SHSelfHostIndex

Crater Self-Hosted Invoicing vs Lago

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?
CR Crater Self-Hosted Invoicing Open-source invoicing for freelancers and businesses VS LA Lago Open-source billing and metering API
FeatureCrater Self-Hosted InvoicingLago
CategoryBudgeting & FinanceBudgeting & Finance
LicenseAGPL-3.0AGPL-3.0
LanguagePHPGo
Setup difficultyMediumHard
Min. RAM512 MB2,048 MB
Deploymentdocker, sourcedocker, kubernetes, source
GitHub stars★ 1,784★ 10,308
First released20232022
ReplacesFreshBooks, WaveStripe Billing, Chargebee

Why pick each one

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

Choose Lago if…

  • Powerful for SaaS billing
  • Developer-friendly
Lago details

Frequently asked questions

Is Crater Self-Hosted Invoicing or Lago better?

Neither is universally better. Lago has the larger community, while Crater Self-Hosted Invoicing is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are Crater Self-Hosted Invoicing and Lago free and open-source?

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

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

Crater Self-Hosted Invoicing: yes. Lago: yes.

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