Actual Budget vs Skrooge
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 Skrooge with
choose an app… Maybe HyperSwitch Firefly III Lago Akaunting Invoice Ninja Sure Ghostfolio Wealthfolio Hospitable Ledger hledger-web GnuCash Money Manager Ex KMyMoney Grisbi
Feature Actual Budget Skrooge Category Budgeting & Finance Budgeting & Finance License MIT GPL-3.0 Language TypeScript C++ Setup difficulty Easy Easy Min. RAM 256 MB 256 MB Deployment docker, bare-metal, source binary, bare-metal GitHub stars ★ 28,019 ★ 200 First released 2022 2009 Replaces YNAB, Mint Quicken
Why pick each one
Choose Skrooge if… Released under the GPL-3.0 license Easy to set up — beginner-friendly Written in C++ Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM Skrooge details
Frequently asked questions Is Actual Budget or Skrooge better? Neither is universally better. Actual Budget has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Actual Budget and Skrooge free and open-source? Yes. Actual Budget is licensed under MIT and Skrooge under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Actual Budget and Skrooge with Docker? Actual Budget: yes. Skrooge: check the project docs for container support.