Actual Budget vs Pancake
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?
Compare Actual Budget with
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Compare Pancake with
choose an app… Maybe HyperSwitch Firefly III Lago Akaunting Invoice Ninja Sure Ghostfolio Wealthfolio
Feature Actual Budget Pancake Category Budgeting & Finance Budgeting & Finance License MIT ⊘ Proprietary Language TypeScript PHP Setup difficulty Easy Medium Min. RAM 256 MB 512 MB Deployment docker, bare-metal, source bare-metal GitHub stars ★ 28,019 — First released 2022 2020 Replaces YNAB, Mint —
Why pick each one
Choose Pancake if… Released under the ⊘ Proprietary license Written in PHP Lightweight — runs in 512 MB RAM Pancake details
Frequently asked questions Is Actual Budget or Pancake better? Actual Budget is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Pancake if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Actual Budget and Pancake free and open-source? Yes. Actual Budget is licensed under MIT and Pancake under ⊘ Proprietary. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Actual Budget and Pancake with Docker? Actual Budget: yes. Pancake: check the project docs for container support.