Crater

Best Self Hosted Alternatives to Crater

A curated collection of the 5 best self hosted alternatives to Crater.

Crater is a cloud invoicing and expense-tracking platform for freelancers and small businesses. It generates invoices and estimates, manages clients, processes online payments, tracks expenses and taxes, and provides basic financial reporting.

Alternatives List

#1
Invoice Ninja

Invoice Ninja

Self-hostable invoicing platform for invoices, quotes, recurring billing, online payments, expenses, projects, and time tracking with a client portal and API.

Invoice Ninja screenshot

Invoice Ninja is a source-available invoicing and billing application for small businesses and freelancers. It helps you create invoices and quotes, accept online payments, manage clients, and track work with projects and time entries.

Key Features

  • Create and send invoices, quotes, and credit notes with customizable templates and branding
  • Client portal for viewing invoices, making payments, and accessing documents
  • Online payment integrations and payment reminders for due and overdue invoices
  • Expense tracking plus basic business workflow around clients and items/products
  • Projects and time tracking to bill hours and manage ongoing client work
  • REST API for integrating invoicing and client data into other systems

Use Cases

  • Freelancers generating professional invoices and accepting online payments
  • Small businesses managing quotes, recurring invoices, and client communications
  • Agencies tracking time and projects and converting work logs into invoices

Limitations and Considerations

  • Source-available under the Elastic License rather than a permissive OSI license
  • Some features (for example, white-labeling) may require a paid license

Invoice Ninja provides a comprehensive invoicing workflow with a client-facing portal and integrations, making it suitable for running billing and client management in-house. It’s a strong fit when you need both invoicing and time/project billing in a single system.

9.5kstars
2.6kforks
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#2
InvoicePlane

InvoicePlane

Self-hosted open source invoicing software to manage quotes, invoices, clients, and payment tracking, with customizable templates and multilingual UI.

InvoicePlane screenshot

InvoicePlane is a self-hosted, open source web application for managing your billing workflow, from quotes to invoices and payments. It also includes CRM-like client management and configurable templates for email and PDF output.

Key Features

  • Create, send, and manage quotes and invoices
  • Track payments and invoice statuses, with reminders
  • Client management with contact details, notes, and custom fields
  • Customizable themes and configurable email/PDF templates
  • Reporting to review billing and financial activity
  • Multi-language interface with community translations
  • Optional integrations for online payments (for example PayPal and Stripe)
  • Support for generating eInvoices (version-dependent)

Use Cases

  • Freelancers and small businesses issuing recurring or one-off invoices
  • Teams needing a lightweight billing tool with basic customer records
  • Organizations that want an on-premise invoicing system with customizable templates

Limitations and Considerations

  • Primarily aimed at small to medium billing workflows; advanced accounting features are limited
  • Payment provider options depend on available gateways and configuration

InvoicePlane provides a practical invoicing and client-management workflow with a straightforward web UI and flexible customization. It’s a good fit for users who want control over billing data and a simple, extensible PHP-based application.

2.9kstars
852forks
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#3
Rachoon

Rachoon

Rachoon is a modern self-hosted invoicing app for freelancers and small businesses, with client management, payment tracking, PDF export, and customizable templates.

Rachoon is a modern, self-hosted invoicing platform for freelancers and small businesses that want full control over billing data. It helps you create, manage, and track invoices and offers, and produce professional PDF documents.

Key Features

  • Create and manage invoices and quotations/offers
  • Client management with searchable customer details
  • Payment tracking, balances, and overdue invoice status
  • Customizable document templates and branding
  • Multi-currency billing with tax support
  • PDF export via an external PDF rendering service
  • Dashboard overview of revenue, pending payments, and client stats

Use Cases

  • Freelancers creating branded invoices and tracking paid vs. overdue items
  • Small businesses managing clients, offers, and multi-currency invoicing
  • Teams running invoicing in a private environment for data-control needs

Limitations and Considerations

  • PDF generation relies on an additional service (Gotenberg) that must be deployed and maintained
  • Requires a PostgreSQL database for persistence

Rachoon provides a clear, focused workflow for invoicing, client tracking, and document export while remaining deployable with common container tooling. It is well-suited for individuals or small organizations that want a modern invoicing UI without relying on third-party billing platforms.

895stars
62forks
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#4
SolidInvoice

SolidInvoice

Self-hosted invoicing and quoting platform with client management, taxes/discounts, online payments, and a REST API for integrations.

SolidInvoice screenshot

SolidInvoice is an open-source invoicing application built to help freelancers and small businesses manage billing operations. It centralizes clients, quotes, and invoices, and supports online payments and integrations via an API.

Key Features

  • Client and contact management
  • Create, send, and manage quotes and invoices
  • Taxes and discounts handling
  • Online payment acceptance (gateway support)
  • RESTful API for integrations with other systems
  • Notifications via multiple channels (for example email and SMS)
  • Multi-currency support and team collaboration

Use Cases

  • Freelancers issuing quotes and invoices and tracking payments
  • Small businesses managing recurring billing and payment reminders
  • Integrating invoicing data with external tools through the REST API

Limitations and Considerations

  • Requires a modern PHP runtime (project targets PHP 8.4+)

SolidInvoice is a practical choice for organizations that want a clean, extensible billing workflow they can run on their own infrastructure. It fits teams that need quotes, invoicing, and payment collection in one place, with automation and API access for integration.

845stars
213forks
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#5
Invio

Invio

Invio is a minimalist self-hosted invoicing app to create invoices, share secure public links, and manage billing data with a simple SQLite-backed setup.

Invio screenshot

Invio is a minimalist, self-hosted invoicing application focused on quickly creating invoices and sharing them with clients without unnecessary CRM or project-management features. It is designed to be fast, transparent, and easy to run while keeping your billing data under your control.

Key Features

  • Create and manage invoices with a streamlined, low-configuration workflow
  • Share invoices via secure public links so clients can view without accounts
  • SQLite-backed storage for a simple, lightweight deployment
  • JWT-based authentication for the admin session with configurable TTL
  • Built-in rate limiting to help protect login endpoints from brute-force attempts
  • Security headers support (including optional HSTS) for safer web deployments

Use Cases

  • Freelancers who want a lightweight invoicing tool they fully control
  • Small businesses that need a simple invoice workflow without bundled CRM features
  • Privacy-conscious teams that prefer local ownership and exportable billing data

Limitations and Considerations

  • Built to stay minimalist, so it may not suit complex accounting workflows or full ERP needs

Invio is a practical choice if you want a fast, no-bloat invoicing tool with sensible security defaults and a simple storage layer. Its focus on public invoice sharing and a straightforward workflow makes it well-suited for individuals and small teams.

704stars
45forks
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Why choose an open source alternative?

  • •Data ownership: Keep your data on your own servers
  • •No vendor lock-in: Freedom to switch or modify at any time
  • •Cost savings: Reduce or eliminate subscription fees
  • •Transparency: Audit the code and know exactly what's running