Clerq
Clerq is an open-source back-office suite for freelancers and small development studios, covering clients, projects, time tracking, invoicing, and expenses.
What Clerq is
Clerq is an open-source back-office suite for freelancers and small development studios, covering clients, projects, time tracking, invoicing, and expenses. Projects can be viewed as Kanban boards or lists; a live task timer and weekly timesheets help record work, which can be marked billable. Invoices can be created from unbilled time, with multiple currencies, live exchange rates, three VAT treatments, branded PDFs, and signed links. Expense records support vendor and category details, notes, paid or unpaid status, and image or PDF receipts. Teams can use seven predefined roles, add custom roles, and adjust access for individual members. An optional MCP server gives connected AI assistants 61 tools for business data tasks such as creating invoices and recording expenses. Clerq is available on the web, through an API, or self-hosted. Clerq Cloud is free during open beta and includes automatic updates, backups, and full data export; it is hosted in the EU/EEA. Self-hosting costs 0.00 GBP forever and receives community support on GitHub; the operator controls the infrastructure and is responsible for security and backups. Cloud costs nothing during open beta and includes small-team support with roles.
Good
- Invoices can be generated from unbilled time.
- Expense records can include image or PDF receipts.
- Custom roles and per-member access overrides are supported.
- Cloud includes full data export.
Watch out
- Self-hosted users handle security and backups.
- Self-hosted support is through the GitHub community.
- Cloud is currently described as being in open beta.
Who it suits
Clerq suits freelancers and small development studios that need to bring project work, time, invoicing, and expenses together. Teams that want to control their own infrastructure can choose self-hosting, while others can use Clerq Cloud.
Verdict
Clerq combines project tracking with invoicing and expense records, and offers both cloud and self-hosted deployment. Choose cloud for managed updates and backups, or self-hosting if you want data on infrastructure you control and can maintain.
Plans and prices
From Clerq's own pricing page, checked 9 Oct 2001.
| Plan | Price | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| Self-host | Free | Identical product · AGPL-3.0 · community support on GitHub · £0 forever |
| Clerq Cloud | Free | Everything in Clerq · no seats or feature gates · small-team support with roles · full data export · £0/month · open beta |
| Clerq Cloud | Free | Managed hosting · automatic updates, backups and uptime · encrypted servers · full data export · Free during open beta |
| Self-host | Free | Own infrastructure · Docker Compose deployment · AGPL-3.0 source · optional Google SSO · full data control · Free forever |
The facts
Each one read from Clerq's own pages, with the date it was checked.
What it does
- AI integration
- An optional MCP server provides 61 tools that let connected AI assistants work with business data, including creating invoices and recording expenses.checked 9 Oct 2001
- AI receipt scanning
- Optional Groq vision scanning extracts receipt details into the expense form for user review.checked 15 Oct 2001
- Authentication secret
- BETTER_AUTH_SECRET signs session cookies and short-lived invoice PDF links, with at least 32 random characters recommended.checked 15 Oct 2001
- Clients
- Client records support multiple contacts, VAT numbers, default rates, notes and an activity thread.checked 15 Oct 2001
- Cloud hosting
- Clerq Cloud is hosted in the EU/EEA, with automatic updates and backups listed as cloud features.checked 9 Oct 2001
- Cloud security statement
- Clerq Cloud says customer data is held on managed encrypted servers.checked 15 Oct 2001
- Currencies
- Invoices support multiple currencies using European Central Bank or Frankfurter reference rates with manual overrides.checked 15 Oct 2001
- Data portability
- Businesses can export their data as a documented JSON file, while full Postgres dumps support instance backups.checked 15 Oct 2001
- EasyPanel deployment
- EasyPanel deployment uses separate Postgres and app services, with migrations applied during first boot.checked 15 Oct 2001
- Expenses
- Expenses store descriptions, amounts, currencies, dates, vendors, categories, notes and paid or unpaid status.checked 15 Oct 2001
- Independent listing mismatch
- The G2 Clerq profile is for a Toronto patent-research product rather than the useclerq.net invoicing application, so its review data should not be attributed to this product.checked 15 Oct 2001
- Invoice documents
- Invoices receive sequential yearly numbers and can produce branded PDFs and signed links.checked 15 Oct 2001
- Invoice generation
- Unbilled time can be converted into invoices grouped by person and rate, task or one combined line.checked 15 Oct 2001
- Invoicing
- Users can generate invoices from unbilled time, use multiple currencies with live exchange rates, apply three VAT treatments, and create branded PDFs and signed links.checked 9 Oct 2001
- Licence
- The home page identifies the self-hosted source as AGPL-3.0 licensed.checked 15 Oct 2001
- Limit: email
- Clerq does not require SMTP and does not send email; invitations are shareable links and invoices are exported as PDFs.checked 15 Oct 2001
- Limit: payment collection
- The product records payments, while sending messages and taking payments remain in the user's other tools.checked 15 Oct 2001
- Limit: registration control
- There is currently no environment variable to disable new registrations on a self-hosted instance.checked 15 Oct 2001
- Limit: self-host operations
- Self-hosted operators must arrange their own database backups, restores and upgrade redeployments.checked 15 Oct 2001
- Limit: serverless scheduling
- Serverless deployments need an external scheduler calling the protected cron endpoint for recurring invoices.checked 15 Oct 2001
The company
- Headquarters
- Prague, Czech Republicchecked 28 Sep 2001
- Maker copyright date
- PunterDigital's site footer carries a 2018-2025 copyright notice.checked 15 Oct 2001
- Maker legal entity
- The external maker site identifies the company as PunterDigital Limited with company number 11498511.checked 15 Oct 2001
Money
- Hosting price limit
- Cloud is free during open beta, and the pricing page says self-hosting will remain free if paid hosting is introduced later.checked 9 Oct 2001
Alternatives to Clerq
- 1
Avaza
Free planAndroidiOSWebAPI8.2From $11.95 a month - 2
Harvest
Free planAndroidiOSWebmacOS8.2From $9 a month - 3
Invoice Ninja
Free planAndroidiOSWebAPI8.2From $3.33 a month - 4
Paymo
Free planAndroidiOSWebAPI8.2From $0.49 a month - 5
TimeCamp
Free planAndroidiOSWebLinux8.1From $3.99 a month - 6
FreshBooks
AndroidiOSWebAPI7.9