Small business cloud

✓ Vetted by Audit Friendly

Side-by-side comparison

Dext vs Lightyear

Name: Lightyear Review
Item: Lightyear
Rating: 68
Author: Audit Friendly

Dext leads on AI and agent readiness and implementation. Lightyear leads on compliance depth and scalability.

We earn a referral fee from some vendors. It never changes our scores, which come from our published eight-dimension rubric.

AF score

Agent readiness

In market since

2010

2017

Best fit

Dext

Firms and SMBs on Xero or QBO

Lightyear

UK and ANZ SMEs on Xero or QBO

The verdict

Dext

AF score 70 / 100 · Leads on 4 of 8

Higher score, +2

Choose it if

An accounting or bookkeeping firm collecting receipts and bills from dozens of Xero or QuickBooks Online clients
A small business that wants supplier rules and a multi-stage approval step before bills reach the ledger
A UK practice that wants to run client supplier, expense and payroll payments from the same inbox

Try Dext

$25.21/mo for 250 docs (published)

Lightyear

AF score 68 / 100 · Leads on 4 of 8

Choose it if

A UK, Irish, Australian or New Zealand business on Xero
Hospitality, retail and care groups that raise POs
Accounting and bookkeeping firms running AP for many clients from one parent account

Visit Lightyear site

$199 to $319/mo (published) Read our full Lightyear review

Partner links: Audit Friendly may earn a referral fee if you sign up or take a demo through them. It never changes our scores or rankings. How we review

Scores from our independent reviews of both tools. Prices verified 12 Nov 2026.

At a glance

Fact	Dext	Lightyear
Best fit	Firms and SMBs on Xero or QBO	UK and ANZ SMEs on Xero or QBO
Price	$25.21/mo for 250 docs (published)	$199 to $319/mo (published)
Pricing model	Published: per document volume, or per client for firms	Published credit tiers: per document, unlimited users
Implementation	Low	Low
Time to go live	Days, self-serve (AF estimate)	4 to 6 weeks (vendor)
Agent readiness	✓ 4 / 5	2 / 5
AF score	✓ 70 / 100	68 / 100

✓ marks a clear edge. Prices are as each vendor publishes them, verified 12 Nov 2026.

AF scores by dimension

Dext leads on

AI and agent readiness

+16

Payments & money movement

+12

Implementation

Pricing transparency

Lightyear leads on

Support

+18

GL and ERP fit

+16

Compliance depth

Scalability

Each dimension is scored 0 to 100 in the full reviews. The chip shows the leader's margin.

What each costs

Dext

$25.21/mo for 250 docs (published)

Published: per document volume, or per client for firms

Lightyear

$199 to $319/mo (published)

Published credit tiers: per document, unlimited users

Compare plans on their own sites

Dext$25.21/mo for 250 docs (published)Try Dext

Lightyear$199 to $319/mo (published)Visit Lightyear site

Where each falls short

Dext is a weak fit for

A US finance team that needs its capture tool to pay vendors by ACH
A mid-market team on NetSuite, Sage Intacct, Business Central or SAP
A team that wants an AI agent or script to edit inbox items

Lightyear is a weak fit for

Teams that want AP to pay suppliers
US companies that need W-9 collection, 1099 filing
Finance teams planning to run AP through an AI agent