Open Source Zoho Invoice Alternatives
A curated collection of the 2 best open source alternatives to Zoho Invoice.
The best open source alternative to Zoho Invoice is Invoice Ninja. If that doesn't suit you, we've compiled a ranked list of other open source Zoho Invoice alternatives to help you find a suitable replacement. Other interesting open source alternative to Zoho Invoice is Crater.
Zoho Invoice alternatives are mainly Finance & Accounting but may also be Finance & Fintech. Browse these if you want a narrower list of alternatives or looking for a specific functionality of Zoho Invoice.
Invoicing and payment software for freelancers and small businesses, available hosted or self-hosted with every paid feature in the source.
Invoice Ninja version 5 rebuilt the previous release around the features users kept asking for. It handles invoicing and payments for anyone billing clients, and it leaves open the choice between a hosted account and a server you run yourself.
The application is built on Laravel. A request passes through middleware that resolves the domain and authenticates, then a form request that authorizes and validates it, then a controller that hands the work to a repository and fires an event, and the API routes file is the map of everything the application can do.
What arrives with a self-hosted installation is worth stating plainly.
- Feature parity: all Pro and Enterprise features from the hosted app are included in the source-available code.
- White labeling: removing Invoice Ninja branding from client-facing parts costs a license of $40 per year.
- Client portal: clients log in to their own portal, separate from the administrator interface.
- Apps included: the mobile and desktop clients work against a self-hosted server, not only the hosted one.
- SDKs: libraries are published for consuming the API from other software.
A quick install clones a tagged release, copies the example environment file, and runs composer, and the maintainers stress checking out a version tag rather than a development branch so unfinished work does not land in production. Keep the application key safe, since it encrypts stored data and losing it makes the installation unreadable.
Self-hosted invoicing for freelancers and small businesses, covering estimates, expenses and payments across a web app and mobile clients.
Billing software for a small business usually arrives as a monthly subscription. Crater is the open source alternative, a web and mobile application for tracking expenses and payments and for creating professional invoices and estimates.
The web application is built with Laravel and VueJS, while the Android and iOS apps are built with React Native and live in a separate mobile repository. The project publishes installation steps, a user guide, a developer guide and API documentation for each of them.
Its roadmap records the following as already delivered.
- Installation wizard: walks a new instance through setup, with email configuration and automatic updates handled inside the app.
- Recurring invoices: issue repeat billing on a schedule instead of rebuilding the same document every cycle.
- Customer portal: gives clients a view of their own invoices and estimates.
- Stripe payments: accept payment against an invoice directly.
- Custom fields: extend invoices and estimates with your own data, alongside address customization and default notes.
- White labeling: themes the invoice, email and customer portal to your own brand.
Crater is available as a Docker image, supports multiple companies from a single installation, and is released under the GNU Affero General Public License version 3. Translation runs on Crowdin, with community contributions already covering Arabic, French, Dutch, Serbian, German and Latvian.
