genuine free tier, points off for contract terms, support and the thin marketplace integration.
- Try it yourself: test sevDesk free for 14 days, no credit card, and you land in the free plan afterwards.
You write your first invoice in Word. The tenth one too. Then, somewhere in the second quarter, the tax office asks for your VAT return, your receipts are spread across three inboxes, and you realise your accountant charges more for sorting than for calculating. This is the point where most founders in Germany look for accounting software for the first time, and a great many of them end up with sevDesk.
The promise: write an invoice in two minutes, photograph a receipt with your phone, connect your bank account, and at the end of the month send the VAT return to the tax office with one click. Your tax advisor gets a separate login. All of it without any bookkeeping knowledge, or so the marketing says.
We looked at what the free plan can really do, how prices have changed since the Cegid takeover, what is behind the many one-star reviews and whether sevDesk works for an online shop. Because that is where the biggest gap lies.
Our rating: 3.7 / 5
The most approachable accounting tool for solo businesses in Germany, with a free plan that is enough to get started and an app that reads receipts reliably. Points off for automatic 24-month renewals, support that often cannot answer real accounting questions, the removal of long-term discounts and an e-commerce integration that is not enough for marketplace sellers.
| Ease of use & setup | ★★★★½ 4.6 |
| Feature set | ★★★★☆ 4.2 |
| Value for money | ★★★½☆ 3.6 |
| Contract & cancellation | ★★★☆☆ 2.8 |
| Support | ★★★☆☆ 3.3 |
| E-commerce integration | ★★★½☆ 3.6 |
🔍 Rated with our 5-criteria framework – every score can be recalculated.
Not an affiliate link. We earn nothing from this recommendation.
What is sevDesk?
sevDesk is accounting software that runs entirely in the browser and in a mobile app. You use it to write quotes and invoices, collect receipts, connect your business bank account and let the software match payments and receipts. The output is the German advance VAT return, the income surplus statement (EÜR) and an export your tax advisor can read straight into DATEV, the standard system of German accountancy firms. sevDesk does not produce a balance sheet or annual financial statements. That stays with the firm.
The company was founded at the end of 2013 in Offenburg by Fabian Silberer and Marco Reinbold, initially under the name SEVENIT. Today around 230 people work in Offenburg and Berlin, and the servers run on Amazon Web Services in Germany. In February 2025 the French software group Cegid acquired sevDesk outright. Reinbold now runs Cegid’s business in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, Silberer advises. Neither side has disclosed a purchase price.
Why this matters to you: seven months after the takeover, sevDesk restructured its pricing and removed the long-term discounts. Nobody officially links the two. The timing is hard to miss.
sevDesk on video
sevDesk is a German-language product, and there is no full English review on YouTube. This English tutorial from a tax-advisory channel walks through the e-invoicing part, which is the feature most non-German founders ask about first:
Video: TAXFIT in Germany (English tutorial on e-invoicing with sevDesk, February 2025)
The four plans at a glance
sevDesk does not tier by invoice count or revenue but by features. All paid plans include one user, the mobile app and personal support. Prices are net per month.
| Plan | Price | Who it is for | What matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | €0 | Side businesses, first clients | 3 invoices or e-invoices a month, several layouts, unlimited contacts and products, small-business VAT exemption mode. No receipts, no banking. |
| Invoice | €12.90 | Freelancers who only bill | Unlimited invoices and quotes, e-invoice creation, custom stationery, payment reminders, DATEV export, tax advisor access, all marketplace integrations. |
| Accounting | €25.90 | Most self-employed people | Adds AI receipt capture, incoming e-invoices, online banking, VAT return via ELSTER, EÜR and profit and loss, depreciation, dunning levels, delivery notes, cash book. |
| Accounting Pro | €34.90 | Companies that need reporting | Adds cost centres, the German management report (BWA) and the REST API. The API is only available here. |
Two things stand out. First, the API sits in the most expensive plan. If you want to build your own automations or connect tools like Make directly, you pay €34.90 even if you need neither cost centres nor reports. Second, every plan includes exactly one user. Each additional user costs €5.90 a month.
