FREE
CHF 0 /mo
10 documents / month
Comparison guide
bexio Alternatives 2026
Five tools built for sole proprietors.
bexio's marketing pitches it as business software for managing your business: CRM, inventory, payroll, projects, accounting — all in the cloud.
In practice, the management tools are entry-level: a basic contact list, basic inventory counts, time tracking. No forecasting, no financial planning. Every feature ultimately feeds into the books — and stops there.
What bexio markets as "business software" is a cloud bookkeeping platform with operational add-ons. A tool built around the accountant's workflow — not around the person running the business.
For a sole proprietor, bexio costs CHF 35 to 79 a month. It does not help you know how your business is doing — it only records what happened. And following bexio's March 2026 pricing restructure, it is more expensive than it used to be: bank reconciliation was stripped from the new Basic tier and pushed up to Advanced — a 20% effective price increase for sole proprietors who need it.
To help you make an informed decision, this guide compares five alternatives available to Swiss sole proprietors in 2026: what each does well, what it costs, and who it suits best.
bexio alternatives covered in this guide:
- SoloDesk
- KLARA
- Swiss21
- Milkee
- CashCtrl
Quick comparison
| SoloDesk |  KLARA |  Swiss21 |  Milkee |  CashCtrl | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starting price | CHF 0 | CHF 48/mo | CHF 0 | CHF 29.90/mo | CHF 0 |
| Permanent free tier | Partial | 14-day trial | |||
| Bank reconciliation on entry tier | |||||
| Document processing on entry tier | 10/month | ||||
| VAT reporting on entry tier | |||||
| No accounting knowledge needed | |||||
| Mobile app | Full workflow | Limited | |||
| Languages | DE/FR/IT/EN | DE/FR/IT/EN | DE/FR/IT/EN | DE | DE/EN |
bexio is built for businesses that have a department — payroll, inventory, CRM, projects in one system. If you don't have one, the free tools above already do the work you actually have: bookkeeping, invoicing, VAT, reconciliation. Of these, SoloDesk is the only one that also processes your documents automatically and gives you a full mobile workflow on the free tier.
Five alternatives for Swiss sole proprietors
SoloDesk
RecommendedSoloDesk is Swiss accounting software built specifically for sole proprietors without an accounting background. The Free tier is CHF 0 permanently — not a trial. No credit card, no contract, no accounting knowledge required. The only Swiss free tool that learns as you work — reads your receipts line by line, remembers your suppliers, and automates more of the routine every month.
SoloDesk includes:
- Bookkeeping handled automatically — no account numbers, no accounting knowledge needed
- QR-bill invoicing, quotes, and credit notes
- Document Intelligence — receipts and invoices processed, categorized, and VAT-assigned automatically
- Bank reconciliation — import statements from your bank as files or PDFs, matched automatically
- VAT reporting — tax form filled automatically
- Real-time VAT balance on the dashboard
- Three-level payment reminders — pre-drafted, one click each, up to debt-enforcement proceedings
- Full mobile workflow — invoice, scan, and reconcile from your phone
- Available in German, French, Italian, and English
What the daily workflow looks like
A Digitec receipt lands on your desk. You open SoloDesk, upload it, and get back a card: "Digitec, CHF 249, Office supplies." You tap confirm. The bookkeeping entry is created, the bank transaction is matched, and the books are updated. You never choose an account number. You never see Debit/Credit. After a few Digitec receipts, SoloDesk already knows: Digitec = Office supplies, VAT 8.1%. It stops asking. After three months, most routine documents are processed without any input.
The same goes for VAT. Every confirmed receipt updates your quarterly balance — live, on the dashboard. When the quarter ends, your ESTV Form 405 is already filled in. You confirm, not calculate.
Taxes, receipts, invoices, bank transactions — everything that needs your attention appears in one place. You work through it in minutes. No separate module for bank reconciliation, another for expenses, another for contacts. One place, one flow.
SoloDesk handles late payments too. An unpaid invoice — seven days later, a reminder goes out on your letterhead, in your client's language. At 21 days, firmer language. At 35, a Betreibung notice.
Pricing
The free plan is CHF 0 permanently — full accounting, invoicing, bank reconciliation, and VAT reporting included, with 10 documents per month.
For higher volume, the Mid plan is CHF 29/month (25 documents/month). The Full plan is CHF 59/month (50 documents/month).
