Dext vs Hubdoc vs AutoEntry: The Best AI Receipt and Invoice Capture for Bookkeepers in 2026

By Patrick Breen, software engineer and AI Stack Guides researcher.

Quick answer: For a small business already on a paid Xero plan with modest document volume, Hubdoc is the best starting point in 2026 because it is included free with Xero business-edition subscriptions and captures supplier, date, and total automatically (Hubdoc pricing page, accessed 2026-06-24). For a bookkeeping firm or a business that wants a published per-document cost and unlimited users, AutoEntry is the cleanest value, starting at $17/month for 50 credits and $23/month for 100 credits with no per-user fee (AutoEntry pricing page, accessed 2026-06-24). For a firm that wants the deepest feature set and supplier-rule automation across many clients, Dext is the most capable, with a Business plan at $31.50/month for 250 documents and a per-client Practice model from $17.70 per client per month on a 10-client minimum (Dext pricing, G2 and Capterra aggregates, accessed 2026-06-24). The headline trade-off: Hubdoc is free but header-level only, AutoEntry charges by credit so line items and bank statements cost two to three times a plain receipt, and Dext bills per client, which can run expensive for a book of many small clients.

Searches like "Dext vs Hubdoc vs AutoEntry" almost always come from the same place: a bookkeeper or small business owner who is tired of typing supplier invoices into Xero or QuickBooks by hand and wants the AI to read the document and post it. All three tools do that core job, and all three have respectable review scores, so the decision is rarely about whether the optical character recognition works. It comes down to how each one prices the work and where the included feature set stops. I pulled live 2026 pricing for the three tools, cross-checked the sticker prices against vendor pages and software-review aggregators, and read through the public review data to separate where the AI extraction genuinely holds up from where the marketing oversells it. What follows is the decision rules by situation, a plain reading of what these tools actually automate this year, a tool-by-tool walk with pricing, a side-by-side comparison table, what the review data signals, the mistakes buyers make, and the methodology behind the numbers.

Decision rules: which capture tool for which situation

The right tool depends less on which one has the best AI and more on how many documents you process, whether you already pay for Xero, and whether you are buying for one business or a book of clients. Use these as a first filter before reading the detail.

If you run one business, already pay for a Xero business-edition plan, and mostly need receipts and bills read at the header level, start with Hubdoc. It is included free with qualifying Xero subscriptions, so the marginal cost is zero and there is no reason to pay for a second tool until you hit its limits (Hubdoc pricing page, accessed 2026-06-24).

If you want a published price you can predict, no per-user charges, and the flexibility to process whatever document type comes in, AutoEntry is the cleanest fit. The credit model means a quiet month costs less, and the plans scale from 50 credits to 2,500 credits without forcing you onto a per-seat ladder (AutoEntry pricing page, accessed 2026-06-24).

If you run a bookkeeping or accounting practice that wants supplier-rule automation, the broadest integration list, and a single tool your whole team standardizes on, Dext is the most feature-complete. Just price its per-client Practice model against your actual client count first, because a book of many low-volume clients can cost more on Dext than on a per-document tool.

What "AI receipt capture" actually does in 2026

Before the tool-by-tool detail, it helps to name what the AI in these products does, because the category marketing makes all three sound identical when the real capability splits into a few distinct layers.

The base layer is data extraction. You photograph a receipt in a mobile app, forward a supplier invoice to a dedicated email address, or upload a PDF, and the tool reads the supplier name, date, total, and tax, then pushes a draft transaction into Xero or QuickBooks. Every tool here does this, and the accuracy on a clean printed invoice is high across all three. This is the part buyers usually test in a trial and the part that rarely separates the products.

The layer that does separate them is line-item extraction. A header-level capture reads the invoice total. A line-item capture reads every row on the invoice, the quantity, the unit price, and the account each line should hit. That matters for inventory, job costing, and any client who needs detail rather than a single lump sum. Hubdoc does not extract line items at all, AutoEntry does it at twice the credit cost of a plain document, and Dext includes it but limits the volume in lower tiers and charges add-ons beyond the allowance (Datamolino 2026 feature comparison and AutoEntry credit documentation, accessed 2026-06-24).

The third layer is automation and learning: supplier rules that remember how you coded a vendor last time, bank-statement conversion, and folder logic for clients with multiple locations. This is where Dext is deepest and Hubdoc is thinnest. When you compare these tools, weigh the line-item and automation layers more heavily than the base extraction, because the base extraction is roughly a tie and the higher layers are where your monthly time actually goes.

