What is Crater used for?

Crater is listed as a Productivity tool on TiloBox. Review the overview, features, and official documentation on this page to decide whether it solves your specific workflow.

How do I get started with Crater?

Start with the project's GitHub repository and official website for supported installation and deployment instructions. Test the setup with representative data or a small project before rolling it out more widely.

What license does Crater use?

Crater is listed under the AGPL-3.0 license. Read the complete license text and the project's notices before using, modifying, or distributing the software.

Is Crater ready for production use?

Production readiness depends on your requirements. Review maintenance activity, security practices, documentation, backup and upgrade procedures, and compatibility with your stack; then validate it in a non-production environment.

Is Crater an alternative to Invoice Ninja?

Crater is listed as an alternative to Invoice Ninja. Compare the core workflow, deployment model, integrations, and licensing against your must-have requirements before switching.

Productivity Alternative to Invoice Ninja Alternative to FreshBooks

Crater

Open-source invoice and expense management app for freelancers and small businesses.

View on GitHub Visit website

LicenseAGPL-3.0

GitHub stars8.3k

Last commit2 years ago

Tags7 topics

LaravelEstimatesPaymentsSelf HostedPhpExpensesInvoicing

Overview

Why consider Crater?

Crater is an open-source invoicing and expense application built with Laravel and Vue.js. It provides estimates, invoices, payments, and reports with a mobile app for on-the-go billing.

Guided learning

Learn Crater by building

Practical setup notes, real use cases, and copy-ready examples in one focused guide.

3 min read 10 sections

In this guide10 sections

What is Crater?

Crater is an open-source invoicing and expense management application built with PHP (Laravel) and Vue.js, accompanied by native mobile applications for Android and iOS built with React Native. It operates as a clean, developer-friendly alternative to commercial invoicing tools like Invoice Ninja and FreshBooks.

Crater focuses on simplicity: create professional estimates and convert them into invoices, accept client payments via Stripe or PayPal, track business expenses, generate customizable branded invoice PDF templates, and review financial summary reports—all from a responsive web dashboard or the companion mobile app.

Who Is It For?

Freelancers & Consultants: Creating and emailing branded invoices from mobile devices, tracking which clients have paid and which have outstanding balances.
Small Businesses: Managing a simple, transparent billing workflow with expense tracking for monthly bookkeeping.
Developers Building White-Label Billing Systems: Extending Crater's open-source codebase to build customized client billing portals.

Key Features

Estimates and invoice conversion: Create client estimates that convert to invoices with one click.
Integrated payment gateway support: Accept Stripe and PayPal payments directly from invoice payment links.
Customizable PDF invoice templates with company logo, signature fields, and tax configurations.
Expense tracking with categorization, receipt uploads, and billable expense conversion to invoice line items.
Companion iOS and Android mobile apps for on-the-go invoice generation and payment tracking.

Deploying Crater with Docker Compose

yaml

1version: '3.7'

3services:

4 db:

5 image: mysql:8.0

6 container_name: crater_db

7 restart: unless-stopped

8 environment:

9 - MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD=root_secure_pass

10 - MYSQL_DATABASE=crater

11 - MYSQL_USER=crater

12 - MYSQL_PASSWORD=secure_crater_pass

13 volumes:

14 - ./db_data:/var/lib/mysql

16 app:

17 image: ghcr.io/crater-invoice/crater:latest

18 container_name: crater_app

19 restart: unless-stopped

20 depends_on:

21 - db

22 environment:

23 - APP_URL=http://localhost:8080

24 - APP_KEY=base64:generate_a_32_char_base64_app_key

25 - DB_HOST=db

26 - DB_DATABASE=crater

27 - DB_USERNAME=crater

28 - DB_PASSWORD=secure_crater_pass

29 ports:

30 - "8080:80"

31 volumes:

32 - ./storage:/var/www/html/storage/app

Start the instance:

bash

1docker compose up -d

Navigate to http://localhost:8080 to complete setup, configure your company details, and create your first invoice.

Practical Use Cases

1. Estimate-to-Invoice Conversion Pipeline

A freelance photographer creates a project estimate for a client; upon client approval, the estimate converts to a live invoice with an integrated Stripe payment link.

2. Expense-to-Invoice Client Reimbursement

A consultant logs $240 in software subscription expenses as billable items; they convert to invoice line items and appear on the next monthly client invoice.

3. Mobile On-Site Invoice Generation

A contractor generates and emails a job completion invoice directly from the Crater mobile app on-site, before leaving the customer premises.

Troubleshooting and Limitations

Stripe Webhook Configuration: For payment status auto-updates, configure Stripe Webhooks to point to https://your-crater-domain.com/api/v1/stripe/webhook.
Storage Volume Symlinks: Crater uses Laravel's storage:link command to create a public filesystem symlink; ensure the symlink exists inside the running container.

Official Resources

Official Website: https://craterapp.com
GitHub Repository: https://github.com/crater-invoice/crater
Documentation: https://docs.craterapp.com

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