Alternatives / QuickBooks
Looking for an open source QuickBooks alternative? We compared 8 accounting, invoicing, and personal finance tools by license, self-hosting, features, and pricing. Only some are business accounting systems, and several use source-available licenses rather than standard open source.
Written by Maxime DERAME
Last updated:
| Alternative | Best for | License |
|---|---|---|
| Invoice Ninja | Invoicing for freelancers and small businesses | Elastic License 2.0 |
| Akaunting | Small business accounting | BSL 1.1 |
| Wealthfolio | Private investment tracking | AGPL-3.0 |
| Crater | Simple invoicing (inactive) | AGPL-3.0 |
| Frappe Books | Desktop accounting and bookkeeping | AGPL-3.0 |
| Bigcapital | Multi-currency accounting and inventory | AGPL-3.0 |
| Monetr | Paycheck-based personal budgeting | FSL-1.1-MIT |
| YAFFA | Personal finance and long-term planning | MIT |
We looked for finance software that overlaps with QuickBooks' core: invoicing, expenses, bookkeeping, and financial reporting. We verified each project's license, recent activity, stars, and self-hosting in its GitHub repository. QuickBooks is a business accounting suite, but several alternatives here are personal finance or investment tools, so we say which ones are real accounting systems. We also flag licenses that restrict commercial use. See our methodology for the full criteria.
Akaunting uses the Business Source License 1.1 and Invoice Ninja uses the Elastic License 2.0, so both are source available. Akaunting's free grant covers up to two users, one company, and 1,000 invoices, and bans white-labeling and offering it as an accounting service. Monetr uses FSL-1.1-MIT, a Fair Source license. Check each license before using them in a business.
Akaunting, Invoice Ninja, Crater, Frappe Books, and Bigcapital handle invoices, expenses, and reports for businesses. Wealthfolio tracks investments, and Monetr and YAFFA are personal budgeting and finance apps, so they do not replace QuickBooks for company bookkeeping.
Frappe Books, Bigcapital, Wealthfolio, and Crater are AGPL-3.0, and YAFFA is MIT. AGPL requires sharing modifications if you offer the software to others over a network.
Frappe Books and Wealthfolio are local desktop apps that store data on your machine. Akaunting, Invoice Ninja, Bigcapital, Monetr, and YAFFA are web applications you host, and Invoice Ninja also has desktop and mobile apps.
Crater has had no commits since August 2024, so avoid it for new deployments. The other projects, including Invoice Ninja, Akaunting, Wealthfolio, Frappe Books, and Bigcapital, were updated within weeks of this update.
QuickBooks is a proprietary subscription accounting platform with per-plan pricing and your financial data stored on Intuit's servers. Open-source and source-available alternatives let you self-host or keep data on your own machine, avoid subscriptions, and customize invoicing, at the cost of fewer integrations such as payroll, bank feeds, and tax filing.
| Alternative | Type | License | Self-hosted | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Invoice Ninja | Invoicing | Elastic License 2.0 | Yes | Freelancers and small businesses |
| Akaunting | Accounting | BSL 1.1 | Yes | Small business accounting |
| Wealthfolio | Investment tracker | AGPL-3.0 | Local app | Investors |
| Crater | Invoicing | AGPL-3.0 | Yes | Simple invoices (inactive) |
| Frappe Books | Desktop accounting | AGPL-3.0 | Local app | Freelancers and small businesses |
| Bigcapital | Accounting | AGPL-3.0 | Yes | Multi-currency and inventory |
| Monetr | Personal budgeting | FSL-1.1-MIT | Yes | Paycheck-based budgets |
| YAFFA | Personal finance | MIT | Yes | Long-term planning |
Want invoicing and payments
Invoice Ninja offers customizable invoices, recurring billing, payment reminders, client portals, expenses, time tracking, and desktop and mobile apps, under a source-available license.
Want small business accounting
Akaunting covers invoicing, expense categorization, cash flow, and a client portal, but its Business Source License limits free production use.
Want a private desktop bookkeeping app
Frappe Books is a desktop accounting app with local SQLite storage, HTML invoice templates, and financial reports.
Want multi-currency accounting and inventory
Bigcapital offers bookkeeping, multi-currency support, inventory, and reports, and it can be self-hosted with Docker.
Want to track investments privately
Wealthfolio is a local-first desktop app for portfolios, performance, income, and goals.
Want personal budgeting
YAFFA is an MIT personal finance web app for budgets, accounts, and long-term planning.
Want paycheck-based budgeting
Monetr plans recurring bills, savings goals, and forecasts, under a Fair Source license.