Actual Budget vs Kresus
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted budgeting & finance options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Actual Budget | Kresus |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Category | Budgeting & Finance | Budgeting & Finance |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | docker, bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 29,118 | ★ 800 |
| First released | 2022 | 2015 |
| Replaces | YNAB, Mint | Mint, Bankin |
What are Actual Budget and Kresus?
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
Kresus
Kresus is a free, open-source personal finance manager that aggregates your bank accounts and helps you track expenses and budgets. It uses the Woob library to import banking data automatically.
- Automatic bank data import
- Expense categorization
- Budget and chart views
- Alerts on balances
Actual Budget vs Kresus: key differences
Actual Budget is written in TypeScript, while Kresus is built with JavaScript. Licensing differs — MIT for Actual Budget versus AGPL-3.0 for Kresus. Kresus is the more established project (first released 2015), while Actual Budget arrived in 2022. Actual Budget has the considerably larger community, at 29,118 GitHub stars versus 800.
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 Kresus if…
- Hands-off bank syncing in supported regions
- Lightweight
Watch out for
- Bank support varies by country
- Sparse documentation
Frequently asked questions
Is Actual Budget or Kresus better?
Actual Budget is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Kresus if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Actual Budget and Kresus free and open-source?
Yes. Actual Budget is licensed under MIT and Kresus under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Actual Budget and Kresus with Docker?
Actual Budget: yes. Kresus: yes.