Top 10 Best Open Source Accounting Software Comparison 2024

Quick Summary:

Open-source accounting software is a financial tool with openly accessible code, promoting transparency. The benefits of using this type of software include cost-effectiveness, cutting out licensing fees, customization, and collaborative community support for ongoing improvement and troubleshooting. Let’s find the perfect one for your specific financial requirements!

As businesses grow and financial data becomes more complex, managing accounting tasks efficiently is essential. While commercial accounting software can be expensive, open source accounting software provides a free and customizable solution. 

In this article, we have compiled a list of the best open source accounting software options to help you make an informed decision for your business needs. 

Whether you're a small business owner or a nonprofit organization, these systems can help streamline your financial management processes and improve your overall productivity.

Open Source Finance Software Comparison Chart (Top 10 Highest Rated)

This table displays the top 10 open source accounting. These providers are dedicated to keeping accounting open source, which you can see for yourself by following any of the links. 

What is the Best Open Source Accounting Software? Here’s Our Top 10 List:

Let's get to this very well-researched and detailed article about the top 10 best open source accounting software.

These top names in free and open-source financial management platforms are sure to have something for everyone, from the Mac user to the Windows fan, to the Linux or Ubuntu enthusiasts.

So, let’s explore who are the software providers that are keeping accounting open source!

1. GnuCash (Best Open Source Accounting Software Overall)

GnuCash is the number one free bank account software on our list today. You get great functionalities like double-entry accounting, you can stay on top of your assets like stocks, bonds, and mutual fund accounts, and GnuCash has decent financial reports and visual graphs.

There is a checkbook register, and you can schedule transactions and do bank reconciliations. GnuCash is a part of the GNU collection. The system allows you to store your financial data in SQL databases.

Pros:

• Good key features include letting you do customer and vendor profiles, making it a bit like a CRM.
• The invoicing, bills, and tax management are advanced tools that work well, as well as cash flow analysis of income and expense tracking. It even handles multi-currency.
• GnuCash is good for individuals like freelancers and small businesses alike.
• This free accounting system is very easy to use, yet you can also have a degree of customizability.

Cons:

• The user interface might not appeal to some more modern users.

Pricing:

• GnuCash is free

GnuCash review

Visit site
_{Go to GnuCash’s official website}

2. LedgerSMB (Great Open Source ERP Financial Software) 

LedgerSMB is a solid bit of free accounting software for small business and some medium-sized businesses. It runs on most operating systems like Microsoft Windows, Linux, Mac OS, Ubuntu, Android and iOS. 

This open source accounting solution has tools like general ledger bookkeeping, sales features for quotes, sales orders, and invoice tracking, and can also handle multiple currencies. There is both cash management as well as fixed asset management, time tracking, budgeting and financial reporting. 

Pros:

• For an open source accounting module, this is pretty good for many mid-size companies.
• Great tool for small business accounting that needs profit and loss calculations.
• It takes a very speedy ramp-up process time to get using this financial accounting system.
• For some simple ERP functionalities, LedgerSMB is nice.

Cons:

• LedgerSMB just isn’t everybody’s cup of tea. This could be because some of the real-time financial data reporting is not that powerful.

Pricing:

• LedgerSMB is a free open source financial management software though you can make a donation

Visit site
_{Go to LedgerSMB’s official website}

3. Akaunting (Top Free Open Source Accounting Software for Freelancers)

Akaunting is a great free accounting platform for freelancers. You can sync up all your bank accounts. It even lets you handle multiple companies from a single interface. Akaunting also offers you a client portal where your clients can go in and check things like invoices.

As a CRM, you get full customer summaries. Akaunting employs automation and workflows which you can use for recurring events like billing and payments. This bookkeeping software has good reporting on the financial health of your balance sheet.

There is a small library of email templates you can choose from. 

Pros:

• You can use Akaunting to manage customer loyalty programs and reward your best customers for continued business.
• This is a sleek looking series of dashboards and widgets.
• Akaunting is amazing for startups, freelancers and ecommerce operations. 

