Invoice Ninja vs Lago
| Tagline | Full-featured invoicing, quotes, and payment platform for freelancers | Open-source metering and usage-based billing API for SaaS products |
| Category | Finance & Budgeting | Finance & Budgeting |
| Replaces | QuickBooks, Mint | QuickBooks, Mint |
| GitHub stars | 9.8k | 10k |
| Language | PHP | Docker |
| License | Elastic-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Self-host difficulty | 3/5 Moderate | 3/5 Moderate |
| Deploy options | Docker Docker Compose Manual | Docker Docker Compose Kubernetes Manual |
| Managed hosting | ||
| Last updated | yesterday | 7 days ago |
| View repo | View repo |
Where each falls short
The honest trade-offs — what you give up with each, versus the proprietary tools they replace.
Invoice Ninja
- Elastic-2.0 license prohibits competing SaaS offerings; not truly open-source
- Full accounting (P&L, balance sheet, general ledger) is not available; it is invoicing-focused
- Advanced inventory management absent compared to QuickBooks
- Some enterprise features (white-labelling, advanced reports) require a paid plan even self-hosted
Lago
- Developer-oriented billing API, not a personal finance or budgeting tool for end-users
- No AR/AP or general-ledger accounting; revenue recognition requires integration with an ERP
- Tax calculation engine is basic; real-world tax compliance needs third-party integration (e.g. Avalara)
- Dunning workflows and payment retries are less mature than Chargebee or Stripe Billing
Bottom line
Both are a similar lift to self-host; choose Lago for the larger community and ecosystem. Invoice Ninja has seen more recent development. Open each guide below for deploy steps and the full feature gap.
Invoice Ninja
Full-featured invoicing, quotes, and payment platform for freelancers