head to head · open source
TaxHacker vs hledger
TaxHacker has 6,792 GitHub stars, 1,098 forks, 42 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. hledger has 4,806 stars, 426 forks, 328 open issues and last shipped yesterday. TaxHacker leads on adoption by 41% (6,792 vs 4,806 stars). TaxHacker is written in TypeScript under MIT; hledger is written in Haskell under GPL-3.0. TaxHacker has attracted 16% 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 1 topic tag (accounting), 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
| TaxHacker | hledger | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 6.8K | ★ 4.8K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | TypeScript | Haskell |
| Last push | 2026-10-31 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.1K | ⑂ 426 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick TaxHacker if
- You weight community size — 6.8K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- 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 TaxHacker
TaxHacker: Self Hosted AI Accounting [!NOTE] ☝️ I'm currently looking for a job! Particularly interested in companies in Berlin or remote positions in Germany. Here's my CV and Linkedin profile. Thank you 🙏 TaxHacker is a self hosted accounting app designed for freelancers, indie hackers, and small businesses who want to save time and automate expense and income tracking using the power of modern AI. Upload photos of receipts, invoices, or PDFs, and TaxHacker will automatically recognize and extract all the important data you need for accounting: product names, amounts, items, dates, merchants, taxes, and save…
read the full TaxHacker 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 TaxHacker or hledger more popular?
TaxHacker has 6,792 GitHub stars and hledger has 4,806. TaxHacker has the larger community by that measure.
Are TaxHacker and hledger free?
Both are open source. TaxHacker is licensed under MIT and hledger under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between TaxHacker and hledger?
TaxHacker is written in TypeScript 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, TaxHacker or hledger?
Choose TaxHacker if you want the larger community (6,792 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose hledger if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.