The most important features
Invoices and e-invoices. Quote, order confirmation, delivery note, invoice and reminder build on each other and carry the line items forward. Since 2025 sevDesk generates e-invoices in the ZUGFeRD and XRechnung formats in every plan, from the same form as a regular invoice. Receiving and reading incoming e-invoices starts with the Accounting plan. Recurring invoices for subscriptions or maintenance contracts are created automatically at the chosen interval.
AI receipt capture. You photograph a receipt with the app or forward the supplier’s email to your sevDesk inbox. The software extracts amount, date, VAT rate and supplier, suggests a booking category and links the receipt to the matching bank transaction. In reviews this is the most praised feature by far. Receipts in foreign currencies are converted at the rate on the receipt date.
Online banking. The connection runs through the licensed provider finAPI and covers more than 4,000 banks according to sevDesk, including neobanks such as Qonto and Kontist. Transactions are fetched once a day, not in real time. PayPal can be added as a separate payment account, and its fees then appear as separate transactions.
Taxes. The advance VAT return goes straight to the tax office without a separate ELSTER certificate. The EÜR and the profit and loss statement are built continuously from your bookings, and since 2026 there is a trial balance in beta. The small-business VAT exemption under section 19 of the German VAT act can be set in every plan, including the free one.
Tax advisor access and DATEV. Your accountancy firm gets a free portal with access to your bookings. For the hand-over there is the DATEV booking data service, the invoice data service, CSV and XML exports and a connection to ADDISON. How smoothly that works in practice depends heavily on the firm. More on that below.
Mobile app. The iOS and Android app was rebuilt from scratch in spring 2026. Scanning receipts, writing invoices, creating quotes and checking open items all work on the go. It sits at 4.4 from almost 7,800 ratings in the App Store and 4.5 from around 2,900 on Google Play.
What sevDesk costs
The list prices are simple: €12.90, €25.90 and €34.90 net per month, regardless of whether you pay monthly, yearly or for two years. What makes it complicated are the introductory discounts, which last for different periods depending on the contract length. This is what the pricing page showed in early September 2026:
| Term | Promotion | Invoice | Accounting | Accounting Pro |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 month | 50 % for 3 months | €6.45, then €12.90 | €12.95, then €25.90 | €17.45, then €34.90 |
| 12 months | 50 % for 6 months | €6.45, then €12.90 | €12.95, then €25.90 | €17.45, then €34.90 |
| 24 months | 70 % for 12 months | €3.87, then €12.90 | €7.77, then €25.90 | €10.47, then €34.90 |
The promotions change regularly and tend to be higher around Black Friday and the turn of the year. Payment is by credit card, PayPal or direct debit, and yearly and two-year contracts are charged upfront for the whole term. The trial lasts 14 days, needs no credit card and ends automatically in the free plan.
A worked example for the Accounting plan. With a 24-month commitment you pay 12 × €7.77 plus 12 × €25.90 in the first two years, about €404 in total or €16.84 a month. With a twelve-month commitment the first year costs €233, or €19.43 a month. On a monthly plan the first year costs €272, or €22.66 a month. The long commitment saves you roughly €6 a month, and in return you lose every exit for two years. For a side business that might go quiet after a year, that is a bad trade.
On top of the plans come add-ons: an extra user €5.90, time tracking €4.90, premium layouts €3.90, an extra layout slot or stationery €4.90 each, and the “Inventory” stock module €19.90 a month. If you need stock levels, Accounting plus Inventory lands at €45.80. For individual questions sevDesk sells paid sessions: onboarding €49, an accounting expert from €24.90 per 15 minutes, a check of a single document €3.
The contract renews for the full original term
According to the help centre and the terms, the notice period is 14 days before the end of the term, and without notice the subscription renews for the term you originally booked. A 24-month contract turns into another 24 months at full price, which for Accounting Pro means €838 net in one go. You cancel in your account under user, plan, “cancel plan”, or by email. Put the deadline in your calendar the day you sign up. Almost nobody on Trustpilot reports leniency after a missed deadline.
