Stripe Billing alternative for German invoices: add to it, don’t switch

No, it complements Stripe. Stripe stays your billing and payment processing. A Marketplace app like Billit can add e-invoices; Rechnungskit also turns the same events into the GoBD archive and the DATEV booking.

Yes, and that's the usual way to switch. You run both systems in parallel for one billing period and compare documents and bookings before you switch over.

They stay where they are. Rechnungskit doesn't import or archive invoices created elsewhere; you keep meeting your retention duty for old documents (eight years under § 14b (1) UStG and § 147 (3) AO) in your previous system. What Rechnungskit can pull in are past orders and payments from your connected shops and payment providers, which then become new, validated invoices. For the number sequence, you set the number Rechnungskit continues from, so nothing overlaps with your old documents.

Documents are stored tamper-proof and unchangeable for eight years for as long as your account exists (WORM archive with checksums). Eight years is the retention period for invoices and accounting records (§ 14b (1) UStG, § 147 (3) AO); the requirements for the archive are set out in the GoBD. You can export them at any time, and for 90 days free of charge after you cancel. The final assessment of your process documentation (Verfahrensdokumentation) is up to your tax advisor.

The term means two different things. First, complete billing platforms that replace Stripe's subscription logic (open-source billing engines, for example). Second, the invoicing layer: compliant German invoices from the payments Stripe processes. Rechnungskit is the alternative on that second layer. It turns every Stripe subscription into an e-invoice under EN 16931, a GoBD archive entry and a finished DATEV booking without you changing your Stripe setup. If you also want to replace the billing itself, you run new subscriptions directly in Rechnungskit, collected by card or SEPA direct debit through your own Stripe account, and move existing Stripe Billing subscriptions over at the end of their period.

For the invoice as a document, often yes; for the e-invoice, not automatically. Stripe itself says that Billing and Invoicing don't create e-invoices directly. A Marketplace app, Billit, is now live and lists ZUGFeRD, XRechnung and Peppol for Germany. Since 01.01.2025, every German business must be able to receive e-invoices; the obligation to send them applies from 01.01.2027 for prior-year revenue above €800,000 and from 01.01.2028 for everyone. If you only send Stripe PDFs, you need such an add-on app or a compliance solution like Rechnungskit.

Partly. Stripe Tax calculates with destination-country rates, monitors thresholds and provides an OSS export. But Stripe doesn't file the return in the EU, and monitoring only sees revenue that runs through Stripe. For the VAT ID, Stripe checks against VIES but says explicitly that name and address are not matched, and it applies reverse charge as soon as the number is formally correct. An intra-EU supply is only tax-exempt if the buyer uses a valid VAT ID and you can prove it (§ 6a (1) sentence 1 no. 4 and (3) UStG). The qualified confirmation request with the BZSt under § 18e UStG also checks name and address, and Rechnungskit archives its result as evidence.

Rechnungskit reads the paid subscription invoice from Stripe Billing, including line items, tax rates and the service period per line item. From that it creates a ZUGFeRD invoice with the correct service period (BG-14), not just a payment receipt for a total. If the period runs past the balance sheet date, Rechnungskit also checks for deferred revenue.

Only if you leave Stripe's sending switched on. Stripe creates its own invoice for every subscription payment, and that can't be switched off. Sending it to your customers can: Rechnungskit shows an explicit step for this when you connect. After that, your customers get exactly one document, the one from Rechnungskit, with your own number sequence. Payment collection and webhooks are not affected.

Yes, guided, at the end of each period. Rechnungskit reads the subscriptions in your Stripe account, you map each Stripe price to a subscription plan, and at the start Rechnungskit creates its own subscription per customer with the existing payment mandate and ends the Stripe subscription at the end of the period. Your customers don't need to sign up again or confirm anything; collection keeps running through your Stripe account. Subscriptions with several line items, usage-based prices, intervals other than monthly or annual, or no stored payment method can't be moved; they stay in Stripe Billing, and Rechnungskit keeps issuing the e-invoice for them.

No. Stripe stays your billing and payment provider. Rechnungskit hooks into your Stripe events, turns them into the compliant document, archives it in line with GoBD and passes revenue, fees and payouts to your tax advisor as finished bookings.

From the providers' publicly available sources, checked on July 28, 2026, with footnotes for each row. Where we found no reliable source, the table says "Not documented". If you spot a mistake, write to support@rechnungskit.de and we'll correct it and re-date the page.