GnuCash
Free, open-source double-entry accounting for personal finances and small business, installed on your own machine.
- Starting price
- Free
- API
- No hosted API; official Python bindings wrap parts of the C and C++ API for standalone scripts
- Languages
- Menus and dialogs in 61 languages; manual and guide in English, French, Portuguese and Spanish
Overview
GnuCash is personal and small-business accounting software released under the GNU GPL and installed locally on GNU/Linux, BSD, macOS or Windows. Everything rests on double-entry bookkeeping, entered in a checkbook-style register that handles cheque, credit-card, income, stock and currency transactions with splits and reconciliation marks. The small-business side adds customers, vendors, jobs, invoicing, bill payment, tax and billing terms and a budgeting tool, with payroll run through receivables and payables rather than a separate module. Data is kept in an XML file by default, or in SQLite3, MySQL or PostgreSQL.
Our take
This is the option for someone who wants their books to outlive any vendor: no subscription, no account, no hosted service, and a file that stays on their own disk in a documented format. The cost of that is everything a browser-based product does for you. The project itself warns that GnuCash is not designed for several instances working on the same data at once, so this is single-operator software, not something a bookkeeper and a business owner share, and the SQL back ends that would otherwise loosen that up are still labelled experimental by the developers. Someone invoicing a handful of clients and reconciling a bank statement each month will be well served; a team that wants shared access, a phone in the field and a chat window when something goes wrong should look at the hosted tools next to it.
Key Facts
| Category | |
|---|---|
| Starting price | Free Free software under the GNU GPL. There is no paid edition, no subscription and no hosted service; the current stable release is 5.16. |
| API | No hosted API; official Python bindings wrap parts of the C and C++ API for standalone scripts |
| Languages | Menus and dialogs in 61 languages; manual and guide in English, French, Portuguese and Spanish |
| Hosting | Installed locally on GNU/Linux, BSD, Solaris, macOS or Windows |
| Made in | Developed, maintained, documented and translated by volunteers |
Screenshots
Placeholders. They are replaced as soon as the vendor sends material, and both open the same short form.
Features
- Invoicing and quotes
- Yes, customer and vendor tracking, jobs, invoicing and bill payment, with tax and billing terms and a budgeting tool
- Bookkeeping and bank feeds
- Yes, double-entry in a checkbook-style register with splits and autofill, reconciliation against a bank statement, scheduled transactions with reminders and accounts in different currencies; import from Quicken QIF and OFX, and German HBCI for statement download, transfers and direct debits
- Expenses and receipts
- Income and expense account types categorise cash flow, entered as transactions in the register
- Tax and compliance
- Tax and billing terms are set per customer and vendor; GnuCash handles internationalised dates and currencies
- Payroll
- Employee payroll is managed through accounts receivable and payable accounts rather than a dedicated payroll module
- Reports and exports
- Yes, standard and customisable reports including Balance Sheet, Profit and Loss and Portfolio Valuation, with bar, pie and scatter graphs, plus stock and mutual-fund tracking with quotes fetched from the web
- Integrations and API
- No hosted API; official Python bindings, SWIG wrappers around parts of the C and C++ API, allow standalone scripts, and data can be kept in SQLite3, MySQL or PostgreSQL
Integrations
Integrations coming soon.
Deployment and Support
- Deployment
-
- On-premise
- Support
-
- Community forum
- Onboarding
-
- Documentation and knowledge base
- Company size
-
- Freelancers
- Small and mid-sized
Pros and Cons
Strengths
- Free and open source under the GNU GPL, with no subscription and no account
- Proper double-entry with a reconcile tool that matches an account against a bank statement
- The data file stays on your own machine, as XML or in SQLite3, MySQL or PostgreSQL
- Menus and dialogs translated into 61 languages
- Small-business side covers customers, vendors, jobs, invoices, bills and budgets
Limitations
- The SQL back ends are labelled experimental by the project, with reported corner cases that lose data
- Not designed for several instances working on the same data at the same time
- The manual and guide exist in four languages while the program has 61
- Python bindings are not included in the official Windows and macOS packages
Pricing
-
Free
$0
GnuCash is free software under the GNU GPL. There is no paid edition, no subscription and no hosted service.
Alternatives and Comparisons
FAQ
- What does GnuCash cost?
- Nothing. GnuCash is free software released under the GNU GPL, developed and maintained by volunteers. There is no paid edition, no subscription and no hosted version to buy.
- Where is my data stored?
- On your own machine. GnuCash keeps data in an XML file by default and can instead use SQLite3, MySQL or PostgreSQL, though the project labels the SQL back ends experimental and notes that corner cases have been reported to lose data.
- Can GnuCash import bank transactions?
- Yes. It imports Quicken QIF files and supports the OFX protocol, and it was the first free software application to support the German HBCI protocol for statement download, transfers and direct debits.
- Can several people work in the same GnuCash file?
- The project states that GnuCash is not designed to have multiple instances manipulating the same data at the same time, so it is best treated as single-operator software.
What users say
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