Deploying Akaunting – An Open-Source FreshBooks Alternative

Akaunting is an open-source, web-based accounting platform with invoicing, financial reporting, expense management, and payment tracking, a self-hosted alternative to QuickBooks, WaveApps, or FreshBooks with full control over your accounting data. This guide deploys Akaunting on a LEMP stack, using an external MySQL database server for reliability, and walks through Nginx configuration, TLS, and first-run setup.

Prerequisites: a server with at least 2GB RAM, an external MySQL database (managed or self-hosted), a domain A record, LEMP stack installed, and an Akaunting account API key from akaunting.com/start.

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Set Up the Database

Akaunting supports MySQL, PostgreSQL, or SQLite. In production, use an external database server to offload load from the application server.

1. Connect to your MySQL host:

$ mysql -h your-db-host -P 3306 -u dbadmin -p

2. Create the database and user:

mysql> CREATE DATABASE akauntingdb;
mysql> USE akauntingdb;
mysql> CREATE USER 'akauntingadmin'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'secure-password';
mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON akauntingdb.* TO 'akauntingadmin'@'localhost';
mysql> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
mysql> EXIT

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Install Akaunting

1. Install required PHP extensions:

$ sudo apt install php php-fpm php-mysql php-bcmath php-ctype php-curl php-dom php-fileinfo php-intl php-gd php-json php-mbstring php-xml php-zip

2. Verify PHP and Nginx:

$ php -v
$ sudo systemctl status nginx

Note the PHP version reported, you'll need it for the PHP-FPM socket path below.

3. Create the web root and download the latest release:

$ cd /var/www/html/
$ sudo mkdir akaunting.example.com
$ cd akaunting.example.com
$ sudo wget -O akaunting.zip https://akaunting.com/download.php?version=latest
$ sudo unzip akaunting.zip
$ sudo rm akaunting.zip

If unzip is missing: sudo apt install zip unzip.

4. Fix ownership:

$ cd /var/www/html/
$ sudo chown -R www-data:www-data akaunting.example.com

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Configure Nginx

1. Create the vhost:

$ cd /etc/nginx/sites-available
$ sudo touch akaunting.conf
$ sudo vim akaunting.conf

2. Add the config (replace akaunting.example.com and the PHP-FPM socket version):

server {
        listen 80;
        server_name akaunting.example.com;
        root /var/www/html/akaunting.example.com;

        add_header X-Frame-Options "SAMEORIGIN";
        add_header X-XSS-Protection "1; mode=block";
        add_header X-Content-Type-Options "nosniff";

        index index.html index.htm index.php;
        error_page 404 /index.php;
        charset utf-8;

        location / {
            try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
        }

        location ~ \.(env|log) {
            deny all;
        }

        location ~ ^/(^app$|bootstrap|config|database|overrides|resources|routes|storage|tests|artisan) {
            deny all;
        }

        location ~ ^/(modules|vendor)\/(.*)\.((?!ico|gif|jpg|jpeg|png|js\b|css|less|sass|font|woff|woff2|eot|ttf|svg|xls|xlsx).)*$ {
            deny all;
        }

        location ~ \.php$ {
            fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
            fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php8.1-fpm.sock;
            fastcgi_index index.php;
            fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
            include fastcgi_params;
        }

        location ~ /\.(?!well-known).* {
            deny all;
        }
    }

3. Enable and test:

$ sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/akaunting.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/
$ sudo nginx -t
$ sudo systemctl restart nginx

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Secure the Server

1. Firewall:

$ sudo ufw status
$ sudo ufw allow 22 && sudo ufw enable
$ sudo ufw allow 80
$ sudo ufw allow 443
$ sudo ufw reload

2. TLS via Let's Encrypt:

$ sudo apt install python3-certbot-nginx
$ sudo certbot --nginx -d akaunting.example.com -m [e-mail] --agree-tos

Verify renewal:

$ sudo certbot renew --dry-run

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Access and Configure Akaunting

Visit https://akaunting.example.com:

1. Pick a language, click Next.
2. Enter your MySQL Hostname, Username, Password, and Database name, then Next to test the connection.
3. Enter Company Name and Company Email.
4. Set Admin Email and Admin Password, then log in.
5. Enter your Akaunting API key (from your account dashboard) or generate one.
6. Fill in tax number, financial year start date, company address, country, and logo.
7. Pick a default currency and continue.
8. Create a sample invoice: add a customer, invoice details and items, save.
9. Under Settings → Email Service, configure SMTP so invoices and notifications send by email.

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Troubleshooting

Connection timed out — check sudo ufw status for port 443, sudo systemctl status nginx, and sudo cat /var/log/nginx/error.log, then sudo systemctl restart nginx.

Could not connect to the database — log in as the app's DB user (mysql -u akauntingadmin -p) and run SHOW DATABASES; to confirm access; re-grant privileges as admin if the database is missing from the list.

Unable to save admin user/company info — wipe and re-extract the release:

$ sudo rm -r /var/www/html/akaunting.example.com/*
$ sudo wget -O /var/www/html/akaunting.example.com/akaunting.zip https://akaunting.com/download.php?version=latest
$ sudo unzip /var/www/html/akaunting.example.com/akaunting.zip
$ sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/html/akaunting.example.com/

Then create a fresh database and re-run setup.

502 Bad Gateway — confirm php -v matches the fastcgi_pass socket path in your vhost (/var/run/php/phpX.Y-fpm.sock); update and reload Nginx if they've drifted.

Missing API key — grab it from your Akaunting account dashboard and paste it into the app to unlock full features.

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Next Steps

Akaunting is live with an external database, TLS, and a sample invoice. From here:

• Enable multiple company profiles with an upgraded API key
• Integrate SMTP for automated invoice delivery
• Explore Akaunting's module ecosystem for payroll, CRM, or POS extensions

For the full guide, visit the original article on Vultr Docs.