Choosing between our Cloud and the On-Premise (self-hosted) solution depends on your business goals. While some users prefer the Cloud, others opt to have Akaunting running on an owned server.
Both have almost identical features, with some minor differences.
Which is better, Akaunting Cloud or Akaunting On-Premise?
Self-hosting (On-Premise) is excellent if you plan to keep your accounting data to yourself and add a few more responsibilities and manual processes to your workflows. You would also incur some relatively high costs to your company's expenses.
On the other hand, the Cloud service offers you a completely cost-free option, with less to no responsibility for security, push updates, and team growth.
Akaunting Cloud is perfect for small businesses focused on productivity with little time to manage operational and IT-related tasks.
Features | Cloud (recommended) | On-Premise |
---|---|---|
Hosting | Free | Owned server ($10-$20 per month) |
Set up and Installation | Easy | It depends on your expertise |
Updates (fixes, improvements, new features) | Automatic | Manual |
Infrastructure | 99.97% reliable | It depends on the Owned server |
Maintenance | Akaunting | Your support team |
Support | Ticket & Chat | Community Forum |
Migration | Switching to On-Premise is easy | Switching to Cloud requires more technicality |
Your contribution to Akaunting project | $24 if you go Premium (we <3 you for that) |
Nothing :( (your $ goes elsewhere) |
Here are some of the most common frequently asked questions
Akaunting is free. You can send an unlimited number of invoices, track expenses, add items and customers, pay bills, and more.
The actual costs to maintain an Akaunting implementation are not the hosting costs but the human costs related to the maintenance services: installation, support, upgrades, etc. Although we have extra server costs for the hosting of Cloud users, those users don't have server configuration issues, are always on the latest versions, don't have upgrade difficulties, etc.
So, although it sounds paradoxical, a Cloud user costs us less money to maintain than a self-hosted (On-Premise) user. As Cloud users usually have a better experience (it works in a few clicks with an exemplary tuned infrastructure), we decided to offer the hosting for free.
On-premise or Self-hosting is when you install and access software from your server.
Cloud service is when your business services run on the Akaunting's server. This costs your business significantly less, allowing you to share maintenance and development costs that would be much higher on self-host service.
Accounting software helps bookkeepers and accountants record and report the financial transactions of a business. Akaunting is free accounting software for small businesses and freelancers that provides ease of accounting and bookkeeping.
The best free bookkeeping software choice is subjective and depends on your business needs. It would be best if you considered defining your business goals and finding software matching them. The best free bookkeeping software should allow you to choose what you need and scale your business over time.
Choosing the best accounting software depends a lot on the business's goals. The things to consider, especially for a small business, are cost, feature limitation, add-on features, automation, reporting, and ease of use. Small Business Owners value time, and software that saves time, is valuable. Akaunting helps small businesses achieve growth and stability at little or no cost.