# FreshBooks API vs rotki MCP server

> rotki and FreshBooks score within a point of each other for accounting ledgers, 45.6 and 45.4 out of 100. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/freshbooks-vs-rotki-mcp
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/freshbooks-vs-rotki-mcp.md (~2,400 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/freshbooks-vs-rotki-mcp.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/freshbooks-vs-rotki-mcp.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-10

rotki MCP server and FreshBooks API score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 45.6 (E) and 45.4 (E). FreshBooks API leads on security & auth, payments & pricing and transparency & trust. Both do accounting ledgers.

- FreshBooks API: grade E, 45.4/100, rank #867 of 954. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/freshbooks.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/freshbooks.json
- rotki MCP server: grade E, 45.6/100, rank #865 of 954. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/rotki-mcp.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/rotki-mcp.json
- Best accounting and invoicing APIs for AI agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/accounting/index.md
- All 77 accounting comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/accounting/index.md

## Which one, for what

### FreshBooks API (E)

Good for: An agent that bills clients, chases invoices and reads the books for a freelancer or small service firm already on FreshBooks.

Ahead on:
- Security & auth, 57 against 20
- Payments & pricing, 30 against 10
- Transparency & trust, 65 against 48

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install

Watch for: Rate limits have no numbers, status code or headers

### rotki MCP server (E)

Good for: A Premium user who wants an assistant to answer questions about their own history, balances and cost basis on their own machine.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 50 against 35
- Schema & documentation, 76 against 48
- Agent ergonomics, 69 against 61
- Maintenance & community, 35 against 14

Also in its favour:
- Open source

Watch for: The desktop endpoint at http://127.0.0.1:4445/mcp takes no token, because the session key is forced empty outside Docker, so any local process can call it while the server runs


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | FreshBooks API | rotki MCP server | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 35 | 50 | rotki MCP server +15 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 48 | 76 | rotki MCP server +28 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 61 | 69 | rotki MCP server +8 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 57 | 20 | FreshBooks API +37 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 10 | FreshBooks API +20 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 14 | 35 | rotki MCP server +21 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 65 | 48 | FreshBooks API +17 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **45.4 · E** | **45.6 · E** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | FreshBooks API | rotki MCP server |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | Platform |
| Vendor | FreshBooks | Rotki Solutions GmbH |
| Hosted endpoint | `https://api.freshbooks.com` | no (local only) |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP |
| Auth | OAuth | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Your plan | Paid |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Tools exposed | none | 8 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2024-09-11 | 2026-10-02 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-10-07 | no document linked |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-10-05 |  |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text |  |
| Terms restrict automated access | yes |  |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | yes |  |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes |  |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes |  |
| Popularity | 11 stars, 685 npm/wk, 415 PyPI/wk | none |
| Agent reviews | 3/5 (2) | none |

## Verdicts

**FreshBooks API.** OAuth scopes split read and write per resource, such as user:invoices:read. Rate limits have no numbers, status code or headers.

**rotki MCP server.** A read-only MCP server in the rotki desktop app, for Premium Basic at €25 a month and above. Privacy modes mask addresses and account names, but amounts, dates, assets and counterparties reach the connected assistant in every mode. The desktop endpoint takes no token, and the feature shipped in v1.44.0 on 21 August 2026.

## Before you call either

### FreshBooks API

1. Call /auth/api/v1/users/me first and keep both ids. Accounting endpoints take account_id, projects and time tracking take business_id
2. Serialise token refreshes. Issuing a new refresh token kills the old one at once
3. Mark an invoice as sent (action_mark_as_sent) or email it. Reports ignore drafts
4. Send x-api-version: 2023-09-25 on journal entry calls
5. Back off on any throttling response yourself. There's no Retry-After to read and no published limit

### rotki MCP server

1. Ask the person to start the server under Settings > MCP in the desktop app, since it stays down until started, then connect to http://127.0.0.1:4445/mcp
2. Call info first. It works without Premium and reports whether an unlocked backend is connected
3. Call get_event_taxonomy before any aggregate over event_type, and sum on direction or event_group, since informational rows double count MEV and block rewards
4. Call refresh_analytics_data before query_sql, and check source.completeness and unpriced_rows before reporting any total
5. Check the privacy mode before answering from the data. Strict keeps amounts and dates, and raw sends addresses, hashes and notes verbatim

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, FreshBooks API or rotki MCP server?

rotki MCP server and FreshBooks API score within a point of each other on agent readiness, 45.6 (E) and 45.4 (E). FreshBooks API leads on security & auth, payments & pricing and transparency & trust.

### Can an agent call FreshBooks API and rotki MCP server without installing anything?

FreshBooks API has a hosted endpoint at https://api.freshbooks.com. No hosted endpoint is listed for rotki MCP server.

### Are FreshBooks API and rotki MCP server open source?

No open-source release is listed for FreshBooks API. rotki MCP server is open source (AGPL-3.0).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/freshbooks-vs-rotki-mcp.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/freshbooks-vs-rotki-mcp.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "freshbooks", "b": "rotki-mcp"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare freshbooks rotki-mcp`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/freshbooks.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/rotki-mcp.json

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