Accounting software in 2026

Narrower

• Invoicing apps 25 Harvest, Stripe Invoicing and Bill.com
• E-invoicing libraries for ZUGFeRD, Factur-X, XRechnung and Peppol 21 Pagero, Avalara E-Invoicing and Mustangproject
• Plain-text accounting tools 22 Beancount, Hledger and Paisa
• Double-entry ledger engines 12 Modern Treasury Ledgers, Fragment and TigerBeetle

Commercial accounting software

1. 1
   QuickBooks Online Intuit

   Organize & manage your business with the #1 rated solution. Fast & easy setup. Sign up for a free trial to join 7 million businesses already using QuickBooks.

   Complete system Production-ready A small business in the US, Canada or UK wants the accounting package most bookkeepers already know.

   1.8k readers a month Since 1992 Commercial
2. 2
   Xero Xero Limited

   Xero software connects small businesses to their accountant, bank and hundreds of business apps. Start a free trial today.

   Complete system Production-ready A small business in New Zealand, Australia or the UK wants mainstream cloud accounting that local accountants support.

   1.4k readers a month Since 2006 Commercial
3. 3
   Harvest Harvest

   Time tracking and management software with powerful easy reporting and streamlined online invoicing. Loved by 73,000 businesses. Get started for free.

   Complete system Production-ready An agency or consultancy bills by the hour and wants staff to track time easily against project budgets.

   503 readers a month Commercial
4. 4
   Stripe Invoicing Stripe, Inc.

   Create and send invoices online in minutes with Stripe. Use our invoicing software to automate payment collection and recover revenue with AI-powered dunning.

   Complete system Production-ready You already take payments through Stripe and want invoices that collect card and bank payments automatically.

   Commercial
5. 5
   Bill.com BILL Holdings

   The AP, AR, and spend & expense solution that lets you create and pay bills, manage expenses, control budgets, and get the credit your business/firm needs to grow.

   Complete system Production-ready A US small or midsize company or its accounting firm wants to automate bill approval and payment runs.

   363 readers a month Since 2006 Commercial
6. 6
   Wave Wave Financial

   Create beautiful invoices, accept online payments, and make accounting easy—all in one place—with Wave’s suite of money management tools.

   Complete system Production-ready A US or Canadian freelancer or micro-business wants free bookkeeping and invoicing and does not need integrations.

   353 readers a month Commercial
7. 7
   Sage Intacct Sage Group

   Sage Intacct is the #1 finance AI software trusted by 30,000+ finance teams. Close 90% faster, gain real-time visibility, and scale with confidence.

   Complete system Production-ready A US-centric midsize finance team needs better close, consolidation and reporting than QuickBooks but does not need inventory-heavy ERP.

   264 readers a month Since 1999 Commercial
8. 8
   Sage 50 Sage Group

   Sage 50 Cloud accounting software for small business will manage accounting, invoicing, inventory and taxes. Sage 50 Accounting, formerly Peachtree.

   Complete system Production-ready A small business prefers installed desktop accounting with stock control and its accountant already works in Sage 50.

   125 readers a month Commercial
9. 9
   FreshBooks FreshBooks

   Cloud-based accounting software service

   Complete system Production-ready A freelancer or small agency bills clients for time and wants invoicing first and accounting second.

   103 readers a month Since 2004 Commercial
10. 10
    Zoho Books Zoho Corporation

    Zoho Books is a cloud-based accounting software that simplifies invoicing, expenses, tax management, bank reconciliation, and financial reporting for small businesses.

    Complete system Production-ready A small business wants low-cost accounting, especially if it already uses Zoho CRM or other Zoho apps.

    Commercial
11. 11
    Zoho Invoice Zoho Corporation

    Complete system Production-ready A freelancer wants free professional invoicing and may move to Zoho Books later.

    Commercial
12. 12
    Sage Accounting Sage Group

    Discover the power and simplicity of online accounting software: real-time, collaboration, quick set-up, core and advanced features. Give it a try!

