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Show HN: Bigcapital - A open-source alternative to QuickBooks

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Re: Show HN: Bigcapital - A open-source alternative to QuickBooks

#21

I tried to evaluate Bigcapital but it's kind of a mess to deploy via self hosting. The docker-compose setup is really hard to break apart, the stack is bizarre (mongo, multiple myql databases, and redis), and the way you do upgrades and migrations left me feeling very uneasy. Additionally, my accountant wouldn't use anything this thing exports from what I can tell. For now I'm sticking with GnuCash, but I have my eye…

Anecdotally, we've seen a number of larger "open-source alternative to X" projects posted on HN of late that are technically self-deployable, but require so much up-front knowledge that it's not actually accessible to those who might truly be liberated by such software. I mean no slander or disrespect to anyone involved, but there was a DataDog alternative posted sometime in the last few weeks that had a docker-compo…

> Anecdotally, we've seen a number of larger "open-source alternative to X" projects posted on HN of late that are technically self-deployable, but require so much up-front knowledge that it's not actually accessible to those who might truly be liberated by such software.

Any self-hosted application really needs someone technical unless you're providing something like the DigitalOcean deploy button.

Docker-compose requires technical knowledge to run locally. Sure running "docker compose" is easy but installing it often isn't. As someone quite technical I'm honestly not sure how that would work for deploying on to AWS or GCP even though I know it's possible. I would have to look into it.

Ansible scripts require technical knowledge. Again running the command is easy but installing ansible isn't.

How DigitalOcean's deploy button is really easy as is shown in my demo video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbInyGtqLCs&t=1s. Note there is 10 minutes of my app demo inbetween starting the process and me using a deployed version. You can even try it out at https://github.com/BillaBear/billabear it's literally super easy. It's also silly easy to actually build. "DigitalOcean's app platform is so good it makes BillaBear looks good since the deployment is so easy" is literally what I've said to people.

Re: Show HN: Bigcapital - A open-source alternative to QuickBooks

#23
post #5

I tried to evaluate Bigcapital but it's kind of a mess to deploy via self hosting. The docker-compose setup is really hard to break apart, the stack is bizarre (mongo, multiple myql databases, and redis), and the way you do upgrades and migrations left me feeling very uneasy. Additionally, my accountant wouldn't use anything this thing exports from what I can tell. For now I'm sticking with GnuCash, but I have my eye…

The deployment is really easy to do and well documented with some FAQs you may face, yes there were some issues in setup before couple of months ago but we fixed them even the database migration now is automated. that is acceptable especially when you use a new technology. you can join to our Discord and the team will help you to deploy it on your machine.

I would recommend trying to book 2 hours of an accountant's time (not a software dev) and seeing if they are able to install this during that time window. I suspect they would not be able to.

Re: Show HN: Bigcapital - A open-source alternative to QuickBooks

#24
post #16

I tried to evaluate Bigcapital but it's kind of a mess to deploy via self hosting. The docker-compose setup is really hard to break apart, the stack is bizarre (mongo, multiple myql databases, and redis), and the way you do upgrades and migrations left me feeling very uneasy. Additionally, my accountant wouldn't use anything this thing exports from what I can tell. For now I'm sticking with GnuCash, but I have my eye…

When I come across this scenario, I often ponder whether it's part of the business strategy for those who offer open-source software for free alongside a paid hosted version. There seems to be a conflict of interest at play here: the more user-friendly the software becomes in terms of installation and operation, the less appealing the hosted version appears. I'm currently working on an open-source software project wi…

Even if it isn't as cynical as doing it on purpose, you can still end up with this scenario because the company is simply not ever going to prioritize making the self hosting option easy.

Re: Show HN: Bigcapital - A open-source alternative to QuickBooks

#26

I tried to evaluate Bigcapital but it's kind of a mess to deploy via self hosting. The docker-compose setup is really hard to break apart, the stack is bizarre (mongo, multiple myql databases, and redis), and the way you do upgrades and migrations left me feeling very uneasy. Additionally, my accountant wouldn't use anything this thing exports from what I can tell. For now I'm sticking with GnuCash, but I have my eye…

[deleted]

Re: Show HN: Bigcapital - A open-source alternative to QuickBooks

#28
post #13

Previous threads (all created by the same OP): * May 29, 2023: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36114095 * May 29, 2023 (2): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36118990 * July 2, 2023: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36566556

Yes, since https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36118990 in particular got significant attention (200+ comments and 17 hours on the front page), this repost counts as a dupe.

Re: Show HN: Bigcapital - A open-source alternative to QuickBooks

#29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdotally, we've seen a number of larger "open-source alternative to X" projects posted on HN of late that are technically self-deployable, but require so much up-front knowledge that it's not actually accessible to those who might truly be liberated by such software. I mean no slander or disrespect to anyone involved, but there was a DataDog alternative posted sometime in the last few weeks that had a docker-compo…

> I mean no slander or disrespect to anyone involved, but there was a DataDog alternative posted sometime in the last few weeks that had a docker-compose with like 15 containers in it. Reminds me of Sentry: https://develop.sentry.dev/self-hosted/ This is their example docker-compose for self-hosting: https://github.com/getsentry/self-hosted/blob/master/docker-... It has: - exim4 (smtp) - memcached - Redis - PostgreSQ…

What are you talking about?

Running Sentry isn't hard despite crazy number of containers as long as you do it their way and use their docker-compose.yml.

The problem is running it on 4GB instance with 4GB swap is bare minimum which costs quite a bit to give it a dedicated instance.

But you can't beat its features. We should be glad it's provided for free and self hosted version isn't limited. Can't live without it.

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