How prices have developed
Until June 2024 the Invoice plan cost €8.90 and Accounting €15.90. The July 2024 restructuring turned these into €11.90 and €25.90, moved inventory management into an add-on and introduced Accounting Pro at €34.90. Anyone who committed for 24 months back then paid €8.90, €19.90 and €27.90. On 1 September 2025 sevDesk removed that discount ladder and raised the Invoice plan to €12.90. Existing customers move to the new price at their next renewal.
For a customer on a two-year Accounting contract, renewal means €25.90 instead of €19.90, a 30 percent increase. For Invoice it is 45 percent, for Pro 25 percent. That is exactly what many one-star reviews since autumn 2025 are about. The introductory promotions soften the effect for new customers, but only for the first months.
sevDesk for online sellers
This is where the audience splits. For service providers who write a few dozen invoices a month, sevDesk is complete. For a shop with hundreds of orders and payouts from marketplaces and payment providers, the picture changes. sevDesk has no native connection to Amazon, eBay or Etsy. Everything runs through partners:
| Channel | Route | What you need to know |
|---|---|---|
| Shopify | Partner apps in the Shopify App Store | The most common app, “sevdesk Buchhaltung”, is made by Appify, not by sevDesk. Free tier for small shops, Basic €8.99, Standard €18.99 a month, billed in US dollars. Turns orders into invoices and credit notes, detects VAT IDs and OSS cases. |
| WooCommerce | Via Germanized or German Market | The German legal-compliance plugins push orders and invoices across. If you run Germanized anyway, the integration is almost free. |
| Amazon, eBay, Etsy | Only via Billbee | Billbee pulls the orders, creates invoices and pushes them into sevDesk. That costs from €9 extra and is a second piece of software with its own logic. Marketplace fees are not broken down along the way. |
| Shopware, JTL | Via the partner SHOPSY | Paid plugins. JTL is not even listed on sevDesk’s integrations page. |
| PayPal, Stripe, Mollie, Klarna | PayPal native, Stripe via miraclesync, the rest via PayJoe | The real problem: sevDesk does not split bulk payouts with deducted fees on its own. You need a tool like PayJoe, which plugs in as a virtual bank. Another subscription. |
| Automation | Make yes, Zapier no | The REST API is only in the Pro plan. Zapier does not list sevDesk, Make has an official module. |
Good news for sellers: the EU One-Stop-Shop procedure for sales to consumers in other EU countries can be reflected on invoices, although the actual OSS filing has to be done elsewhere. Margin-scheme taxation for second-hand goods is supported as well. What is missing is an automatic reconciliation of marketplace settlements, which BuchhaltungsButler offers with its e-commerce plan and easybill with its direct Amazon connection.
What works well day to day
The strongest point is usability. The dashboard shows income, expenses, open invoices and your expected tax burden at a glance, the navigation is logical, and most tasks explain themselves. On Trustpilot “self-explanatory” is the most frequent compliment, and on Capterra usability gets the best sub-score at 3.8.
The receipt scanner lives up to the marketing. One photo of a fuel receipt and amount, date, VAT rate and supplier are in the system, usually with the right category. An accountant who tested sevDesk for clients in 2026 confirms that recognition with bank matching works reliably. For founders who used to keep receipts in a shoebox, this is the biggest time saver.
The free plan is honest. Three e-invoices a month, no time limit, no credit card, with the small-business VAT mode and several layouts. If your side business writes two invoices a month, you can stay on it indefinitely and meet Germany’s e-invoicing mandate along the way.
And the location: a German company, German servers, German-speaking support by chat, email and phone, and TÜV-audited data protection. When you work with a German tax advisor and the tax office, that is not a side issue.
Where the limits are
The contract terms. 24-month contracts with automatic 24-month renewal and a 14-day notice period are unusually harsh in this price range. Lexware Office, easybill and Accountable can be cancelled monthly. A large share of the one-star reviews on Trustpilot are not about the software at all but about exactly this clause.
