Best for
Best for freelancers and sole traders in Germany who want invoicing, bookkeeping and their tax returns in one app.
- Freelancers
Accounting & Invoicing Comparison
Accountable vs. Papierkram
At a glance
At a glance
Best for
Best for German freelancers and sole traders who track billable hours and want invoicing and bookkeeping in the same tool.
- Freelancers
- Small and mid-sized
Cataleo does not name a winner. Both statements come from the vendors themselves.
Full Comparison
| Criterion | Accountable | Papierkram |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | lower value Free invoicing plan, otherwise from €12.40 / month plus VAT Billed monthly, per month plus VAT: Invoicing plus €12.40, Bookkeeping €24.90, Taxes €37.40 and Max €74.90. Yearly billing lowers these to €9.90, €19.90, €29.90 and €59.90 per month. Max carries a 12-month commitment. | Free; from €12.90 / month plus VAT Plan S on annual billing, €15.90 on monthly billing. Plan M is €24.90 (€29.90 monthly) and plan L €49.90 (€59.90 monthly). Extra users cost €2.90 a month, or €2.32 on annual billing. |
| Free trial | No free trial of the paid plans; a free invoicing plan in the mobile app, and a 30-day money-back guarantee on all plans | Free plan with basic features and no time limit |
| Users | More than 40,000 self-employed people in Germany, according to the vendor | Not stated |
| API | Not stated | REST API (beta) on plans M and L, metered by credits |
| Hosting | Cloud (SaaS), with iOS and Android apps | Cloud (SaaS), developed, hosted and operated in Germany in TÜViT-certified data centres |
| Made in | Not stated | Germany |
| Invoicing and quotes | Yes, invoices and quotes with XRechnung and ZUGFeRD e-invoices; recurring and instalment invoices and personalised layouts from Invoicing plus | Yes, quotes, invoices, delivery notes, down-payment and recurring invoices, XRechnung and ZUGFeRD e-invoices, three reminder levels, and a customer portal with GiroCode and PayPal payment links |
| Bookkeeping and bank feeds | Yes, bank account connection (one account on the free plan, five from Bookkeeping). Only actual taxation (Ist-Versteuerung) is supported, and the Belgian site states that double-entry accounting is not supported | Yes, bank and PayPal accounts synced under PSD2 or imported as MT940 or CAMT and matched against invoices and receipts, a cash book, SKR03 or SKR04, and GoBD certification on the paid plans |
| Expenses and receipts | Yes, receipt scanning with AI auto-recognition; five expenses per month on the free plan, unlimited from Bookkeeping | Yes, receipts by personal email inbox or the mobile app, with MagicSuggest reading e-invoices and the AI-assisted MagicSuggest+ extracting data from photos and scans, and receipts rebilled to customers or projects |
| Tax and compliance | Yes, Germany: VAT advance returns (USt-VA) from the Taxes plan, plus income tax, EÜR, trade tax and yearly VAT returns in the yearly closing. For errors caused by the app, a tax guarantee refunds resulting back taxes up to €500 per filing on Taxes and up to €10,000 on Max | Yes, the VAT advance return (UStVA) with an ELSTER XML download, the EU sales list (ZM) and the EÜR, plus DATEV export and DATEV data services for the tax adviser (Germany; not suited to Austrian or Swiss filing) |
| Payroll | Not stated | No payroll module is named on the feature or integration pages. Wages, salaries and statutory social costs are booked as expenses to their own accounts, and the bookings reach the tax adviser through the DATEV export and DATEV data services |
| Reports and exports | Profit and loss statement (EÜR), DATEV-format export and access for a tax adviser | BWA on the paid plans, extended BWA and custom report periods from plan M, cash flow, a financial overview per project, and weekly and per-employee time reports |
| Integrations and API | Not stated | REST API (beta) on plans M and L, with 10,000 and 20,000 credits; DATEV data services and PSD2 bank access on every paid plan |
| AI features | Yes | Yes |
| Deployment | Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based | Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based |
| Support | more entries Chat, Email helpdesk | Email helpdesk |
| Onboarding | Live online demos and webinars, Guided onboarding | Documentation and knowledge base, Video tutorials |
| Company size | Freelancers | more entries Freelancers, Small and mid-sized |
| Integrations | DATEV | more entries DATEV, ELSTER, PayPal |
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The short version
Key Differences
- Starting price Accountable Free invoicing plan, otherwise from €12.40 / month plus VAT Papierkram Free; from €12.90 / month plus VAT
- Free trial Accountable No free trial of the paid plans; a free invoicing plan in the mobile app, and a 30-day money-back guarantee on all plans Papierkram Free plan with basic features and no time limit
- Company size Accountable Freelancers Papierkram Freelancers, Small and mid-sized
- Hosting Accountable Cloud (SaaS), with iOS and Android apps Papierkram Cloud (SaaS), developed, hosted and operated in Germany in TÜViT-certified data centres
- Support Accountable Chat, Email helpdesk Papierkram Email helpdesk
Every line is one datapoint from the table above, picked automatically. Nothing here is written text.
