Grow Digital Voucher: up to €5,000 towards software for your business, shops and trades included

What it pays

The voucher is a grant of 50% of what you spend. The smallest grant is €500 and the largest is €5,000, so it suits projects costing between €1,000 and €10,000.

A business can have two vouchers approved, but the two together cannot come to more than €5,000. A second one depends on showing progress on the plan in your Digital for Business report.

The money comes after you have spent your own. For a software subscription, you must have paid the annual cost before the grant is paid.

In 2025, 318 businesses had a voucher approved.

Who can apply

• The business has between 1 and 50 paid employees.
• It has been established and trading for at least 6 months.
• It is registered and operating in the area of the office you apply to.
• It has completed a Digital for Business project in the last two years.
• It is solvent, as shown by its financial statements.
• It has current tax clearance from Revenue.
• It is not a client of Enterprise Ireland or IDA Ireland.

Companies, self-employed people and partnerships can all apply. There is no rule about exporting. When the voucher was launched, the Department of Enterprise said all businesses were eligible "irrespective of export status".

The rule is written as 1 to 50 paid employees, and self-employed individuals are named as eligible. If you work alone, ask your office how it counts you.

Charities and sports bodies can apply only if they carry on a trade.

Who cannot apply

• farming, fishing and fish farming
• coal and steel
• gambling, adult entertainment, tobacco, and cannabis products that are not authorised medicines
• trade associations, chambers of commerce and other non-commercial bodies
• businesses that have traded for less than 6 months

The official page says this is not a complete list. If your sector is unusual, ask the office before you spend time on an application.

What it covers, and what it does not

Two kinds of cost count.

Software subscriptions. The software must be off the shelf and new to the business, and the voucher covers up to one year of the subscription. Examples on the official list:

• e-commerce software
• online booking, payments or appointments
• customer relationship management
• order management or stock control
• job tracking and field service management
• electronic invoicing or electronic signatures
• cloud accounting or payroll, if you are moving those to the cloud
• cyber security software
• standard office software, if you do not use it already
• analytics software, including AI systems

Training and IT configuration. Expert help to set up or connect the new software, and training for you or your staff. Together these cannot be more than half of the project cost.

Not covered:

• custom or bespoke software
• bespoke website development. A website counts only as an off-the-shelf subscription that is new to the business
• more licences for software you already use
• systems bought to meet a regulation
• equipment such as laptops, tills and phones, which are not on the list of eligible costs

How to apply, step by step

1. Talk to the office first. Every application has to be discussed with it, so look up your own Local Enterprise Office, county by county.
2. Apply for Digital for Business if you have not done one in the last two years. It is free. A digital consultant reviews the systems you have, finds the gaps and writes a report with a plan.
3. Choose software from that plan and get the costs. Do not sign up, order or pay yet.
4. Apply for the voucher through the office. You need financial statements showing the business is solvent, your tax reference number and your tax clearance access number.
5. Once the office approves it, buy and set up the software and pay for it.
6. Claim the grant with proof of what you paid.

The offices do not publish how long a decision takes.

The voucher it replaced

The Grow Digital Voucher took over from the Trading Online Voucher, which closed in December 2024. The old voucher paid up to €2,500 and was limited to businesses with 10 or fewer employees.

The new one pays twice as much and takes bigger businesses, but it is narrower in one way. The old voucher could pay a developer to build an online shop, and part of it could go on online advertising. The new one pays for off-the-shelf software subscriptions, training and set-up, and nothing else.

Other help that fits with it

The energy side works the same way. A free Green for Business report opens the door to the sister grant for energy-saving equipment, which pays 75%.

The Department of Enterprise runs a free five-minute online assessment at growdigital.gov.ie. It gives you a digital scorecard and a list of supports.

If your business makes things or sells abroad, the wider set of Local Enterprise Office grants may be open to you as well.

Common questions