Finance and accounting decision
Factura
A competent technical user can build a minimal self-hosted replacement (multi-week effort) using existing open-source projects for invoicing/billing; the product’s durable moats are minimal and core capabilities are reproducible.
Visit website↗$9/mo
$108/yr
Read off the official pricing page.
$100one-off70 h to build
$50/mo4 h/mo upkeep
On cash alone, building overtakes the subscription at 7 seats.
Open-source builds that already do this
Every project below is open source and already does this job today. Fork one, self-host it, or take the parts you need - the build prompt further down assumes an empty file, and this is the shortcut past that. Licences differ; check the one on each card before you ship. All Factura alternatives, with the arithmetic →
What a replacement has to do
- Create clients → compose invoice/quote with line items → generate Swiss QR-bill PDF → email or export PDF → record payments and expenses → view reports (sales, P&L, VAT).
What it still won’t have
- Hosted-in-Switzerland data residency and Infomaniak hosting
- Built-in TWINT Business payment links integration
- Regular vendor updates and product polish (weekly updates)
- User support and any migration assistance the vendor offers
What remains hard
- Product polish and ongoing maintenance
First-year cost
Keep paying
Paying is—cheaper in year one.
On cash alone, building overtakes the subscription at 7 seats.
Money you would actually spend
Time you would spend
—
What you would spend
What we assumed
The verdict above measures whether you could build it. This one is only about money.
Runnable build prompt
Build a self-hosted invoicing web app using Laravel (PHP 8+) + Filament admin or a lightweight Vue/React frontend + Postgres. Core features in scope: user auth (single-account), client CRUD with CSV import/export, create/edit invoices and quotes with reusable line items, generate Swiss QR-bill–compliant PDF invoices (including QR code), send invoices by SMTP/SendGrid, record payments and expenses, and reports: sales by client, profit & loss, and VAT report. Out of scope: TWINT Business gateway integration, hosted-in-Switzerland guarantees, multi-tenant billing automation. Include error handling, input validation, unit and integration tests for API endpoints, and Docker-based deployment scripts (Dockerfile + docker-compose) for a single VPS. Provide README with setup, migration, and backup instructions.
How we checked
How the score was reached
- Partly verdict base52
- An open-source build was found+5
- 5 cited sources+3
- Price verified on pricing page+3
- 3/3 assessment runs agreed+4
- Evidence score67
The base comes from the verdict. Everything under it is a check that either happened or did not, and each one is a fact frozen in this record rather than a judgement made at render time - so the same evidence always produces the same number.
How scoring works →Cited sources · 5
Every page the run actually retrieved.
- official productFactura — Swiss Invoicing Software for Freelancers
- official pricingFactura Pricing
- official docsFactura Documentation
- open sourcehql287/Manta
- open sourceakaunting/akaunting
Integrity checks
What held up, and what did not.
