Free bookkeeping software
Free bookkeeping software with a real ledger
LedgerMCP is free double-entry bookkeeping for small businesses and personal books. Unlimited books, real reports, and no trial that expires. It is also the only free bookkeeper your AI assistant can run.
No card. No trial clock. Free means free.
$0
the software, forever; no trial clock
∞
books and transactions on one account
60
MCP tools; your AI does the work, free
$9
/mo for the one paid thing: live bank feeds
What free includes
- ✓ Unlimited books, business and personal
- ✓ Unlimited transactions by CSV or manual entry
- ✓ Full double-entry journal
- ✓ P&L, balance sheet, trial balance, 1099
- ✓ Bank reconciliation
- ✓ Receipt attachments
- ✓ Vendor, project, and client tags
- ✓ Connect Claude or ChatGPT as your bookkeeper
- ✓ Monthly recap email with live bank feeds
- ✓ CSV export of everything
The one paid feature is live bank feeds; plans start at $9 per month when you want transactions to arrive on their own. Details on the pricing page.
Free software, honest structure
The usual “free”
Our structure
What we never do
The part nobody else has
Free usually means you do all the work yourself. Here you can hand the work to Claude or ChatGPT: add LedgerMCP as a connector, drop in a bank statement, and your assistant imports, categorizes, and reconciles on a ledger that cannot go out of balance. You review its work in the web app; every action is logged and reversible.
If you never touch AI, the web app is a complete bookkeeping tool on its own: spreadsheet-style register, inline categorization, and clean monochrome reports. The agent is a superpower, not a requirement.
Free also scales in a way competitors’ pricing does not. A side hustle, an LLC, and your personal books are three books on one free account, not three subscriptions. Accountants run entire client rosters this way, because there is no per-client fee to pass on.
How it compares
Full head-to-heads with verified July 2026 pricing are on the compare pages.
| LedgerMCP | Wave | QuickBooks | Spreadsheet | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Software price | Free | Free (Starter) | From $38/mo | Free |
| Double-entry ledger | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Bank feeds | From $9/mo pooled | Pro, $19/mo per business | Included | No |
| AI can keep the books | Yes | No | Assist only | No |
| Unlimited books | Yes | Per business | Per subscription | Yes |
| Data export | Six CSVs, one click | Self-serve export | Read-only 1yr after cancel | N/A |
Deep dives: vs Wave · vs QuickBooks · vs Bench
Common questions
Is LedgerMCP actually free?
Yes. Unlimited books, CSV and manual transactions, all reports, receipts, reconciliation, and full AI access are free forever. No trial clock, no card required, no transaction caps.
What costs money?
One thing: live bank feeds. If you want transactions pulled in automatically from your bank, plans start at $9 per month, pooled across every book in your account. Importing the same data by CSV is free.
Why is it free? What is the catch?
Bank feeds cost us money per connection, so they are the paid tier. Everything else costs us almost nothing to run, so we do not charge for it. No ads, your data is never sold, and the cookie policy fits on one page. That is the entire business model.
Is this real double-entry bookkeeping?
Yes. Every transaction posts a balanced journal entry, enforced by the database. You get a real trial balance, P&L, and balance sheet your accountant can work from, not a categorized transaction list pretending to be books.
Is there a transaction or book limit on the free plan?
No. Unlimited transactions by CSV or manual entry, unlimited businesses and personal books, all under one account. Most “free” competitors cap one of those; we cap neither.
How is this different from Wave?
Wave is free software centered on invoicing, monetized through payments and a $19/mo per-business Pro plan for bank feeds and auto-categorization. LedgerMCP is free bookkeeping (the categorization is done by your AI, receipts are free, unlimited businesses share one account) with bank feeds as the one paid feature. Full comparison: /compare/wave-alternative.
Can I do my personal finances on it too?
Yes, free. Personal books live beside business books under one account: import card statements, track spending and subscriptions, set simple budgets, and get a weekly email digest if you want one.
Can I get my data out?
Always. One click exports six CSVs per book: transactions, the general ledger, chart of accounts, tags, journal entries, and assets. Free means free to leave, too.
Start your books today
Free forever for CSV and manual books. Your AI can start keeping them this afternoon.