28 accounting programs for Swiss businesses compared (2026)

Rather filter for yourself? All 28 solutions with 19 criteria in one table Filter by profile and features, set a budget, read the columns side by side. This article gives the bearings — the table is the tool. To the comparison table →

Where all 28 solutions are the same

Three things every solution in this overview can do: account for VAT under Swiss law, produce QR-bills and read bank statements in the camt format. All 28, without exception. A feature they all meet is not a selection criterion — it is the condition under which a program is sellable in Switzerland at all.

That is why selecting by feature list takes so long: the vendors’ lists almost all start with the same three points. The answers diverge further down — on payroll, on operations, on currencies, and on the question of where the figures go afterwards.

How sharply payroll shortens the list

The recorded payroll capability of the 28 solutions. No other criterion divides the list so clearly — and none is described in data sheets in such identical words.

complete, with electronic filings

13

limited, filings by hand

6

not available

9

Five criteria in the order in which they shorten the list

Each of these five criteria can be answered yes or no before you request a single quotation. The order follows effect: the first strikes out the most, the fifth the least — but the fifth is the most expensive when it is missing.

1. Payroll: yes or no

   If you have employees you need the electronic filings to AHV, unemployment insurance, the accident insurer, the pension fund and withholding tax. 13 of the 28 solutions can do that in full. If you have no employees, strike the criterion entirely — and the 9 solutions that would otherwise have failed are open to you again.

2. Access: browser or your own machine

   If several people are to post entries from different places, the cloud is the shorter answer: 21 of the 28 solutions run in the browser, 12 exclusively there. If you work in one place and want to keep the data in-house, 16 solutions with a local installation come into question; working without a connection is possible with 16.

3. Connections: currencies and interfaces

   If you invoice or purchase in euros you need several currencies — 21 of the 28 solutions carry them, 7 do not. If a till system, an online shop or time tracking is to deliver figures instead of somebody retyping them, you need an open interface: 22 offer one.

4. Price and price information

   Only now the price, and in two parts. 12 vendors state an entry price publicly, in the middle CHF 25.– a month. For the other 16 the price starts with a phone call: 9 sell only through distribution partners, 3 give prices only on request, 2 only in their own calculator. Build that time into your schedule.

5. Exit: data export and retention

   The criterion that appears in no quotation. Under Article 958f of the Code of Obligations you have to keep books of account and accounting vouchers for ten years; a subscription cancels in a month. Ask before signing in what format you get entries, documents and chart of accounts back out — and try the export in the trial account, not after cancelling.

What you have to budget

The 12 published entry prices, by band. The bands are fixed and not calculated from this data — that is the only way to compare the category with another.

free (entry at 0)

5

under CHF 30

3

CHF 30 to 59

2

CHF 60 and above

2

All 28 solutions, one per row

The complete overview, ordered alphabetically and expressly not a ranking. Where no price appears, the cell says why — «only through partners», «only on request», «only in the calculator». That is not a gap in this survey but a recorded statement about the vendor.

All 28 surveyed accounting solutions for Swiss businesses, ordered alphabetically. List price per month in francs, excluding VAT, as of July 2026.

Solution	List price	Pricing model	Free version	Deployment	Payroll (Swissdec)
Abacus	via partner only	via partner	–	Cloud + Desktop/Server	✓
Accounto	via partner only	via partner	–	Cloud	✓
Atlanto	CHF 45–55 per month	Subscription	–	Cloud	limited
Banana Buchhaltung Plus	CHF 0–15 per month	Subscription or licence	✓	Desktop/Server + Cloud	limited
bexio	CHF 35–119 per month	Subscription	–	Cloud	✓
blue office	via partner only	Subscription or licence	–	Desktop/Server + Cloud	–
CashCtrl	in calculator only	Subscription	✓	Cloud	limited
ClubDesk	CHF 0–41 per month	Subscription	✓	Cloud	–
Comatic	on request	Subscription or licence	–	Cloud + Desktop/Server	limited
Crésus	in calculator only	Subscription or licence	–	Desktop/Server + hosted	✓
Dynamics 365 Business Central	CHF 65–89 per month	Subscription	–	Cloud + Desktop/Server	limited
Infoniqa ONE 50	via partner only	Subscription or licence	–	Desktop/Server + hosted	✓
KLARA	from CHF 26 per month	Subscription	–	Cloud	✓
Magic Heidi	CHF 0–39 per month	Subscription	✓	Cloud	–
Milkee	CHF 25–50 per month	Subscription	–	Cloud	–
myfactory	via partner only	via partner	–	Cloud	✓
Odoo	no prices in francs	Subscription	✓	Cloud + Desktop/Server	limited
Opacc ERP	on request	Subscription or licence	–	Cloud + Desktop/Server	–
pebe	on request	Subscription or licence	–	Cloud + Desktop/Server	✓
Pfeffersack	CHF 5–7 per month	Subscription	–	Cloud	–
PROFFIX Px5	via partner only	via partner	–	Desktop/Server + hosted	✓
SAP Business One	via partner only	via partner	–	Cloud + Desktop/Server	–
SelectLine	via partner only	via partner	–	Desktop/Server + hosted	✓
shakehands Kontor	purchase price only	Licence	–	Desktop/Server	–
smallinvoice	CHF 0–45 per month	Subscription	✓	Cloud	–
Swiss21	CHF 0–49 per month	Subscription	✓	Cloud	✓
Topal	via partner only	via partner	–	Desktop/Server + hosted	✓
WinBIZ	CHF 64 per month	Subscription or licence	–	Desktop/Server + hosted	✓

