Crater vs ezbookkeeping
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted budgeting & finance options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Crater
Free invoicing and expense tracking app
VS
ezbookkeeping
A lightweight personal bookkeeping app hosted by yourself
| Feature | Crater | ezbookkeeping |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Budgeting & Finance | Budgeting & Finance |
| License | AAL | MIT |
| Language | PHP | Go |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | docker |
| GitHub stars | ★ 8,338 | ★ 5,362 |
| First released | 2020 | 2026 |
| Replaces | FreshBooks, Invoicely | — |
Why pick each one
Choose ezbookkeeping if…
- Released under the MIT license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 5.4k GitHub stars
- Written in Go
Frequently asked questions
Is Crater or ezbookkeeping better?
Neither is universally better. Crater has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Crater and ezbookkeeping free and open-source?
Yes. Crater is licensed under AAL and ezbookkeeping under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Crater and ezbookkeeping with Docker?
Crater: yes. ezbookkeeping: yes.