What it does
Bigcapital combines sales and purchase invoices, expenses, financial reports and inventory. Users can be invited to an organization with role-based permissions, and a self-hosting route is available.
Buying or selling an item in Bigcapital updates its stock quantity alongside the accounting document. Expenses can be assigned to accounts and, where appropriate, billed to customers. Balance sheets, profit-and-loss reports and cash-flow statements bring those entries together. Invite an accountant to the organization and choose their view or edit permissions.
Bigcapital can be self-hosted under the AGPL-3.0 open-source licence. The software is free to use under that licence; you provide the hosting and maintain the installation. Its Docker setup uses the project's production configuration, with mail settings and database passwords supplied in an environment file. Once the services are running, open the installation in a browser and create the first account. There is no default account.
Developers can connect other systems through the REST API, a programming interface for accounting data. Requests use an API key; the documented default limit is two requests per second.
Strengths
- Sales and purchases update item stock quantities
- Organization users can have role-based permissions
- AGPL-3.0 code and a documented Docker deployment route
Watch out for
- Self-hosting requires server administration, configuration and ongoing maintenance
Best for
- Stock-holding businesses with technical help to run their own accounting application
Sources
- Bigcapital accounting and inventory (Oct 27, 2026)
- Bigcapital official repository (Oct 27, 2026)
- Deploy Bigcapital with Docker (Oct 27, 2026)
- Bigcapital API introduction (Oct 27, 2026)