Here's a truth no software vendor will put on their landing page: there is no official "Verifactu certification". The AEAT doesn't certify, homologate or approve any invoicing program. Compliance rests on a declaración responsable — a self-declaration signed by the vendor. Every banner screaming "AEAT-certified!" is, at best, sloppy marketing. At worst, it's covering for a product that isn't ready.
That matters because the countdown is real now. After two postponements, the deadlines are locked in: companies paying Impuesto sobre Sociedades must comply by 1 January 2027, and autónomos by 1 July 2027. Congress ratified the final delay (Real Decreto-ley 15/2025) in December 2025, so don't expect a third reprieve. If you invoice in Spain with software of any kind, you will need a compliant system — and mid-2026 is exactly the right time to choose calmly instead of panic-buying next spring.
I spent four weeks in June 2026 doing the homework for you: 9 invoicing tools, accounts created on each one, test invoices issued, QR codes checked, and every price pulled from the official pricing page — not from a reseller's blog. I also read the vendor documentation on how each one handles the VERI*FACTU submission mode, because that's where the real differences hide.
This guide gives you a clear recommendation for three profiles: the solo autónomo, the small SMB doing its own books, and the SMB that hands everything to an external accountant. Bookmark it — the pricing list alone will save you an afternoon.
Methodology: prices verified on each vendor's official pricing page between 3 and 5 July 2026, in €, excluding VAT unless stated. Regulatory facts checked against RD 1007/2023, Orden HAC/1177/2024, RDL 15/2025 (BOE 3 December 2025, ratified by Congress 11 December 2025) and the AEAT sede electrónica. I evaluated: Verifactu readiness, real invoice limits, price honesty, accountant collaboration features, and room to grow.
What Verifactu Actually Requires — and the Real 2027 Deadlines
Quick context before the tools, because half the bad purchases I've seen come from misunderstanding the rules. Verifactu comes from Real Decreto 1007/2023 and the technical specs in Orden HAC/1177/2024. It regulates the software you invoice with — the so-called SIF (sistema informático de facturación). Your invoicing program must:
- Generate a tamper-proof billing record for every invoice, hash-chained to the previous one so nothing can be deleted or altered silently
- Keep an event log of what the software does (issuing, correcting, exporting)
- Print a QR code on every invoice (30×30 to 40×40 mm, ISO/IEC 18004) that lets anyone verify it against the AEAT
- Operate in one of two modes: *VERIFACTU mode, sending every billing record to the AEAT in real time, or non-VERIFACTU mode*, keeping signed records locally, ready for inspection
In VERIFACTU mode, the invoice carries the legend "Factura verificable en la sede electrónica de la AEAT"*. Most cloud vendors default to this mode — and honestly, so should you. Sending records as you go means fewer local storage obligations and less to explain in an inspection.
The deadlines moved twice, and that confuses everyone. The original dates were July 2025. Real Decreto 254/2025 pushed them to 2026. Then RDL 15/2025 — published in the BOE on 3 December 2025 and ratified by Congress on 11 December — set the current, final calendar: 1 January 2027 for corporate income tax payers, 1 July 2027 for autónomos, IRNR taxpayers with a permanent establishment, and entities under income attribution.
Who's exempt? Companies already reporting through the SII (large taxpayers, VAT groups, monthly refund scheme), and businesses under the foral regimes of the Basque Country and Navarra, which run their own systems (TicketBAI, and Batuz in Bizkaia). Everyone else in common territory is in scope.
And the stick: article 201 bis of the Ley General Tributaria sets a fixed fine of 50,000 € per fiscal year for using non-compliant invoicing software — even if you never hid a single euro of income. Software makers face up to 150,000 € per year. That fine is the reason this guide exists. For the full regulatory deep-dive, see the Verifactu compliance guide.
How I Ranked These 9 Tools
Every vendor now claims Verifactu support, so "supports Verifactu" stopped being a differentiator months ago. What actually separates them?
Five things. Price honesty — is the advertised price the real price, or does an annual-billing asterisk double it? Invoice limits — several tools sell cheap tiers capped at a few hundred invoices a year, and the cap is in the fine print. Submission mode — does the tool run VERIFACTU mode by default, or leave you managing signed records yourself? Accountant access — can your asesoría log in without buying a seat? And headroom* — what happens when you outgrow invoicing and need stock, projects or payroll?
One more filter: I only included tools with a published price or a genuinely free tier. If the pricing page says "contact sales", it didn't make the list. You're an autónomo or a small SMB — your time is worth more than a discovery call.
