While price is a big motivator for small business owners, that should never be the sole reason to use Lighthouse, because our software is designed for businesses with gross turnover of under £20K, that aren't VAT registered, and need tools for growth in addition to the essential financial management tools.

Self Hosted

Lighthouse is self-hosted software, it can be installed on your company computers, or using a live hosting service like those provided by Hostinger and GoDaddy.

This means your financial data remains private and isn't shared with a 3rd party agrigator.

Lean Code Base

Lighthouse is completely hand coded, there's zero bloat or external libraries, this means page load speeds are super fast. Unlike other services, you won't be waiting for file imports, or experience any hanging, or slow loading pages.

Secure

Lighthouse was developed using PHP 8.3.30, the most modern and secure version of PHP, which provides the most current protection against exploits.

Every page in Lighthouse is hidden behind a logged in state, using session_start() and require_login();, and there is no registration feature, membership is handled in the "User Management" section, where you can add staff, bookkeppers and accountants.

The £90 price tag was a commercial decision, the software isn't second class, it works as well if not better, than the subscriptions services.

I came up with that price because I wanted to provide a tool that does everything other services do, that feels less like a burden and more affordable for small business owners.

While £30 / month (£360 / year), isn't a lot for a large business, for cottage industry, microenterprise and solopreneurs, it feels like a kick in the gut, especially during spells of little or no work.

Whereas the £90 price for Lighthouse, is a one off fee that can be paid and forgotten about for a year.

Better still, from year two the price is dropped to £50.

Help is provided though a community forums, accessible if your membership is active.

In the first year, support is free, included in the £90 price tag, and from year two onwards it's £50 / year.

Feel free to ask any questions, you will feel welcomed, and supported throughout your Lighthouse journey.

Never be afraid to ask, that's what we're here for

If you're thinking about using Lighthouse, you can still use support to ask pre sales questions, but you will need to register.

Lighthouse documentation is video based, while I'm not the best at making video content, I'm a great believer in showing how things work, thats why YouTube is so popular, people prefer to watch over read - and if you get stuck reach out for support.

Every aspect of Lighthouse is discussed and presented at the video site, while the basics are available for public viewing, you will need to purchase Lighthouse to view the detailed content.

Visit the lighthouse documentation site.

Lots to do, exciting times, and while the first release of Lighthouse is a fully compliant financial management system, perfect for small businesses, our goal is to make Lighthouse a serious competitor of the subscription services.

Roadmap for 2026

1. Make Tax Digital

   A large update, we're currently building an app that communicates with HMRC. This is a feature we'll role out to support customers who are sole traders or landlords - Ltd companies unnaffected.
2. Bank Communication

   Develope plugin modules for the most used banks, use cron job to run auto updates once daily.
3. Auto Reconcile

   Develope a system where receipts and invoices are auto reconsiled against transactions.
4. Social Media (CRM)

   Add social media links to customer details.
5. Auto Post (CRM)

   Develope a custom module that posts pre set comments on customers social media.
6. Sales & Lead Pipeline (CRM)

   A serious update, late 2026, that provides tools to manage the journey from initial contact to the sale, and beyond.

Your Ideas Matter

As a small business owner you can provide the best ideas to make Lighthouse better. Add ideas at support in the "Suggestions" category.