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Bigcapital bigcapitalhq/bigcapital

Double-entry accounting and inventory app with invoices, estimates, Stripe payment links, expenses, Plaid bank sync and financial reports.

Creator kit + Compare GitHub ↗ Install guide (official) ↗

Bigcapital at a glance

Checked 16 Oct 2026

Bigcapital (3.9k stars, v0.25.44 Oct 2026; still 0.x) is a web accounting system with a double-entry ledger, sales invoices and estimates, Stripe payment links, expenses, bills, inventory and financial statements, plus a REST API. AGPL-3.0. Self-hosting is a Docker Compose stack with MariaDB; docs ask for 2 CPU cores and 4 GB RAM for up to 10 organizations. Automatic bank feeds need your own Plaid account. No time tracking or payroll.

Cite this pageRepoQuarry. “Bigcapital.” Checked 16 Oct 2026. https://repoquarry.dev/projects/bigcapital

How much of QuickBooks Online does it replace?

5 of 6 jobs. Covers core bookkeeping and invoicing; bank sync needs Plaid credentials; no payroll or time tracking.

Partial: Invoices Partial replacement
Partial: Online payment of invoices Partial replacement
Partial: Expense and receipt tracking Partial replacement
Partial: Bank feeds and reconciliation Partial replacement
Partial: Bookkeeping Partial replacement
No: Time tracking and billing for time Not covered

For time tracking and billing for time, see other QuickBooks Online alternatives. You may also need to build an interface, an API server and hosting yourself.

How much of FreshBooks does it replace?

4 of 6 jobs. No time tracking.

Partial: Invoices Partial replacement
Partial: Online payment of invoices Partial replacement
No: Time tracking and billing for time Not covered
Partial: Expense and receipt tracking Partial replacement
No: Bank feeds and reconciliation Not covered
Partial: Bookkeeping Partial replacement

For time tracking and billing for time, see other FreshBooks alternatives. You may also need to build an interface, an API server and hosting yourself.

Facts, with sources

Every answer links to where we found it. We read the documentation; we did not install it.

Report a correction
QuestionAnswerSourceChecked
Runs on my machine? Confirmed: Self-hosted with Docker Compose; Bigcapital Cloud also offered You can host it on your own servers using Docker. github.com · bigcapital#self-hosted ↗ today
Code licence Partial: AGPL-3.0 (copyleft) Bigcapital is available open-source under AGPL license. github.com · bigcapital#self-hosted ↗ today
Model weights licence Confirmed: No separate model weights github.com · bigcapital#readme ↗ today
Commercial use Partial: Yes under AGPL-3.0 copyleft terms GNU AFFERO GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE github.com · LICENSE ↗ today
Paid services needed? Partial: Core needs nothing paid; automatic bank sync needs your own Plaid account; Stripe for card payments To connect Bigcapital (self-hosted) to Plaid, you need your **Client ID** and **Secret**. docs.bigcapital.app · plaid_setup ↗ today
Hardware Confirmed: 2 CPU cores and 4 GB RAM minimum for up to 10 organizations; 5-10 GB for MariaDB 4 GB RAM is the required minimum memory size and supports up to 10 organizations docs.bigcapital.app · recommendation ↗ today
Operating systems Partial: Any host with Docker and Docker Compose; ARM and host OS not documented Before proceeding, make sure you have the latest version of docker and docker-compose installed. docs.bigcapital.app · docker ↗ today
Setup effort Confirmed: Medium; clone the repo, edit .env and start docker-compose.prod.yml, or use the setup script docker-compose --file docker-compose.prod.yml up -d docs.bigcapital.app · docker ↗ today

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