hledger
Leading#7 in Open sourcemedium confidence
Robust, actively maintained plain-text accounting tool (~4.6k★) — a Ledger-compatible reimplementation with strong CLI, web and reporting.Our read
Why it ranks #7
The most active Ledger-compatible alternative at 4,595 GitHub stars, with recurring plaintextaccounting recommendations for its maintained CLI, terminal UI and web interface.Here is the catch
still aimed primarily at technically confident users
no managed bank feeds or turnkey collaboration
business workflows such as invoicing and payroll require other tools
Does this well
actively maintained with several interfaces over one journal
portable data works well with version control
strong reporting and repeatable CSV import rules
Pricing
Checked by hand on 2026-07-23. Prices in this category change often — if this looks wrong, it probably is.
Key features
CLI, terminal and web interfacesLedger-compatible double-entry journalsBalance, cash-flow and income reportsRule-based CSV importing
Sources we read
Quick facts
More in this area
The rest of the Open source column.- 1ERPNextMost-adopted open-source accounting/ERP (~37k★) — a full double-entry accounting module (GL, invoicing, tax, reports) positioned as the OSS QuickBooks/SAP alternative for SMBs.
- 2Firefly IIIThe recognized self-hosted double-entry finance manager (~24k★); the go-to open-source app for tracking accounts, budgets and transactions.
- 3AkauntingPopular self-hosted web accounting for small businesses and freelancers (~10k★): invoicing, expense tracking, banking and tax management.
- 4Invoice NinjaWidely used self-hosted invoicing, billing and expense platform (~9.9k★) for freelancers and small businesses.
- 5LedgerThe original plain-text, command-line double-entry accounting tool (~6k★); the foundation of the plaintext-accounting movement.
- 6BeancountPlain-text double-entry accounting language and toolset (~5.8k★, with the Fava web UI); favored by developers who script and automate their books.