Invoice Ninja

What is Invoice Ninja?

Invoice Ninja is an open source invoicing and billing platform that lets freelancers and small businesses create invoices and quotes, track time and expenses, and accept online payments. You can self-host it for free or use the hosted cloud version, and it works as a source-available FreshBooks alternative.

What is Invoice Ninja best for?

Invoice Ninja fits freelancers, agencies, and small businesses that bill clients regularly and want to own their data instead of paying per-client SaaS fees. It is strongest when you need professional invoices, recurring billing, and online payment links without a monthly subscription, and you have the technical comfort to run a Laravel app or accept its 5-client free cloud tier.

What can Invoice Ninja do?

• Create and send branded invoices and quotes, with recurring invoices and auto-reminders.
• Accept online payments through 40+ gateways, including Stripe, PayPal, and GoCardless.
• Track billable time, projects, tasks, and expenses, with Kanban boards for project work.
• Manage clients through a self-service portal where they view, approve, and pay documents.
• Generate e-invoices with PEPPOL support for compliant electronic invoicing in the EU.
• Run multiple companies from one install and assign users with role-based permissions.
• Use native mobile and desktop apps (iOS, Android, macOS, Windows, Linux) alongside the web app.

Where does Invoice Ninja fall short?

Invoice Ninja is not a full accounting suite — it handles invoicing, expenses, and payments well, but you will still need separate software for general ledger accounting, payroll, and tax filing. The self-hosted v5 also leans on headless Chrome to render PDFs and a background queue worker, two moving parts most invoicing tools don’t require. Its license is also source-available, not true open source — see below.

Is Invoice Ninja free?

Partly. The self-hosted version is free with unlimited clients and invoices, and the full source includes the Pro and Enterprise features. The hosted cloud has a free tier capped at 5 clients; Ninja Pro is $140/year and Enterprise is $180/year for unlimited clients and team features. Removing the “Invoice Ninja” branding from client-facing pages requires a white-label license at $40/year.

What does Invoice Ninja replace?

Invoice Ninja stands in for paid invoicing and billing services like FreshBooks, QuickBooks Online, and Zoho Invoice. Those tools charge recurring per-client or per-seat fees that scale as you grow; self-hosting Invoice Ninja removes that cost. For broader business management beyond billing, a full ERP like ERPNext covers accounting, inventory, and HR in one system.

FAQ

Is Invoice Ninja open source? The source code is public on GitHub, but it is released under the Elastic License 2.0 (ELv2), which is source-available rather than OSI-approved open source. You can self-host and modify it freely, but the license prohibits offering it as a hosted multi-tenant service.

Can I self-host Invoice Ninja for free? Yes. The self-hosted edition is free with unlimited clients and invoices and includes the Pro and Enterprise features. You only pay if you want the optional $40/year white-label license to remove client-facing branding.

Is Invoice Ninja a good FreshBooks alternative? Yes, for invoicing, quoting, expense tracking, and online payments without per-client pricing. It is not a full accounting replacement, so businesses needing deep bookkeeping or payroll will still pair it with dedicated accounting software.

What do I need to run Invoice Ninja? A PHP/Laravel-capable server with MySQL. The recommended v5 setup uses Docker with a queue worker and headless Chrome for PDF generation; one-click installs exist via Cloudron, YunoHost, Softaculous, and Elestio.