head to head · open source
Akaunting vs hledger
Akaunting has 10,270 GitHub stars, 3,011 forks, 14 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. hledger has 4,806 stars, 426 forks, 328 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Akaunting leads on adoption by 114% (10,270 vs 4,806 stars). Akaunting is written in PHP under a custom or non-standard licence; hledger is written in Haskell under GPL-3.0. Akaunting has attracted 29% as many forks as stars, hledger 9%. hledger was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (accounting, finance), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Akaunting | hledger | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 10K | ★ 4.8K |
| License | Custom / other | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | PHP | Haskell |
| Last push | 2026-10-31 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 426 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Akaunting if
- You weight community size — 10K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick hledger if
- You want the hledger feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Haskell
- You evaluated both and hledger fits your workflow better
About Akaunting
Akaunting™ Online accounting software designed for small businesses and freelancers. Akaunting is built with modern technologies such as Laravel, VueJS, Tailwind, RESTful API etc. Thanks to its modular structure, Akaunting provides an awesome App Store for users and developers. Home The house of Akaunting Forum Ask for support Documentation Learn how to use Developer Portal Generate passive income App Store Extend your Akaunting Requirements PHP 8.1 or higher Database (e.g.: MariaDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite) Web Server (eg: Apache, Nginx, IIS) Other libraries Framework Akaunting uses Laravel, the best existing…
read the full Akaunting overview →
About hledger
hledger Robust, intuitive plain text accounting Welcome! This is a brief intro to hledger. For a more detailed version, see the home page: hledger is lightweight, cross platform, multi currency, double entry accounting software. It lets you track money, investments, cryptocurrencies, invoices, time, inventory and more, in a safe, future proof plain text data format with full version control and privacy. hledger aims to help both computer experts and regular folks gain clarity in their finances and time management. Though the UIs are basic, hledger can model any accounting situation and provide precise, clear…
read the full hledger overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Akaunting or hledger more popular?
Akaunting has 10,270 GitHub stars and hledger has 4,806. Akaunting has the larger community by that measure.
Are Akaunting and hledger free?
Both are open source. Akaunting has no licence declared in this registry, and hledger is licensed under GPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Akaunting and hledger?
Akaunting is written in PHP and hledger in Haskell. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Akaunting or hledger?
Choose Akaunting if you want the larger community (10,270 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose hledger if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.