Calculation errors in reports. Several users reported in 2026 that items were assigned to the wrong VAT return fields, that mixed-use costs were booked at 100 percent in the EÜR, and that discounts and partial invoices caused problems. We could not reproduce this ourselves, but the frequency is notable. If you file the VAT return without a tax advisor, double-check the figures.
The app rebuild. The app rebuilt in spring 2026 triggered a wave of bad reviews: white screen after login, removed features such as delivery notes and draft quotes. sevDesk acknowledges this and is adding features back step by step. If you use the app daily, read the recent store reviews before switching, not the overall score.
Support. Friendly and fast, but often out of its depth on real accounting questions, according to OMR Reviews and Trustpilot alike. An AI agent called Sevi has answered standard questions around the clock since 2026. Tickets that go beyond the bot fizzle out, according to several reports. On Capterra support is the weakest sub-score at 3.4.
DATEV hand-over. Some accountancy firms reject sevDesk exports because booking keys or debtor numbers do not fit or receipts are missing. Others work with it without any issue. Clarify with your firm which export route they accept before you buy. For limited companies (GmbH) that need the full SKR03 chart of accounts, sevDesk hits its limits, and you cannot create custom accounts.
What applies across Germany, Austria and Switzerland
The interface can be switched to English in the user menu, and invoices can be issued in English. Help centre, webinars and support stay German, and so does the tax logic, which is built entirely around German rules. If you run a business in Germany without fluent German, expect to translate a lot of accounting terms yourself. Austria has its own website, an office in Vienna and the Austrian SKR07 chart of accounts. Prices differ: Invoice €13.90, Accounting €24.90, Pro €34.90. What is missing is direct submission of the VAT return to FinanzOnline, sevDesk only produces the report, and there is no cash-register function under the Austrian RKSV rules. In Switzerland sevDesk says itself that it cannot be used: no Swiss franc billing, no QR invoice, no Swiss VAT logic.
What users say about sevDesk
| Platform | Rating | Context |
|---|---|---|
| Trustpilot | 4.0 / 5 from 3,753 | 71 % five-star, 16 % one-star. The one-star texts are long and revolve around renewals, support and calculation errors. sevDesk replies to almost every review. |
| App Store / Google Play | 4.4 / 5 from 7,786 and 4.5 / 5 from 2,922 | Historically strong, but recent ratings dropped sharply after the spring 2026 app rebuild. |
| OMR Reviews | 4.3 / 5 from 278 | No new reviews for more than a year, reflects the state before the pricing reform. |
| Capterra | 3.6 / 5 from 39 | Usability 3.8, support 3.4, value 3.4. Small base, but the most critical platform. |
| Shopify App Store | 4.3 / 5 from 48 | Rates the Appify partner app, not sevDesk itself. The app’s support is praised. |
The pattern is typical for software that invites reviews: a great many short five-star texts and a hard core of long complaints. Reading the complaints, most are not about features but about contract and support. Even critics usually describe the software itself as easy to use.
sevDesk compared with the alternatives
| Tool | Net price / month | Better than sevDesk if you |
|---|---|---|
| sevDesk | €0 / 12.90 / 25.90 / 34.90 | Reference: best usability, genuine free plan, harsh contract terms |
| Lexware Office | €7.90 / 12.90 / 21.90 / 32.90 | want to cancel monthly, need a balance sheet or payroll in the same system |
| BuchhaltungsButler | from €29.90, e-commerce from €54.90 | want Amazon, Shopify, Stripe and PayPal connected directly with automatic fee splitting |
| easybill | €0 / 12 / 39 / 45 | sell on marketplaces: Amazon, eBay, Shopify and shipping labels natively from the Professional plan |
| Accountable | €0 / 9.90 / 19.90 / 29.90 | are a solo founder and want to file income and trade tax returns from the app as well, with English-language support |
| Papierkram | €0 / 12.90 / 24.90 / 49.90 | bill projects and hours and prefer a small independent vendor |
| WISO MeinBüro Web | €10.90 / 19.90 / 39.90 / 69.90 | want stock and order management inside the plan rather than as an add-on; note the revenue caps per plan |
All prices checked directly with the vendors on 4 September 2026, net, excluding limited-time promotions. For a detailed three-way comparison see our article Lexware Office vs. sevDesk vs. BuchhaltungsButler.
