Lexoffice Alternative: Switch Accounting Tools or Add a CRM?

Lexoffice Alternative: Switch Accounting Tools or Add a CRM?

People search for a lexoffice alternative for two different reasons. Some want different accounting and invoicing software: another price, another workflow, another tax-advisor setup. Others are really looking for sales and customer management that lexoffice was never built for. The right answer depends on which problem you have, so this guide covers both.

Lexoffice is now called Lexware Office. The lexoffice page confirms that the product was moved under the Lexware brand; the features continued under the new name.

At a glance

If accounting is the problem

sevDesk, FastBill and Billomat are the closest alternatives. Compare price, API access and bookkeeping depth.

If sales is the problem

None of these tools has a sales pipeline. Keep your accounting tool and add a CRM.

Prices

Checked on the vendors' pricing pages on 27 September 2026, net per month.

Disclosure

Customermates, the CRM described below, publishes this guide. It is not accounting software.

Lexoffice alternatives for accounting and invoicing

The table lists the plans shown on each vendor's official pricing page on 27 September 2026. Prices are net per month; several vendors discount annual or longer commitments, and Lexware Office showed a 50% discount for the first three months.

What the customer side of each tool covers, according to the same pages:

• Lexware Office: customers and suppliers, customer history, tasks and notes, a customer portal, sales statistics and a customer file on every plan.
• sevDesk: unlimited contacts on every plan; task assignment from the Buchhaltung plan.
• FastBill: a 360° customer file, contact history and tags from Plus; a customer portal on Premium.
• Billomat: customer data management and import on every plan.

How to choose between them

1. Talk to your tax advisor first. The export format to your Steuerberater, DATEV or otherwise, often decides more than the feature list.
2. Check e-invoicing. Receiving and sending structured e-invoices matters for German businesses; confirm the formats you need in each plan.
3. Check the API tier. If you plan to connect a CRM or shop, the API is only in certain plans for Lexware Office, sevDesk and Billomat.
4. Test the bank connection with your own bank before migrating.

When the real gap is a CRM

If you went looking for an alternative because deals slip, quotes go unanswered or nobody knows who spoke to a customer last, switching accounting software will not help. None of the tools above offers a sales pipeline, and their customer features start when there is something to invoice.

A CRM covers what happens before the invoice:

Lexware Office plus a CRM: how the pairing works

Keep Lexware Office (or sevDesk, FastBill, Billomat) for invoices, bookkeeping, banking and tax. Use a CRM for enquiries, deals and conversations. Connect the two where data crosses over:

• Customer master data: when a deal is won, create or update the customer in the accounting tool.
• Quote or invoice creation: a won deal triggers a draft quote or invoice with the deal value.
• Payment status: the invoice status flows back into a field on the deal or organization.

With Lexware Office, those flows need the Public API on the XL plan; its developer documentation includes a contacts endpoint for reading, creating and updating contacts. Lexware also lists CRM integrations in its partner directory.

Customermates as the CRM next to your accounting tool

Customermates is an open-source CRM made in Germany. It is not accounting software and does not create quotes or invoices. It covers the sales side:

• Pipeline: deals move through stages you configure, for example Anfrage → Angebot → Verhandlung → Auftrag, on a kanban board. Stage weights produce weighted deal values and pipeline totals.
• Customer records: contacts and organizations with their deals, services, tasks, notes and activity history.
• Unified inbox: on Customermates Cloud from Pro, email, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Instagram and Telegram conversations sit next to the customer. See the unified inbox and the Gmail CRM integration guide.
• Integration: the REST API and 26 webhook event types connect the CRM to your accounting tool through your own integration service or the n8n community node. Nothing is synced until you build that flow.
• AI: external AI clients connect through MCP with 50 tools; on Customermates Cloud, the Mate assistant works inside the app.
• Hosting: the managed database runs in the AWS Frankfurt region; hosting and other subprocessors, including US providers, are disclosed and a DPA is available. Or you self-host the open-source core.

Pricing starts at €12 per user per month on Starter; the unified inbox is on Pro at €29. See pricing.

Moving customer data from lexoffice into a CRM

1. Export contacts from Lexware Office and open the file in Excel.
2. Clean it up: remove suppliers and one-off buyers you do not want in sales.
3. Import into Customermates as an XLSX workbook, one record type at a time, starting with organizations and then contacts.
4. Set up the pipeline and create deals for the quotes that are still open.
5. Connect the systems for the one flow that saves the most typing, usually won deal to customer in accounting.

Frequently asked questions