How Much Does Accounting Software Cost? Real 2026 Pricing
The five pricing models vendors use, the add-ons that are rarely in the headline price, and how to estimate your own monthly bill before you sign up.
Accounting software in 2026 costs anywhere from nothing to several thousand euros a month, and the headline price is rarely the number you end up paying. What you pay depends far more on the pricing model than on the vendor: whether you are charged per user, per legal entity, per feature tier, or per unit of work, and what the vendor treats as an add-on. This article explains each model, lists the items that usually arrive as extras, works through three business shapes, and gives Nordlet's complete published price list so you have at least one fully transparent reference point.
The five pricing models
| Model | How the bill is calculated | Who it suits | Where it hurts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per user | A monthly fee for each person with a login | Teams where a few people do all the bookkeeping | Every accountant, auditor or manager who needs read access becomes a line on the invoice |
| Per organisation or entity | A monthly fee for each company file | Single-entity businesses | A group of three companies pays three subscriptions and consolidates by hand |
| Tiered by feature | Cheap tier with basics, higher tiers add multi-currency, inventory, payroll, API | Businesses whose needs match one tier exactly | A single needed feature forces the jump to the next tier for everything |
| Metered by usage | A base fee with a volume of transactions or API requests included, then a per-unit price | Platforms and businesses whose software creates the transactions | Hard to estimate on day one if you have never counted your transactions |
| Free with paid add-ons | No subscription; revenue comes from payments processing, payroll, or support | Very small businesses with simple needs | The add-ons are where the real cost sits, and switching away later costs time |
Most established cloud accounting products use the first three in combination: a per-organisation subscription in feature tiers, with extra users either included or charged. ERP suites add implementation and partner fees on top, which is covered separately in our ERP cost guide. API-first products tend to meter by usage, because the user count says nothing about how much work the system does.
What is usually not in the headline price
Before comparing two products, write down which of these each one includes. In our experience of reading published price lists, these are the items most often sold separately:
- Payroll. Frequently a separate module priced per employee per month.
- Bank feeds. Sometimes included, sometimes limited to a number of accounts or a number of synced transactions, sometimes only through a paid third-party connector.
- E-invoicing. Peppol access points and national clearance channels (Italy's SdI, Poland's KSeF and similar) are often sold as add-ons or require a paid intermediary.
- Additional entities. A second company is typically a second subscription.
- Document scanning (OCR). Usually a per-page or per-document charge, or a monthly cap.
- API access. Some tiers do not include it at all; others limit calls per day.
- Support and SLA. Priority support and an uptime commitment are commonly reserved for the top tier or an enterprise contract.
- Extra storage. Attachments beyond a quota are billed per gigabyte.
- Multi-currency. Still a tier gate in several products.
None of this is wrong. It is simply why two products that both say "from €15 a month" can cost €15 and €140 for the same business.
Three business shapes, three bills
The table compares the pricing models structurally, without naming vendor prices, because list prices change and discounts vary. Fill in your own numbers from the price lists you are considering.
| Scenario | Per-user model | Per-entity model | Metered model |
|---|---|---|---|
| One company, one bookkeeper, an external accountant, 150 invoices and 400 bank lines a month | 2 users × user fee, plus payroll, bank feed and OCR add-ons if needed | 1 subscription at the tier that includes what you need, plus add-ons | Base fee; the volume fits inside the included requests of an entry plan |
| Group of three companies, finance team of four, accountant and auditor with read access | 6 users × user fee, possibly multiplied by three entities | 3 subscriptions, plus a consolidation tool or spreadsheets | One account, three companies, one plan sized by combined volume |
| Platform or marketplace whose own software issues 20,000 invoices a month | User count is irrelevant; the product may not be built for this volume at all | Entity model does not describe the problem | Base fee plus per-request overage; the bill tracks the business |
The pattern is simple. Per-user pricing is cheapest when few people touch the books. Per-entity pricing is cheapest for exactly one entity. Metered pricing is cheapest when transaction volume is the real driver and user count is not, which is the case for any business whose product generates the accounting events. Accounting SaaS in 2026 covers how to tell which of these three shapes your business is.
Nordlet's published pricing in full
Nordlet meters by request. Every plan includes every module and the full API; plans differ only by included request volume, uptime commitment and included storage. All prices exclude VAT.
| Plan | Monthly fee | Requests included | Each additional request | SLA | Database storage | File storage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starter | €10 | 3,000 | €0.004 | 99.5% | 256 MB | 1 GB |
| Business | €50 | 30,000 | €0.003 | 99.5% | 1 GB | 5 GB |
| Scale | €300 | 200,000 | €0.002 | 99.9% | 2 GB | 30 GB |
| Custom | On request | Negotiated | Negotiated | 99.99%+ | Negotiated | Negotiated |
The Custom plan adds dedicated support, bring-your-own-cloud deployment, ERP integrations and DAC7/DAC8 reporting.
