Dext (formerly Receipt Bank) automates receipt capture and supplier coding at $25-60 per month. Free tools — Wave's receipt scanner, Zoho Expense, Microsoft Lens, and Google Drive — handle capture, OCR, and filing at $0. Here are the best free Dext alternatives.
| Alternative | Price | Best For | No Signup? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wave Receipts (Free) | Free (unlimited scans) | Free receipt capture | Account needed |
| Zoho Expense (Free) | Free (3 users) | Receipts with approvals | Account needed |
| Microsoft Lens (Free) | Free (with Microsoft account) | Scan receipts to PDF and Office | Account needed |
| Google Drive (Free) | Free (15 GB storage) | Document storage with OCR search | Account needed |
| Zoho Books (Free) | Free (1 user) | Receipt capture into the books | Account needed |
Wave's app scans and OCRs receipts with unlimited capacity and pushes them into free Wave accounting — Dext's core capture workflow at $0.
Zoho Expense free scans receipts, builds expense reports, and routes approvals for 3 users — Dext-style capture plus workflow at no cost.
Microsoft Lens scans receipts to PDF and extracts text, saving directly to OneDrive — a free building block for DIY document capture.
Google Drive stores receipt photos with automatic OCR text search and easy sharing with your accountant — a simple digital filing cabinet.
Zoho Books free lets one user snap receipts with OCR and attach them to transactions — Dext's capture-to-ledger loop in a single free app.
Dext costs $25-60/month (Solo & Business plans). That is $300-720/year every year — money that could go toward building an AI-powered income stream instead. Our case studies show that you can build complete revenue-generating systems using only free tools.
| Option | Monthly Cost | Annual Cost | 5-Year Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dext | $25-60 | $300-720 | $1,500-3,600 |
| Free Alternatives | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Savings | $300-720/year/year saved | ||
The best free alternative to Dext depends on your needs. Wave Receipts (Free) is ideal for free receipt capture. Zoho Expense (Free) is ideal for receipts with approvals. Microsoft Lens (Free) is ideal for scan receipts to pdf and office. All of these alternatives are free or have generous free tiers.
Dext costs $25-60/month (Solo & Business plans). For most individual users and small projects, the free alternatives listed here provide 80-100% of the functionality at zero cost. Teams with complex collaboration needs may find the paid version worthwhile, but solo creators and small businesses can save hundreds per year.
Yes. The alternatives we list are production-ready tools used by millions. Most people switching from Dext find that 2-3 free tools combined cover all their needs, often with better specialised features than the all-in-one paid product.
Yes. Every alternative listed is a well-established tool with active development, large user bases, and transparent privacy policies. Open-source options like those from Hugging Face and Ollama are additionally auditable — you can inspect the code yourself.
Switching from Dext ($25-60/month (Solo & Business plans)) to free alternatives saves you $300-720/year per year. Over 5 years, that is enough to fund a side business or invest in other tools.
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