Actual Budget vs Firefly III
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
Firefly III
Self-hosted personal finance manager
| Feature | Actual Budget | Firefly III |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 98 · Excellent | 97 · Excellent |
| Category | Budgeting & Finance | Budgeting & Finance |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | TypeScript | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | docker, bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 29,118 | ★ 24,712 |
| First released | 2022 | 2016 |
| Replaces | YNAB, Mint | Mint, YNAB |
What are Actual Budget and Firefly III?
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
Firefly III
Firefly III is a free, open-source personal finance manager. It helps you track income, expenses, budgets, and bills, with rules for automatic transaction categorization and detailed reporting.
- Budgeting and bill tracking
- Rule-based auto-categorization
- Detailed financial reports
- REST API and data importer
Actual Budget vs Firefly III: key differences
Actual Budget is written in TypeScript, while Firefly III is built with PHP. Licensing differs — MIT for Actual Budget versus AGPL-3.0 for Firefly III. Actual Budget is the lighter option, starting around 256 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Firefly III. Firefly III is the more established project (first released 2016), while Actual Budget arrived in 2022.
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 Firefly III if…
- Powerful budgeting features
- Strong API for automation
Watch out for
- Manual entry unless importing
- Steeper learning curve
Frequently asked questions
Is Actual Budget or Firefly III better?
Actual Budget is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Firefly III if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Actual Budget and Firefly III free and open-source?
Yes. Actual Budget is licensed under MIT and Firefly III under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Actual Budget and Firefly III with Docker?
Actual Budget: yes. Firefly III: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Actual Budget or Firefly III?
Actual Budget has the smaller minimum footprint at 256 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Firefly III. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.