Holded — The All-Rounder for Small SMBs
Holded is the tool I end up recommending most often to Spanish SMBs between 2 and 20 people, and this comparison didn't change that. It's invoicing plus real accounting, CRM, projects and inventory in one place, and Verifactu is included in every plan at no extra cost — Holded is also a registered colaborador social with the AEAT, so records flow in VERI*FACTU mode using Holded's own certificate if you don't upload yours.
Prices, verified July 2026 (annual billing, excl. VAT): Plus at 7,50 €/month (capped at 250 invoices/year), Básico at 14,50 €/month (1,000 invoices, 2 users), Estándar at 29,50 €/month (3,000 invoices, 4 users), Avanzado at 49,50 €/month and Premium at 99,50 €/month. Pay monthly and every one of those figures doubles — 14,50 € becomes 29 €. That's the single most aggressive annual-billing gap in this comparison, so budget accordingly.
The invoice caps are the gotcha. 250 invoices a year on Plus sounds fine until you realize it counts quotes-turned-invoices and rectificative invoices too. A freelancer billing 25 clients monthly blows through it in month ten. Size yourself one tier up from your gut feeling.
Who should buy it: an SMB that wants invoicing, accounting and a bit of CRM in one subscription, with an accountant seat included (Holded gives your asesoría free access on Básico and up). If you're migrating from Odoo or considering both, read the Odoo vs Holded comparison first.
Quipu — Best for Autónomos Who Dread the Trimestrales
Quipu is built around a simple promise: you invoice, it fills your tax models. The tax forecasting view shows your modelo 130 and 303 accumulating in real time as invoices and expenses come in — the feature my autónomo clients mention most, because it kills the quarterly surprise.
Prices verified July 2026 on getquipu.com: Starter at 168 €/year (works out to 14 €/month; 17 €/month if you pay monthly), Solution at 300 €/year (25 €/month equivalent), Premium at 588 €/year (49 €/month equivalent). Quipu runs frequent 50% first-months promos, so the checkout price often looks lower — treat the figures above as the steady-state cost. All plans are Verifactu-adapted, invoices are unlimited even on Starter, and Starter includes 30 automatic document scans a month.
The limits sit elsewhere: bank connections and proper reconciliation start at Solution, and automatic reconciliation only arrives at Premium. For a services autónomo with one bank account, Starter is genuinely enough.
Who should buy it: autónomos and micro-SMBs who do their own quarterly filings and want the software to carry the tax math. If your asesoría files for you, some of what you're paying for goes unused — look at Billin or Contasimple instead.
Billin — Cheapest Unlimited Invoicing
Billin, now part of the Italian group TeamSystem, wins the pure price war: Básico at 6,60 €/month billed annually (8 € monthly), Pro at 12,50 €/month (15 € monthly), Ilimitado at 20 €/month (24 € monthly), all excl. VAT. And here's the part that surprised me: invoices are unlimited on every plan, including Básico — quotes, delivery notes, tickets and rectificatives too. Verifactu, Facturae and even TicketBAI formats are included across the board.
So what do the higher tiers buy? Mostly workflow: recurring invoices, expense capture, multi-user, and better payment tracking. The core compliance layer is identical from 6,60 €.
The trade-off is depth. Billin is an invoicing tool, not an accounting suite — no P&L, no proper books, no tax model preparation. You'll pair it with an asesoría or a separate accounting workflow. For a lot of autónomos, that's exactly the division of labour they already have.
Who should buy it: anyone whose requirement is "legal invoices, unlimited, minimum cost" and whose accountant handles everything downstream. At 79,20 € a year it's hard to argue with.
Cegid Contasimple — The Best Free Plan With a Real Upgrade Path
Contasimple — rebranded Cegid Contasimple after its acquisition — holds a distinction none of the big names match: a free-forever plan that includes Verifactu. The catch is a hard cap of 12 documents a year on the free tier, which makes it viable only for the occasional invoicer: the side-project autónomo, the landlord issuing a quarterly invoice, the consultant with two clients.
Paid tiers, verified July 2026: Profesional at 10,95 €/month billed annually (12,95 € monthly) with 500 documents a year, and Ultimate at 15,95 €/month (19,95 € monthly) with unlimited documents. Profesional includes tax model preparation, which at that price undercuts Quipu by a few euros — though the tax view is less polished.
The Cegid backing matters more than it looks. Verifactu compliance is a moving target — the AEAT keeps publishing technical clarifications — and a micro-tool from a two-person shop can lag. Contasimple ships inside one of Europe's biggest business-software groups; the compliance updates arrive without you thinking about them.
Who should buy it: very-low-volume invoicers on the free plan, and price-sensitive autónomos on Profesional who still want tax models included.