Everything else that is priced:
- Extra storage: €1.00 per GB of database storage and €0.05 per GB of file storage beyond the plan's quota.
- Invoice scanning (OCR): €0.005 per page.
- Bank, Stripe and bank-connection imports: no fee per file or sync. Every 10 imported movements count as one request. The invoices, credit notes and partners an import creates are not charged separately.
- Archived company: €1 per month. The data is kept; the company accepts no requests.
- Reactivating a company: €50, from archive or from deleted status within the 10-day grace period.
- Users and companies: unlimited on every plan. Sandbox companies are also unlimited, and their usage is metered exactly like a real company's.
Billing is prepaid. You buy credits through Stripe (minimum €10), and every hour the usage so far that day is deducted: the plan fee divided by the days in the month, requests above the included volume, scanned pages, storage above the quota, and archived-company fees. When credits run out, the API returns HTTP 402 until you top up. Every new account starts with a 14-day trial and €5 of trial credits, and signing up needs no card.
The current list is always at the pricing page; this article reflects it as of October 2026.
How to estimate your monthly request count
A request is any action performed through the API or the app: issuing an invoice, registering a purchase, posting a journal entry, matching a payment, generating a report. To estimate a month:
- Sales documents. Count invoices and credit notes you issue. Each one is roughly two requests (create, then issue), plus one if you email it.
- Purchase documents. One request per supplier invoice registered, plus OCR pages if you scan them.
- Bank movements. Divide your monthly bank and Stripe lines by 10, then add one request per payment you match to an invoice.
- Reports and exports. A handful per month for a small business; dozens for a finance team that pulls reports weekly.
- Integrations. Every call your own software makes, including list queries. This is where platforms should look at their event volume rather than their headcount.
A single-entity service business issuing 150 invoices, registering 80 purchase invoices and importing 400 bank lines lands around 600 to 900 requests, well inside the Starter plan. A group of three such companies fits the Business plan. A marketplace issuing 20,000 invoices a month with matching payouts is a Scale-plan customer, and its bill moves with its volume rather than with the number of people who log in. If you are unsure, run a month in a sandbox company: usage is metered there too, so the number you see is the number you would pay for.
What to check before comparing prices
- Does the price include the number of people who need access, including the external accountant?
- Is a second legal entity a second subscription?
- Are bank feeds, payroll, OCR and e-invoicing in the tier you are looking at?
- Is the API included, and is it rate-limited in a way that matters to you?
- What happens when you exceed a limit: a block, an automatic upgrade, or a per-unit charge?
- Can you export the general ledger in a format your accountant accepts, so that leaving is possible?
The last question is the one most often skipped. The cost of accounting software includes the cost of changing it later, which is the subject of our article on free accounting software.
FAQ
What is a reasonable monthly budget for a small company?
For a single company with a bookkeeper and an external accountant, published list prices in 2026 for mainstream cloud products typically land in the tens of euros per month before add-ons, and higher once payroll, OCR and extra users are included. On Nordlet the same business fits the €10 Starter plan unless its request volume exceeds 3,000 a month.
Why do some vendors charge per user and others per request?
Per-user pricing assumes people create the transactions. Per-request pricing assumes software creates them. A product sold to bookkeepers prices the bookkeeper's seat; a product sold to developers prices the work the system does. Neither is better in general, but each is cheaper for a different business.
Is metered pricing unpredictable?
It is predictable once you know your volume, which is usually within a month of starting. Overage is a per-unit price, not a tier jump, so a busy month costs a little more rather than forcing an upgrade. Nordlet reports your remaining request budget in response headers so you can watch it.
Are there costs beyond the subscription?
Yes: setup and migration time, the accountant's hours, training, and the cost of leaving. A product with clean exports and a migration path has a lower total cost than one with a cheaper subscription and no way out. Nordlet's migration importer brings in an existing chart, partners, balances, open invoices, assets and stock in one call.
Does Nordlet charge for VAT filings or e-invoicing separately?
No. OSS/IOSS returns, national VAT returns, Peppol sending and the filing calendar are modules like any other, and every plan includes every module. The only metered items are requests, OCR pages, storage, archived companies and reactivation.