As of 28 Oct 2026, the panel rates d.velop documents 2.5/5 and DocuWare 2.5/5 in Document Management (DMS). Weighted by what each judge cares about, 3 of the 6 judges pick d.velop documents and 3 pick DocuWare. d.velop documents scores higher on 3 of 6 criteria (Versioning, permissions & audit trail, Audit-proof archiving & retention and Search, retrieval & exit). DocuWare scores higher on 2 of 6 criteria (Capture, OCR & indexing and European sovereignty). Provenance — d.velop documents: EU-Made; DocuWare: EU origin, foreign-owned. Ratings are the AI panel’s opinion, formed from public evidence: how scores are made.
d.velop documents leads on versioning and permissions, 3.8 vs 2.8 (5 judges lean d.velop documents, 0 DocuWare, 1 tie), and on audit-proof archiving, 4.7 vs 3.7 (5, 0, 1). DocuWare leads capture and indexing, 7.3 vs 7.0 (2 leans, 0, 4 ties). Document workflows is level at 6.8 (1 lean each, 4 ties); search and portability splits 2-2 with 2 ties; sovereignty reads 4.2 vs 4.3, 2 leans to DocuWare and 3 ties; pricing transparency, weighted only for d.velop documents because published prices exist, sits at 1.8 vs 1.5 with 5 ties. Judge totals split: DocuWare ahead with the tax auditor, 5.1 vs 4.8, and the IT integrator, 5.7 vs 5.6; d.velop documents ahead with the records analyst, the data protection officer and the skeptic. Attributes: d.velop documents — jurisdiction DE, data residency unknown; DocuWare — data residency EU only, ownership unknown. No overall winner: the lean differs by judge and criterion.
Choose d.velop documents if
You need tight control over document versions and access rights — versioning and permissions leans d.velop documents 5 judges to 0, mean 3.8 vs 2.8.
Your archive must stand up in a German tax audit — audit-proof archiving leans d.velop documents 5 judges to 0, mean 4.7 vs 3.7.
You require a vendor with a German legal-entity jurisdiction — the captured attribute for d.velop documents lists jurisdiction DE.
Your buying panel mirrors the records analyst or the data protection officer — their weighted totals favor d.velop documents at 4.8 vs 4.3 and 4.5 vs 4.2.
Published prices matter to your shortlisting — pricing transparency carries a 1-to-0 lean to d.velop documents with 5 ties, and its verdicts are the only ones weighted for pricing because published prices exist.
Choose DocuWare if
High-volume document intake is your priority — capture and indexing leans DocuWare, mean 7.3 vs 7.0, with 2 judges leaning DocuWare, 0 d.velop documents and 4 ties.
You must keep document data within the EU — the captured attribute for DocuWare lists data residency EU only.
Your priorities match the tax auditor's rubric — that judge's weighted total reads 5.1 vs 4.8 for DocuWare.
Your IT integrator leads the evaluation — that judge's weighted total reads 5.7 vs 5.6 for DocuWare.
Sovereignty is a scored criterion in your evaluation — it leans DocuWare 2 judges to 1 with 3 ties, mean 4.3 vs 4.2.
Read this comparison as one judge. Each weighs the same scores by what they care about.
The Records Manager
Owns the filing plan and gets the call when a contract from 2019 cannot be found. Wants metadata that is set at capture rather than typed later, version history with restore, search that respects permissions, and a bulk export that keeps metadata and versions together.
d.velop documents
This judge's pick
DocuWare
Criterion by criterion
Capture, OCR & indexing
d.velop documents
Intake channels are named — scanner and camera capture, email and the Peppol network — with OCR, automatic extraction of invoice number, order number, date, creditor and line-item data, and an AI-supported review step; ZUGFeRD and XRechnung invoices are captured and processed as structured formats. We found no public information on duplicate detection, on classification being trainable per document type, or on where AI processing runs.
DocuWare
Splitting, AI classification and extraction with confidence scores are documented, with vendor name, amount, due date and line items captured automatically at filing time — metadata set at capture, as it should be. A custom extraction model is trainable on a few sample documents without coding, extracted bank details are validated, low-quality and skewed scans are handled, and e-invoices are received and validated for PEPPOL. I found no public information on mailbox or Microsoft 365 intake, duplicate detection at capture, XRechnung or ZUGFeRD read as structured data, or where the AI processing runs.
Versioning, permissions & audit trail
d.velop documents
A version is stored for every change to a document under version management, and archive access is governed by individually configured permission structures that also bind the AI functions. We found no public information on restoring earlier versions, check-in and check-out, role or group rights, single sign-on, or a log of who read or changed a document.
DocuWare
The pages describe concurrent editing with the option to lock a document for other users, workflow tasks assigned to named employees or roles, and a workflow history recording which user made which decision; an archiving page states a system's history should be viewable and exportable in a common file format. I found no public information on version history with restore, a permission model per folder or document type, single sign-on or directory sync, or an audit log of who read or changed a document — for a records system that is the gap I care about most.
Audit-proof archiving & retention
d.velop documents
GoBD-compliant, revisionssichere archiving is stated for d.velop documents, immutability is addressed through versioning and retention policies that prevent deletion and modification, and sample Verfahrensdokumentations and GoBD guidance are offered. We found no public information on retention periods configurable per document type, on an auditor's report or WORM storage, or on tax-audit data export.
