LedgerSMB
LedgerSMB is free, open source ERP and accounting software for small and mid-size businesses.
What LedgerSMB is
LedgerSMB is free, open source ERP and accounting software for small and mid-size businesses. Its accounting and sales functions include double-entry general ledger, quotations, sales and purchase orders, invoices, receivables, payables, and cash management. It also handles inventory, light manufacturing, and fixed asset depreciation and disposal. Businesses can enter transactions in multiple currencies and track budgets by project or department with variance reports. LedgerSMB produces PDF, HTML, CSV, and Office documents, can email documents from within the application, and includes 45 languages. A web services API supports programmatic interaction, but online-store attachment is not available out of the box and requires custom integration. The web application is intended to be installed and operated on the user's own infrastructure; Linux installers and production Docker images are provided. Official release tarballs are GPG signed for integrity checks. Free volunteer community support is available through a users mailing list and Matrix, with paid professional support also available. The project began in 2006 as a fork of SQL-Ledger.
Good
- Includes double-entry accounting and invoice management.
- Supports inventory, light manufacturing, and fixed assets.
- Transactions can use multiple currencies.
- Offers a web services API and 45 languages.
Watch out
- Requires self-hosted installation and operation.
- Online-store integration requires custom work.
- Community support is volunteer-provided.
Who it suits
LedgerSMB suits small and mid-size businesses prepared to install and operate accounting software on their own infrastructure. It may be useful to organizations needing accounting, invoicing, order processing, inventory, and multi-currency transactions.
Verdict
LedgerSMB covers accounting and several related business operations as free open source software. It is a better fit for teams ready to manage their own deployment, especially if they need online-store integration, which requires customization.
Plans and prices
From LedgerSMB's own pricing page, checked 15 Oct 2026.
| Plan | Price | What it gives you |
|---|---|---|
| Free open-source software | Free | self-hosted deployment · commercial hosting/support optional |
| LedgerSMB | Free | open source software · self-hosted installation |
The facts
Each one read from LedgerSMB's own pages, with the date it was checked.
What it does
- Accounting and sales
- Built-in functions include double-entry general ledger, quotations, sales and purchase orders, invoices, receivables, payables, and cash management.checked 9 Oct 2026
- API
- LedgerSMB exposes a language-independent web-services API documented with versioned OpenAPI files.checked 15 Oct 2026
- API example
- The integration documentation demonstrates authenticated JSON POST requests to endpoints such as /erp/api/v0/invoices/.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Bank feeds
- Yeschecked 21 Sep 2026
- Bank statement import
- Built-in reconciliation importers support CAMT.053, OFX and CSV bank statements.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Cash management
- Cash management supports checks, receipts and reconciliation with bank statements.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Contact management
- Contact management stores customer and vendor relationships and orders.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Currencies and budgeting
- Users can enter transactions in multiple currencies and track budgets by project or department with variance reports.checked 9 Oct 2026
- Current release policy
- The project maintains stable 1.13 and old-stable 1.12 branches and targets at least 24 months of community support per 1.x series.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Deployment
- LedgerSMB is a web application intended to be installed and operated on the user's own infrastructure; the maker provides Linux installers and production Docker images.checked 9 Oct 2026
- Documentation
- Documentation includes installation and upgrade instructions, a free manual, videos and a work-in-progress business book.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Document output
- Documents can be produced in PDF, HTML, CSV and Office formats and emailed from the application.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Documents and languages
- The application can produce PDF, HTML, CSV, and Office documents, email documents from within the application, and includes 45 languages.checked 9 Oct 2026
- Extensibility
- The project describes an open architecture, add-ons and custom integrations, including a custom product-configuration plugin.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Fixed assets
- Fixed-asset accounting covers depreciation and disposal.checked 15 Oct 2026
- General ledger
- Double-entry general-ledger and journal-entry functions manage accounts and transfers.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Hardware guidance
- The system-requirements page says up to ten users can run on a 32-bit server with 1 GB RAM or a 64-bit server with 2 GB RAM.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Independent architecture description
- Wikipedia describes LedgerSMB as libre double-entry accounting and ERP software using PostgreSQL with a browser interface.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Independent feature coverage
- Softpedia describes support for multiple addresses, contacts, bank accounts, taxes, currencies, audits, warehouses, manufacturing and receipts.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Independent historical criticism
- Wikipedia records that the early 1.2.0 release was withdrawn after serious integration problems and was criticized for attempting too much without adequate review.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Installation scope
- The official installer supports Debian-family and Fedora-family package managers and falls back to CPAN for Perl dependencies.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Integration
- LedgerSMB provides a web services API for programmatic interaction, while attaching an online store is not available out of the box and requires custom integration.checked 9 Oct 2026
The company
- Company history
- LedgerSMB began in 2006 as a fork of SQL-Ledger, motivated partly by disagreements over security-bug handling.checked 15 Oct 2026
- Founded
- 2006checked 28 Sep 2026
Alternatives to LedgerSMB
- 1
GnuCash
Free planOpen sourceAndroidiOSAPILinux8.1Free plan - 2
Frappe Books
Free planOpen sourceAndroidiOSWebAPI7.9Free plan - 3
hledger
Free planOpen sourceAndroidiOSWebAPI7.9Free plan - 4
Oracle Fusion Cloud Expenses
AndroidiOSWebAPI7.7 - 5
GNUKhata
Free planOpen sourceWebAPILinuxSelf-hosted7.6Free plan - 6
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Sales
AndroidiOSWebAPI7.6