Cons:

• As a personal finance tool, Akaunting might not be the number one choice for everyone.
• You do not get advanced accounts payable and accounts receivable features.
• It has inventory management, but not the greatest.

Pricing:

• Akaunting is a free and open source accounting system

Visit site
_{Go to Akaunting’s official website}

4. Apache OFBiz (Good Open Source Home Accounting Software for Payments and Billing)

OFBiz is the free ERP open source accounting solution from Apache. It is a cross-platform operating system, and it runs as a Java-based web framework. The ERP feature list of Apache OFBiz is quite extensive. It can be used for basic accounting for general bookkeeping and income and expense management. 

There are also general ledger tools, invoicing, and a vendor management portal. You can also use this for project management, human resources, as a warehouse management system, and even for electronic PoS, or print of sale.   

Pros:

• Apache OFBiz is a very flexible platform and developers can have a lot of fun tweaking it to their needs.
• This nicely blends CRM and ERP tools with your standard accounting for small business. 
• You can use OFBiz to scale up when your business needs begin to grow.

Cons:

• Like many open source SaaS, the look and feel are a bit square here.

Pricing:

• Apache OFBiz is free

Visit site
_{Go to Apache OFBiz’s official website}

5. HomeBank (Great Accounting Software for Linux)

HomeBank is another free and open source module for personal and small business accounting. You can use this as a GNU/Linux distribution as well as an Ubuntu finance software, or finally, it is also a cross-platform tool that can also run on Microsoft Windows or ported via a third party to MacOS or Android.

You can import your data from Quicken, made by Intuit which makes rival accounting app Quickbooks. HomeBank can deduplicate repeated transactions, let you use multiple currencies, get automated check numbering, as well as use a variety of transaction templates. 

Pros:

• HomeBank is a nice and simple solution if you want to make easy budgets either by the week, month or year.
• Great multilingual platform, comes in many languages like Spanish, Arabic, French and Asian languages. 
• HomeBank has been around for more than two decades so it has the experience and staying power.
• Nice looking charts and graphs.

Cons:

• You can’t really use HomeBank for tax preparation and things like managing value added tax, or VAT.

Pricing:

• HomeBank is free, and you can make a donation

Visit site
_{Go to HomeBank’s official website}

6. Skrooge (Good Open Source Accounting Software Like Quickbooks)

If you are in the market for an open source Quickbooks alternative, then check out Skrooge. This is one great free personal finance and accounting system. You can import transaction data from a wide variety of formats, like QIF, CSV and OFX. 

Everything runs in a web browser over just several tabs. You can custom build graphs and charts for optimal reporting. You can manage budgeting with Skrooge, as well as do expense tracking.

There are easy workflows to set up scheduled operations and to process tasks and operations based on search criteria. Skrooge also handles multi-currency functionality.

Pros:

• As an alternative to Quickbooks but for free, Skrooge is a solid choice, especially for personal or household finance.
• The charts and graphs look really good and the customization is not difficult.
• Skrooge has some of the best important capabilities for your data, handling most formats.

Cons:

• Not great for SMBs, lacks project management and time tracking features, as well as advanced estimates, quotes and invoices.

Pricing:

• Skrooge is free but you can donate to the Skrooge team

Visit site
_{Go to Skrooge’s official website}

7. KMyMoney (Top Open Source Accounting Software for Mac)

KMyMoney is a great personal finance tool for Mac users, although it also runs on Linux and Microsoft Windows as well. The interface greets you with a welcome page to make your accounting work feel less alienated. It displays all your most pertinent information.

You get financial summaries, including current balances and upcoming scheduled transactions.  You can categorize your bank accounts based on institution. Accounts and bookkeeping separate income from expenses and assets from liabilities.

KMyMoney has great scheduling features and a dashboard to manage them. You can also organize your payees and commitments, as well as get access to an investment wizard for investing tips and insights.

Pros:

• KMyMoney really has a large feature list and it covers basically everything you need for personal finance.
• The module of investment tools helps even the beginner trader get into the game.
• Decent document manager with good searching and filtering.