Which solutions come into question for which case

The same 28 solutions, grouped by the characteristics that actually decide the choice. A solution can appear in several groups — the groups are criteria, not drawers.

The 28 solutions in detail

Each solution with its positioning, its price and its limits, ordered alphabetically. Prices and characteristics are recorded values with a verification date; strengths and limits are our assessment from vendor documentation and trial accounts. They appear word for word on the respective product page too — two assessments of the same program would drift apart as soon as somebody updated only one of them.

Payroll: why the filings are the test

Between «calculates payroll» and «files payroll» lies all of the work. The payslip is arithmetic: gross pay, deductions, net pay. The filing is a data exchange with the compensation fund, the accident insurer, the pension fund and the cantonal tax administration — and in Switzerland it runs over the Swissdec standard.

13 of the 28 solutions serve that standard in full. 6 can handle payroll in a limited way, which in practice almost always means: a payslip can be printed, the filings stay manual work. 9 solutions cannot do it at all — they leave payroll to a specialist program or to the fiduciary.

For the selection a hard boundary follows. If you have employees, the 9 solutions without payroll only come into question if you run payroll elsewhere — and then you need an interface or a second data set. If you have no employees, the criterion is not one, and you strike it before all others.

VAT: what the software has to take on

All 28 solutions account for VAT under Swiss law. That is the entry ticket, but it does not yet say how much work is left. The difference is in the method: under effective accounting every input tax amount counts, and so every incoming document has to be recorded at the right rate. Under the net tax rate you apply one rate to turnover and forgo the input tax deduction — considerably less recording work.

In practice: check which methods a solution supports before you decide on a method. And watch whether the return comes out as a form you can file or only as a list of figures somebody transfers. The difference costs half an hour four times a year.

Tax liability itself begins at an annual turnover of CHF 100,000 from taxable supplies; for charitable, voluntarily managed associations and sports clubs a higher threshold applies. What governs is the Value Added Tax Act and not this overview.

Bank reconciliation and the QR-bill: the return leg is half the work

Writing an invoice is something all 28 solutions can do, and all produce QR-bills — since the QR-bill replaced the payment slip, that is no longer a distinction. What is interesting is the other direction: which invoice is paid, which is not, and who recognises that without manual work.

That is what bank reconciliation via the camt format is for. All 28 solutions read bank statements in that format and allocate payments to open invoices. Where that works well, the open item list is a by-product; where it is missing or only half works, it becomes a weekly task. You do not see that difference in the data sheet but in the trial account, with your own documents.

Operating model: browser, your own machine or hosted

21 of the 28 solutions run in the browser, 16 can be installed on your own machine, and for 6 the vendor will run it themselves on request. The total exceeds 28, because many vendors offer several routes. Exactly 12 are pure cloud solutions with no local variant.

The question behind it is rarely technical: it is about access and responsibility. In the browser several people work from different places, the vendor does the backups, and updates arrive without your involvement. On your own machine you keep the data in-house, but you need a backup somebody looks after and a plan for the day the machine fails.

Working without a connection is possible with 16 solutions. That sounds like an edge case and is not one: whoever records on building sites, abroad or in a poorly connected building notices the difference every day.

Interfaces and currencies: where the figures come from

An open interface is offered by 22 of the 28 solutions. It decides whether a till system, an online shop or time tracking delivers its figures itself or whether somebody retypes them. For a business with no upstream systems the criterion is meaningless; for a shop with a till and a webshop it is the most important one after payroll.

Several currencies are supported by 21 solutions, 7 not. Whoever purchases or invoices in euros therefore has a considerably shorter list before any price comparison — and should additionally ask how the exchange difference is posted, because that is precisely where the solutions advertising «multiple currencies» in their data sheets differ.

