Actual Budget vs Fava
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted budgeting & finance options
— licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one
replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Compare Actual Budget with
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Compare Fava with
choose an app… Maybe HyperSwitch Firefly III Lago Akaunting Invoice Ninja Sure Ghostfolio Worktile ERP Wealthfolio Hospitable Ledger Beancount Frappe Books hledger-web GnuCash Bigcapital InvoicePlane Tryton
Feature Actual Budget Fava Category Budgeting & Finance Budgeting & Finance License MIT MIT Language TypeScript Python Setup difficulty Easy Medium Min. RAM 256 MB 256 MB Deployment docker, bare-metal, source docker, bare-metal, source GitHub stars ★ 28,019 ★ 2,542 First released 2022 2016 Replaces YNAB, Mint QuickBooks, GnuCash
Why pick each one
Choose Fava if… Great for plain-text accounting fans Version-controllable data Fava details
Frequently asked questions Is Actual Budget or Fava better? Actual Budget is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Fava if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Actual Budget and Fava free and open-source? Yes. Actual Budget is licensed under MIT and Fava under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Actual Budget and Fava with Docker? Actual Budget: yes. Fava: yes.