Actual Budget vs hledger-flow
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?
Actual Budget
Local-first envelope budgeting app
VS
hledger-flow
Automated import pipeline for hledger plain-text accounting
| Feature | Actual Budget | hledger-flow |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Budgeting & Finance | Budgeting & Finance |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | TypeScript | Haskell |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 28,019 | ★ 218 |
| First released | 2022 | 2018 |
| Replaces | YNAB, Mint | QuickBooks import, Tiller |
Why pick each one
Choose hledger-flow if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Written in Haskell
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Actual Budget or hledger-flow better?
Actual Budget is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider hledger-flow if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Actual Budget and hledger-flow free and open-source?
Yes. Actual Budget is licensed under MIT and hledger-flow under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Actual Budget and hledger-flow with Docker?
Actual Budget: yes. hledger-flow: check the project docs for container support.