GNUKhata vs hledger
GNUKhata
gnukhata.orghledger
hledger.orgSide by side
| Figure | GNUKhata | hledger |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | Yes |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 2 |
| Spec score · General Ledger Software | 8.7 (#6) | 8.6 (#7) |
| Spec score · Bookkeeping Software | 8.7 (#21) | 8.5 (#25) |
| Financial reports | Reports include profit and loss, balance sheet, cash flow, ledger, trial balance, product and stock registers. | Built-in reporting includes balance sheets, income statements, cashflow, budgets, registers and multi-period summaries. |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Support | User support is offered through community discussions, documentation and video tutorials. | Community support is provided through Matrix, IRC, chat, mail lists and bug trackers. |
| What it does | GNUKhata provides accounting and inventory management for small and medium-sized businesses, traders, startups and NGOs. | hledger is cross-platform, plain-text, double-entry accounting software for tracking money, investments, cryptocurrencies, invoices, time and inventory. |
Plans
In their own words
GNUKhata
GNUKhata is free, open-source financial accounting and inventory software for SMEs, traders, startups, and NGOs, with a focus on Indian GST requirements. It handles sales and purchase invoices, point-of-sale entries, delivery notes, debit and credit notes, payments, and receipts. Accounting tools include a customizable chart of accounts, journal and other vouchers, and year-end book closing and rollover. Inventory records cover products and services, tax details, HSN search, and stock across multiple godowns. Reports include Profit & Loss, Balance Sheet, and stock summaries. GNUKhata can prepare GSTR-1 reports as JSON for upload to the GST portal, and it has multiple user roles, including Admin, Manager, Operator, Internal Auditor, and Godown In charge. Version 8.0 is distributed as Docker images; Windows installation is possible, but the project says it is not well tested. The project reports fixed SQL injection issues, while also noting that the code has not had a security audit and recommending use in a private environment. It does not currently support online e-way billing or e-invoicing, or GST-2A/GSTR-2B reconciliation. The listed plan is GNUKhata at free.
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.