Frappe Books vs Invoice Ninja
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
Invoice Ninja
Open-source invoicing and billing platform
| Feature | Frappe Books | Invoice Ninja |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 83 · Excellent | 93 · Excellent |
| Category | Budgeting & Finance | Budgeting & Finance |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Elastic-2.0 |
| Language | TypeScript | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, source | docker, bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 4,981 | ★ 10,106 |
| First released | 2020 | 2014 |
| Replaces | QuickBooks, Wave | FreshBooks, QuickBooks |
What are Frappe Books and Invoice Ninja?
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
Invoice Ninja
Invoice Ninja is a free, open-source platform for invoicing, billing, payments, and time tracking. It serves freelancers and small businesses with quotes, recurring invoices, and client portals.
- Invoices, quotes, and payments
- Client self-service portal
- Time and expense tracking
- Recurring billing automation
Frappe Books vs Invoice Ninja: key differences
Frappe Books is written in TypeScript, while Invoice Ninja is built with PHP. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Frappe Books versus Elastic-2.0 for Invoice Ninja. Frappe Books is the lighter option, starting around 256 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Invoice Ninja. Invoice Ninja is the more established project (first released 2014), while Frappe Books arrived in 2020. Invoice Ninja has the considerably larger community, at 10,106 GitHub stars versus 4,981. Invoice Ninja lists first-class Docker deployment; Frappe Books does not.
Why pick each one
Choose Frappe Books if…
- No subscription needed
- Simple and clean
Watch out for
- Desktop only
- Limited multi-user support
Choose Invoice Ninja if…
- Comprehensive billing features
- Many payment gateway integrations
Watch out for
- License not OSI-approved
- Setup can be involved
Frequently asked questions
Is Frappe Books or Invoice Ninja better?
Neither is universally better. Invoice Ninja 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 Invoice Ninja free and open-source?
Yes. Frappe Books is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Invoice Ninja under Elastic-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Frappe Books and Invoice Ninja with Docker?
Frappe Books: check the project docs for container support. Invoice Ninja: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Frappe Books or Invoice Ninja?
Frappe Books has the smaller minimum footprint at 256 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Invoice Ninja. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.