In this article, I will try to compare the two Shopify apps Cleero and Komfortkasse very objectively. Both serve to automate the payment reconciliation of manual payment methods such as cash in advance, purchase on invoice, cash on delivery, etc. So, this process: open the bank, log in, search for the payment for order #1234, search for the order in Shopify, and mark it as paid.

What type of payment reconciliation do both apps offer?

To address this, I would like to distinguish between two types of payment reconciliation: bookkeeping reconciliation and operational reconciliation.

Bookkeeping reconciliation ensures that every payment, whether it is a bank transfer, PayPal, or Stripe, is correctly posted or matched with every invoice.

Operational reconciliation ensures that the ordering process continues once a manual payment is received. This means that when the payment is received in the bank account, the order is set to paid, and the fulfillment team knows that it can now be processed and subsequently shipped.

This is exactly the type of reconciliation that Cleero and Komfortkasse offer.

How does this reconciliation happen?

1. Connect to the bank

2. Cleero regularly retrieves incoming payments from the bank account

3. Matching payments are assigned to open orders and marked as paid.

4. Unclear payments are displayed as suggestions for review

Comparison of Cleero and Komfortkasse

Comparison: Features

Comparison: Price

Prices of Komfortkasse

With Komfortkasse, a discount (a percentage fee of the reconciled payment) is charged. This percentage changes depending on the revenue of the last 30 days. The whole thing is not quite simple, which is why I am linking the pricing page here, also to ensure it is kept up to date: Komfortkasse Prices

Prices of Cleero

Cleero offers flat-rate pricing plans that make it easy to calculate how high the bill will be at the end of the month/year, as well as a percentage-based pricing plan for those who do not have many advance payment orders and for whom the first plan at $30/month for 100 reconciliations is not yet profitable.

I am also linking both types of pricing plans from Cleero.

Which app is cheaper?

To have a good comparison of when each app is cheaper, I built an Excel sheet that compares the pricing plans of both apps. I compare the discount rate of Komfortkasse, and the commission fee and flat rate of Cleero. Komfortkasse's discount structure was not very easy to recreate, but I managed it. :-)

The first image shows the price comparison from 0 to 1000 reconciliations with an AOV (AOV = average order value of a shop) of $100.

Result: You can clearly see that the flat-rate pricing plan is significantly cheaper at any number of reconciliations.

Image 2: AOV = $200

Result: The higher the AOV, the comparatively cheaper Cleero's flat rate becomes.

Image 3: AOV = $500

Result: The higher the AOV, the cheaper Cleero's flat rate gets. At 1000 reconciliations, you pay $2000 with Komfortkasse and $200 with Cleero—that is a 10-fold difference.

Image 4: AOV = $20

Result: Even with small average order values, Cleero's commission plan is cheaper than Komfortkasse's discount plan. From 2000 reconciliations, the game flips and the flat rate becomes cheaper than the discount from Komfortkasse.

Comparison: Reviews

Komfortkasse has a Shopify App Store rating of 4.3 out of 5 stars with 11 reviews.

Cleero has a Shopify App Store rating of 5 out of 5 stars with 13 reviews.

Comparison: Impressions

Cleero

Shopify App Store listing of Cleero

Dashboard of Cleero

Detail page of an order

Komfortkasse

Shopify App Store listing of Komfortkasse

Dashboard of Komfortkasse

Settings page of Komfortkasse

Conclusion

In terms of pricing, Cleero is clearly ahead; it is transparent, significantly cheaper, does not take a revenue cut, and the total costs can be calculated in advance for the entire year.

Regarding the features, you have to assess what is important to you. Komfortkasse offers a bit more, such as a refund option or collection letters. However, if you only want a lean solution to automate the still manual bank reconciliation, Cleero would definitely be simpler to set up and more straightforward.

Cleero's team has 6 years of experience in Shopify development and therefore has a corresponding advantage over Komfortkasse.

Cleero is also fully integrated into Shopify, which Komfortkasse is not; this carries risks for out-of-sync orders.

I hope this article helps you decide on one of the two apps.

If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out using our contact form!

Best regards,

Raphael