Dext alternatives for accountants (2026)

Dext is the category leader in receipt and invoice capture, and for most firms it earns its keep; accurate line-item extraction, deep Xero and QuickBooks Online integrations, and a multi-client workflow built for practices. So why shop for an alternative? Almost always it comes down to the bill. Dext's practice pricing is per client (roughly $17.70/client on Essentials and $19.20 on Advanced, with packages starting around $239.19/month for ten business clients), so your cost climbs with every client you add; the standalone business plan starts at $31.50/month for 250 documents. If your book is a lot of small, low-volume clients, you can end up paying premium per-client rates for capabilities some of them barely touch.

Two things actually decide whether a switch works. First: does the alternative extract line items, or just the header total? A tool that only reads the invoice total isn't a Dext replacement; it's a downgrade you'll feel at reconciliation. Second: does its pricing model match your document volume? The genuine alternatives split into two philosophies; credit-based (you buy a pool of credits) and per-document (you pay per file, with users and clients free). Here are the two worth shortlisting in 2026, plus the free path and its catch.

AutoEntry: the Sage-native, credit-based option

AutoEntry is owned by Sage, which makes it the natural pick if any of your clients run Sage 50, where it works as a sibling product (it also supports Xero and QuickBooks Online). Pricing is credit-based rather than flat: a simple invoice, bill or receipt costs 1 credit, a document where you want the line items captured costs 2, a supplier statement 2, and a page of a bank statement 3. Plans run from $13/month for 50 credits and $24/month for 100 up to $469/month for 2,500, every plan includes unlimited users, and unused credits roll over for up to 90 days. The catch is forecasting rather than expiry: because document types burn credits at different rates, a month heavy on bank statements can drain a pack that comfortably covered the month before, so budgeting takes more attention than a flat fee. The free trial gives you 25 credits to test extraction quality before committing. Best for Sage 50 firms, and practices with low or spiky volume that a small credit pack covers cheaply.

Datamolino: the best-value, per-document option

Datamolino flips the model: you pay per document processed, and users and clients are unlimited on every plan. Start is $20/month for 100 documents (extra documents at $0.30 each), Build is $35/month for 250, and Grow is $65/month for 500. It captures full line-item detail and exports straight into Xero, QuickBooks Online or FreeAgent. Because the price scales with documents rather than clients, it's usually the cheapest option for a firm carrying many small clients; the exact profile that makes Dext's per-client model expensive. The trade-off is a narrower integration list (those three ledgers, versus Dext's broader ecosystem), so confirm your stack is covered before you commit. Best for multi-client practices that want predictable per-document costs and don't need integrations beyond Xero, QBO or FreeAgent.

The free path: your ledger's built-in capture (and its catch)

You can also drop capture spend to zero by using what's already in your ledger: the Hubdoc capture bundled with Xero, or QuickBooks Online's built-in receipt tool. For a sole trader or a client with a handful of receipts a month, that's often enough. The catch is the one that sent firms to Dext in the first place; the built-in tools reliably read the header total but don't dependably extract line items, and they don't give a practice the multi-client dashboard and approval workflow a paid tool does. Treat native capture as the right answer for your simplest clients, not a like-for-like Dext replacement across the whole book.

How to choose

Match the tool to your book. If you have Sage 50 clients or low, unpredictable volume, AutoEntry's credit model is the cheapest way in. If you run many small clients on Xero, QBO or FreeAgent and want a bill you can predict, Datamolino's per-document pricing almost always beats Dext's per-client rates. And for your simplest clients, native capture is free; just don't expect line items. Still weighing the two incumbents head-to-head? Our Dext vs AutoEntry comparison goes deeper on accuracy and ledger fit, and if you came from the Xero side, our Hubdoc alternatives guide covers the same ground from that angle. You can also browse every receipt-capture tool we’ve reviewed for accountants with ratings and current pricing side by side.