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One system from first email to a paid invoice.
If you're weighing Opentra, you're probably running spreadsheets and a shared inbox, or you're on a free self-hosted tool like ITFlow and tired of hand-keying invoices. Here's the honest side-by-side for both. Opentra keeps your data yours, then does the billing side properly: live time capture, per-org rates, and a direct push to Xero.
| Opentra
THIS ONE
| ITFlow | Spreadsheets + a shared inbox | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | A PSA built around billing, from first email to paid invoice | IT documentation and a password vault, with ticketing and invoicing added on | Separate tools with you as the glue between them |
| Billing into your accounting | Approved time and contracts push straight to Xero, per-org rates and rounding honoured | Built-in invoices plus Stripe, but no Xero or QuickBooks sync, so you re-key into your accounting | Totals copied out of a spreadsheet into your accountant by hand |
| Time to billable line | Live timers on the ticket become clean, approved billable lines | Time entered by hand, no rounding or per-org rate rules feeding the invoice | A spreadsheet you rebuild from memory at month-end |
| Email to ticket | MS Graph ingest resolves the true client contact, even on forwarded or automated mail | Email piping opens a ticket from the sender | A shared inbox: no ticket, no history, no owner |
| Projects & contracts | Phases, tasks, milestones, quote-to-project, and token-based client approval portals | Recurring billing and contracts; project delivery is not the focus | Another tool, or another spreadsheet |
| Data ownership | Your PostgreSQL, single-tenant, export anytime | Also self-hosted: your own MySQL database | Split across HubSpot, sheets and a mailbox |
| Support | Free community tier; priority support and an SLA on paid tiers | Community only: no paid support line, no SLA | You are the support |
| Cost | Free self-hosted Community; flat $149/mo Pro, no per-seat | Free and open source (GPL) | Cheap to start; the real cost is your time |
| Best for | Owner-operator MSPs who want billing that reaches the accountant without re-keying | Shops that mostly want documentation and a password vault, and will hand-key invoices | Two people and a dozen clients, for now |
ITFlow details reflect its public documentation and positioning and change often, so verify current details with the project. Comparison is for orientation, not a quote.
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