Guliel vs Invoice Ninja: an honest comparison (2026)

Guliel is accounting and finance-operations software with a double-entry ledger. Invoicing in 39 countries, expense capture, purchase orders, payroll, reports, an API and an MCP server all share one engine, hosted by us. Invoice Ninja is invoicing and billing software whose source code is public under the Elastic License 2.0: you can run it on your own server for free, or pay for its hosted plans.

The short answer

Pick Invoice Ninja to own the stack, or if you need quotes, recurring billing, time tracking, card payments on the invoice or Peppol e-invoices today. Pick Guliel for the books and the invoices in one hosted system: a double-entry general ledger built from the same document lines as your receivables and payables, expenses that wait for a person's approval, suppliers linked organisation to organisation, Israeli tax documents in Hebrew, Singapore payroll, and AI clients held to the same rules as your staff.

Feature comparison

The Invoice Ninja column reflects its published features and prices as of 2026-10. Check invoiceninja.com for changes.

	Invoice Ninja	Guliel
What it is	Invoicing and billing software	Accounting and finance-operations software with a double-entry ledger
Hosting and source	Self-hosted free, or hosted; source public (Elastic License 2.0)	Hosted only; source not public
General ledger	Not in its published feature list	Double-entry, fixed chart of accounts, balanced journal entries, trial balance, balance sheet, income statement, cash flow, books lock date, CSV export
Sales documents	Invoices, quotes, credits, recurring invoices with auto-bill	Invoices, receipts, invoice-receipts, payment requests, credit and debit memos as PDF in the formats of 39 countries. No quotes or recurring invoices
E-invoicing	E-invoicing and Peppol on Enterprise	PDF today; our Peppol access point is built and awaiting certification (planned in the app)
Expenses	Expenses; bank sync on Enterprise	OCR scan, inbox capture (Gmail, Outlook, IMAP, POP3), approval before posting. No bank feeds yet
Purchasing	POs to vendors, accepted in a vendor portal	POs; invited suppliers link their own Guliel organisation and invoice against your POs
Stock	Inventory with low-stock alerts	Items and stock movements; low stock triggers automations
Payroll	Not in its published feature list	Singapore payroll and a generic payroll profile, with payslips; posts to the ledger
Time tracking	Yes, with projects	No
Payments	Card payments through Stripe, PayPal and other gateways	Payments recorded against documents. Not a payment processor
Automations	Recurring invoices, reminders	14 triggers; actions are any API operation or a webhook
API and AI	REST API; community-built MCP servers	REST API, own MCP server with OAuth 2.1, built-in AI companion
Pricing basis	Enterprise priced by users	Per organisation, not per seat

Pricing comparison

Plan	Invoice Ninja (as of 2026-10)	Guliel (published prices)
Free	Hosted: $0, up to 5 clients. Self-hosted: $0 plus your server	$0 per organisation: 200 invoices, 100 expense scans, 10 reports, 5 automations, 10 AI messages a month
Entry paid	Pro: $14 a month or $140 a year	Standard: $20 per organisation a month
Higher tier	Enterprise: from $18 a month, rising with users	Premium: $99 per organisation a month

Guliel's billing is not live: Standard and Premium are published prices, not yet on sale. SSO and an organisation-wide audit log on Premium are planned. One fee covers everyone in the organisation, accountant included. See /pricing.

Pick Invoice Ninja when…

You want the source and the server. You run PHP and MySQL, or someone on your team does. The Elastic License lets you modify it for your own business; reselling it as a service needs their agreement. You bill for time or on a schedule: quotes, recurring invoices with auto-bill and a time tracker are there, and Guliel has none of them. You want customers to pay by card from the invoice. You need Peppol e-invoices or bank sync now.

Pick Guliel when…

You want the books and the invoicing on one engine, without running a server. Every issued document, approved expense and payroll run posts to a double-entry ledger, so the trial balance and open customer and supplier balances agree by construction. Post manual journal entries (they must balance), let a manager lock the books up to a date, and export the full ledger as CSV for your accountant.

You work in Israel or Singapore. Guliel issues חשבונית מס, חשבונית מס/קבלה, קבלה, דרישת תשלום and credit notes as Hebrew PDFs, and imports Morning exports and the uniform file (מבנה אחיד); SHAAM allocation numbers are built and not yet switched on. In Singapore it issues GST tax invoices and runs payroll with CPF, SDL, FWL and self-help group funds; InvoiceNow is planned. Formats for all 39 countries are at /invoicing.

You buy from suppliers who could use Guliel too. Invite one by email; once it accepts with its own organisation, it sees your purchase orders and invoices against them, and the invoice links to the order. Native document exchange between organisations is planned.

You want AI on routine work under rules. Claude, ChatGPT or any other MCP client connects through OAuth 2.1 and acts within the user's role and scopes (/mcp), with the same checks a person gets: numbering at issue, totals from line items, country rules, balanced entries. Captured expenses still wait for a person; an accountant sign-off queue for AI work is planned. Guliel does not file tax returns.

Running both, or moving over

You don't have to switch off Invoice Ninja to try Guliel. Issue new documents and capture expenses in Guliel while Invoice Ninja keeps its history, let automations take routine steps, and move fully when you're ready.

Clients come over by spreadsheet: export them to CSV, rename the headers to Guliel's template (Name, Tax ID, Email, Phone, Address, City; only Name is required) and upload. A column check and a staged review run before anything is saved. There is no importer for Invoice Ninja invoices, payments, products, vendors or expenses today (a direct connector is planned); keep that history in Invoice Ninja. Step by step: /migrate/from-invoice-ninja.

FAQ

Is Guliel open source like Invoice Ninja?

No. Guliel is hosted only and its code is not public. Invoice Ninja's code is public under the Elastic License 2.0, which lets you self-host and modify it for your own business. If self-hosting is a hard requirement, pick Invoice Ninja.

Does Invoice Ninja have a general ledger?

A general ledger and chart of accounts are not in Invoice Ninja's published feature list as of 2026-10. Guliel keeps a double-entry general ledger with journal entries, a trial balance, a balance sheet, an income statement, cash flow, a books lock date and CSV export.

Is Invoice Ninja free?

The self-hosted edition is free; you pay for the server. As of 2026-10 the hosted Free plan covers up to 5 clients and Pro costs $14 a month. Guliel's Free plan is $0 per organisation with 200 invoices, 100 expense scans, 10 reports and 5 automations a month.

Can Guliel send Peppol e-invoices like Invoice Ninja?

Not yet. Guliel issues PDF documents in the formats of 39 countries. Its own Peppol access point is built, awaiting OpenPeppol certification and not yet connected to the app; Peppol output, starting with Singapore InvoiceNow, is planned. Invoice Ninja lists Peppol on its Enterprise plan.

Can I move from Invoice Ninja to Guliel?

Your client list, yes: export it to CSV, fit it to Guliel's template and upload, with a column check and review before anything is saved. Invoices, payments, products, vendors and expenses are not imported yet (a direct connector is planned). You can run both while you decide.

What about the API, MCP and AI?

Both have a REST API, and community-built MCP servers exist for Invoice Ninja's. Guliel runs its own MCP server: any MCP client, such as Claude or ChatGPT, connects through OAuth 2.1 and acts within the user's role and scopes. Guliel also has a built-in AI companion.

Start free, or run Guliel beside Invoice Ninja first. See /pricing.