Self-hosted alternatives to Wave
Want invoicing and accounting without handing your data to Wave? These 10 self-hosted apps run on your own server (most are open source; licenses are listed below). Cheapest estimated hosting starts at about $5/month.
About Wave: Accounting and invoicing software for small businesses.
| App | Health | Stars | License | Docker | RAM (est.) | From |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Invoice Ninja | Active | 10.5k | Elastic-2.0 | ✓ | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| Akaunting | Active | 10.3k | BUSL-1.1 | ✓ | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| Bigcapital | Active | 4.1k | AGPL-3.0 | ✓ | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| InvoicePlane | Active | 3.3k | MIT | – | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| Fava | Active | 2.6k | MIT | – | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| InvoiceShelf | Active | 1.9k | AGPL-3.0 | ✓ | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| FOSSBilling | Active | 1.7k | Apache-2.0 | ✓ | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| SolidInvoice | Active | 981 | MIT | – | 1 GB | $5/mo |
| Family Accounting Tool | Active | 374 | Apache-2.0 | – | 2 GB | $10/mo |
| Pancake | Unknown | – | ⊘ Proprietary | – | 1 GB | $5/mo |
The options in detail
1. Invoice Ninja
Powerful tool to invoice clients online.
Active Last commit 2026-10-18. Latest release v5.13.53 (2026-11-02). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
2. Akaunting
Accounting software designed for small businesses and freelancers.
Active Last commit 2026-11-05. 8 releases in the past year. Latest release 3.3.0 (2026-10-27). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
3. Bigcapital
Financial accounting and inventory management software for small to medium businesses.
Active Last commit 2026-11-04. 10+ releases in the past year. Latest release v0.25.45 (2026-10-23). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
4. InvoicePlane
Manage quotes, invoices, payments and customers for your small business.
Active Last commit 2026-10-31. Latest release v1.7.2 (2026-08-28). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
5. Fava
Web frontend of Beancount, a text based double-entry accounting system.
Active Last commit 2026-11-03. 10+ releases in the past year. Latest release nightly (2026-11-03). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
6. InvoiceShelf
Track expenses, payments & create professional invoices & estimates (fork of Crater).
Active Last commit 2026-10-27. Latest release 3.0.0-alpha.15 (2026-10-26). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
7. FOSSBilling
Hosting and billing automation. Integrates with WHM, CWP, cPanel and HestiaCP. Full API and easily extensible.
Active Last commit 2026-11-04. 10+ releases in the past year. Latest release 0.8.9 (2026-10-23). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
8. SolidInvoice
Invoicing and quote application.
Active Last commit 2026-11-04. Latest release 3.1.2 (2026-10-21). Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
9. Family Accounting Tool
Web-based finance management tool for partners with partially shared expenses.
Active Last commit 2026-11-01. Latest release v4.32 (2026-10-26). Needs roughly 2 GB RAM. How to run it →
10. Pancake
Online invoicing, project management, time tracking and proposal software.
Unknown Needs roughly 1 GB RAM. How to run it →
Why self-host instead of Wave?
- Own your data — it lives on a server you control, with backups you decide on.
- Predictable cost — a small VPS often replaces per-seat pricing for a whole team or family.
- No lock-in — open-source licenses let you keep running the software even if a vendor disappears.
The trade-off: you are responsible for updates, backups and security. Pick an app marked Active (a commit in the last 90 days) and with Docker support for the easiest ride.
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Wave is a trademark of its owner; this site is not affiliated with it. Listings come from the community-maintained awesome-selfhosted list.