Dext: the deepest feature set, priced per client

Dext, formerly Receipt Bank and now owned by IRIS Software Group, is the most established name in this category and the most feature-complete. It captures receipts and invoices through a mobile app, email-in, and upload, learns supplier coding rules, converts bank statements within a per-client allowance, and exports to a long list of accounting platforms including Xero, QuickBooks Online, and Sage (Dext product pages, accessed 2026-06-24). For a practice that wants one capture tool the whole team standardizes on, it is the safe shortlist entry.

Pricing splits into two models. For a single business, the Business plan runs $31.50/month for 250 documents and up to 5 users, dropping to about $25.21/month if you pay annually (Dext pricing via G2 and costbench aggregates, accessed 2026-06-24). There is a 14-day free trial with no card required. For accountants and bookkeepers, Dext switches to a per-client Practice model: Essentials at $17.70 per client per month and Advanced at $19.20 per client per month, both with a 10-client minimum, which puts the practice entry point near $177 to $192 per month (Dext Practice pricing, accessed 2026-06-24).

The per-client model is the thing to scrutinize. If your clients each push high document volume, the flat per-client price can work in your favor because there is no per-document overage to watch. If your book is many small clients each sending 30 to 50 documents a month, you are paying a full client seat for light usage, and a per-document competitor often comes in cheaper at the same total volume. Line-item extraction and bank-statement processing are included only in limited quantities and metered as add-ons beyond that, and PDF auto-split is reserved for the Advanced plan (Datamolino 2026 feature comparison, accessed 2026-06-24).

AutoEntry: credit-based pricing, watch the multipliers

AutoEntry, owned by Sage since its acquisition, takes the opposite pricing approach to Dext. There are no per-user fees and no per-client minimum. You buy a monthly credit allowance and spend it on whatever documents you submit, which makes it the most flexible option for a firm with uneven volume or a mix of document types (AutoEntry pricing page, accessed 2026-06-24). Plans start at $17/month for 50 credits and $23/month for 100 credits, then scale through 200, 500, 1,500, and 2,500 credit tiers, all with unlimited users and unlimited clients (AutoEntry pricing page and G2 pricing data, accessed 2026-06-24). All AutoEntry subscriptions rose on September 1, 2025.

The credit math is where buyers get surprised, so it is worth being precise. A standard invoice, bill, or receipt costs 1 credit. An invoice processed with full line-item extraction costs 2 credits. A bank statement costs 3 credits per sheet (AutoEntry credit documentation, accessed 2026-06-24). So a "100 credit" plan does not mean 100 documents if your work involves line items and bank statements. A firm doing 40 line-item invoices and 10 bank-statement pages has already spent 110 credits on 50 documents. Credits also do not roll over month to month, and going past your allowance triggers an overage charge, so picking a tier slightly above your average month avoids paying overage rates on a busy one.

For receipt and bill capture without heavy line-item or bank-statement needs, AutoEntry is straightforward and the published price is honest. Its weak spots, per the review data and competitor comparisons, are that the product has felt static since the Sage acquisition and that line items and bank statements are comparatively expensive once the multipliers are applied (Datamolino 2026 comparison, accessed 2026-06-24).

Hubdoc: free with Xero, header-level only

Hubdoc is a Xero-owned product, and its single biggest selling point is the price. If your Xero organization is on a paid business-edition plan, Hubdoc is included at no extra cost, which makes it the obvious starting point for any Xero business that is not already paying for capture (Hubdoc pricing page and Xero Central, accessed 2026-06-24). For businesses not on a qualifying Xero plan, it is available standalone from around $12/month per company. It captures receipts and bills, reads supplier, date, and total, and pushes the document and a draft transaction into Xero with the source file attached.

The limits are equally clear. Hubdoc extracts header-level data only, with no line-item support, so any client who needs row-by-row detail is out of scope. Bank-statement handling is limited, there is no PDF auto-split, the automation logic is thin compared to Dext, and the interface is dated (Datamolino 2026 feature comparison, accessed 2026-06-24). Its review scores reflect this split personality: well-liked as a free add-on for basic needs, criticized when pushed beyond them.

The honest read on Hubdoc is that "free" is real but conditional. It is genuinely free if you already pay for Xero, and the right answer for a low-volume business that only needs receipts and bills captured at the header level. It stops being the right answer the moment you need line items, heavier bank-statement work, or you are running a multi-client practice that wants automation, at which point the paid tools earn their cost.

