Akaunting: Self-Hosted Accounting for Small Businesses and Freelancers
Akaunting is web-based accounting for small businesses and freelancers: send invoices, record bills and expenses, reconcile bank accounts, and see where the money goes, all on your own server.
Features
- Invoicing with recurring invoices, online payment links, and a client portal
- Bills and expenses, with vendors and categories
- Banking: accounts, transfers, and reconciliation
- Reports: profit and loss, cash flow, tax summaries
- Multi-currency and multiple companies
- A REST API
- An App Store with free and paid extensions, such as payroll, CRM, inventory, and double-entry accounting
Licensing
Akaunting is source-available under the Business Source License (BSL), not an OSI-approved open source license. Self-hosting for your own business is the intended use; check the license terms if you plan to offer it as a service to others. Some functionality is sold as paid apps in its marketplace.
Deployment
Akaunting is a Laravel (PHP 8.1+) application with Vue.js, supporting MySQL/MariaDB, PostgreSQL, and SQLite. It runs on any PHP-capable web server, such as Nginx or Apache, and community Docker images are available. Put it behind HTTPS, and include its database in your backups.
Alternatives
| Need | Consider |
|---|---|
| Invoicing and quotes for freelancers | Invoice Ninja |
| Personal finance, not business | Firefly III, Actual Budget |
| Full ERP with inventory and manufacturing | ERPNext, Odoo |
For tax filing, have an accountant confirm that your local requirements are met before relying on any accounting software.
License
Business Source License (source-available).