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Hungary · Agentic SaaS development

SaaS Development for Hungary: Billing, VAT and Online Számla

A common mistake when launching a SaaS product from Hungary is treating an invoice as a PDF the billing provider emails. Where Hungarian invoicing rules apply, the invoicing software must send the data to NAV's Online Számla system immediately on issue, automatically in XML. Add a 27% general VAT rate, a currency that is the forint rather than the euro, and the reverse charge for business customers in other EU countries, and billing becomes part of the architecture.

Curiosive, a studio in Ankara, Türkiye, runs its SaaS work on AI coding agents whose output senior engineers review. Engineers design the multi-tenant data model, tenant isolation, plan and entitlement logic and idempotent billing webhooks. Agents produce the CRUD screens, admin views, migrations and test suites around them. Your working day sits one hour behind Ankara in summer and two in winter, so most of it is shared.

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VAT on selling SaaS from Hungary to customers in the EU

Hungary's general VAT rate is 27%, with preferential rates of 18%, 5% and 0%, according to NAV guidance last updated in January 2026. Which treatment a sale gets depends on the buyer. Under EU VAT rules, a business customer in another EU country usually pays VAT at its own country's rate under the reverse charge, although there are several important exceptions. Electronic services sold to consumers are taxed in the customer's country, though below a EUR 10,000 threshold they may be subject to VAT where the seller is established. The One Stop Shop lets a seller register in one EU country to declare and pay VAT on those cross-border supplies. So checkout needs the customer type, country and VAT number before it prices anything. We build that logic; your accountant confirms how it applies to your company.

Online Számla reporting and e-invoicing rules in Hungary

Since 4 January 2021, data for every invoice under the Hungarian VAT Act's invoicing rules goes to NAV's Online Számla system, with listed exceptions such as distance services reported through the one-stop shop. That includes invoices to foreign VAT-registered buyers and to private individuals, whose name and address must be left out, and foreign businesses registered for VAT in Hungary report for their Hungarian activity. The software sends the report immediately on issue, as XML, without human intervention, so a retry queue and an audit log belong in the billing design. Separately, the Commission's country page, updated on 6 March 2026, records no general B2B, B2C or B2G e-invoicing mandate in Hungary, although public sector entities have had to be able to receive EN 16931 e-invoices since 1 November 2019. From 1 July 2030, Directive (EU) 2025/516 requires European-standard e-invoices for intra-EU supplies between businesses.

Taking payments in Hungary: instant transfers and SCA

For customers paying in forints, the Instant Payment System is worth planning for. Launched by the Magyar Nemzeti Bank on 2 March 2020 and operated by GIRO Zrt., it settles domestic electronic HUF transfers below HUF 20 million within 5 seconds, 24/7, with no extra fee, and can pay to a registered mobile number, email address or tax ID instead of an account number. Card checkout follows the PSD2 standards on strong customer authentication, which let providers skip it for a remote electronic payment of no more than EUR 30, but only while the payer's remote payments since the last authentication stay within a cumulative EUR 100 or five consecutive transactions. Whatever the method, engineers treat the payment provider's events as the source of truth and make webhook handlers idempotent, so a redelivered event never grants or revokes access twice.

Accessibility and Data Act duties for SaaS sold in Hungary

Act XVII of 2022, which entered into force on 28 June 2025, transposes the European Accessibility Act in Hungary. It covers consumer services such as e-commerce, retail banking, e-books and dedicated software, and electronic communications. Micro-enterprises providing services, with fewer than 10 staff and annual net turnover or balance sheet total of at most the HUF equivalent of EUR 2 million, are exempt. Enforcement is split: the consumer protection authority handles e-commerce and e-books, the Magyar Nemzeti Bank retail banking, and NMHH electronic communications. Separately, the EU Data Act has applied since 12 September 2025 to data processing services, including SaaS. Switching terms need a written contract with at most two months' notice and a transitional period of no more than 30 calendar days, and until 12 January 2027 switching charges are capped at the costs directly linked to the switch, after which none may be charged.

Multi-tenant architecture: what agents build and engineers own

Tenant separation sits in the data model, so engineers design it before agents generate anything: every table carries the tenant key, every query is scoped by it, and access checks are tested per role. Plan and entitlement logic reads one source of truth for subscription state, so a cancelled customer loses access and a recovered payment restores it. Agents then produce the CRUD screens, admin views, migrations and test suites, and a senior engineer reviews each diff before it merges. Reveal Software (reveal.software), personal video onboarding for SaaS products, was built for a client in Romania on Hono, Drizzle ORM and PostgreSQL. PicKey (pickey.ai), a visual password manager for a client in India, runs its subscription billing on Stripe.

Proof

Published project examples

Reveal Software

Reveal Software

Release Coach AI

Release Coach AI

Inspire Film

Inspire Film

Poppin

Poppin

Zing Coach

Zing Coach

ChurchBee

ChurchBee

AI-accelerated development
from$2,000
per month

Senior engineers building your product with AI coding agents: web, mobile, SaaS or browser extension, reviewed before anything ships.

  • Web, mobile, SaaS and browser extensions
  • AI-assisted delivery under senior engineer review
  • Scope and capacity agreed in writing, renews monthly

AI-accelerated development, billed monthly. We confirm scope, capacity and start date in writing before checkout.

Questions

The things people ask before starting.

What is the VAT rate in Hungary for a SaaS company?

The general rate is 27%, with preferential rates of 18%, 5% and 0%, according to NAV guidance updated in January 2026. Whether a sale carries Hungarian VAT depends on the buyer: business customers in other EU countries usually pay under the reverse charge, and consumer sales are taxed in the customer's country, with an exception below EUR 10,000.

Does a Hungarian SaaS company have to report invoices to NAV in real time?

Yes, for invoices covered by the Hungarian VAT Act's invoicing rules. Since 4 January 2021 the invoicing software must send the data to Online Számla immediately on issue, automatically in XML. We build that reporting into billing with retries and logging rather than relying on manual uploads.

Does the European Accessibility Act apply to a small SaaS startup in Hungary?

Not if it is a micro-enterprise. Act XVII of 2022 exempts micro-enterprises providing services, meaning fewer than 10 staff and turnover or balance sheet total of at most the HUF equivalent of EUR 2 million. Larger companies offering covered consumer services, such as e-commerce or e-books and dedicated software, must meet its accessibility requirements.

How much does it cost to build a SaaS product for the Hungarian market?

Work runs as AI-accelerated development, starting from $2,000 per month, with scope agreed in writing. These US dollar figures are where estimates begin, and scope and budget are fixed in writing after a discovery call.

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How it starts

What happens after you write to us.

  1. 01

    You describe the product

    One paragraph on what you are building, roughly when you need it, and who it is for. No brief, no form with fifteen fields.

  2. 02

    You get a reply within a day

    From the engineer who would do the work, not a sales team. If we are not the right fit we say so, and where possible we point you somewhere better.

  3. 03

    You get a scoped plan

    Scope, price and timeline in writing before anything is committed. You decide with the numbers in front of you.

No long contract to begin, no lock-in to our tooling, and the code is yours from the first commit.

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A short note about the product, the timeline and who it is for is enough to start. You will hear back from the engineer who would do the work, not a sales team.

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Ankara / Türkiye · Working across European and US time zones