InvoicePlane vs Lago
| Tagline | Self-hosted invoicing, quoting, and payment tracking for small businesses | Open-source metering and usage-based billing API for SaaS products |
| Category | Finance & Budgeting | Finance & Budgeting |
| Replaces | QuickBooks | QuickBooks, Mint |
| GitHub stars | 3.1k | 10k |
| Language | PHP | Docker |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Self-host difficulty | 3/5 Moderate | 3/5 Moderate |
| Deploy options | Docker Manual | Docker Docker Compose Kubernetes Manual |
| Managed hosting | ||
| Last updated | 4 days ago | 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.
InvoicePlane
- No double-entry accounting or general ledger
- Client portal for online payment acceptance is not built-in
- Limited financial reporting; no P&L or balance sheet
- Development pace has slowed; some modern UX polish is lacking
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. InvoicePlane has seen more recent development. Open each guide below for deploy steps and the full feature gap.
InvoicePlane
Self-hosted invoicing, quoting, and payment tracking for small businesses