DATEV
Germany
EU
DATEV is a German IT cooperative headquartered in Nuremberg. Tax advisers founded it in 1966, and it is organised as a registered cooperative (eG) with more than 40,000 members. DATEV states that...
European Alternatives to QuickBooks
e-conomic
Denmark
EU
e-conomic is a cloud accounting program from Copenhagen. The company was founded in 2001, was bought by the private equity firm HgCapital in 2013 and has belonged to the Norwegian software group...
Exact
Netherlands
EU
Non-European Parent Company
Exact is a Dutch business software company headquartered in Delft and founded in 1984. It was listed on Euronext Amsterdam until 2015, was then taken over by investors led by Apax, and...
Fortnox
Sweden
EU
Fortnox is a Swedish cloud software company headquartered in Växjö. Founded in 2001, it supplies bookkeeping, invoicing and payroll programs to small businesses and to the accounting firms that serve them. Fortnox...
Lexware Office (lexoffice)
Germany
EU
Lexware Office, formerly lexoffice, is a cloud accounting program from Lexware, the small-business software brand of the Haufe Group in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany. Lexware was founded in Freiburg in 1989 and...
Odoo
Belgium
EU
Open Source
Self-Hostable
Odoo is a comprehensive suite of open-source business applications that cater to various operational needs, including sales, CRM, project management, manufacturing, inventory, and accounting. Founded in Belgium, Odoo's mission is to provide...
Pennylane
France
EU
Pennylane is a French accounting and financial management platform based in Paris. The company launched at the end of 2019 and has grown quickly. According to French trade press it works with...
Sage
United Kingdom
Sage is a British software company headquartered near Newcastle upon Tyne. It was founded in 1981 and is listed on the London Stock Exchange as a FTSE 100 member. Sage describes itself...
sevdesk
Germany
EU
Non-European Parent Company
sevdesk is a German cloud accounting program from Offenburg, founded in 2013 for freelancers and small businesses. It states that more than 160,000 companies use it. In 2025 the French software group...
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Submit SuggestionEuropean alternatives to QuickBooks include Lexware Office and sevdesk from Germany, Sage from the UK, Fortnox from Sweden, e-conomic from Denmark, Pennylane from France, Exact from the Netherlands, Odoo from Belgium and DATEV for tax advisers. QuickBooks is accounting software from Intuit in Mountain View, California. It was first released in 1992, is sold as QuickBooks Online and as desktop editions, and is mainly offered in the United States, Canada, the UK, Australia, Ireland and South Africa.
Why businesses look for a QuickBooks alternative
QuickBooks follows tax and payroll rules of the countries it is sold in, and the European market is only partly part of that list. Businesses in Germany, Sweden, Denmark or France need local VAT returns, e-invoice formats and bank connections that US-developed software does not always cover. Some also prefer a vendor headquartered in Europe for questions of data location and contracts.
The European options compared
| Tool | Country | Strength |
|---|---|---|
| Lexware Office | Germany | Simple cloud bookkeeping with ELSTER and DATEV export |
| sevdesk | Germany | Invoices and bookkeeping for freelancers, owned by Cegid |
| DATEV | Germany | Standard software of German tax advisers |
| Sage | United Kingdom | Accounting, payroll and HR with Making Tax Digital |
| Fortnox | Sweden | Bookkeeping, invoicing and payroll for Swedish companies |
| e-conomic | Denmark | Online accounting with Danish bank connections |
| Pennylane | France | Accounting platform shared with the accountant |
| Exact | Netherlands | Cloud accounting and ERP, owned by KKR |
| Odoo | Belgium | Open source suite with an accounting app |
Where the gaps are
No European tool works in as many countries as a single product. Each one fits best in its home market, so the tool has to match the country where the company is taxed. Sage is the closest to QuickBooks for UK small businesses. In the US itself, none of these products is a ready replacement because of US tax filing rules.
Switching checklist
- Export the chart of accounts, customer and supplier lists and open invoices.
- Check that VAT rates, e-invoice formats and bank connections for the own country are supported.
- Ask the tax adviser which export format they prefer, for example DATEV in Germany.