What SDS Software does

SDS Software GmbH is a German vertical software company founded in 1992 by Frank Mußhoff and headquartered in Essen, Germany. The company develops SDS BESTATTER, an all-in-one funeral home management application that runs natively on both Apple macOS (including Apple Silicon M1/M2 chips) and Microsoft Windows, with a mixed-client-server architecture that supports multi-user and multi-location operations. The platform covers the full lifecycle of funeral home workflows — pre-need contracts (Vorsorge), at-need order processing, financial accounting with DATEV export, address management, inventory, grave/cemetery administration with geocoordinates, professional memorial printing, and quality management documentation for DIN ISO 9001 certification. The product is complemented by SDS TOGO, a native iPad companion app that captures orders and pre-need data on-site and synchronizes via the proprietary SDS CLOUD; SDS TRAUERDRUCK for funeral print production; SDS PAGEPRO for layout design; SDS ON AIR for customer-facing web portal access; SDS CHAT for internal messaging; and the recently introduced SDS Pen2Case for handwriting digitization. The company also operates a built-in cemetery information system (BiS) covering opening hours, grave types, responsible authorities, and digitized cemetery maps.

The business model is anchored on one-time software licenses (with annual upgrade releases) plus bundled professional services including installation, training, hardware/network planning, and ongoing support. Pricing is quote-based with no public disclosure; customers contact the company via toll-free (0800 2040601) or international (+49 201 8906680) phone lines. Go-to-market is sales-led and event-driven: direct on-site product demonstrations, participation in the major German funeral trade shows BEFA (Düsseldorf) and Forum-BEFA (Hamburg), an annual user meeting (Anwendertreffen) in Essen, a German-language blog, an in-app newsletter (SDS SERVICE), and a Facebook page. The company is private and founder-owned, with Frank Mußhoff as managing director and a micro-team (1–10 employees, three named individuals), and has never raised external capital. It serves exclusively German funeral home businesses (Bestattungsunternehmen) ranging from single-location independents to multi-branch operators; one named design partner is Bestattungshaus Wilfried Odenthal (Neuss), which co-developed the QM module. Deep integrations with German accounting software (DATEV, Columba, abcfinance, ADELTA.Finanz, PowerKrema) and pre-built funeral paper templates from suppliers (BOK Eisfeld, Emmel, Die Collection) anchor the product within the German funeral-services workflow stack.

Name

SDS Software

Legal name

SDS Software GmbH

Website

https://sds-software.de

Company type

Private

Founded year

1992

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

SDS Software GmbH is a German founder-owned software vendor that builds SDS BESTATTER, a cross-platform (macOS and Windows) all-in-one management system for German funeral homes, covering order processing, invoicing, grave administration, and memorial printing.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Essen

HQ country

Germany

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Operations

Revenue model

1. Software Licenses (SDS BESTATTER, SDS TOGO, SDS TRAUERDRUCK): The primary revenue stream comes from selling and licensing the SDS BESTATTER software suite, which includes the core desktop application, the SDS TOGO iPad mobile app, and the SDS TRAUERDRUCK funeral print module. The software is sold as a licensed product (perpetual or subscription with updates), with version updates released regularly (e.g., 2025.1). Customers also pay for professional services including installation, training, hardware and network planning/setup, and ongoing support.
2. Professional Services & Support: SDS Software provides consulting services for hardware and software planning, network setup (including mixed environments), organizational and design consulting, ongoing support, and software training. These services are bundled with or sold alongside the core software license.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

SDS Software GmbH develops and sells SDS BESTATTER, a specialized all-in-one funeral home management software suite for German funeral businesses. The platform covers order and pre-need contract management, invoicing, cemetery administration with geocoordinates, mourning print production, quality management, and mobile field data capture via the SDS TOGO iPad app, supporting both Apple macOS and Microsoft Windows.

Product overview

SDS Software GmbH offers a comprehensive funeral home management software suite built around the core SDS BESTATTER platform. The main product is SDS BESTATTER, an all-in-one solution for funeral businesses that includes modules for order management (Auftragswesen), invoicing (Rechnungswesen), address management (Adressverwaltung), inventory (Materialwesen), scheduling (Terminplaner), task management (Aufgaben-Monitor), grave management (Grabverwaltung), and quality management (QM). This is complemented by SDS TOGO, a native iPad app for mobile data capture with cloud sync; SDS TRAUERDRUCK for funeral printing and mourning documents; SDS PAGEPRO for layout design; and SDS ON AIR for customer web portal access. Additional features include SDS CHAT for internal communication, SDS Service for notifications, and SDS Pen2Case for handwriting digitization. The entire ecosystem supports both Microsoft Windows and Apple macOS platforms.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• SDS BESTATTER: Comprehensive software for funeral homes covering order management, invoicing, address management, inventory, scheduling, and document management
• SDS TOGO
• SDS TRAUERDRUCK
• SDS PAGEPRO
• SDS OnAir
• SDS Chat
• SDS Pen2Case

