Invoice Ninja

Invoicing, quotes, payments, expenses and time tracking for freelancers and small businesses, hosted or on your own server; source-available.

10.5k stars, 2.8k forks PHP On GitHub since November 2013

Visit website View on GitHub How to run it

What is Invoice Ninja?

Invoice Ninja 5 creates and sends invoices and quotes, takes online payments through gateways such as Stripe, tracks expenses, projects and billable time, and gives clients a portal. A hosted SaaS and a self-hosted server share the same code, and the self-hosted version works with the official desktop apps for macOS, Windows and Linux and the iPhone and Android apps. An API and a Go SDK are available. Its Laravel back end comes with 38 interface languages.

Good fit if

  • You bill clients and want FreshBooks-style invoicing without a monthly fee per user.
  • You want Pro and Enterprise features while hosting the data yourself.

Look elsewhere if

  • You need full double-entry accounting: Akaunting.
  • You want to budget household money rather than bill customers: Firefly III.

Before you adopt it

Invoice Ninja switched from a BSD license to the Elastic License 2.0 in June 2021. That license is source-available, not open source by the OSI definition: it forbids offering the software as a hosted service to others and circumventing license keys. Paid tax code sits in app/DataMapper/Tax/EE/, and a $40-per-year white-label license removes branding from client-facing pages. Contributors sign a CLA. One developer writes most commits. Keep the APP_KEY safe: losing it makes the data unreadable.

Drafted with AI from the project's README and repository data, then checked against that data on 31 October 2026. Report a correction

Invoice Ninja health: is it still maintained?

85 of 100, actively developed

  • Activity
    456 commits in the last 90 days, the latest on 18 October 2026.
    30 / 30
  • Contributors
    8 people wrote the latest 100 commits; the most active wrote 88% of them.
    13 / 20
  • Releases
    15 releases in the last 12 months; the latest, v5.13.53, on 2 November 2026.
    19 / 20
  • Replies to issues
    Maintainers answered 84% of recent issues, with a median first reply after 6 hours.
    19 / 20
  • Security practices
    OpenSSF Scorecard 4.2 of 10.
    4 / 10

Read from GitHub on 3 November 2026. How the score works

Invoice Ninja license: is it open source?

Invoice Ninja uses Elastic License 2.0. It is source-available, not an OSI-approved open-source license: the code is public, but the license restricts how you may use it, usually commercially. Some features sit under a separate paid license inside the same repository. Contributors sign a contributor license agreement, which lets the owner relicense their work later.

  1. November 2013First published on GitHub under BSD.
  2. 15 June 2021Changed to Elastic License 2.0. Commit: License update
  3. TodayElastic License 2.0, with paid parts: directory app/DataMapper/Tax/EE/. A contributor license agreement is required.

How to run Invoice Ninja yourself

Docker
No Docker files in the repository
Compose file
None in the repository
Setup effort
Not rated: no compose file to judge from
Kubernetes
No Helm chart in the repository
Desktop and mobile
No app builds in GitHub releases
Interface languages
38 languages

Install instructions: invoiceninja.com or the README on GitHub.

Alternatives to Invoice Ninja

  • AkauntingOnline Accounting Software 70 health · Business Source License · 10.3k stars
  • Firefly IIIFirefly III: a personal finances manager 76 health · AGPL-3.0 · 25.1k stars
  • GhostfolioOpen Source Wealth Management Software. Angular + NestJS + Prisma + Nx + TypeScript 75 health · AGPL-3.0 · 9.6k stars
  • WallosWallos: Open-source, self-hostable personal subscription tracker. Visualize your recurring expenses, manage… 73 health · GPL-3.0 · 8.8k stars
  • Actual BudgetA local-first personal finance app 92 health · MIT · 29.9k stars

All 7 projects in Money & budgeting

Questions about Invoice Ninja

Is Invoice Ninja open source?

Not by the OSI definition. Invoice Ninja uses Elastic License 2.0, which makes the code public but restricts how it may be used.

Is Invoice Ninja still maintained?

Its health score is 85 of 100 (actively developed). It had 456 commits in the last 90 days, the latest on 18 October 2026, and its latest release came out on 2 November 2026.

Did Invoice Ninja change its license?

Yes. It moved from BSD to Elastic License 2.0 on 15 June 2021.

How do I run Invoice Ninja?

The repository has no Docker files or app builds, so you build it from source. The README on GitHub has the steps.

What are the alternatives to Invoice Ninja?

Close alternatives in the Money & budgeting category include Akaunting, Firefly III, Ghostfolio.