7 Dext Alternatives in 2026 (Formerly Receipt Bank): Honest Comparison
- Taxr Team
- Expense management
- Updated
Table of Contents
In short: The best Dext alternative depends on who you are. For freelancers and sole traders tracking their own receipts, Taxr (our own app) costs US$29.99 a year on the App Store, against $302.50 a year for Dext's Business plan. Firms on Xero get Hubdoc included, practices with many low-volume clients often pay less with AutoEntry, and teams filing expense reports are better served by Expensify.
People search for a Dext alternative for one of three reasons: the price (the Business plan is $302.50/year with a 250-document monthly cap, and practice plans start at ~$17.70 per client with a 10-client minimum), the billing experience (per-client price rises and cancellation friction are the most common complaints in reviews), or a simple mismatch: Dext is built for accounting firms, and many of the people paying for it just need their own receipts handled. Our Dext pricing guide breaks down each plan and add-on.
The right alternative depends entirely on which of those you are. Here are seven options, honestly sorted.
(Transparency: Taxr, first on this list, is our app. We've kept the comparisons factual, and several tools below are better than Taxr for firm-scale workflows, which we say plainly.)
Disclaimer: This article provides general information only and does not constitute tax advice. Consult a qualified tax professional about your circumstances.
1. Taxr: best for freelancers and sole traders
Pricing: free tier (10 scans) · US$2.99/month · US$29.99/year on the App Store (US$31.99 on Google Play)
Taxr is an AI receipt scanner for individuals: snap a photo, the AI extracts the vendor, date, total and tax, then suggests a tax-aligned category for you to confirm (Schedule C-aligned in the US, GST in Australia, VAT in the UK; localized for 195+ countries). Excel and PDF exports hand your accountant a clean, categorized record.
Versus Dext: about 10x cheaper, no document caps, no add-on metering, and billing runs through the App Store / Google Play, so canceling takes a few taps rather than a support process. What you give up: there's no direct Xero/MYOB/QuickBooks sync (exports instead), and while accountants get a free portal to see linked clients' receipts, Taxr is deliberately not a bookkeeping pipeline. If those are your requirements, keep reading.
Full comparison: Taxr vs Dext.
2. Hubdoc: best if you're on Xero
Pricing: included with Xero business plans
Hubdoc (owned by Xero) does Dext's core job (fetching and extracting documents and pushing them into accounting software), and it's effectively free if you already pay for Xero. Extraction is less polished than Dext's and the interface shows its age, but "included with Xero" is a hard argument to beat for Xero practices and businesses. This is the most common firm-side Dext replacement in Australia.
3. AutoEntry: best per-document practice pricing
Pricing: credit-based, from ~$12/month
AutoEntry (Sage-owned) is the other accountant-favorite Dext alternative. Its credit model charges per document processed rather than per client, so practices with many low-volume clients often come out well ahead of Dext's per-client billing. Line-item extraction costs more credits. UI is functional rather than pretty.
4. Expensify: best for teams with expense reports
Pricing: free tier · paid from ~$5/user/month
Expensify is expense management (reports, approvals, corporate cards, reimbursement) with receipt scanning (SmartScan) inside it. For a team that files expense reports, it's a stronger product than Dext. For an individual, it's a bigger tool than the job: the interface is built around workflows one person doesn't have. See Taxr vs Expensify.
5. Keeper: best for US 1099 filers who want tax filing too
Pricing: US$199/year or US$399/year with filing · US$20/month for bookkeeping only
Keeper connects to your bank accounts, uses AI to flag likely write-offs, and files your US taxes in-app. It's a different philosophy from receipt scanning (bank-feed-first rather than paper-first), and it's US-only. If your paper receipts matter (cash purchases, itemized records, audit backup) you'll still want a scanner; if your spending is all on cards and you want filing bundled, Keeper is the strongest US option. Our Keeper alternatives guide matches other tools to each part of Keeper's job.
6. Shoeboxed: best for a backlog of paper
Pricing: from ~$23/month
Shoeboxed's Magic Envelope is unique: physically mail them your pile of receipts and humans digitize it. As an ongoing scanner it's expensive, but for clearing years of shoebox backlog in one pass, nothing else does this. US-focused.
7. Smart Receipts: best free/open-source option
Pricing: free · Pro ~$10/year
Smart Receipts is an open-source receipt tracker with basic OCR, report generation, and PDF/CSV export. It's the tinkerer's choice: very cheap, very manual. Extraction quality and categorization are far behind AI-based tools, so you'll do more typing, but the price is nearly zero.
Which Dext Alternative Should You Pick?
| If you are | Pick |
|---|---|
| A freelancer / contractor / sole trader tracking your own receipts | Taxr (US$29.99/yr) |
| A firm or business living in Xero | Hubdoc (bundled) |
| A practice with many low-volume clients | AutoEntry (per-document credits) |
| A team filing expense reports | Expensify |
| A US 1099 filer who wants bank-feed write-off detection + filing | Keeper |
| Someone with years of paper backlog | Shoeboxed (once), then a scanner app |
| Happy to trade time for money | Smart Receipts |
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the cheapest Dext alternative?
For individuals, Taxr at US$29.99/year on the App Store (or free for your first 10 scans) is roughly a tenth of Dext Business's $302.50/year. Smart Receipts is cheaper still (~$10/year Pro) but relies on much more manual entry. For practices, Hubdoc is effectively free with Xero, and AutoEntry's per-document credits often undercut Dext's per-client pricing.
Is Receipt Bank the same as Dext?
Yes. Receipt Bank rebranded to Dext in 2021, and Dext was acquired by IRIS Software Group in December 2024. If an older recommendation mentions Receipt Bank, it's describing today's Dext.
Can I use a Dext alternative without accounting software?
Yes, that's the main difference at the individual end. Dext, Hubdoc, and AutoEntry are designed to feed Xero/MYOB/QuickBooks. Taxr and Smart Receipts work standalone: receipts in, categorized records and Excel/PDF exports out, no accounting platform required.
Do accountants accept exports instead of a Dext feed?
Generally yes. A categorized Excel export, with a link to each receipt image (the links expire 48 hours after export), covers what most accountants need from a sole trader or freelancer. If your accountant runs their practice on Dext or Hubdoc, ask them: many will simply have you upload into their system, at their cost, via their practice plan.
The Bottom Line
Dext is good software priced for accounting firms. If that's not you, don't pay firm prices: match the tool to your actual shape. For one person with receipts and a tax return, Taxr does the whole job for US$29.99 a year on the App Store. Scan your first receipt free and see if the extraction earns your trust.
