Actual Budget vs Costflow
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted budgeting & finance options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Actual Budget
Local-first envelope budgeting app
VS
Costflow
Natural-language interface for plain-text accounting
| Feature | Actual Budget | Costflow |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 98 · Excellent | 0 · At risk |
| Category | Budgeting & Finance | Budgeting & Finance |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | source, binary |
| GitHub stars | ★ 29,118 | ★ 33 |
| First released | 2022 | 2019 |
| Replaces | YNAB, Mint | Expensify, Mint |
What are Actual Budget and Costflow?
Actual Budget
Actual is a free, open-source personal finance app focused on zero-based, envelope-style budgeting. It is local-first with end-to-end encrypted sync across devices.
- Envelope budgeting method
- Local-first with encrypted sync
- Fast and responsive UI
- Bank import via plugins
Costflow
Costflow is an open-source parser that turns plain-language messages into Beancount, Ledger, or hledger entries. It lets users record transactions from chat apps and append them to a journal file.
- Natural-language entries
- Beancount and Ledger output
- Chat app integration
- Plain-text journals
Actual Budget vs Costflow: key differences
Actual Budget is written in TypeScript, while Costflow is built with JavaScript. Costflow is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Actual Budget. Costflow is the more established project (first released 2019), while Actual Budget arrived in 2022. Actual Budget has the considerably larger community, at 29,118 GitHub stars versus 33. Actual Budget lists first-class Docker deployment; Costflow does not.
Why pick each one
Choose Actual Budget if…
- Snappy offline-first experience
- Privacy-focused sync
Watch out for
- Bank sync needs extra setup
- Fewer reports than alternatives
Choose Costflow if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Written in JavaScript
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Actual Budget or Costflow better?
Actual Budget is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Costflow if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Actual Budget and Costflow free and open-source?
Yes. Actual Budget is licensed under MIT and Costflow under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Actual Budget and Costflow with Docker?
Actual Budget: yes. Costflow: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Actual Budget or Costflow?
Costflow has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Actual Budget. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.