Dext alternatives in 2026: 9 tools for firms, with prices checked

Most firms don't leave Dext over one bad week. They leave when the renewal quote lands and the per-client bill no longer matches the work. We checked every Dext alternative below on the vendor's own pages on 11 October 2026, so you can compare like with like before your contract runs out.

Quick answer: The main Dext alternatives in 2026 are tofu, AutoEntry, Apron, Xero's own Smart Document Capture (and Hubdoc), Briefcase, Datamolino, Sage Accounting's built-in capture, QuickBooks receipt capture and DocuClipper. Pick by how you want to pay. tofu charges one plan for the whole practice with line items included. AutoEntry sells monthly credit bundles. Apron and Dext charge per client. Xero and QuickBooks include basic capture in the ledger at no extra cost. Datamolino charges per document.

We make tofu, so weigh our view accordingly. Every competitor fact on this page comes from that vendor's public pages, with the link in the sources, and where we couldn't confirm a number we say so.

Is Receipt Bank the same as Dext?

Yes. Receipt Bank renamed itself Dext in February 2021, and its flagship product Receipt Bank became Dext Prepare, according to Public Accountant. Its sister product Xavier became Dext Precision at the same time. IRIS Software Group then completed its purchase of Dext on 23 December 2024.

So if you are searching for a Receipt Bank alternative, you are looking for a Dext alternative. Every tool on this page applies.

Why do firms look for a Dext alternative?

Dext came up more than any other capture tool on our sales calls in early October. The reasons were consistent, and most of them were about the bill rather than the software.

• Per-client pricing. A UK firm told us it is switching when its Dext contract ends. A Canadian firm said the cost of the per-client model was too high. Firms in other markets called Dext expensive.
• Corrections on basic fields. The same Canadian firm said it was tired of fixing dates and amounts before publishing.
• Free capture in the ledger. Prospects keep raising Xero's own capture, which one described as "free and getting better". Firms in Singapore and Canada asked us how Dext compares with the capture built into Xero or QuickBooks.

The pricing complaint has a long history. When Dext moved practices from unlimited bundles to per-client billing at renewals from 1 November 2023, an AccountingWEB thread filled with firms posting their quotes. One poster said a £325 monthly bill would rise to £1,368 excluding VAT. Others reported rises of 330% and nearly 400%. Not everyone agreed: one reply pointed out that per-client pricing is a volume model where the unit price falls as you add clients.

Today, Dext's UK partner pricing page still prices its Essentials and Advanced plans per client a month, with a 10-client minimum and 13% off for an annual term. Dext's FAQ says credits cover the heavier jobs, such as bank statements and line items, and every plan comes with an allowance you can top up in heavy months. AI Assist is listed at £5 a client, and Dext says core guidance is included in all partner subscriptions at no extra cost. The page does not publish the per-client base price itself, so you need a quote.

How do the Dext alternatives compare on price?

Prices were checked on each vendor's own pricing page on 11 October 2026, and third-party prices exclude VAT.

The Dext alternatives, ranked for firms

1. tofu

Best for: firms that want line items, learning from their own coding, and one price that doesn't move when a new client signs.

tofu reads invoices, receipts and bank statements in 200+ languages, handwriting included. It codes them from your ledger history and publishes into Xero, QuickBooks Online, Sage Cloud Accounting, Zoho Books and Bukku, with CSV and Excel exports for other ledgers. Plans are sized by extractions, not clients, and Pro and above include unlimited users and entities. An invoice counts once however many lines it has, and a bank statement counts one extraction per page. For a side-by-side with Dext, see tofu vs Dext.

tofu is not a ledger and does not reconcile. It also cannot yet tell you when a bank statement period is missing.

2. AutoEntry

Best for: UK and Irish practices that like paying for credits and want unused credits to carry over.

AutoEntry sells monthly credit bundles from Bronze (50 credits for £15.45) to Sapphire (2,500 credits for £518.25). A plain invoice costs one credit, an invoice with line items costs two, and bank statements cost three credits a page. Unused credits roll over for 90 days, and a trial includes 25 free credits. Irish firms told us they like its list of missing bank statement periods and its folder for rejected documents. Prospects comparing the two also told us tofu returned results faster. Our Dext vs AutoEntry comparison goes deeper.

