BudgetBee vs Kresus
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted budgeting & finance options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
BudgetBee
Self-hosted personal finance and budgeting manager
VS
Kresus
Self-hosted personal finance manager
| Feature | BudgetBee | Kresus |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Category | Budgeting & Finance | Budgeting & Finance |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | JavaScript | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, source | docker, bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 644 | ★ 800 |
| First released | 2024 | 2015 |
| Replaces | YNAB, Mint | Mint, Bankin |
What are BudgetBee and Kresus?
BudgetBee
BudgetBee is an open-source, self-hosted personal finance manager that runs entirely on your own infrastructure via Docker. It tracks day-to-day expenses, plans monthly budgets, monitors upcoming bills, and visualizes financial health through charts.
- Expense and budget tracking
- Upcoming bill monitoring
- Charts and reports
- Runs entirely via Docker
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
BudgetBee vs Kresus: key differences
Both projects are written in JavaScript. Licensing differs — MIT for BudgetBee versus AGPL-3.0 for Kresus. Kresus is the more established project (first released 2015), while BudgetBee arrived in 2024.
Why pick each one
Choose BudgetBee if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in JavaScript
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 BudgetBee or Kresus better?
Neither is universally better. Kresus has the larger community, while BudgetBee is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are BudgetBee and Kresus free and open-source?
Yes. BudgetBee is licensed under MIT and Kresus under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run BudgetBee and Kresus with Docker?
BudgetBee: yes. Kresus: yes.