Miru

Miru is an open-source time and billing platform for people who charge clients for hours worked. It suits service businesses that want time capture, approvals, invoicing, and revenue reporting in one workflow. Its appeal is the breadth of that workflow and flexible deployment; the tradeoff is either managing your own installation or choosing a paid service.

Overview

Miru connects timers and manual entries to weekly approvals, member-specific rates, invoices, expense billing, and revenue reports. That makes it more useful than a standalone timer when recorded work needs to become client charges and be followed through to payment. Reports cover paid, pending, overdue, and projected revenue, as well as project and team analytics.

The MIT-licensed Rails app can be self-hosted, but that choice puts operations, backups, upgrades, and security maintenance on your team. Miru Cloud and Managed Miru offer alternatives for teams that would rather not take on that work. The product is built and open-sourced by Saeloun, a Ruby on Rails consultancy with more than 50 engineers.

Key features

Time, approvals, and invoices

Timers and manual time entries accommodate different working habits, while weekly approvals provide a review point before billable work is finalized. Rates can be set per team member, which is useful when billing depends on who performed the work. Miru can generate invoices from approved or tracked work and include expenses, taxes, and discounts. It also supports invoice sending and client portals, but not recurring invoices, so businesses with repeat billing will need to handle that process another way.

Expenses, reporting, and integrations

Expenses can be billed alongside time, and revenue reporting helps teams distinguish paid work from amounts still pending or overdue while viewing projected revenue. Integrations include Stripe, Google Calendar, SMTP email, CSV and PDF export, CSV import, REST API, CLI, Zapier, Make, and n8n. QuickBooks Online support is a one-way export of clients, invoices, and recorded payments, not a two-way sync.

Deployment, security, and support

The local-first desktop timer is available for macOS Apple Silicon and Intel, Linux x64, and Windows x64, and syncs with Miru. Hosted data is encrypted in transit with TLS 1.3 and at rest with AES-256. Miru states that it is GDPR compliant and that SOC 2 Type II is in progress; enterprise customers can request a data processing addendum. Hosted users get priority email support, while self-hosted users rely on Discord community support. Managed Miru includes monitoring and support.

Pricing

Miru offers three deployment plans, all with unlimited members, making the main distinction less about seat caps and more about who runs the service.

• Self-hosted: free. It includes every feature, unlimited members, Docker deployment, and Discord community support under the MIT license. This is the strongest fit for teams able to operate their own service; the zero price does not remove the work of backups, upgrades, and security maintenance.
• Miru Cloud: $1 a month, billed Or $10/member/year. Every feature is included, with unlimited members, a 14-day Pro trial, and no credit card required. It is the hosted option for teams that want to avoid self-managing deployment. The stated annual billing term is per member, so compare that charge with your team size.
• Managed Miru: $1 a month, billed Base service plus usage; scope agreed before you commit. It adds a dedicated deployment, upgrades, backups, monitoring, integration help, security review support, and SLA options. This fits organizations wanting operational assistance, though the final scope and cost depend on what is agreed.

Platforms

Miru lists Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, Windows, web, API, and self-hosted availability. The desktop timer has specific x64 and Mac processor support, while the iOS and Android apps remain in beta, with early access through TestFlight and Google Play internal testing. Teams needing mature mobile apps should treat that as a limitation rather than assuming parity with the web experience.

Who it's for

Miru is aimed at agencies, consultants, freelancers, startups, and service teams that track billable hours and send invoices. It is a particularly good fit when approvals, expenses, and revenue visibility belong in the same workflow. A small team wanting only a basic timer, or a business that depends on recurring invoices or stable mobile apps, has reason to look elsewhere.

Pros and cons

• Pro: Time capture leads into approvals, rates, expense billing, and invoices, reducing the need to separate those steps across tools.
• Pro: Unlimited members on both the free self-hosted plan and Miru Cloud avoid a seat ceiling as a team grows.
• Pro: Self-hosting is MIT-licensed and includes every feature, giving technically capable teams a no-subscription route.
• Con: Self-hosted customers carry the operational burden of backups, upgrades, and security maintenance.
• Con: Mobile apps are in beta, and recurring invoices are not supported, which weakens the fit for mobile-first or subscription-style billing workflows.
• Con: QuickBooks Online sync is one-way, limiting workflows that depend on changes flowing back into Miru.

Alternatives

For a broader comparison, see Time Billing Software. Consider these alternatives when their limits or focus better match your workflow:

• TimeCamp is another freemium option with a free plan offering unlimited users and projects, worth considering when those caps are the priority.
• Harvest may suit an individual freelancer who can work within its free plan's one seat and two projects.
• Invoice Ninja is a relevant alternative when invoicing is central: its free plan allows unlimited invoicing but caps clients at five.
• solidtime offers a Solo plan for one user and a Professional plan at €8 a month, billed annually, excl. VAT; consider it when that one-user option or stated team plan better fits.
• Avaza is another freemium option with a free plan, for readers comparing alternatives.
• Paymo may fit a solo user whose needs fit its free plan's one user, one client, two projects, and 1 GB of storage.
• TMetric is worth considering for a very small team that fits its free plan's two-seat limit.
• Zoho Invoice is free for Indian businesses and may suit those within its limits of two users, three projects, and 500 invoices per year.

Verdict

Choose Miru if your agency or service team wants billable time, approvals, expenses, invoicing, and revenue reporting together, and you can either operate a self-hosted installation or pay for hosting. Its strongest reason to choose it is that integrated billing workflow without member caps on the listed plans. Look elsewhere if beta mobile apps, the lack of recurring invoices, or the responsibility of running a self-hosted service conflicts with how you work.