3. Apron

Best for: UK practices whose clients also want to pay suppliers and payroll from the same tool.

Apron's prices change on 1 December 2026. Practice clients move to Books plans: Books Core at £5 a month for 100 documents, Books Plus at £11 for 250 and Books Max at £21 for 1,000. Payments plans run from £29 to £99 a client and include 1,000 documents. The first invoice at the new prices arrives on 5 January 2027, and practices can change plans until 31 December. Our Apron pricing change breakdown works through what a practice will pay.

4. Xero Smart Document Capture and Hubdoc

Best for: Xero firms whose clients mostly send simple receipts and bills.

Xero announced Smart Document Capture in July 2026. Xero says it reads itemised receipts line by line and lists bank statement extraction as coming later. Xero's UK pricing page shows it included in Ignite (£18), Grow (£39), Comprehensive (£55) and Ultimate (£70), and says Hubdoc is still included when connected to Xero. It sits inside each client's Xero file, so you work client by client. Read Dext vs Hubdoc for firms if Hubdoc is on your shortlist.

5. Briefcase

Best for: small UK practices that want capture now and may want a new ledger later.

Briefcase plans run Low £19, Medium £39, High £79 and Ultra £119 a month, for 75, 250, 750 and 1,500 invoices and receipts a quarter. Line-item extraction and two-way Xero and QuickBooks sync come on every plan, with unlimited users. Unused allowances don't roll over. Briefcase launched Briefcase Ledger, its own double-entry ledger, on 5 October 2026, as AccountingWEB reported. Its pricing page does not say whether a plan covers one client business or a whole practice, and it sends practices with 10 or more client books to a demo, so ask Briefcase for practice pricing.

6. Datamolino

Best for: practices that want to pay per document with no per-client fee.

Datamolino practice plans are Launch (£39 monthly minimum, £0.26 a bill), Scale (£135, £0.20) and Expand (£500, £0.16). The minimum counts as processing credit. Client companies and users are unlimited, and bank statements cost £0.45 to £0.60 a page. The listed prices cover totals-only extraction, and line items are a separate toggle. Datamolino's own 2026 pricing comparison works an example on Scale at £0.34 an invoice with line items, against £0.20 for totals only.

7. Sage Accounting capture

Best for: clients already on Sage Accounting with modest receipt volumes.

Sage Accounting Standard (£43 a month) includes 30 captures and Plus (£59) includes 100, with extra approved captures at £0.20 each. Start (£20) has no capture. It works per client file, so it suits firms with a few Sage clients rather than a whole practice.

8. QuickBooks receipt capture

Best for: QuickBooks Online clients who photograph their own receipts.

Every UK QuickBooks Online plan lists receipt capture, so clients can "snap photos of your receipts and categorise them on the go", according to the QuickBooks UK pricing page. Like Xero's tool, it lives inside each client's file. Canadian firms comparing it with Dext will find more in Dext alternatives for Canadian bookkeepers. Intuit's UK pricing page loads its prices live, so check the current figure there.

9. DocuClipper

Best for: firms whose main job is turning bank statements into QuickBooks, Xero or Excel data.

DocuClipper prices by pages a month, billed annually: Starter is £16.24 a month for 60 pages and Business is £77.91 for 640 pages. Every plan exports to QuickBooks Online, QuickBooks Desktop and Xero, plus Excel, CSV, OFX, QFX, QIF and IIF. Unused pages don't carry over. That makes it a fit for desktop ledgers, and its pricing page lists line-item OCR for invoices.

When is Dext enough?

Dext is a mature product, and switching has a cost. Stay if most of these are true:

• Your team has built supplier rules over years, and they work.
• Your clients pay suppliers through Dext, which offers a Payments add-on at £10 a client in the UK.
• You serve many MTD sole traders who fit Dext Solo, from £2.50 a client a month with a five-client minimum.
• Your per-client bill is fine because your clients send a steady, modest volume.
• AI Assist core guidance, which Dext says is included in all partner subscriptions, covers how you code.

If the only problem is the renewal date, you can also run two tools for a while. Keep Dext for clients who rely on its payments and move the rest.

Where tofu fits

tofu replaces the capture and data-entry part of Dext. It reads every line of every invoice, learns how you coded each supplier from your ledger history, and publishes into Xero, QuickBooks, Sage Cloud Accounting, Zoho Books and Bukku. It does not reconcile bank feeds, file returns or replace your ledger.

