Actual Budget vs Sure
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 | Sure |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 98 · Excellent | 93 · Excellent |
| Category | Budgeting & Finance | Budgeting & Finance |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | TypeScript | Ruby |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | docker, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 29,118 | ★ 10,024 |
| First released | 2022 | 2025 |
| Replaces | YNAB, Mint | Mint, Quicken |
What are Actual Budget and Sure?
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
Sure
Sure is a self-hosted personal finance application maintained by the community as a continuation of an archived finance project. It tracks accounts, transactions, budgets, and net worth in a single dashboard.
- Accounts and transaction tracking
- Budgets and net worth view
- Community-maintained
- Self-hosted with Docker
Actual Budget vs Sure: key differences
Actual Budget is written in TypeScript, while Sure is built with Ruby. Licensing differs — MIT for Actual Budget versus AGPL-3.0 for Sure. Actual Budget is the lighter option, starting around 256 MB of RAM against 1,024 MB for Sure. Actual Budget is the more established project (first released 2022), while Sure arrived in 2025. Actual Budget has the considerably larger community, at 29,118 GitHub stars versus 10,024.
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 Sure if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 10k GitHub stars
- Written in Ruby
Frequently asked questions
Is Actual Budget or Sure better?
Actual Budget is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Sure if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Actual Budget and Sure free and open-source?
Yes. Actual Budget is licensed under MIT and Sure under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Actual Budget and Sure with Docker?
Actual Budget: yes. Sure: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Actual Budget or Sure?
Actual Budget has the smaller minimum footprint at 256 MB of RAM, compared to about 1,024 MB for Sure. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.