Dext vs Hubdoc vs AutoEntry: pricing and features at a glance

Factor	Dext	AutoEntry	Hubdoc
Owner	IRIS Software Group	Sage	Xero
Pricing model	Per business or per client	Per credit (per document)	Free with Xero, or flat standalone
Entry price	$31.50/mo (250 docs, business); $17.70/client/mo (practice, 10-client min)	$17/mo for 50 credits; $23/mo for 100 credits	$0 with paid Xero plan; ~$12/mo standalone
Per-user fees	Up to 5 users on Business; tiered	None (unlimited users)	None
Line-item extraction	Included but limited in lower tiers; add-ons apply	Yes, at 2 credits per document	No
Bank-statement capture	Limited allowance per client, then add-on	3 credits per sheet	Limited
Supplier-rule automation	Strong	Moderate	Limited
Main integrations	Xero, QuickBooks Online, Sage, others	Sage, Xero, QuickBooks Online	Xero (QuickBooks via export)
Free trial	14 days, no card	Trial credits	Free via Xero

Pricing reflects published US vendor rates and software-review aggregators as of 2026-06-24. Credit multipliers and feature limits are drawn from AutoEntry's credit documentation and Datamolino's 2026 feature comparison, cross-checked against each vendor's pricing page.

What the review data signals

The public review scores tell a consistent story once you read past the headline star ratings. On Capterra, AutoEntry holds the highest aggregate at 4.4 out of 5 across 227 reviews, with value for money rated 4.3 and customer service 4.4 (Capterra, accessed 2026-06-24). Dext sits at 4.3 out of 5 across 173 reviews, strong on ease of use at 4.3 but lower on customer service at 3.8 (Capterra, accessed 2026-06-24). Hubdoc comes in at 4.2 out of 5 across 92 reviews, with features and customer service both at 3.8 (Capterra, accessed 2026-06-24).

The Xero App Store, which skews toward Xero-centric bookkeepers, paints a sharper contrast. Dext sits at 4.8 stars and AutoEntry at 4.7, while Hubdoc trails at 3.3 (Xero App Store ratings via Datamolino, early 2026). The gap is the line-item and automation story showing up in user sentiment: bookkeepers who push these tools hard reward Dext and AutoEntry for handling detail and penalize Hubdoc for stopping at the header. Read together, the data supports the same conclusion as the pricing: Hubdoc rates well as a free basic tool and poorly as a primary capture engine, while Dext and AutoEntry both satisfy heavier users, with AutoEntry edging value perception and Dext edging features.

Common mistakes buyers make

The first mistake is treating Hubdoc's "free" as a true zero. It is only free if you already pay for a qualifying Xero plan. If you would not otherwise pay for Xero, the standalone Hubdoc cost and the limited feature set usually make a per-document tool the better value.

The second is ignoring AutoEntry's credit multipliers. Buyers size a plan by document count, forget that line items cost 2 credits and bank statements cost 3 credits per sheet, then blow through the allowance and pay overage. Size the plan by credits consumed, not documents submitted.

The third is putting a book of small clients on Dext's per-client model without doing the arithmetic. At a 10-client minimum and roughly $18 to $19 per client per month, a practice with many low-volume clients pays for full seats on light usage, where AutoEntry's per-credit pricing or Hubdoc's free tier often lands cheaper for the same total volume.

The fourth is buying for the demo instead of for your document mix. The clean printed invoice every vendor shows in a demo extracts well everywhere. Test each tool on your messiest real documents, your handwritten receipts, your multi-page statements, and your line-item-heavy supplier bills, because that is where the products actually diverge.

Sources and methodology

Pricing was pulled on 2026-06-24 from each vendor's published pricing page (Dext, AutoEntry, Hubdoc) and cross-checked against software-pricing aggregators including G2, Capterra, and costbench for the Dext figures, which Dext does not always list publicly in full. Credit costs and multipliers for AutoEntry come from AutoEntry's own credit documentation. Feature-level differences, including line-item support, PDF auto-split, and bank-statement handling, were drawn from Datamolino's February 2026 comparison (last updated 2026-06-10) and verified against vendor feature pages where possible. Datamolino sells a competing product, so its feature claims were treated as directional and confirmed against primary sources before inclusion. Review aggregates are from Capterra product pages (Dext n=173, AutoEntry n=227, Hubdoc n=92) and Xero App Store ratings as of early 2026. US dollar pricing is used throughout; vendors in other regions list local-currency equivalents that differ. Prices and ratings change, so confirm current figures on the vendor pages before you commit.