Kontist as a Holvi Alternative: Bringing Banking and Taxes Together
Holvi and Kontist combine a business bank account with a wide range of features for managing your day-to-day business finances. Both solutions are designed for freelancers and the self-employed, among others, and offer tools for invoices, receipts, and bookkeeping. However, their focus differs: Holvi offers extensive features for managing finances, invoices, and bookkeeping. Kontist was developed specifically for the self-employed in Germany and offers automatic income tax and VAT calculations with every plan. With Kontist, you benefit from features including:
- Automatic income tax and VAT calculation with every plan
- See at any time how much of your income is actually available after taxes
- Automatically set money aside for taxes directly in your business account
- Submit your VAT advance return directly to the tax office
- Banking, taxes, and bookkeeping all in one place
Users love the Kontist app
4.5
on Google Play Store
4.7
on App Store
Users love the Kontist app
Is Kontist a good alternative to Holvi?
Holvi combines banking with features for invoices, receipts, and bookkeeping. Kontist places a stronger focus on taxes: automatic income tax and VAT calculations are included with every plan, so you can always see how much of your income is actually available to spend.
Kontist could be the better choice if you:
want your income tax and VAT to be calculated automatically with every plan
want to know at any time how much of your income is available after taxes
want to automatically set money aside for your taxes
want to integrate banking, tax planning, and bookkeeping as closely as possible
Kontist vs. Holvi: Direct Comparison
Kontist and Holvi combine banking with features for invoices and bookkeeping. While Holvi offers an extensive range of traditional banking features, Kontist includes automatic income tax and VAT calculations with every plan, as well as additional features for tax planning and bookkeeping.
The following comparison shows how Kontist Plus and Holvi Pro differ in the most important areas.
Banking
Kontist Plus | Holvi Pro | |
|---|---|---|
Mobile apps (iOS & Android) |
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Web app |
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German IBAN |
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Subaccounts | 5 | 5 with their own German IBAN |
Free SEPA transfers and direct debits | 100/month | Unlimited |
Real-time notifications |
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Debit card | Virtual & physical | Virtual & physical |
Apple Pay & Google Pay |
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Loans |
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Account statements |
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Biometric authorization |
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Standing orders |
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Bulk transfers |
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Automated tax estimation |
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Automatic tax estimation with Kontist
With real-time tax estimation, you'll always know how much of your money is actually available after taxes. Kontist automatically calculates your income tax and VAT based on incoming payments and sets the estimated amount aside as a tax reserve.
Automatic tax calculation: Income tax and VAT are recalculated automatically after every incoming payment.
Build tax reserves: The estimated tax amount is automatically set aside in a separate subaccount.
Fully customisable: Tax rates, VAT settings and tax prepayment intervals can all be adjusted to suit your individual circumstances.
More highlights from Kontist
Many of Kontist's features are designed to help self-employed professionals organise their finances more efficiently and manage important administrative tasks directly within their business account.
Quotes & Invoices
Create and manage quotes and invoices directly in the app without needing additional software.
Automatic Categorisation
Income and expenses are categorised automatically, with the categorisation becoming increasingly accurate over time.
Google Pay & Apple Pay
Pay contactlessly with your Kontist Visa card while keeping full control of your finances directly in the app.
Easy Account Switching Service
Switching to Kontist is completely online and guides you through the process step by step.
Notes & Receipt Scanning
Attach receipts directly to transactions and export everything together whenever you need it.
VAT Advance Return
With Kontist Plus, you can prepare your VAT advance return and submit it directly to the tax office.
Kontist vs. Holvi: Pricing comparison
Kontist and Holvi offer a range of plans for different needs. For our comparison, we’re looking at Kontist Plus and Holvi Pro.
However, when comparing prices, you shouldn’t look at the account fee alone. For freelancers and the self-employed, features for tax planning, bookkeeping, and invoicing can make an important difference.
Kontist | Holvi |
|---|---|
Free – €0 | Flex – €0 |
Start – €11 | Lite – €9 |
Plus – €25 | Pro – €15 |
Business – €69 |
Who is Kontist the best Holvi alternative for?
Holvi and Kontist are aimed in part at similar target groups, but they have different areas of focus. Holvi offers a broad solution for banking, invoicing, and organizing business finances. Kontist focuses particularly on making it easier for the self-employed to bring banking, taxes, and bookkeeping together.
Kontist can be particularly interesting for the following groups:
1. Founders
Kontist helps you organize banking, taxes, and bookkeeping clearly from the very beginning and automatically set aside reserves for your tax payments.
2. Small business owners (Kleinunternehmer)
Invoices, receipts, and bookkeeping directly in your business account: with Kontist, you can handle important financial tasks without needing several additional tools.
3. Self-employed professionals
Automatic tax calculations, integrated bookkeeping, and centralized receipt management reduce administrative work and give you more time for your business.
4. GmbH/UG/GbR
Kontist brings banking and bookkeeping together in one place and helps you keep your business finances and administrative tasks organized.
Make the switch easy with the Kontist account switching service
Thinking about switching from Holvi to Kontist but keep putting it off? Many self-employed professionals stay with their existing business account longer than they intended because switching initially sounds like extra work.
With the Kontist Account Switching Service, the process becomes much easier. You'll be guided through every step and receive support in transferring your existing banking setup.
The switching service helps you with:
notifying your payment partners of your new bank account
transferring your existing standing orders
organising the switching process
10,000s of freelancers trust in Kontist
"I feel very well taken care of and can wholeheartedly recommend Kontist."
"The best thing about Kontist is that I can see immediately after each transaction how much is left for me and how much goes to the tax office. This saves me from nasty surprises when I file my tax return".