The trade-offs
Strengths and Limitations
Accountable
Strengths
- Free plan with unlimited XRechnung and ZUGFeRD e-invoices in the mobile app
- Yearly closing with income tax, EÜR and trade tax returns, for small businesses from the Bookkeeping plan and for all from Taxes
- Chat support from tax coaches on the Taxes plan, and a personal tax coach on Max
- DATEV-format export and adviser access
Limitations
- Not designed for corporations such as a UG or GmbH
- Only actual taxation (Ist-Versteuerung); accrual-based VAT (Soll-Versteuerung) is not supported
- The free plan has no web access, one bank account and five expenses a month
- No free trial of the paid plans, only a 30-day money-back guarantee
Papierkram
Strengths
- Time tracking and project budgets built in, with tracked hours turned into invoices
- A free plan with no time limit
- DATEV data services plus an ELSTER XML for the VAT return
- Developed, hosted and operated in Germany
Limitations
- Tax reports follow German rules and do not cover Austria or Switzerland
- The REST API is still in beta and needs plan M or L
- Plan S connects at most two bank accounts and reads 15 receipts a month with AI
- Support requests go through a web form; the phone line takes no support calls
Plans
Pricing
Accountable
- Free Invoicing €0 Mobile app only, one bank account, five expenses per month, unlimited ZUGFeRD and XRechnung e-invoices.
- Invoicing plus €12.40 Per month plus VAT billed monthly, €9.90 billed yearly. Web access, unlimited quotes, recurring and instalment invoices, AI Tax Advisor.
- Bookkeeping €24.90 Per month plus VAT billed monthly, €19.90 billed yearly. Five bank accounts, unlimited expenses, yearly closing for small businesses.
- Taxes €37.40 Per month plus VAT billed monthly, €29.90 billed yearly. Quarterly VAT returns, yearly closing for all, tax guarantee up to €500 per filing, chat with tax coaches.
- Max €74.90 Per month plus VAT billed monthly, €59.90 billed yearly, 12-month commitment. Personal tax coach, onboarding call, four coach calls a year, €10,000 tax guarantee.
Papierkram
- Free €0 Basic bookkeeping with quotes, invoices and receipts; documents carry a Papierkram logo, 100 MB of storage.
- S €15.90 / month plus VAT €12.90 a month on annual billing. Bank sync for up to 2 accounts, 15 AI-read receipts a month, UStVA, EÜR, BWA, DATEV, time tracking and the mobile app, 1,000 MB of storage.
- M €29.90 / month plus VAT €24.90 a month on annual billing. Unlimited bank accounts and AI-read receipts, team time tracking, customer portal, extended BWA, REST API with 10,000 credits, up to 5 users, 2,500 MB of storage.
- L €59.90 / month plus VAT €49.90 a month on annual billing. Everything in M with unlimited users, REST API with 20,000 credits and 10,000 MB of storage.
What users say
Review Scores · opens after launch
Accountable
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Nothing has been published here yet, and no score is shown. How a review is checked before it appears is described below.
Papierkram
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Nothing has been published here yet, and no score is shown. How a review is checked before it appears is described below.
How we check reviews
Reviews are not published yet. The form on a tool's page works and reaches us, but nothing from it appears on this site, so no score here is based on a review. The rules below are the ones that will apply once reviews go live.
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Where this comes from
Where this comes from
Accountable https://www.accountable.de/en · no check date recorded yet
Papierkram https://www.papierkram.de · checked against the official source on 2026-10-22
This table lists factual criteria taken from information the vendors publish themselves. For how we put it together, see the methodology.