Open Source Personal Finance
Personal finance software is really several different tools wearing one label: a budget that tells you what you can spend this month, a ledger that records where every dollar went, a portfolio tracker that follows your investments, and a subscription watcher that catches silent renewals. The convenience trap that ties them together is bank-sync - the cleaner the automatic feed, the more completely you have handed your money history to a service that can be acquired, shut down, or pivoted. Open source is the hedge: it keeps years of transactions and net-worth snapshots in a local file or a server you run, so the picture of your finances outlives any single app.
Actual Budget
Local-first envelope budgeting app with multi-device sync and self-hosting
Firefly III
Self-hosted personal finance manager for tracking income, expenses, budgets, and reports
Ghostfolio
Open source wealth management software for tracking net worth across stocks, ETFs, and cryptocurrencies
Sure
Self-hosted all-in-one personal finance app, a community fork of Maybe Finance
Wallos
Self-hostable personal subscription tracker for recurring payments, budgets, and multi-currency expenses
Wealthfolio
Local-first portfolio tracker for investments, net worth, spending, and simulations
hledger
Plain text accounting with CLI, TUI, and web interfaces for multi-currency double-entry bookkeeping
Cashew
Budget and financial tracking app with cross-device sync, backups, and flexible transaction management
budgetzero
Offline-first, self-hosted zero-based budgeting with no ads or trackers
Our picks
Personal finance is several jobs at once, so pick by the one that matters most to you.
Best for envelope budgeting: Actual Budget Actual Budget is a local-first envelope budgeting app that runs on your device and keeps working offline. It syncs across devices with optional end-to-end encryption, imports QIF, OFX, QFX, and CSV, and includes importers for YNAB users. Net worth and cash flow reports plus split transactions round it out, and the app itself is MIT-licensed and free.
Best full personal finance manager: Firefly III Firefly III is a self-hosted manager built on double-entry bookkeeping, with budgets, categories, tags, rule-based transaction handling, recurring transactions, and savings goals. It stays isolated and will not contact external servers until you tell it to, supports any currency and two-factor authentication, and exposes a REST API plus a companion importer for bank and file data.
Best for tracking investments: Ghostfolio Ghostfolio is wealth-management software that tracks net worth across cash, stocks, ETFs, and crypto in one dashboard. It reports portfolio performance over multiple time frames, flags potential risks through static analysis, and runs as a mobile-first web app you self-host with Docker.
Best plain-text accounting: hledger hledger keeps double-entry books in a plain text file you fully control and can version like code. Its multi-currency engine is precise, it imports and exports CSV and outputs JSON, HTML, and SQL, and it offers command-line, terminal, and web interfaces. For people who want privacy and durability over a polished dashboard, it is hard to beat.
Which money problem are you actually solving
Four different jobs hide under the personal-finance label, and the right app depends on which one you are solving. If you want to plan spending, an envelope budgeter like Actual Budget or budgetzero assigns every dollar before you spend it. If you want a complete record of accounts and transfers, a double-entry manager fits better: Firefly III gives you a web app with budgets and rules, while hledger keeps the same rigor in plain text files you version-control. Investors have their own tools - Ghostfolio and Wealthfolio track holdings, returns, and net worth rather than monthly cash flow - and if creeping subscriptions are your real problem, Wallos or SubTrackr watch renewal dates specifically.
The accounting model shapes every daily habit. Double-entry, where every movement has matching postings, is stronger for loans, transfers, reimbursements, and catching mistakes, but it feels heavy if all you want is a monthly budget. hledger and Firefly III take it seriously; the budget-first apps stay lighter on purpose. Bank connectivity is the other pressure point: direct feeds break often and are frequently region-specific, so treat reliable CSV, OFX, or QIF import as the feature that actually keeps your routine running. Kresus is unusual in fetching transactions automatically through open connectors, but test your own bank before you depend on it.
Whatever you pick, test the exit before you load years of history. A useful export includes transactions, categories, accounts, splits, and transfers - enough structure to rebuild reports elsewhere - and a local file you can read is worth more than a feed you cannot leave.
Related categories
Frequently asked questions
Will these connect to my bank and import transactions automatically?+
Sometimes, but bank sync is the least predictable feature here. Kresus fetches transactions automatically through open Woob connectors, Actual Budget offers sync via goCardless and SimpleFIN, and Sure advertises links to over ten thousand institutions - but availability is often region-specific and can break when banks change their login flow. Test your actual accounts first, and make sure CSV, OFX, or QIF import is fast enough to rely on if the feed fails.
What is the difference between a budgeting app and a double-entry finance manager?+
A budgeting app like Actual Budget or budgetzero assigns money to categories so you know what you can spend. A double-entry manager records every movement with matching postings, which is stronger for loans, transfers, and reimbursements and catches mistakes automatically. Firefly III and hledger use double-entry; the budget-first apps stay deliberately lighter. If your finances are simple, double-entry can feel like overkill.
Which of these track investments rather than just spending?+
Investment tracking is a separate specialty. Ghostfolio follows net worth across stocks, ETFs, crypto, and cash with performance reporting, and Wealthfolio is a local-first portfolio tracker with time-weighted and money-weighted returns plus optional read-only broker sync. Sure also tracks stocks and crypto alongside budgeting. Verify how a tool handles cost basis, dividends, and realized gains before trusting it with a real portfolio.
Can any of these just track my subscriptions and recurring bills?+
Yes, and two are built specifically for it. Wallos tracks recurring payments with categories, multi-currency support, and reminders by email, Discord, Telegram, and more. SubTrackr focuses on subscription spending with a renewal calendar, analytics, and CSV, JSON, or iCal export. Both are self-hosted, so the record of what you pay for stays on your own server rather than in a third-party app.
Which of these work well on a phone?+
Mobile support varies a lot. Cashew is built with Flutter and ships native Android and iOS apps with cross-device sync and biometric lock. Ghostfolio runs as a mobile-first progressive web app, and Wealthfolio includes an iOS build. The plain-text and desktop tools like hledger are strongest at a computer. Decide what you need on the go - quick expense entry or full review - and test that specific workflow.
What budgeting methods do these support?+
Mostly envelope and category budgeting. Actual Budget and budgetzero use zero-based envelope budgeting, where you assign every dollar a job before spending and carry negative balances forward. Firefly III offers category budgets with rules and recurring transactions, and Sure adds category budgets with smart allocations. The mechanics matter more than the label - check rollover rules and how the tool handles irregular income against your real habits.
What happens if the project behind my finance app is abandoned?+
It is a real risk worth planning for - Sure exists precisely because it is a community fork of the abandoned Maybe Finance, kept alive so the codebase stays available. The safeguard is the same in every case: keep regular exports of transactions, categories, and accounts, and favor tools that store data in a local file or plain text you can still read. If the software runs locally and your data is portable, abandonment becomes a migration, not a crisis.