FacturaDirecta — The Honest Minimalist
FacturaDirecta is a small Spanish company that has been doing simple online invoicing for over a decade, and it shows in the product's restraint: no CRM bolted on, no upsell carousel, just invoices, expenses and a clean interface your gestor will understand in five minutes.
Pricing per its official comparison page, July 2026: a free plan with basic invoicing, then Básico at 10 €/month, Avanzado at 20 €/month and Total at 40 €/month, plus VAT. Verifactu is covered across the plans, free tier included.
What you give up is ecosystem: fewer integrations than Holded, no native tax forecasting like Quipu, and a smaller template gallery. What you get is a tool that does one job without noise, from a vendor with a long track record of not jerking its users around on pricing.
Who should buy it: autónomos and small SMBs who value simplicity over features and want a free plan that isn't a 14-day trial in disguise. For a broader look at invoicing tools for freelancers specifically, see the best invoicing software for freelancers guide.
Sage 50 and Sage Active — For the Asesoría-Driven SMB
If your business runs on the rhythm of "send everything to the asesoría at month-end", the Sage ecosystem is probably already in your life — thousands of Spanish accounting firms run Sage Despachos. Sage 50 is the classic SMB package: full accounting plus invoicing, sold through partners, with the Essential edition from 45 €/month (annual contract, excl. VAT, 1–2 users). The subscription includes regulatory compliance updates — Verifactu, TicketBAI, Facturae — which is precisely what you're paying that premium for.
Sage Active is the newer cloud line for micro-SMBs: Starter at 25 €/month (excl. VAT) covers 1 company and 2 users with up to 300 invoices, extra users at 5 €/month. Note it's only available in Spain's common territory — not the Basque Country, Navarra, the Canary Islands, Ceuta or Melilla.
Is Sage overkill for a freelancer? Completely. The value appears when your accountant works natively with Sage files and the monthly handover becomes a sync instead of a shoebox of PDFs.
Who should buy it: SMBs whose external accountant is already in the Sage ecosystem, and businesses that want a vendor whose compliance department is older than most startups in this list.
a3factura — If Your Asesoría Lives in the a3 World
The same logic applies to a3factura by Wolters Kluwer, priced from 9,95 €/month per the official a3 Marketplace. Wolters Kluwer's a3 suite (a3innuva, a3ASESOR) dominates a huge share of Spanish asesorías, and a3factura is the client-side invoicing piece that feeds your accountant's system directly. It supports both submission modes, with automatic VERI*FACTU sending as the recommended default.
The published entry price is competitive, but the full tier structure isn't openly listed — deeper configurations are quoted through Wolters Kluwer or its partners. I don't love that opacity, and it's the reason a3factura doesn't rank higher here despite the solid product.
Who should buy it: businesses whose asesoría explicitly asks for it. If your accountant works in a3, the integration saves both of you hours every month, and that beats any feature checklist. If they don't — pick from the tools above.
Odoo — When Invoicing Is Only the Beginning
Odoo is the odd one out: a full ERP where invoicing is one app among eighty. Prices verified on odoo.com July 2026: Standard at 19,90 €/user/month billed annually (24,90 € monthly), Custom at 29,90 €/user/month (37,40 € monthly), and the One App Free plan at 0 € for a single app. The Spanish localization handles Verifactu — with an official module on Enterprise and a well-maintained OCA module for the Community edition.
Be careful with the math, though. Odoo's per-user pricing plus implementation costs make it a very different investment from a 10 €/month invoicer. The license is typically only 15–25% of what an SMB actually spends once a partner sets it up properly. I've broken that down in the Odoo Spain guide covering Verifactu, SII and payroll.
Who should buy it: SMBs from roughly 5 users up that need stock, manufacturing, projects or eCommerce in the same system, and are ready to treat this as an implementation project rather than a subscription checkbox. For invoicing alone, Odoo is a lorry to deliver a letter.
The Free AEAT App — The 0 € Option, With Sharp Edges
Since October 2025 the AEAT offers its own *free VERIFACTU invoicing application on the sede electrónica. You log in with Cl@ve Móvil, a digital certificate or electronic DNI, and issue fully compliant invoices that go straight into the AEAT's systems. There is no limit on invoice volume**. For the right profile, this is genuinely the rational choice — and it costs nothing forever, not for 30 days.