Products and services

• SDS BESTATTER Flagship funeral home management software providing comprehensive order management, invoicing, address administration, inventory control, scheduling, cemetery administration with geocoordinates, mourning print production, and document management for funeral businesses. Cross-platform (macOS and Windows) with multi-user/multi-location support.
• SDS TOGO Native iPad companion application for mobile funeral data capture. Enables funeral directors to record orders, pre-need contracts, and cost estimates on-site without a live database connection, with later wireless encrypted synchronization via SDS CLOUD to the main SDS BESTATTER installation.
• SDS TRAUERDRUCK Specialized funeral printing module for creating professional memorial materials including funeral cards, funeral letters, thank-you cards, and newspaper announcements. Features a template browser, object library for drag-and-drop images, dynamic database-sourced text fields, and direct PDF export with email capability to newspapers.
• SDS PAGEPRO Layout module for form and mourning print design within SDS BESTATTER, enabling creation of custom document layouts with transparency control for placed images in 256 gradations.
• SDS ON AIR Customer-facing web portal allowing funeral clients to view appointments, download photos and documents, select music choices, send messages, and submit cancellations or forms directly via browser, integrated with SDS BESTATTER order data.
• SDS Pen2Case Handwriting digitization technology that allows funeral professionals to capture data by hand on forms, which SDS BESTATTER then digitizes and converts into structured digital orders or pre-need records using computer vision/image scanning.

Quantifiable outcome

• Up to 99 businesses (Geschäfte) can be managed under a single license due to multi-client capability, enabling multi-location funeral businesses to operate from a single database.
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration7 records

AI capability4 records

Feature10 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Bestattungshaus Wilfried Odenthal (Neuss)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 15 November 2017Bestattungshaus Wilfried Odenthal co-developed the QM (Qualitäts-Management) module within SDS BESTATTER for DIN ISO 9001 quality management documentation. The funeral home's owner, Mr. Odenthal, also delivered a presentation at SDS Software's first user meeting in 2017, sharing practical experience with the software.
• ColumbacoreTechnology or IntegrationColumba provides an online portal service for funeral businesses. SDS BESTATTER integrates with Columba via a dedicated interface (Columba-Schnittstelle), which was updated in version 2017.2r4 to include activity log queries and a deeplink to the Columba online portal. The partnership was acknowledged at the 2017 user meeting.
• BOK EisfeldminorOthersBOK Eisfeld is a supplier of funeral papers (Trauerpapiere) whose paper products are integrated as pre-built templates in the SDS TRAUERDRUCK module. The company provides its paper designs for template integration within SDS BESTATTER.
• Emmel Trauerpapiere & BestattungsbedarfminorOthersEmmel Trauerpapiere & Bestattungsbedarf is a supplier of funeral papers and funeral supplies whose paper products are integrated as templates in the SDS TRAUERDRUCK module.
• Die Collection (Steffens GbR)minorOthersDie Collection (Steffens GbR) is a supplier of funeral paper products whose designs are integrated as print templates in the SDS TRAUERDRUCK module.
• DATEV eGcoreTechnology or IntegrationDATEV is the leading provider of accounting and tax software for small businesses and tax advisors in Germany. SDS BESTATTER includes a native DATEV export interface allowing seamless data transfer of invoices and financial data to DATEV-compatible accounting systems used by funeral home tax advisors.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Others

• DATEV eG: German accounting and tax-software cooperative; named integration partner of SDS BESTATTER via the native DATEV-Schnittstelle, anchoring the product into the German financial-accounting workflow.
• Columba: Online portal service provider for funeral businesses and named integration partner of SDS BESTATTER; a complementary ecosystem participant rather than a direct competitor.

Regional players

• Passare: US-based funeral home collaboration and management software with similar all-in-one order, arrangement, and family-portal capabilities; comparable product category but operates in a different geography from SDS Software.
• Tribute Technology: US funeral-home technology platform offering management software, web portals, and tribute products; mirrors SDS BESTATTER's combined order-management and customer-facing portal approach, though in the US market.
• Foundation Software Group: US funeral home management software vendor with all-in-one order, accounting, and cemetery features; comparable vertical product depth but operates in the US funeral market rather than Germany.

Broad incumbents

• Housecall Pro: Field service SaaS for home service SMBs combining scheduling, invoicing, and mobile apps; an adjacent vertical SaaS business model to SDS's desktop-plus-iPad funeral workflow.
• Jobber: Field service management SaaS for small service businesses; similar SMB vertical SaaS business model with mobile and web workflows, though not specialized in the funeral industry.
• ServiceTitan: Large vertical SaaS platform for home and commercial service businesses; comparable all-in-one management and field-data capture model, but at much greater scale and outside the funeral niche.

Direct peers

• Friedmann Software GmbH: Germany-based vendor of Bestattungssoftware serving the same German funeral-home vertical with comparable order-management, invoicing, and printing functionality; the most direct head-to-head competitor to SDS BESTATTER.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/sdssoftwaregmbh

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about SDS Software