12 Best Open Source Accounting Software

Want to use an open-source software for accounting? These are some of the best options.
Warp Terminal

Accounting software is necessary when managing billings, debts, stocks, invoices, and any other kind of financial transaction. You might require something for your finances or perhaps for enterprise-focused accounting software. No matter what, it is important to consider open source solutions available (especially Linux enthusiasts).

So, in this article, I list some of the best open-source accounting software that I think would be useful for you. Feel free to suggest your favorite ones at the end of the list in the comments.

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The list is in no particular order of ranking.

1. Frappe Books

fbooks

Key Highlights:

  • Good user experience
  • Offline app
  • Cross-platform support

Frappe Book is a free open-source accounting software tailored for businesses and freelancers.

It offers a nice user experience while providing the essentials across multiple platforms. You can use it for invoicing, double-entry accounting, journal, payments, financial reports, and more.

Frappe Books is an offline desktop app that uses a local SQLite file as the database. You can refer to its documentation and GitHub page to learn more.

2. Skrooge

Skrooge

Key Highlights:

  • Personal finances manager
  • Tailored for Plasma Desktop but compatible with others too
  • Cross-platform (Windows, Linux, and macOS)

Skrooge is one of the most useful personal finances managers by KDE. It is originally tailored for the Plasma Desktop, but other desktop environments are compatible.

It supports most basic features (reporting, budgeting, etc.) and allows you to work on pretty big data sets.

3. Akaunting

akaunting dashboard

Key Highlights:

  • Online accounting software
  • Completely free and open source
  • Client Portal
  • Invoicing
  • Expense tracking
  • Reporting
  • Cashflow

Akaunting is an interesting online accounting software. You can get started for free and go for premium plans if you need more features and better customer support.

The free plan should be enough for most individuals and small businesses. If you are looking for a FreshBooks alternative, you should give it a try.

Ranging from invoicing to managing deposits and transfers. A whole lot of features. You can use the hosted instance or host it yourself. It is fit for both personal and enterprise needs. Try it out!

4. Apache OFBiz

Apache Ofbiz

Key Highlights:

  • ERP & CRM
  • Developer-friendly
  • Powerful Java Web Framework
  • Cross-platform (Linux and macOS)

We’ve already mentioned this in our list of best open source CRM software. Apache OFBiz is an impressive open-source solution that incorporates an ERP system and a CRM suite for various requirements.

It’s completely free – however, you will have to host it yourself (or hire someone to do it). In addition to all the basic features needed for accounting software, it lets a developer extend/enhance features easily while being a Java-based web framework.

5. iDempiere

Idempiere

Key Highlights:

  • Community-focused
  • Simple and useful
  • Cross-platform (Linux and Windows)

Originally based on ADEmpiere ERP. It is a community focused account software maintained by an active group of people. iDempiere aims to utilize technologies like Apache Maven to provide a business suite ERP/CRM/SCM.

You can utilize their online demo, or download installers like docker image to host it yourself.

6. Openmiracle

Openmiracle
Openmiracle
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Not actively maintained anymore. But, it should work as expected.

Key Highlights:

  • Plug-ins available
  • Completely free

Openmiracle is a quite popular open source and free accounting software. There’s no premium plans to it. So, you can utilize all the power and flexibility for free.

It features all the necessary options needed in an accounting software for small business owners. From setting the budget to managing the payroll, there’s a lot of things to explore.

7. GnuCash

gnucash

Key Highlights:

  • Cross-platform (Linux, Windows, and macOS)
  • Fit for personal and small businesses

GNUCash is a great open-source financial accounting software to manage stocks/income/expenses for small business or individuals.

From reports to quick calculation features, it has a lot to offer. And, the best thing is – it is available across multiple platforms (including Linux), so that’s a plus.

8. LedgerSMB

Ledgersmb Screenshot
Ledgersmb Screenshot

Key Highlights:

  • Dead simple open source ERP
  • Optional commercial support available
  • Cross-platform (Windows, Linux, and macOS)

A powerful yet simple open source accounting solution. It has been tailored to small and medium sized businesses. Starting from managing invoices to inventory – you also get the ability to translate (up to 45 languages supported). You can try pre-release version or just get the latest stable build to test it out yourself!

9. GNUKhata

Key Highlights:

  • GST, VAT compliant Invoices if you are based in India (tailored for Indian users)
  • Easy to use
  • Simple user interface
  • Cross-platform (Windows and Linux)

GNUKhata is a simple and robust free bookkeeping software available for free.

From the looks of it, the setup is easy and anyone can get used to it. Feel free to try it out and explore.

10. KMyMoney

kmymoney

Key Highlights:

  • Simple and functional
  • Cross-platform
  • Easy-to-use

KMyMoney happens to be yet another free and open-source software managed by KDE. You can easily utilize this for managing accounts, transactions, ledgers, and a lot more.

It offers a simple user interface but gets the job done. As you can see in the screenshot above, it appears to be a full-fledged solution. You can get it installed from the software center – however, you can also choose to install it from git if you want the latest version.

11. Odoo

Odoo Accounting

Key Highlights:

  • Web-based app
  • 15-days trial (not completely free)
  • Bunch of 3rd party integrations

If you might have read about the best open source CRM software, you could have noticed the suite of open-source web apps offered by Odoo.

Fortunately, they also offer something for accounting. If you do not mind paying for accounting software (maybe for your enterprise) while having an open-source solution, this can be your choice of small business accounting software.

Try it out or check out their GitHub page to learn more about their suite of apps available.

12. HomeBank

Homebank

Key Highlights:

  • Cross-platform
  • Simple and easy-to-use

HomeBank may not be a popular choice – however, if you want just another alternative to take a look at, HomeBank is a decent tool.

Just like some others, you can also find it in the software center. However, if you want the latest version installed, you can follow the official download instructions for Ubuntu by adding a PPA.

Wrapping Up

In addition to all these, you can also take a look at Flowlog (which happens to be an open-source solution) – however, it’s in a public beta phase for a year now – so it may not be the most reliable option yet.

Overall, these are our recommended picks for open-source accounting software. If we missed listing your favorite open-source accounting software, let us in the comments below.

About the author
Ankush Das

Ankush Das

A passionate technophile who also happens to be a Computer Science graduate. You will usually see cats dancing to the beautiful tunes sung by him.

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