head to head · open source
Invoice Ninja vs Bigcapital
Invoice Ninja has 10,464 GitHub stars, 2,793 forks, 945 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Bigcapital has 4,040 stars, 569 forks, 214 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Invoice Ninja leads on adoption by 159% (10,464 vs 4,040 stars). Invoice Ninja is written in PHP under a custom or non-standard licence; Bigcapital is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. Invoice Ninja has attracted 27% as many forks as stars, Bigcapital 14%. Bigcapital was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (expenses, payments), 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
| Invoice Ninja | Bigcapital | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 10K | ★ 4.0K |
| License | Custom / other | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | PHP | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.8K | ⑂ 569 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Invoice Ninja 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 Bigcapital if
- You want the Bigcapital feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Bigcapital fits your workflow better
About Invoice Ninja
Invoice Ninja 5 Invoice Ninja Version 5 is here! We've taken the best parts of version 4 and added the most requested features to create an invoicing application like no other. Check the Invoice Ninja YouTube Channel to get up to speed, or try the Demo now. Choose your setup Hosted: Our hosted version is a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution. You're up and running in under 5 minutes, with no need to worry about hosting or server infrastructure. Self Hosted: For those who prefer to manage their own hosting and server infrastructure. This version gives you full control and flexibility. All Pro and Enterprise…
read the full Invoice Ninja overview →
About Bigcapital
Simple, smart online accounting software for small and medium businesses. Bigcapital Cloud What's Bigcapital? Bigcapital is a smart and open source accounting and inventory software, Bigcapital keeps all business finances in right place and automates accounting processes to give the business powerful and intelligent financial statements and reports to help in making decisions. Getting Started We've got serveral options on dev and prod depending on your need to get started quickly with Bigcapital. Self hosted Bigcapital is available open source under AGPL license. You can host it on your own servers using Docker…
read the full Bigcapital overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Invoice Ninja or Bigcapital more popular?
Invoice Ninja has 10,464 GitHub stars and Bigcapital has 4,040. Invoice Ninja has the larger community by that measure.
Are Invoice Ninja and Bigcapital free?
Both are open source. Invoice Ninja has no licence declared in this registry, and Bigcapital is licensed under AGPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Invoice Ninja and Bigcapital?
Invoice Ninja is written in PHP and Bigcapital in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Invoice Ninja or Bigcapital?
Choose Invoice Ninja if you want the larger community (10,464 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Bigcapital if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.