DocuWare
Revisionssichere Archivierung is claimed for invoice processing, and the German archiving pages give real retention guidance — eight years for booking records since January 2025, ten for annual accounts, six for business letters, e-invoices kept in digital original form — and mention workflow tools that respect legal rules for protecting or destroying documents at set times. But the claim is only a word: I found no public information on how immutability of archived documents is achieved, WORM storage, an auditor's report, a sample Verfahrensdokumentation, legal hold, or the tax-audit data export.
Document workflows & integrations
d.velop documents
The invoice workflow is well documented — individually configurable review and approval steps, automatic three-way match against order data, substitutes notified on absence, due-date and discount management, mobile participation and approvals via an SAP Fiori app — with named connectors for SAP, SAGE, APplus, Oracle, Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Microsoft 365, a documented REST API and a digital signature module. We found no public information on graphical workflow modelling without code, escalation rules, webhooks, or a DATEV connector.
DocuWare
The Workflow Manager is documented properly: drag-and-drop modelling without programming, triggers from web forms, document types, status changes and due dates, deadlines with automatic escalation, substitution rules, self-updating task lists with email notification, assignment to employees or roles, a controller who can intervene, and a history of each user's decisions. Invoice processing adds dynamic approval workflows sending invoices directly to the accounting system, preconfigured single or multi-step approvals, a claimed 500+ integrations, DATEV and Varial in named reference projects, an API for real-time data flow, and CSV export usable by any accounting or ERP system. I found no public information on REST API documentation with webhooks, connectors for SAP or Microsoft Dynamics with their scope, or e-signature integration.
Search, retrieval & exit
d.velop documents
Search runs in real time across company applications, an AI answer function returns answers about document content with source citations under the user's access rights, saved search templates and favourite documents are named, and mobile apps for Android, iOS and iPadOS support viewing, editing, release and offline use of documents. We found no public information on bulk export of documents together with their metadata and versions, or on any documented exit path at the end of a contract.
DocuWare
Full-text and index-data search are documented with access from home office and mobile, which covers finding the 2019 contract again. The export pages document filtered, time-controlled export of index data and table-field content such as posting items to CSV for any accounting or ERP system, with nearly all export functions included in every cloud license and on-premises export via additional licenses on PROFESSIONAL or ENTERPRISE Server. I found no public information on bulk export of the documents themselves together with their metadata and versions in a documented structure, saved searches, or the post-termination retrieval window — the exit is only partly designed.
European sovereignty
d.velop documents
The contracting entity is d.velop AG of Schildarpstraße 6-8, 48712 Gescher, Germany, registered in the commercial register at Coesfeld under HRB 4903, the vendor describes itself as the only vendor in its comparison fully under European ownership and free of US jurisdiction risks, and cloud, on-premises and hybrid operation are documented. We found no public information on where the cloud edition stores and processes documents and metadata, on the subprocessors behind hosting and AI processing, or on a published data processing agreement.
DocuWare
The pages prove European elements: DocuWare GmbH at a Germering address as controller, German governing law with Munich venue, and a genuine on-premises edition with licence terms for locally installed systems; one captured page also names dedicated data centres in the EU and the USA with triple mirroring, while where cloud documents are stored is not confirmed on the vendor's own captured pages. I found no public information on the ownership, on subprocessors or AI providers that would read document content, a published DPA, or certifications with their scope.
Pricing transparency
d.velop documents
The captured pages state no price for the software itself and direct the offer exclusively at business customers; the public store lists only training prices such as "749,00 €*" for live trainings and "290,00 €*" for a sales training. A buyer therefore cannot compute what a given number of users, storage or modules will cost from public pages alone.
DocuWare
No price figure appears on any captured page — the terms speak of agreed prices, ex works, plus statutory VAT, payable in 14 days where credit-insured or by prepayment or cash on delivery otherwise. The public pages give licence structure only: nearly all export functions included in every cloud license, on-premises export as additional licenses on PROFESSIONAL or ENTERPRISE Server, Workflow Manager as an on-premises add-on, add-on purchases tied to a current maintenance and support subscription, and a free demo followed by a 30-day trial. A buyer cannot compute a single euro of cost from these pages.
Sovereignty, side by side
Dimension
d.velop documents
DocuWare
Legal entity
Not determined
Not determined
Ownership
Not determined
Not determined
Data residency
Not determined
Not determined
Subprocessors
Not determined
Not determined
Facts, side by side
Only facts both products carry under the same definition — anything else would not be a fair row.
As of 28 Oct 2026, the panel rates both 2.5/5. Weighted by what each judge cares about, 3 of the 6 judges pick d.velop documents and 3 pick DocuWare. Which one fits depends on the criteria that matter to you; the table on this page shows both side by side, and each judge’s reading has its own page. Both were scored by the same AI bench under the same rubric, from public evidence only, as the methodology describes.
Is d.velop documents or DocuWare European?
d.velop documents is European (EU-Made). DocuWare is European (EU origin, foreign-owned). Provenance is read from each company’s own legal pages: who builds it and who owns it.