Who sevDesk is right for
A good fit if you are a freelancer, consultant or tradesperson in Germany who writes invoices and collects receipts, if you start without bookkeeping knowledge and want the software to guide you, if your tax advisor works with the DATEV booking data service, or if you only need the free plan as a small business for now. The interface works in English, the support does not.
Less suitable if you sell on Amazon, eBay or Etsy and want settlements broken down automatically, if you run a GmbH that needs a full chart of accounts and annual statements inside the system, if you must be able to cancel monthly, if you need English-language support, or if you are based in Switzerland.
Our verdict
sevDesk is the accounting tool that gets you from Word invoices and a shoebox to a clean system fastest. The usability is exemplary, the receipt scanner is genuinely good, e-invoicing is included in every plan, and the free plan solves the starter problem without a cent changing hands.
What keeps the rating at 3.7 are three things: contract terms that nobody else in this price range phrases so harshly, support that hits its limits on real accounting questions, and an e-commerce integration that marketplace sellers have to piece together from partner apps, Billbee and PayJoe. Add the 2025 pricing reform, which costs existing customers 25 to 45 percent more at renewal.
Our recommendation: start with the free plan or the 14-day trial, upload your real receipts and have your tax advisor check an export before you book. If you then buy, take the monthly term or twelve months at most, and put the cancellation deadline in your calendar immediately. The six euros a month the two-year contract saves are not worth the lock-in.
Try sevDesk yourself
14 days with every feature, no credit card. Afterwards you land automatically in the free plan with three e-invoices a month. No subscription, no time limit.
Not an affiliate link. We earn nothing from this recommendation.
Frequently asked questions about sevDesk
Is sevDesk really free?
Yes. The free plan runs without a time limit and without a credit card. You can write three invoices or e-invoices a month, create unlimited contacts and products and use the German small-business VAT exemption. Receipt capture, banking, VAT returns and the EÜR start with the Accounting plan at €25.90 net a month.
How much does sevDesk cost per month?
List prices are €12.90 for Invoice, €25.90 for Accounting and €34.90 for Accounting Pro, all net and identical for every contract length. New customers get temporary discounts. In September 2026 these were 50 percent for three months on a monthly plan and 70 percent for twelve months with a 24-month commitment. After that the full price applies.
How do I cancel sevDesk?
In your account under user, plan, “cancel plan”, or by email to support. The notice period is 14 days before the end of the term. If you miss it, the contract renews automatically for the term you originally booked, so a two-year contract renews for another 24 months. Your data stays accessible for three months after cancellation.
Does sevDesk work with Shopify and Amazon?
Shopify yes, through partner apps from the Shopify App Store at €0 to €18.99 a month. Amazon, eBay and Etsy only through Billbee as an intermediate layer, because sevDesk has no marketplace connection of its own. Marketplace and payment fees are not split automatically along the way. For that you need another tool such as PayJoe.
Is there an English version of sevDesk?
Partly. You can switch the user interface to English in the user menu, and invoices can be issued in English with foreign currencies. The help centre, webinars and support are German only, and all tax features follow German rules. If you also want English-language support, Accountable is the closest alternative.
sevDesk or Lexware Office: which is better?
sevDesk has the more modern interface, the better receipt scanner and a genuine free plan. Lexware Office is cheaper to start at €7.90, can be cancelled monthly, handles balance sheets and payroll and has the larger ecosystem. If you do not want to commit or you run a GmbH, Lexware is the safer choice. If you mainly want easy bookkeeping, sevDesk.
Is sevDesk GoBD compliant and GDPR safe?
sevDesk follows the German GoBD principles with immutable documents, procedural documentation and auditor access, but points out itself that there is no official GoBD certification for software. Data is stored on Amazon Web Services in Germany and data protection has been audited by TÜV Saarland. As a German company sevDesk is directly subject to the GDPR.
