Lexware Office vs. Papierkram

At a glance

Best for

Best for German freelancers and small businesses that want quotes, e-invoices, bookkeeping and the VAT return in one place, with a direct DATEV handover to the tax adviser.

Freelancers
Small and mid-sized

Papierkram

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	Lexware Office	Papierkram
Starting price	lower value From €7.90 / month plus VAT Four versions, each per month plus VAT and cancellable monthly: S €7.90, M €12.90, L €21.90 and XL €32.90. Payroll (Lohn & Gehalt) is a separate add-on at €12.90 / month plus VAT that combines with any version. A 50% discount for the first three months is currently advertised.	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	30 days free, with the full XL feature set	Free plan with basic features and no time limit
Users	Over 450,000 customers	Not stated
API	Yes, the Lexware Office Public API (REST), available from version XL at no extra cost	REST API (beta) on plans M and L, metered by credits
Hosting	Cloud (SaaS)	Cloud (SaaS), developed, hosted and operated in Germany in TÜViT-certified data centres
Made in	Not stated	Germany
Invoicing and quotes	Yes, quotes, invoices, delivery notes and credit notes, with XRechnung and ZUGFeRD e-invoicing included	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, multibanking with automatic matching proposals for bank transactions, and GoBD-compliant records	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 capture from a phone photo or an email import, with automatic categorisation	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, VAT advance return (UStVA) filed from the software, EÜR and year-end preparation, plus a direct DATEV handover to the tax adviser (Germany)	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	Yes, as a paid add-on (Lohn & Gehalt) at €12.90 / month plus VAT, combinable with any version	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	Yes, a dashboard with account balances and open invoices, plus P&L (GuV) and BWA reports	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	Yes, the Lexware Office Public API (REST), from version XL at no extra cost	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	No	stated Yes
Deployment	Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based	Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based
Support	more entries Email helpdesk, Phone	Email helpdesk
Onboarding	more entries Documentation and knowledge base, Video tutorials, Live online demos and webinars	Documentation and knowledge base, Video tutorials
Company size	Freelancers, Small and mid-sized	Freelancers, Small and mid-sized
Integrations	more entries DATEV, PayPal, Shopify, Amazon	DATEV, ELSTER, PayPal

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Row where the values differ The small markers point at the lower number, the longer list or the stated feature. They describe the data, they are not a verdict.

The short version

Key Differences

Starting price Lexware Office From €7.90 / month plus VAT Papierkram Free; from €12.90 / month plus VAT
Free trial Lexware Office 30 days free, with the full XL feature set Papierkram Free plan with basic features and no time limit
Hosting Lexware Office Cloud (SaaS) Papierkram Cloud (SaaS), developed, hosted and operated in Germany in TÜViT-certified data centres
Support Lexware Office Email helpdesk, Phone Papierkram Email helpdesk
AI features Lexware Office No Papierkram Yes

Every line is one datapoint from the table above, picked automatically. Nothing here is written text.

The trade-offs

Strengths and Limitations

Lexware Office

Strengths

XRechnung and ZUGFeRD e-invoicing included in the product
Direct DATEV handover, so the tax adviser works on the same data
UStVA and EÜR prepared and filed from the software
Public REST API at no extra cost once you are on version XL

Limitations

Bookkeeping, EÜR and VAT only start in version L, and the API only in XL
Payroll is a paid add-on rather than part of any version
Built around German tax rules, ELSTER and DATEV, so it suits German businesses specifically

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

Lexware Office

S €7.90 / month plus VAT Receipt capture and receipt archive.
M €12.90 / month plus VAT Adds quotes, invoices and e-invoices, and dunning.
L €21.90 / month plus VAT Adds bookkeeping, EÜR and VAT (UStVA).
XL €32.90 / month plus VAT Adds EU invoices, part invoices and the Public API.
Lohn & Gehalt (add-on) €12.90 / month plus VAT Payroll add-on, combinable with any version.

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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.

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What users say

Review Scores · opens after launch

Lexware Office

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 a review reaches us as soon as its author confirms it, 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.

Before sending, the author has to confirm three things: that they have used the product themselves, that they work neither for the vendor nor for a competitor, and that nobody is paying them for the review. We also ask whether the vendor invited them to write it. That answer is required, either answer is accepted, and it stays with the review.

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Read the full version on our methodology page

Where this comes from

Lexware Office https://www.lexware.de · checked against the official source on 2026-08-27

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.