    Complete system Production-ready A UK or Irish sole trader or small company wants simple online books with Making Tax Digital VAT filing from a familiar brand.

    Commercial
13. 13
    Pagero Pagero

    Discover e-invoicing, tax, legal and regulatory compliance solutions from Thomson Reuters, helping organisations navigate complexity with confidence.

    Integration Production-ready A company trading across several countries must send and receive structured e-invoices to meet mandates.

    77 readers a month Commercial
14. 14
    DATEV Unternehmen online DATEV eG

    Unterstützung für Steuerberatung, Wirtschaftsprüfung, Rechtsberatung, Unternehmen & den öffentlichen Sektor.

    Complete system Production-ready Your German tax adviser works in DATEV and you want to hand them documents and bank data without paper.

    Commercial
15. 15
    FreeAgent FreeAgent

    If you’re starting out, rapidly growing or running a well-oiled machine, FreeAgent gives you confidence in your numbers and streamlines admin so you can make it count.

    Complete system Production-ready A UK sole trader or one-person limited company wants tax-ready books, and especially if NatWest, RBS or Mettle gives it to them free.

    42 readers a month Since 2007 Commercial
16. 16
    MYOB Business MYOB

    Streamline tasks. Grow confidently. Manage everything in one place with MYOB. Start your free trial today.

    Complete system Production-ready An Australian or New Zealand small business wants local payroll compliance and an accountant who works in MYOB.

    Commercial
17. 17
    Exact Online Exact Software

    Complete system Production-ready A Dutch or Belgian small or midsize business wants cloud accounting with industry modules and local accountant support.

    Commercial
18. 18
    Lexware Office Haufe Group

    Das Buchhaltungsprogramm Lexware Office erledigt Belege, EÜR und Umsatzsteuer automatisch – GoBD-konform und in der Cloud. 30 Tage kostenlos testen.

    Complete system Production-ready A German freelancer or small company wants simple compliant books and VAT filing that hands off cleanly to a tax adviser.

    Commercial
19. 19
    KashFlow IRIS Software Group

    Easy to use accounting software to take the hassle out of your small business accounts. Try our cloud software for accounting, bookkeeping, and payroll.

    Complete system Production-ready A UK small business wants cheap, simple online books and payroll and does not need a large app ecosystem.

    Commercial
20. 20
    Pandle Pandle

    Our accounting software helps small businesses become brilliant bookkeepers. Pandle is a cloud-based bookkeeping software. Start today!

    Complete system Usable A UK sole trader or small business wants the cheapest workable MTD-compatible bookkeeping.

    Commercial
21. 21
    Patriot Accounting Patriot Software

    Complete system Usable A small US business wants inexpensive accounting and payroll from the same vendor with US-based support.

    Commercial
22. 22
    Invoice Ninja (hosted) Invoice Ninja

    Free invoicing software for freelancers and small businesses. Send invoices and quotes, get paid online, and track time and expenses. Free forever.

    Complete system Production-ready A freelancer or small business wants free or cheap invoicing with the option to self-host the same software later.

    Commercial
23. 23
    Avalara E-Invoicing Avalara

    Comply with international real-time reporting and e‑invoicing mandates. Automate financial operations with Avalara E‑Invoicing and Live Reporting.

    Integration Production-ready A multinational must comply with e-invoicing mandates in several countries and already uses Avalara for tax.

    Commercial
24. 24
    Modern Treasury Ledgers Modern Treasury

    Track every transaction in real-time with double-entry accounting. Built for teams that need perfect accuracy and auditability.

    Building block Production-ready A fintech or platform team needs an auditable ledger for customer balances and does not want to build one.

    Commercial
25. 25
    Fragment Fragment

    Fragment is the financial system for agents. Programmable money that bills, pays, and accounts for itself.

    Building block Usable A product team wants to define its ledger as code and query balances through GraphQL instead of building a ledger.

