Grisbi 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.

Not the right match-up?
FeatureGrisbiInvoice Ninja
CategoryBudgeting & FinanceBudgeting & Finance
LicenseGPL-2.0Elastic-2.0
LanguageCPHP
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM128 MB512 MB
Deploymentbinary, bare-metaldocker, bare-metal, source
GitHub stars★ 156★ 9,979
First released20002014
ReplacesQuickenFreshBooks, QuickBooks

Why pick each one

Choose Grisbi if…

  • Released under the GPL-2.0 license
  • Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
  • Written in C
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Grisbi details

Choose Invoice Ninja if…

  • Comprehensive billing features
  • Many payment gateway integrations
Invoice Ninja details

Frequently asked questions

Is Grisbi or Invoice Ninja better?

Neither is universally better. Invoice Ninja has the larger community, while Grisbi is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are Grisbi and Invoice Ninja free and open-source?

Yes. Grisbi is licensed under GPL-2.0 and Invoice Ninja under Elastic-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Grisbi and Invoice Ninja with Docker?

Grisbi: check the project docs for container support. Invoice Ninja: yes.

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