Freelancers billing tracked hours
Track time against a project, convert tasks to an invoice, and let the client pay online from the portal.
Skip if:
You only send a handful of invoices a year and a spreadsheet template is enough.
Open source alternative to FreshBooks, QuickBooks Online, Xero and Zoho Invoice
Last verified
Manage invoices, quotes, expenses, and billable time from a self-hosted Laravel app with a client portal and online payment gateways.
Track time against a project, convert tasks to an invoice, and let the client pay online from the portal.
You only send a handful of invoices a year and a spreadsheet template is enough.
Set up recurring invoices and auto-billing for retainers, and send quotes that clients approve with an e-signature.
You need full double-entry accounting, since the pack describes invoicing, expenses, and reports rather than a general ledger.
Run the app on your own server or VM, or through Docker, and keep client and payment records on infrastructure you manage.
You do not want to maintain a PHP application and would rather use the hosted plan.
Small businesses and freelancers often pay for an invoicing product, then add separate tools for expenses and time tracking. Billable hours get copied by hand into invoices, payments are reconciled elsewhere, and client data ends up duplicated. Paid platforms also charge per plan tier, and features like a branded client portal or unlimited clients sit behind higher subscriptions. Invoice Ninja puts invoicing, payments, expenses, and projects in one application you can host yourself.
Create and send invoices from 11 customizable templates branded with your logo and colors. Send quotes that clients approve with an e-signature, then convert them to invoices. Recurring invoices and auto-billing handle repeat clients.
Clients pay directly from the invoice. The product site lists Stripe, PayPal, Square, GoCardless, and many more payment gateways.
Create projects, track billable time, plan work on Kanban boards, and convert tasks to invoices in one click.
Track expenses and vendors, manage purchase orders, and import bank and credit card transactions. Bank sync is listed under the Enterprise plan on the hosted service.
Clients get a portal where they view invoices, pay, and manage documents. A custom domain such as Billing.YourCompany.com is listed on the hosted Enterprise plan.
A documented API covers the application, and the site lists Zapier, Make, and Pabbly for connecting Gmail, QuickBooks, Slack, and MailChimp. Mobile apps exist for iPhone, Android, and F-Droid, and desktop apps for macOS, Windows, and Linux.
QuickBooks Online is a commercial accounting platform sold as a subscription. Invoice Ninja focuses on invoicing, quotes, expenses, projects, and time tracking, and connects to QuickBooks through Zapier and other integrations listed on its site. If you need a full accounting suite, keep a dedicated accounting product; if your main job is billing clients, Invoice Ninja covers it and can run on your own server.
FreshBooks is a paid invoicing and accounting service aimed at small businesses. Invoice Ninja overlaps on invoices, expenses, and time tracking, and adds Kanban project boards and a self-hosted option. The hosted Invoice Ninja service has a free plan with 5 clients, and Pro at $14 per month for unlimited clients, per the product site.
Xero is a commercial accounting platform. Invoice Ninja does not present itself as a general ledger, so teams that rely on bookkeeping features should treat it as the billing layer rather than a full replacement.
Invoice Ninja is under the Elastic License 2.0. You can self-host it and use it for your own business, but you cannot resell it as a hosted service. The paid products above are proprietary and cannot be self-hosted at all.
Self-hosting installs a tagged release on a PHP server with Composer and a configured .env file.
```bash
git clone --depth 1 -b v5.11.53 https://github.com/invoiceninja/invoiceninja.git
cp .env.example .env
composer i -o --no-dev
```It is source-available under the Elastic License 2.0, which is not an OSI-approved open source license. GitHub does not declare an SPDX license for the repo. You can self-host and modify it, but you cannot offer it to third parties as a hosted or managed service.
Yes for internal use. You may self-host, modify, and use it for any purpose including running your own business. Reselling it as a hosted or managed service where others access its features is not allowed.
The README lists a server or VM install, a Docker image, and packaged installs on Cloudron, Softaculous, Elestio, and YunoHost. A quick setup clones a tagged release, copies .env.example to .env, and runs composer install.
It is listed as an alternative to QuickBooks Online, FreshBooks, Xero, and Zoho Invoice for invoicing, expenses, and time tracking.
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