    Commercial

Open-source accounting software

Complete systems you can adopt 7

1. 1
   TaxHacker vas3k

   Self-hosted AI accounting app. LLM analyzer for receipts, invoices, transactions with custom prompts and categories

   Complete system Usable A freelancer or small business wants self-hosted expense capture from receipts and has an LLM API key or local model.

   ★ 6.8k MIT TypeScript Active, pushed 35 days ago
2. 2
   Invoify al1abb

   An invoice generator app built using Next.js, Typescript, and Shadcn

   Complete system Usable You need to produce good-looking one-off invoices without signing up for an invoicing service.

   ★ 6.4k MIT TypeScript Active, pushed 2 months ago
3. 3
   Bigcapital bigcapitalhq

   💵 Independent financial accounting with intelligent reporting, alternative to Quickbooks, Xero, Wave.

   Complete system Usable A small business or developer wants a self-hosted QuickBooks-style ledger with an API.

   ★ 3.9k AGPL-3.0 TypeScript Active, pushed 15 days ago
4. 4
   Paisa ananthakumaran

   Paisa – Personal Finance Manager. https://paisa.fyi demo: https://demo.paisa.fyi

   Complete system Usable You keep or want to keep personal books in ledger format and want visual reports on top.

   ★ 3.2k AGPL-3.0 TypeScript Active, pushed 16 days ago
5. 5
   Fava beancount

   Fava - web interface for Beancount

   Complete system Production-ready You keep double-entry books in Beancount and want reports and editing in a browser.

   ★ 2.6k MIT Python Active, pushed 8 days ago
6. 6
   Fineract apache

   Apache Fineract

   Complete system Production-ready You run or build a lending, microfinance or savings business and need an open core banking back end.

   ★ 2.6k Apache-2.0 Java Active, pushed today
7. 7
   InvoiceShelf InvoiceShelf

   Open Source Invoicing Solution for Individuals & Businesses

   Complete system Usable You need straightforward invoicing on your own server and do not need full accounting.

   ★ 1.9k AGPL-3.0 PHP Active, pushed 6 days ago

Building blocks for your own system 1

1. 1
   TigerBeetle tigerbeetle

   The financial transactions database designed for mission critical safety and performance.

   Building block Usable You are building a payments or ledger system that needs very high throughput and correctness.

   ★ 17k Apache-2.0 Zig Active, pushed 3 days ago

Developer tools 2

1. 1
   Beancount beancount

   Beancount: Double-Entry Accounting from Text Files.

   Developer tool Production-ready You want strict, version-controlled double-entry books for personal or small business finances and are comfortable editing text files.

   ★ 6.1k GPL-2.0 Python Active, pushed 2 months ago
2. 2
   Hledger hledgerorg

   Robust, fast, intuitive plain text accounting tool with CLI, TUI and web interfaces.

   Developer tool Production-ready You want reliable, private plain-text books for personal or small business finances with good documentation.

   ★ 4.8k GPL-3.0 Haskell Active, pushed 2 days ago

All 75 open-source accounting projects

Compared head to head

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Open-source licenses

• Permissive: 53. Use it anywhere, including in closed products. You keep the copyright notice; Apache-2.0 also grants patent rights.
• Strong copyleft: 14. If you distribute the program or anything built on it, you must release the whole source under the same license.
• Network copyleft: 6. Like GPL, and running a changed version as a web service counts as distributing it, so its users get the source too.
• Public domain: 1. No conditions at all. You can copy, change and sell the code without even keeping the notice.
• Weak copyleft: 1. Changes to the licensed files must be shared, but you can link them into a closed program.

Languages

TypeScript 15, PHP 11, Python 10, Java 7, Go 6, XSLT 5, Rust 4, JavaScript 4, Haskell 3, C# 2, Kotlin 2, Ruby 2, Zig 1, Clojure 1, Vue 1 and SCSS 1.