GnuCash vs hledger
GnuCash
gnucash.orghledger
hledger.orgSide by side
| Figure | GnuCash | hledger |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 2 |
| Spec score · Bookkeeping Software | 9.0 (#12) | 8.5 (#25) |
| Spec score · General Ledger Software | 8.7 (#5) | 8.6 (#7) |
| Accounting | Its double-entry accounting requires each transaction’s debits and credits to balance. | It provides multi-currency double-entry accounting using plain-text files. |
| Double-entry accounting | Every transaction debits one account and credits others by equal amounts so the books balance. | Transactions must balance, and hledger checks syntax, balancing and balance assertions when reading files. |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Licence | GnuCash is open-source software released under the GNU General Public License. | hledger is free software released under GNU GPL version 3 or later. |
| Reports | It includes customizable reports such as balance sheets, profit and loss, and portfolio valuation, plus charts. | It generates balance sheet, income statement, and cashflow reports, including multi-period reports. |
| Support | The project points users to public mailing lists, IRC, a wiki, documentation, and bug reports for help. | Community support is provided through Matrix, IRC, chat, mail lists and bug trackers. |
| System requirements | The 5.17 build requirements include GTK+ 3.22.30, Guile 2.0.9, Boost 1.67, WebKitGTK 2.4, GoogleTest 1.8.0, CMake 3.14.5 and SWIG 3.0.12. | Building from source requires GHC plus Stack or Cabal and may need about 4 GB of RAM and at least 4 GB of disk space. |
| What it does | GnuCash is free accounting software for personal and small-business finances, including bank accounts, stocks, income and expenses. | hledger is cross-platform, plain-text, double-entry accounting software for tracking money, investments, cryptocurrencies, invoices, time and inventory. |
Plans
In their own words
GnuCash
GnuCash is free personal and small-business accounting software for tracking bank accounts, stocks, income, and expenses. Its double-entry accounting requires every transaction’s debits and credits to balance. Small-business tools cover customers, vendors, jobs, invoicing, bill payment, tax and billing terms, and budgeting. Users can create customizable balance sheets, profit and loss, and portfolio valuation reports, as well as charts. GnuCash imports QIF and OFX files with transaction matching; German users can use HBCI to download statements and initiate transfers and direct debits. Data is stored in XML by default. Support for SQLite3, MySQL, and PostgreSQL databases is experimental, and some reported corner cases can cause data loss. The GNU GPL-licensed software has installation options for Linux and installers for macOS and Windows. The main application is unavailable for iOS and iPadOS, while the separate Android app appears abandoned according to the project FAQ. The project is maintained, documented, and translated by volunteers.
hledger
hledger is free accounting software for tracking money, investments, cryptocurrencies, time, and other countable items in plain-text files. It provides multi-currency double-entry accounting and generates balance sheet, income statement, and cashflow reports, including reports across multiple periods. It offers command-line, terminal, and web interfaces; the web interface can also serve a JSON API.
hledger imports CSV and can output text, HTML, CSV, JSON, or SQL. It can interoperate with Ledger and Beancount formats. The software runs locally and offline, keeping plain-text data under the user's control. Bank feeds, automated reconciliation, and inventory tracking are supported; invoice creation is not. Official binaries are available for Linux x64, Mac x64 and arm64, and Windows x64, with no official Linux ARM binaries. The web app normally runs locally and is accessible only from the user's machine. hledger is Free Software under GNU GPLv3+ with no purchase price or monthly fees.