The four criteria that do the sorting
Comparison pages love to line up fifty features. In Belgian practice, four questions are enough to knock out half the candidates in ten minutes.
Grab a notepad, answer these for your own business, then read the table again. The shortlist shrinks fast.
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Do your invoices need to reach business customers over Peppol, or do they go to consumers?
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Do you take payment face to face, with a receipt and a card terminal?
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How many people will touch the tool, and is your accountant one of them?
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Which language do you want on screen, and which one does your accountant want your documents in?
If you sell stock, a fifth question joins the list: should your invoicing software also know what is left on the shelf, or do you track that somewhere else?
Peppol: the first question to ask
Since 1 January 2026, an invoice between two Belgian VAT registered businesses travels as a structured electronic document over the Peppol network. A PDF attached to an email no longer does the job for those exchanges. Every tool in the table can send over Peppol, but not in the same way.
Some vendors are registered access points with OpenPeppol themselves. Others rely on a technical partner who plays that role for them. For you, the difference shows up the day an invoice fails to arrive: with its own access point, the vendor reads the delivery receipts and answers you directly. Otherwise the question has to be passed along.
Billit built its whole business around that document transport and does it very well, particularly for accounting firms and companies pushing thousands of documents. Novadesko also runs its own access point, with the opposite idea in mind: keeping invoicing, VAT, the till and customer follow up in one place.
Always ask for the Peppol identifier you will be registered under, then check it yourself in the OpenPeppol directory. A serious vendor hands it over in thirty seconds.
If you take payment over a counter, the sorting is quick
This is the sharpest line in the table. A hair salon, a chip shop, a corner store or a restaurant does not just send invoices: they take payment, they print receipts, and above a certain turnover in hospitality they fall under the certified cash register scheme.
Dexxter and Accountable make no claim on that ground, and they are right to stay where they are strong. Odoo gets there with the Belgian localisation and the right hardware, at the cost of real setup work. Novadesko puts the till and the payment terminal in the same subscription as the invoicing.
If you only sell to businesses, skip this section: not having that feature will cost you nothing.
The advertised price and the one you actually pay
Putting homepage figures side by side leads nowhere. What counts is the total after a year, once you add the extra seats, the modules you ended up switching on, and your accountant's access.
Novadesko starts at 19 € excluding VAT per month, no commitment, modules included. The other vendors follow different logics: per user and per application at Odoo, by document volume at Billit, per freelancer at Dexxter and Accountable. None of them is dishonest, they simply answer to different business models.
The right reflex is to price your target setup, not today's. A freelancer hiring their first employee in eight months is doing a different sum.
The line items to price before you sign
| Line item |
What to ask |
The classic trap |
| Base subscription |
What the entry tier actually includes |
An advertised feature that turns out to be an add on |
| Users |
The cost of the second and third seat |
A per seat price that doubles the bill on your first hire |
| Accountant access |
Whether it uses up a paid seat |
Being charged for someone who only reads |
| Peppol sending |
Whether the document volume is capped |
A monthly quota exceeded without warning |
| Till and hardware |
The price of the terminal and the printer |
Mandatory hardware that was not in the quote |
| Leaving |
The export format of your data |
A partial export that makes the move painful |
Language, yours and your accountant's
In this country that is no small detail. You may be working in French in Namur with an accountant who books in Dutch, or the reverse in Halle. A tool that is bilingual from end to end saves you a lot of back and forth about how an account is labelled.
Dexxter settled on the Flemish side first and has a genuinely active community there. Accountable, Billit and Novadesko cover all three languages. Odoo goes further still, with the usual trade off: more configuration before the first invoice leaves.
Test it for real: create an account, switch the language, open the VAT module and check whether the wording matches what your accountant uses.
Which tool for which profile
Here is the honest summary, profile by profile. It does not say Novadesko every time, because that would be untrue and you would spot it immediately.
The sensible move depending on your situation
| Your situation |
Where to look |
| Student freelancer or side business |
Dexxter and Accountable are cut for that volume. Novadesko still makes sense if a shop or a company is on the horizon. |
| Sole trader invoicing business customers |
All five will do. Decide on language, real cost and how your accountant collects your documents. |
| Shop, salon or hospitality venue taking payments |
Novadesko or Odoo, because you need a certified cash register and a card terminal. |
| SME with several users, stock and customer follow up |
Novadesko for a ready to use whole, Odoo if your processes are worth modelling. |
| Accounting firm or company with very large document volumes |
Billit, that is their speciality, with Novadesko on the client side for those who also invoice and take payments. |
Decide in a week, not in three months
Free trials exist to be used seriously. A week is plenty if you test the right actions instead of clicking everywhere.
Open two accounts, not five. Send a real invoice to a real customer over Peppol and check that it lands. Capture three expenses with your phone camera. Pull out a VAT return draft. Invite your accountant and ask for two lines of feedback. After those four actions, you will know.
And if two tools are still tied, pick the one that lets you leave. A clean data export and no lock in beat one extra feature.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best invoicing software in Belgium in 2026?
There is no single winner, there is a winner per profile. For a student freelancer or a side business, Dexxter and Accountable are well calibrated. For a company sending large document volumes, Billit remains the reference for Peppol transport. For an organisation with complex processes, Odoo earns its place. For a freelancer, a shop or an SME that wants to invoice, take counter payments and follow up customers in one place from 19 € excluding VAT per month, Novadesko covers the whole scope without an implementation project.
Are all these tools compliant with the Belgian Peppol mandate?
Yes, all five can send structured electronic invoices over the Peppol network. The difference lies in the vendor's role: Novadesko and Billit operate their own access point, while the others rely on the Belgian configuration or on a technical partner. Ask for your Peppol identifier and check it in the OpenPeppol directory, that is the only proof that counts.
Which invoicing software should I choose if I also have a till?
The sorting is quick: only Novadesko and Odoo cover the certified cash register. Billit, Dexxter and Accountable focus on invoicing and bookkeeping. If you run a shop, a salon or a hospitality venue under the certified cash register scheme, start from that line of the table.
How much does invoicing software cost in Belgium?
Count on around twenty euros excluding VAT per month for a freelancer working alone, and more as soon as you add users, stock or a till. Novadesko starts at 19 € excluding VAT per month with no commitment, with CRM, stock and the till included rather than sold as options. With vendors billing per user or per module, the real amount depends mostly on your final setup.
Can free software be enough to invoice in Belgium?
For a handful of invoices a year to consumers, yes. As soon as you invoice business customers, free hits its ceiling: you need Peppol sending, continuous numbering, document retention and a VAT draft that holds up. A free tool that costs you half a day every quarter ends up dearer than a 19 € subscription.
Can I switch invoicing software during the year?
Yes, and many switch at the start of a quarter to cut cleanly on the VAT side. Check three things before you go: the full export of your customers and invoices, how your numbering carries over, and the date your Peppol identifier moves to the new access point. Your accountant will appreciate hearing about the migration before it happens rather than after.
The detailed comparisons
This comparison is based on what the vendors published in August 2026. The Belgian market moves fast, especially since the Peppol mandate, so check the conditions on each vendor's own site before you sign anything.
