Quipu vs Holded vs Contasimple: what each one actually claims

What each one claims about Verifactu

Verifactu is the Spanish invoicing regime set by Royal Decree 1007/2023. All three sites say they comply and all three say they comply now, not later. The difference is in the shape of the commitment, which is what a buyer should read and almost nobody does.

Quipu publishes a formal compliance declaration, dated 29 July 2025, citing article 29.2.j of Spanish law 58/2003, the regulation approved by Royal Decree 1007/2023 and Order HAC/1177/2024. It also answers in writing a question hardly anyone answers: whether the system was built so that it can only ever operate exclusively as VERI*FACTU. Its answer is yes.

Contasimple carries the same date, 29 July 2025, and describes its system as fully adapted and certified, with guaranteed traceability, unalterable invoices and automatic filing to the tax authority. Its distinctive contribution is taking the fact down to plan level: the free tier is shown as Verifactu ready, and the two paid plans as ready for both Verifactu and non Verifactu, meaning the alternative regime allowed during the transition period.

Holded writes that it is adapted to the tax agency's Verifactu system, guaranteeing compliance with every technical and legal requirement, and adds a credential the other two do not claim: being officially registered as a social collaborator with the Spanish tax agency. Its page also lists features already operating, in fairly concrete terms and with no future tense: draft invoices before submission, automatic cancellation with a live connection to the tax agency, an event log with audit trails, automatic generation of the QR code and the electronic signature, and real time accounting integration.

All three wordings are valid and none contradicts the others. What changes is what you can verify from outside. A formal declaration can be read end to end and filed; a per plan label tells you what exactly you bought; a list of live features tells you what you will see on screen. A prudent buyer asks for all three and settles for two.

The three price ladders, compared as far as they allow

All three charge per account rather than per user, which makes them comparable, but each rung measures something different: Quipu climbs on accounting depth, Contasimple on document volume, and Holded on invoices per year and number of users.

Prices checked on 8 September 2026: Quipu, plans and pricing, Contasimple, pricing, Holded, pricing.

Three warnings about that table. The figures are standard prices: Quipu and Holded both show considerably lower three month promotions, and budgeting a year on those is a reliable way to be wrong. Contasimple's number is the quarterly billing price, 20 % lower if you pay yearly, and Quipu discounts two months on annual billing. And Holded sells separately several modules people assume are included, such as the B2B catalogue, the SII filing connector and manufacturing, each with its own rate.

Quotes: all three have them, and they are not the same

All three issue quotes and all three convert them into invoices, so the useful row is not whether they exist but what surrounds them.

Quipu offers them unlimited on all three plans, with no document cap even on the entry tier, which for anyone sending many small proposals is the whole difference. Contasimple has a product page of its own, with email delivery, one click conversion into an invoice and electronic signature of the quote by the client. Holded is the most complete of the three on this piece: its own numbering separate from invoices, customisable templates, validity dates with reminders, status tracking across draft, sent, viewed, accepted and rejected, and acceptance with a legally valid digital signature.

That separate numbering in Holded deserves a note, because it is a technical detail with real consequences. If quotes share a counter with invoices, a rejected quote leaves a gap exactly where the regulation asks for a consecutive series with no jumps. Keeping them on separate counters avoids that conversation with your accountant before it happens.

Contracts: the word that means something else

Here sits the most common mistake when comparing these three, and it is worth placing precisely because it costs money. Holded offers contracts in the cloud, and they are not commercial contracts with a client: they are employment contracts for staff, inside its HR and payroll module. Personnel documentation, not a services agreement with line items and a scope.

Quipu and Contasimple simply publish no contract module. With Contasimple the check is easy to make and the result is unambiguous: the address on their site that carries the word contracts is an educational article about contract types for the self employed, not a product feature. With Quipu it appears neither in the pricing table nor in the Verifactu declaration.

So the honest answer to "which of the three manages my client contracts" is none of them. If a services agreement with line items, a scope and an amount is a piece you need to keep in order, you will not solve it inside these three tools, and it is worth knowing that before signing up rather than three months later.

Series, IRPF and VAT regimes

These three fields separate a program that works in Spain from one that only looks like it does, and all three are documented worse than they should be.

Invoice numbering series are not detailed in any of the three pricing tables. Holded comes closest, because its Verifactu page mentions consecutive and logical numbering with no gaps or repetitions as a requirement met, though it does not explain how several series are handled at once. Quipu and Contasimple do not mention it distinctly on the pages you can consult.

IRPF withholding, the income tax a Spanish invoice may retain, is present in two of the three. Contasimple computes forms 130 and 100 and handles rental withholding, through forms 115 and 180, and supplier withholding, through 111 and 190. Holded includes IRPF forms from its second plan. Quipu references that family of forms as a tax feature, though it does not break it down in the pricing table.

VAT regimes are the shared gap. None of the three publishes how many regimes or exemption grounds it supports. All three cover forms 303 and 390, and intra community transactions through 347 and 349 appear at least in Contasimple, but the specific number of regimes is information you have to ask support for, because it is not written anywhere you can check.

Which one suits whom

Quipu if you value the documentary commitment. The dated formal declaration, quoting the regulation and answering explicitly which mode the system runs in, is the highest level of formality of the three, and a short three plan ladder with unlimited quotes from the first rung is easy to project.

Contasimple if you want to start without paying and signature matters to you. The permanent free tier with real invoicing is an honest front door, the per tier Verifactu labelling saves you a badly made decision on the first invoice, and electronic signature of documents and quotes is something Quipu does not have.

Holded if what you need is a suite. Full bookkeeping, connected banks, reconciliation rules, corporate tax, access for your accountant and the widest module catalogue of the three, including automatic QR generation and audit trails. It is also the most expensive at the top of its ladder, by a wide margin, and the one whose real cost depends most on which add ons you end up switching on. A company that closes its own year inside one tool will find the money back; a sole trader issuing a dozen invoices a quarter almost certainly will not.

And a closing note for transparency, because this site belongs to a product: GoFeed is not in this comparison. It is not an accounting package, it does not file to the tax agency and it computes no forms; it issues the commercial paperwork for the content work it manages, and in most agencies it sits alongside one of these three rather than replacing it. That contrast, when it is relevant, is in the Holded comparison, the Quipu comparison and the Contasimple comparison, and the full picture of the category is in the agency invoicing software guide.