Data location and retention

Where the data sits is surveyed and appears in the comparison table as a row of its own, with the three cases Switzerland, Switzerland/EU and EU. The location is not prescribed — the Code of Obligations requires books and documents to stay available and legible for ten years, and says nothing about which data centre they sit in.

More important than the location is therefore the exit. The retention duty lasts ten years, a subscription cancels in a month, and what happens to your data afterwards rarely appears in the offer. Ask before signing about the export format for entries, chart of accounts and documents — and try the export in the trial account, not after cancelling.

Which solution suits which size of business

Four typical cases, and what they change about the list. Fit per profile appears in the comparison table as a row group of its own; here you find which criteria count in which case.

1. Sole proprietorship as a side business

   No payroll, few documents, one person. That removes the heaviest criteria, and the 7 solutions with a permanently free tier come into question first. Only watch the volume limit of the free tier and the fact that the data can be exported when the business grows.

2. Sole proprietorship liable for VAT

   From CHF 100,000 of turnover the return is added, and a solution that produces the form itself starts to pay off. Payroll usually stays outside — the 9 solutions without payroll are no restriction here but often the leaner choice.

3. GmbH or AG with employees

   Now payroll decides: 13 solutions handle it in full and file electronically. Added to that is the question of working with the fiduciary, because the accounts have to be reviewed. Both criteria together shorten the list more than any price filter.

4. Business with stock, a till or a webshop

   Here what sits alongside counts. An open interface is offered by 22 solutions; without one, double entry arises at every seam. Check additionally whether the solution runs orders and stock itself or whether a second system is needed — the comparison table carries that as a row of its own.

What a monthly price does not say

A monthly price in this overview is a list price for one tier, and the tiers contain different things. With one vendor payroll is included in the middle tier, with the next it costs extra, with the third it does not exist. Two figures side by side are therefore information about two offers and not yet a price comparison for the same service.

It becomes comparable only when you fix the scope: number of users, number of client files, number of salary recipients, VAT accounting method. Fix those four details before you request quotations, and demand the price for exactly that scope. Without them you are comparing entry tiers hardly any business actually orders.

And count the one-off effort. Setting up a chart of accounts, taking over the opening balance sheet and learning the system appear in no price list but fall due in every case — for a local installation regularly higher than for browser access.

Legal duties the software has to carry

The duty to keep accounts is in Article 957 of the Code of Obligations. Sole proprietorships and partnerships with turnover below CHF 500,000 keep only a statement of receipts, payments and net assets — the simplified accounts known in Swiss German as «Milchbüechlirechnung». Above that, and for corporations and cooperatives regardless of turnover, full accounts with a balance sheet and income statement apply.

Retention is governed by Article 958f: books of account, accounting vouchers and the annual report are kept for ten years, counted from the end of the financial year. Digital filing is permitted if the documents are filed unalterably and stay legible for the whole period. Unalterable does not mean undeletable but traceable: every change has to be logged.

Added to that are the reporting duties as soon as a salary is paid — AHV, unemployment insurance, the accident insurer, the pension fund and, for foreign staff without settlement, withholding tax. These filings run electronically over the Swissdec standard. Which solution serves it in full is in the table above; this overview is orientation, not legal advice.

Setup: what to do in the first month

The software is the smaller part of the setup. Five steps, in this order — whoever skips the first does the fourth twice.

1. Fix the chart of accounts

   Before the first entry, not after. A change after the first year end breaks the comparative figures of two financial years. Take the widely used one and extend it rather than replace it — and ask your fiduciary which one they know.

2. Take over the opening balance sheet

   For a going concern, the step that goes wrong most often. Take the prior year’s closing balance sheet as the opening balance sheet and check the total before you post anything further. A wrong opening is only found at year end, and then it costs a day.

3. Set up the bank connection

   Bank reconciliation is the function with the biggest time gain and the longest setup: enable access at the bank, check the format, read the first statements as a test. Reckon with a few days between the application and it working.

4. Configure VAT

   Method, rates and reporting period, set correctly once. Whoever is sloppy here corrects every entry individually in the quarter — and the first return is the moment it shows.

5. Test with your own documents

   Twenty real documents through the whole path: record, post, pay, reconcile. That is the only test that says anything — a demo shows what the software can do, your documents show what your daily work costs.

Migrating from an existing solution

The best moment is the change of financial year, by a wide margin. A switch mid-year leaves two data sets for one set of accounts, and the year end has to bring both together — work nobody plans for, because it only falls due at the end of the year.