WLP, a Xero Platinum Partner in Singapore, tried four extraction tools over twelve years, Receipt Bank and Hubdoc among them, before moving to tofu. Its bank statement processing went from 15 minutes a page by hand in Excel to 2 minutes. You can start a free trial with your own client documents, or see pricing for the full plan list.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a free Dext alternative?

Yes, if your clients' documents are simple. Xero includes Smart Document Capture in every plan, and Hubdoc stays included when connected to Xero. QuickBooks Online includes receipt capture in every UK plan. Both work inside one client file at a time, so firms with many clients often add a practice-level tool.

How does Dext charge in 2026?

Dext's Essentials and Advanced practice plans charge per client a month, with a 10-client minimum and 13% off an annual term. Bank statements and line items draw on a credit allowance, and AI Assist is listed at £5 a client, with core guidance included. Check the current per-client price in Dext's plan builder before you compare.

Does a capture tool reconcile my bank statements?

Usually not. Capture tools like tofu, AutoEntry and Dext read documents and prepare entries, and reconciliation happens in your ledger. tofu does not reconcile and cannot flag missing statement periods. Briefcase now offers its own ledger, with a bank feed, for firms willing to change ledgers.

Can I use a Dext alternative with a desktop ledger?

Yes. tofu exports CSV and Excel files for ledgers it doesn't publish to. DocuClipper exports to QuickBooks Desktop, Excel, CSV, OFX, QFX, QIF and IIF. Check the import format your ledger expects before you trial anything.

How do tofu's plans work compared with Dext?

tofu charges one plan for the whole practice, sized by extractions each month. Pro covers about 800 a month and Business about 2,500. On Pro and above, users and entities are unlimited, line items are included, and a bank statement counts one extraction per page. You can pay monthly or buy a yearly pack. Dext charges per client instead.

How do I switch from Dext without wasting what I've paid for?

Start the new tool on a few clients while your Dext term runs down, then move the rest before renewal. Our guide to switching document capture tools covers credits, exports and timing.

Sources

• Dext UK partner pricing: https://dext.com/uk/partner/pricing (checked 11 Oct 2026)
• Dext, AI Assist core guidance, 11 May 2026: https://dext.com/uk/news/dext-expands-ai-assist-with-core-guidance
• Public Accountant, Receipt Bank rebrands as Dext, 25 Feb 2021: https://publicaccountant.com.au/news/receipt-bank-rebrands-as-dext-as-it-reaches-1-million-users/
• IRIS completes Dext acquisition, 23 Dec 2024: https://www.iris.co.uk/news/iris-completes-dext-acquisition/
• AccountingWEB, Dext pricing change thread: https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/any-answers/dext-pricing-change-from-today
• AutoEntry pricing: https://www.autoentry.com/pricing (checked 11 Oct 2026)
• Apron pricing change: https://support.getapron.com/en/articles/16819956-apron-pricing-is-changing-on-1-december (checked 11 Oct 2026)
• Xero UK pricing: https://www.xero.com/uk/pricing-plans/ (checked 11 Oct 2026)
• Xero blog, Smart Document Capture: https://blog.xero.com/product-updates/smart-document-capture/
• Briefcase pricing: https://www.briefcase.so/pricing (checked 11 Oct 2026)
• AccountingWEB, Briefcase Ledger launch, 5 Oct 2026: https://www.accountingweb.co.uk/node/232304
• Datamolino pricing: https://www.datamolino.com/pricing/ (checked 11 Oct 2026)
• Sage Accounting UK pricing: https://www.sage.com/en-gb/sage-business-cloud/accounting/pricing/ (checked 11 Oct 2026)
• QuickBooks UK pricing: https://quickbooks.intuit.com/uk/pricing/ (checked 11 Oct 2026)
• Datamolino blog, pricing and features compared in 2026: https://datamolino.com/blog/pricing-and-features-autoentry-vs-hubdoc-vs-dext-vs-datamolino-in-2026 (checked 26 Oct 2026)
• DocuClipper pricing: https://www.docuclipper.com/pricing/ (checked 11 Oct 2026)
• tofu pricing: https://www.gotofu.com/pricing

Checked against vendor pricing pages and Xero, IRIS, Dext and AccountingWEB sources in October 2026.