> Akaunting is free, open-source online accounting software for small businesses<p>So my obvious questions are 1. if it's free, how do they make money / maintain it, and 2. if it's online, how is it kept secure. So...<p>> That's right, completely free. The Standard plan of the On-Premise (self-hosted) version is free in terms of price and freedom (source code available).<p>If by "completely free" you mean "with a lot of restrictions, starting with self-hosting" and by "freedom" you don't mean the same thing everyone else means by that (since as everyone else pointed out this <i>is not</i> open source).<p>Okay, fine, by "free, open-open source online accounting software" they mean "free or online but not both, and source-available". That's more lies than I would want from accounting software, but let's see if they're secure.<p>From the front page:<p>> As we talk about your financials, you must be sure that data is in safe and software doesn't abuse them. Open Source software provides you full privacy.<p>Again, not open source, but source-available does mean auditable. Of course, it doesn't mean privacy-respecting (even real FOSS <i>can</i> expose your data, you can just see that it does and patch it), and it <i>helps</i> but it certainly doesn't automatically mean secure.<p>Then on <a href="https://akaunting.com/plans" rel="nofollow">https://akaunting.com/plans</a> :<p>> Is my data safe?<p>> Completely safe. Our servers are protected physically and electronically. Any connection between you and Akaunting Cloud is protected by 256-bit SSL encryption, and backups are taken hourly, daily, weekly, and monthly.<p>So, uh. I cannot stress enough how much that would not reassure me. No mention of at-rest encryption, no audits, no reason to think they aren't hosting the thing on servers that never get security patches. "We use HTTPS and take backups" is <i>something</i> but it's the bare minimum for any paid SaaS, not something to brag about and nowhere near good enough for something with all your financial information.