Actual Budget vs hledger-web

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted budgeting & finance options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

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FeatureActual Budgethledger-web
CategoryBudgeting & FinanceBudgeting & Finance
LicenseMITGPL-3.0
LanguageTypeScriptHaskell
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM256 MB128 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metal, sourcebare-metal, binary, source
GitHub stars★ 28,019★ 4,620
First released20222010
ReplacesYNAB, MintQuickBooks, Quicken

Why pick each one

Choose Actual Budget if…

  • Snappy offline-first experience
  • Privacy-focused sync
Actual Budget details

Choose hledger-web if…

  • No database needed
  • Data is plain text and portable
hledger-web details

Frequently asked questions

Is Actual Budget or hledger-web better?

Actual Budget is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider hledger-web if its specific feature set fits your needs better.

Are Actual Budget and hledger-web free and open-source?

Yes. Actual Budget is licensed under MIT and hledger-web under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Actual Budget and hledger-web with Docker?

Actual Budget: yes. hledger-web: check the project docs for container support.

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