Actual Budget vs Lago

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 BudgetLago
CategoryBudgeting & FinanceBudgeting & Finance
LicenseMITAGPL-3.0
LanguageTypeScriptGo
Setup difficultyEasyHard
Min. RAM256 MB2,048 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metal, sourcedocker, kubernetes, source
GitHub stars★ 28,019★ 10,308
First released20222022
ReplacesYNAB, MintStripe Billing, Chargebee

Why pick each one

Choose Actual Budget if…

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

Choose Lago if…

  • Powerful for SaaS billing
  • Developer-friendly
Lago details

Frequently asked questions

Is Actual Budget or Lago better?

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

Are Actual Budget and Lago free and open-source?

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

Can I run Actual Budget and Lago with Docker?

Actual Budget: yes. Lago: yes.

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