Before the switch, three things belong clarified: in what format the old solution releases entries, chart of accounts and documents, whether the new solution reads that format, and who bridges the gap if not. An export as a spreadsheet is better than none, but does not replace a migration — entries without their documents are a list and not a set of accounts.

And leave the old solution running until the last year end has been reviewed. The ten-year retention duty continues to apply to the old data, and a cancelled account whose export nobody has tested is the most expensive way to find that out.

When a free tier is enough — and when it gets expensive

7 of the 28 solutions have a permanently free tier, and for a side business it is often enough. The limit is almost always on volume and not on features: documents per year, number of client files, number of users. As long as your business stays below it, nothing is missing day to day.

The free tier gets expensive at its limit. Whoever exceeds the document count in November changes tier or program in the middle of the financial year — and a change of program during the year leaves two data sets for one set of accounts, which the year end has to bring together. So estimate your document count high rather than low.

What this overview does not do

It contains no ranking, no overall score and no test winner. That is not modesty but a consequence of the subject: a sole proprietorship with fifteen documents a month and an AG with stock, payroll and three currencies have nothing in common but the word accounting. Whoever sets the weighting determines the winner — and that is why we set none.

Four things, moreover, cannot be put into columns: the quality of support, the competence of the local partner, the speed in daily use, and whether your team gets on with an interface. This overview gets you to a shortlist. After that you test with your own documents.

One possibility is also missing from every software overview: using no software at all. Whoever hands accounting over pays a monthly amount instead of a licence and saves the learning — 4 providers do that, with published entry prices from CHF 158.– a month.

The table gets you to a shortlist. Then test with your own documents before you sign.

Methodology and disclosure, kmu-softwarevergleich.ch

Frequently asked questions

Terms that appear in every offer

Ten words that appear in price lists and data sheets and are not explained there. They are the reason a comparison is hard: two vendors use the same word for different things.

Double-entry bookkeeping

Every transaction is posted to two accounts — debit and credit. From that the balance sheet and income statement follow. Mandatory for corporations and from CHF 500,000 of turnover; below that a statement of receipts, payments and net assets suffices.

Milchbüechlirechnung

The simplified accounts under Article 957 paragraph 2 of the Code of Obligations: receipts, payments and net assets, without double entry. Permitted for sole proprietorships and partnerships below CHF 500,000 of turnover. The term is Swiss German and translates literally as «milk-book accounting».

Chart of accounts

The structure of all accounts. It determines how your figures are split and therefore whether two financial years stay comparable. Easiest to fix before the first entry, most expensive to change after the first year end.

Swissdec

The Swiss standard for electronic payroll data exchange. Over it run the filings to the compensation fund, the accident insurer, the pension fund and the tax administration. «Payroll» in a data sheet without Swissdec usually means: a payslip can be printed, the filings stay manual work.

camt

The file format in which banks deliver account statements electronically. The basis of every automatic bank reconciliation: the solution reads the statement and allocates payments to open invoices.

QR-bill

The Swiss invoicing standard that replaced the payment slip. All 28 solutions compared produce it — a feature they all meet is not a selection criterion.

Net tax rate

A simplified method of VAT accounting: one rate on turnover, without input tax deduction. Less recording work than the effective method, but tied to turnover limits and commitment periods.

GeBüV

The ordinance on books of account. It governs the conditions under which digital documents are treated as equivalent to paper ones — at its core: filed unalterably and legible throughout the retention period.

Client file

A separate data set inside one installation. Irrelevant for a single business; for a fiduciary office the characteristic that decides whether thirty sets of accounts can be run from one installation.

List price

The published price of a tier, excluding VAT. Not the same as your invoice: add-on modules, number of users and setup are added, and for 16 of the 28 vendors there is no published list price at all.

Where the figures in this overview come from

Every figure in this text is calculated at build time from the verified survey and not typed in — the name lists above included. If a value changes in the survey, this overview changes with it, and the date above says when that last happened.

Prices and price tiers

Vendor information from price lists, product pages and trial accounts, each value with a verification date. Comparison portals serve to find vendors at all and never as the source for a value. Survey as of July 2026.

Feature information

Vendor documentation. What a vendor does not state itself appears as «not surveyed» and not as a no — a guessed tick would be a false statement about a third party.

Inclusion in the overview

What is included is what is actively distributed in Switzerland and can meet the category’s requirements. Unsuitable options stay visible too — a comparison that hides weaknesses is advertising.

Legal information

Code of Obligations, Article 957 on the duty to keep accounts and Article 958f on retention. This overview is orientation, not legal advice.

Interests

The operator makes none of the solutions compared and maintains no paid placements. Corrections are checked and carried through with their date, including those from vendors and without any consideration.