Cons:

Not great for operations that need inventory and warehouse management. 

Pricing:

• KMyMoney is a free tool, but feel free to donate

Visit site
_{Go to KMyMoney’s official website}

8. GNUKhata (Great Free Small Business Accounting App for Windows)

GNUKHata hails from India, and is certified in the state of Kerala, as well as used in the curriculum of commerce by the state of Maharashtra. But this does not mean you cannot leverage GNUKHata anywhere in the world. This is one good open source accounting tool for Windows for small businesses.

You can manage invoices including tax data like GST and VAT. There is automation to take over your accounting and transaction data entries. Reports look great, show valuable info, and are not difficult to customize.  

Pros:

• GNUKHata has recently launched a web app which is great for those who do not want to download software.
• Everything runs really smoothly on Microsoft Windows, though this is also downloadable as a Linux format.

Cons:

• Not much in the way of customer support.

Pricing:

• GNUKHata is free

Visit site
_{Go to GNUKHata’s official website}

9. Openmiracle (Good Open Source Bookkeeping Software for Payroll)

Openmiracle is certainly not shy about branding themselves as a fantastic open source accounting solution built around very human needs and pain points. This is a great platform for accounting needs like payroll management. 

It helps prepare salary sheets as they connect to invoices and project planning, and lets you factor in salary settings, holidays, attendance records, advanced payments, vouchers and pay slips.

For more advanced analytics and reporting, Openmiracle has a series of good plugins, like Miracle and Miracle Skate, which also help with advanced data migration.

Pros:

• As mentioned, this is a great app for doing payroll management and can help save HR staff a lot of time.
• There is a good PoS tool, for point of sale functionality. Also a good barcode generator and reader.

Cons:

• Could do with a bit of a dashboard makeover.

Pricing:

• Openmiracle is free forever

Visit site
_{Go to Openmiracle’s official website}

10. Odoo (Top Open Source Small Business Accounting Software)

Odoo is a leading name in open source business apps for startups, small businesses and SMEs. There are plenty of useful accounting and financial tools for you to pick from.

Odoo begins as a free platform so long as you only choose one app or one of the app bundles. For example, Odoo Accounting comes with Odoo Invoicing, as does Odoo Expenses. 

Pros:

When it comes to open source accounting software for small business, Odoo is a leading competitor.

Cons:

The only reason Odoo is not higher on the list is because it is not completely free.

Pricing:

• Odoo Accounting and Invoicing starts free

• If you want to add Odoo eCommerce which also comes with Odoo Website, it costs $96 per month billed annually

Odoo review

Visit site
_{Go to Odoo’s official website}

What is Open Source Accounting Software & What Does it Do?

An open source accounting definition needs to clear up the difference between this and an open API. API is what lets apps function together, and when it’s open developers can create new connecting features. The open source accounting meaning refers to what would otherwise be the software’s black box, that is to say, with open source, the accounting software source code is not locked away in the dark where devs can’t see it.

Open source accounting and financial software does everything private SaaS like Quickbooks can do except most of the time it is totally free. This includes helping to manage balance sheets, income, expenses and taxes. Also for SMBs there are estimates, quotes, billing, invoicing and payment processing, as well as payroll and inventory management. You can also get investment tools like asset management, among other tools with the best small business accounting software.    

Which open source accounting program is best for me? Our conclusion

In conclusion, we have compiled a list of the top 10 open source accounting software and free financial management systems that are worth considering for your business needs. However, it is important to note that this ordering is subjective and may vary based on individual requirements. 

If you're specifically looking for the best accounting software for nonprofits, you should prioritize systems like Aplos or ZipBooks which have specific features tailored to nonprofit accounting needs. 

Similarly, if you're seeking a more comprehensive solution for managing your entire organization's financial data, an ERP accounting software like Odoo or ERPNext may be the ideal choice. Ultimately, it's essential to carefully evaluate your business's specific requirements and choose the software that best fits your needs, goals, and budget.