SHSelfHostIndex

Invoice Ninja vs Crater Self-Hosted Invoicing

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted budgeting & finance options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

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IN Invoice Ninja Open-source invoicing and billing platform VS CR Crater Self-Hosted Invoicing Open-source invoicing for freelancers and businesses
FeatureInvoice NinjaCrater Self-Hosted Invoicing
CategoryBudgeting & FinanceBudgeting & Finance
LicenseElastic-2.0AGPL-3.0
LanguagePHPPHP
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM512 MB512 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metal, sourcedocker, source
GitHub stars★ 9,979★ 1,784
First released20142023
ReplacesFreshBooks, QuickBooksFreshBooks, Wave

Why pick each one

Choose Invoice Ninja if…

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

Choose Crater Self-Hosted Invoicing if…

  • Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Active community (1.8k GitHub stars)
  • Written in PHP
Crater Self-Hosted Invoicing details

Frequently asked questions

Is Invoice Ninja or Crater Self-Hosted Invoicing better?

Neither is universally better. Invoice Ninja has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Invoice Ninja and Crater Self-Hosted Invoicing free and open-source?

Yes. Invoice Ninja is licensed under Elastic-2.0 and Crater Self-Hosted Invoicing under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Invoice Ninja and Crater Self-Hosted Invoicing with Docker?

Invoice Ninja: yes. Crater Self-Hosted Invoicing: yes.

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