What is a cheaper alternative to Dext for a small business on Xero?

Short answer: for a small business whose paperwork is mostly till receipts, the cheaper route is a receipt-only app. On 11 November 2026 Dext's UK pricing page showed £24.17 a month excluding VAT for 5 users and 250 documents a month, which is about £29 with VAT at the 20% standard rate. Quenta costs £6 per user a month with VAT included, so it's cheaper for one to four people, and it has a free plan of 10 receipts a month per organisation. It's cheaper because it does less: Quenta turns a photographed receipt into a spend-money transaction in Xero with the image attached, and it doesn't read supplier bills.

This compares what Dext, Xero and Quenta publish about themselves, read on 11 November 2026. It's not accounting advice, and prices change, so check the linked pages before you decide.

How much does Dext cost in the UK?

Dext's UK pricing page lists a business plan at £24.17 a month, shown as "GBP, Excludes VAT", with 5 users and 250 documents a month, and £290 if you pay annually. The page has a slider for a bigger document allowance, so the price you see depends on what you pick, and the figure above is the starting point rather than a quote for your business. It also says that over the limit, extra uploads "will not have data extracted from them" until the next bill date or an upgrade.

Dext offers a 14-day free trial that doesn't ask for card details. Its pricing page lists extras such as bank statement extraction, supplier statement extraction and line item extraction, which a till-receipt app doesn't have.

Is there anything cheaper than Dext for Xero?

Yes. Two routes are cheaper than Dext's starting plan for a receipt-heavy business: the Xero plan you may already pay for, and a receipt-only app priced per person. The first costs nothing extra: Xero's UK pricing page says Hubdoc is included in the Ignite, Grow, Comprehensive and Ultimate plans (and is listed for Simple in Xero's terms), and lists Smart Document Capture as included in Ignite, Grow, Comprehensive and Ultimate. If you're already paying for one of those plans, try both before you add a subscription. A good alternative to Hubdoc for Xero compares Hubdoc with Quenta, and does Xero have a receipt scanner covers what Xero does on its own.

The second is a narrower app priced per person, which is where Quenta sits.

What does Quenta cost?

Quenta's free plan covers 10 receipts a month for each organisation, with no end date. Pro is £6 per user a month, or £60 per user a year, and the price includes tax. Pro is capped at 350 receipts a month per workspace under fair use, so it isn't unlimited. The pricing page has the current plans.

How do the prices compare for 1 to 5 people?

At one to four users Quenta's Pro plan is cheaper than Dext's starting plan, at five it's about the same, and above that it depends on your documents.

The Dext figure is £24.17 plus VAT at the 20% standard rate, rounded to the penny. Dext shows its figure excluding VAT, so what you pay depends on your own VAT position. The table covers the starting plan only. It also doesn't count documents: Dext's 250 are per business, Quenta's 350 are per workspace, and a team that sends bills as well as receipts would use Dext's allowance on a different mix.

What do you give up by choosing Quenta?

You give up everything that isn't a receipt for something already paid. Quenta doesn't fetch bills or supplier invoices, it doesn't handle bank statements, it doesn't turn a receipt into a bill and it only works with Xero. Foreign-currency receipts are posted without VAT and may ask for the amount your bank actually charged. Quenta doesn't decide whether you can reclaim VAT on a purchase.

What you get is one job done to the end. You photograph the receipt on your phone, upload it on the web at app.quenta.so or forward it by email. Quenta reads the merchant, date, total, currency and VAT details and posts an authorised spend-money transaction on the bank account you chose, with the original attached (how Quenta works). When the card payment arrives on the bank feed the transaction is already waiting, and you confirm the match (why that order helps). If Quenta needs one answer before it can post safely, it holds the receipt in Review and asks (review and fix).

When is Dext still the better choice?

Dext is the better choice if suppliers send you invoices that you pay later and you want them in Xero as bills, or if you need bank statement or line item extraction. In that case a receipt-only app isn't a replacement. You can also run both, with Dext taking the bills and Quenta taking the receipts, as long as each receipt goes through only one of them, or you'll get two transactions for one purchase.

Quick answers

What is a cheaper alternative to Dext for a small business? If most of your paperwork is till receipts, Quenta: a free plan of 10 receipts a month, then £6 per user a month, with each receipt posted to Xero with the image attached. If you're on a Xero plan that includes Hubdoc, that's already paid for.

How much is Dext in the UK? £24.17 a month excluding VAT for 5 users and 250 documents on 11 November 2026, according to Dext's pricing page, with a slider for more documents.

Does Quenta have a free plan? Yes, 10 receipts a month per organisation, with no expiry.

Does Quenta replace Dext completely? No. It handles receipts for payments already made and doesn't fetch bills, supplier invoices or bank statements.

Does Quenta work with anything other than Xero? No, it's built for Xero only.

To get receipts into Xero with the image attached and no typing, see receipt scanning for Xero. Try it today.

Quenta is an independent app from We UC Ltd. Xero and Hubdoc are trademarks of Xero Limited, and Dext is a trademark of its owner. Quenta is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of them.

Photograph it and forget it.