MID
CHF 29 /mo
25 documents / month
FULL
CHF 59 /mo
50 documents / month
All prices excl. VAT (MWST 8.1%).
Best for:
Sole proprietors who want complete Swiss accounting handled automatically — at CHF 0, in any Swiss language, without accounting training.
KLARA
If you want bexio's bundled approach with deeper Swiss-language coverage → KLARA
KLARA is owned by Swiss Post (ePost Service AG) and serves 50'000+ Swiss businesses across Einzelfirma, GmbH, and AG forms. The platform bundles QR-bill invoicing, automated bookkeeping, both VAT methods, and bank reconciliation from the Basic tier — plus modular add-ons for payroll (Swissdec ELM5-certified), time tracking, project management, online shop, inventory, and POS. ISO 27001-certified, available in all four Swiss languages, with free onboarding included on paid plans.
KLARA is the closest direct competitor to bexio. The architecture is the same: a bundled platform built for businesses with employees, inventory, or projects. Plans start at CHF 48/month — no free tier. The myKLARA mobile app handles receipts and CRM; invoicing and reporting remain desktop-only.
Swiss21
If you specifically need POS or an online shop bundled on a free tier → Swiss21 Starter (with caveats)
Swiss21 Starter bundles QR-bill invoicing, basic bookkeeping, recurring invoices, payroll for one employee, and an online shop — at CHF 0. Generous on the surface, but the entry tier has gating worth knowing about: VAT reporting is locked behind Basic at CHF 21/month (Starter does Brutto bookkeeping but generates no MWST report), permanent bank connections are also Basic+, and once you upgrade to paid you cannot downgrade back to free — paid is one-way. The full Abacus migration path disables payroll, bank, and shop integrations.
SoloDesk Free is focused: accounting, invoicing, document processing, bank, VAT. POS and e-commerce are not bundled because they belong to a different software category, better served by specialised tools.
Milkee
If German-only is fine and you value blog-driven learning → Milkee
Milkee's strength is content marketing — the founder's ~70 blog posts and free Excel templates teach Swiss bookkeeping concepts in German. If you learn that way, the educational content is genuinely useful.
The product has more structural limits than the marketing implies: German only (no FR/IT/EN), no free tier (14-day trial only), Basic at CHF 29.90/month uses simplified single-entry bookkeeping (not double-entry), VAT reporting requires Business at CHF 39.90/month, no credit notes on any tier, CHF 500'000 revenue cap. AI scanning reads header fields only — amount, date, supplier — not line items.
SoloDesk works in four Swiss languages on day one, does line-item AI extraction (a single receipt becomes three categorised entries), and has a permanent free tier with double-entry bookkeeping.
CashCtrl
If you're an accountant who prefers manual control to automation → CashCtrl Free
SoloDesk automates because most sole proprietors aren't trained accountants. It handles the daily flow for you; any decision can be overridden in one click if you want manual control.
CashCtrl Free takes the opposite approach — a full double-entry interface where you do everything by hand: every journal entry manually, no AI scanning, no mobile app, accounting knowledge required, bank reconciliation only on PRO at CHF 340/year (annual prepaid only). For trained accountants and fiduciaries, CashCtrl is highly regarded — the reporting module is detailed, the community forum is active, and the founders handle support personally.
Less recording.
More knowing how your business is doing.
SoloDesk Free includes full Swiss accounting, automatic document processing, a real-time dashboard, and a full mobile workflow. CHF 0 forever — not a trial. No credit card, no accounting knowledge required.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. The Free tier is CHF 0 permanently — not a trial. It includes full double-entry bookkeeping, QR-bill invoicing, VAT reporting, bank reconciliation, quotes, credit notes, and payment reminders. One limit applies: 10 documents per month.
You can export your data from bexio and import opening balances into SoloDesk. SoloDesk support can guide you through the switch.
Yes. Invite your accountant with read or write access. They get a full view of your books without needing a separate login to your bank.
SoloDesk supports recurring invoices on the Free tier. Set the schedule once; invoices generate and send automatically.
Yes. QR-bill invoicing, ESTV Form 405 VAT reporting, double-entry bookkeeping, and Swiss MWST rates are built in.
All five tools here are Swiss.
The choice is simpler than it looks: are you running a business, or recording one? If you're running, start with SoloDesk Free — CHF 0, no card, no contract.