Purpose
Kontier is a billing system for the European market, positioned as "Europe's billing layer." It turns product catalogs, seats, and usage events into payable, auditable invoices, and handles EU VAT OSS, XRechnung, SEPA, and DATEV in the same API. According to the official description, self-service and usage-based models have caused billing requirements to grow sharply, and generic payment plugins and self-built pipelines often fail at the first price adjustment, so Kontier rebuilt the stack: to align billing methods with European audit requirements.
Main Capabilities
The product is officially summarized as "four systems, one billing layer," which can be used separately or run as a pipeline, with the same API used for prototyping and production:
- Monetization (Monetisieren): Treat catalogs, seats, plan tiers, promotions, and usage metering as data rather than code, so price adjustments require no deployment. The page example shows a catalog containing entries such as Seat 29.00 €, Usage 0.004 €, and Outcome 2.5%.
- Invoicing & Tax (Rechnung & Steuer): Input an event, output an XRechnung invoice. In one pass, it completes 2,184 tax rules, OSS, FX pinning, and proration. Page example: {"meter": "api_calls", "qty": 4.200} corresponds to a net amount of 384.30 €, VAT of 73.02 €, and total of 457.32 €.
- Collection & Recovery (Einziehen & Retten): Supports SEPA, Stripe, and GoCardless, together with R-Transaction routing, and built-in dunning, retries, wallets, and holds.
- Closing & Audit (Abschließen & Prüfen): Provides a signed ledger, supports IFRS 15 / ASC 606, GoBD, and DATEV export, and claims monthly closing can be completed without Excel.
The page also mentions: 2,184 rules based on 2006/112/EC, OSS thresholds, FX pinning and proration are determined by line item rather than by country; every posting in the ledger is signed and chained; R-Transaction codes drive retry strategies, and wallets, holds, and multi-path collection can recover revenue that would otherwise be lost. In addition, the official comparison table says Kontier is "fully supported" for EU VAT (OSS, Reverse Charge, VIES), XRechnung (native, with Leitweg-ID), FX pinning per invoice, quantity discounts/tiered rates/packages (with formulas), Marketplace settlement, AI Dunning + R-Transaction routing, RFC 9457 errors + idempotent webhooks, test clock + sandbox keys, German UI + support, Managed Cloud (EU-only), and more; it also says ZUGFeRD, Factur-X, Peppol, and DATEV can all be used in Kontier.
How to Use
The official workflow is "from usage event to paid invoice":
- Connect catalog and usage (Katalog & Usage anbinden).
- Choose a blueprint (Blueprint wählen).
- Invoice and close (Abrechnen & abschließen).
The onboarding steps are:
- Try free for 14 days, using real data in your own workspace.
- Get an API key; the sandbox includes real EU tax rules.
- Issue your first invoice, XRechnung-compliant from day one.
You can also book a 15-minute technical demo, in which an engineer demonstrates based on your pricing model and tax requirements.
As for blueprints, the official offering includes 12 documented blueprints with ready-made API calls, configurable rather than built from scratch, including:
- 01 SaaS per seat: seats × monthly price, prorated by day; example POST /v1/subscriptions { "price": "pro_seat_v3", "quantity": 12 }
- 02 API platform: calls × 0.0004 €, tiered pricing after 5 M; example POST /v1/usage { "meter": "api_calls", "quantity": 18402 }
- 03 Cloud infrastructure: vCPU-h × €0.031 + outbound traffic GB × €0.02; example POST /v1/usage { "meter": "vcpu_hours", "quantity": 713.5 }
- 04 Marketplace + payments: GMV × 12% commission → split payments; example POST /v1/charges { "amount": 10000, "split": { "fee": 1200 } }
- 05 Distributor network: list price − 30% gross margin, by partner tier; example POST /v1/invoices { "customer": "reseller_…", "price": "tier_gold" }
- 06 Domain registrar: registration + renewal × number of years, promotions supported; example POST /v1/subscriptions { "price": "domain_renewal" }
- 07 Hybrid PaaS: base fee €49 + usage beyond the free quota; example POST /v1/usage { "meter": "build_minutes", "quantity": 420 }
- 08 Subscription box: €29.90/month, annual payment −15%; example POST /v1/subscriptions { "price": "box_monthly" }
- 09 Telecom operator: monthly fee + GB tiers; example POST /v1/usage { "meter": "data_gb", "quantity": 38.2 }
- 10 Creator platform: revenue − 10% platform fee → payout; example POST /v1/charges { "amount": 500, "split": { "creator": "acct_…" } }
- 11 Enterprise SaaS: fixed fee per entity + PO reference; example POST /v1/invoices { "customer": "entity_de_…", "price": "ent_flat" }
- 12 Outcome-based services: base fee + bonus per milestone; example POST /v1/invoices { "price": "milestone_golive" }
Applicable scenarios
Suitable for billing scenarios targeting the European market that need to handle EU VAT and compliant invoicing, including self-service and usage-based SaaS, API platforms, cloud infrastructure, marketplaces, distributor networks, domain registration, hybrid PaaS, subscription boxes, telecom operators, creator platforms, enterprise SaaS, and outcome-based services, among others.
Limitations
The material does not provide further details on feature limits, regional support scope (other than "EU-only managed cloud"), technical dependencies, data retention, or compliance certifications; the support status in the comparison table comes from official pages, marked "Stand: Juli 2026," and is based on each vendor's public documentation. Actual feature availability, whether it is fully supported, and the legal compliance effect must be subject to actual use and the latest official statements. The specific terms of free trials and paid plans are subject to the official pages.
