Frappe Books vs Hospitable Ledger
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted budgeting & finance options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Frappe Books
Free desktop accounting for small businesses
VS
Hospitable Ledger
Plain-text accounting toolkit and CLI
| Feature | Frappe Books | Hospitable Ledger |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 83 · Excellent | 83 · Excellent |
| Category | Budgeting & Finance | Budgeting & Finance |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Language | TypeScript | C++ |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, source | bare-metal, binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 4,981 | ★ 6,043 |
| First released | 2020 | 2003 |
| Replaces | QuickBooks, Wave | QuickBooks, Quicken |
What are Frappe Books and Hospitable Ledger?
Frappe Books
Frappe Books is a free, open-source accounting application for small businesses and freelancers. It is a desktop app offering invoicing, double-entry bookkeeping, and inventory management.
- Double-entry accounting
- Invoicing and billing
- Inventory tracking
- Offline desktop app
Hospitable Ledger
Ledger is the original command-line, double-entry plain-text accounting tool. It reads human-readable journal files and generates balance sheets, registers, and reports with powerful query options.
- Command-line accounting
- Plain-text journal files
- Powerful reporting queries
- No database required
Frappe Books vs Hospitable Ledger: key differences
Frappe Books is written in TypeScript, while Hospitable Ledger is built with C++. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Frappe Books versus BSD-3-Clause for Hospitable Ledger. Hospitable Ledger is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Frappe Books. Hospitable Ledger is the more established project (first released 2003), while Frappe Books arrived in 2020.
Why pick each one
Choose Frappe Books if…
- No subscription needed
- Simple and clean
Watch out for
- Desktop only
- Limited multi-user support
Choose Hospitable Ledger if…
- Extremely portable data
- Scriptable and version-controllable
Watch out for
- CLI only
- Steep learning curve
Frequently asked questions
Is Frappe Books or Hospitable Ledger better?
Neither is universally better. Hospitable Ledger has the larger community, while Frappe Books is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Frappe Books and Hospitable Ledger free and open-source?
Yes. Frappe Books is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Hospitable Ledger under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Frappe Books and Hospitable Ledger with Docker?
Frappe Books: check the project docs for container support. Hospitable Ledger: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Frappe Books or Hospitable Ledger?
Hospitable Ledger has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Frappe Books. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.