Now the sharp edges, straight from the AEAT's own documentation:
- Every invoice must have a named recipient — you cannot issue simplified invoices (tickets), which rules out most B2C retail
- Records cannot be exported to another invoicing system — if you later move to commercial software, your history stays locked in the app
- No payment tracking — the app doesn't know if an invoice is paid, pending or overdue; you'll keep a spreadsheet on the side
- No automation — no recurring invoices, no integrations, no API
- Special VAT regimes excluded — used goods, travel agencies, VAT groups and certain mediation schemes can't use it
My honest read: the AEAT app is right for an autónomo issuing a handful of invoices a month to named business clients, who wants zero cost and maximum inspection-proofing. The moment you need tickets, payment tracking or your data back, you've outgrown it — and the no-export rule means outgrowing it is annoying. Factor that in before you commit your invoice history to it.
Price Comparison at a Glance (July 2026)
All prices from official pricing pages, annual billing where available, excl. VAT:
- AEAT free app — 0 €, unlimited invoices, named recipients only, no export
- Cegid Contasimple — free (12 docs/year); Profesional 10,95 €/month; Ultimate 15,95 €/month
- Billin — Básico 6,60 €/month; Pro 12,50 €/month; Ilimitado 20 €/month — unlimited invoices on all plans
- a3factura — from 9,95 €/month (full tiers quoted via Wolters Kluwer)
- FacturaDirecta — free plan; Básico 10 €/month; Avanzado 20 €/month; Total 40 €/month
- Quipu — Starter 168 €/year (≈14 €/month); Solution 300 €/year; Premium 588 €/year — unlimited invoices
- Holded — Plus 7,50 €/month (250 invoices/year); Básico 14,50 €/month; Estándar 29,50 €/month; monthly billing doubles these
- Sage Active — Starter 25 €/month (300 invoices); Sage 50 — Essential from 45 €/month
- Odoo — Standard 19,90 €/user/month annual; Custom 29,90 €/user/month; One App Free 0 €
My Recommendation by Profile
Cutting through the nine options, this is what I'd actually pick:
Solo autónomo doing their own taxes: Quipu Starter at 168 €/year. The real-time tax forecasting is worth the gap over Billin — one avoided quarterly-filing mistake pays for years of subscription. If every euro counts and your asesoría files for you, Billin Básico at 6,60 €/month gets you unlimited compliant invoices for less than a menú del día.
Autónomo with fewer than 12 invoices a year: Cegid Contasimple free, or the AEAT app if all your clients are named businesses and you accept the no-export lock-in. Paying 30 €/month to invoice twice a quarter is how software vendors buy boats.
Small SMB (2–15 people) managing its own operations: Holded Básico or Estándar. Invoicing, accounting, accountant access and Verifactu in every plan, with room to add inventory and projects without changing platforms. Just size the invoice cap honestly and take annual billing — monthly pricing is double.
SMB with an external accountant doing the books: match their ecosystem. Asesoría on Sage Despachos → Sage 50 Essential (45 €/month). Asesoría on a3 → a3factura. The integration eliminates the monthly document shuffle, and that operational win outweighs saving 20 € on a tool your accountant then has to fight with.
Growing SMB that will need more than invoicing: Odoo Standard, planned as a proper implementation with a Spanish partner.
If you take one thing from this guide: the fine for non-compliant software is 50,000 € per year, the deadlines — 1 January 2027 for companies, 1 July 2027 for autónomos — are ratified and final, and the cheapest fully compliant options cost between 0 € and 7 € a month. The risk-to-cost ratio of waiting no longer makes any sense.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Four errors I keep seeing in real migrations:
- Trusting "AEAT-certified" badges. No such certification exists — compliance runs on the vendor's declaración responsable. Ask the vendor for theirs; a serious one sends it the same day.
- Buying on the promo price. Half these tools show 50%-off or annual-billing prices by default. Model year-two cost before you commit, not the checkout screen.
- Ignoring invoice caps. Holded Plus (250/year), Contasimple Profesional (500/year) and Sage Active Starter (300) all have hard limits. Count last year's invoices — including rectificatives — before choosing a tier.
- Waiting until December 2026. Every vendor's onboarding queue will be jammed the month before the company deadline, exactly as happened with the SII in 2017. Migrating your invoice history calmly in 2026 costs a fraction of doing it in a rush.
One last practical step: whichever tool you choose, issue a test invoice in VERI*FACTU mode during your trial and scan the QR yourself against the AEAT verification page. Two minutes, and you've verified more than most buyers ever do. For a phased rollout plan, the Verifactu implementation checklist walks through the whole process, and if you want the deeper selection methodology, see how to choose Verifactu software.
Pricing verified 3–5 July 2026 on official vendor pages. Verifactu is a moving regulatory target — re-check prices and the AEAT's technical notes before you sign anything annual.