Cashew Self-Host vs Kresus
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted budgeting & finance options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Cashew Self-Host | Kresus |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Category | Budgeting & Finance | Budgeting & Finance |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Dart | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, source | docker, bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 4,649 | ★ 800 |
| First released | 2022 | 2015 |
| Replaces | YNAB, Mint | Mint, Bankin |
What are Cashew Self-Host and Kresus?
Cashew Self-Host
This project provides a self-hosted sync backend so users of the open-source budgeting client can keep their expense data on their own server. It stores transactions, budgets, and categories without a commercial cloud.
- Expense and budget tracking
- Self-hosted sync
- Category management
- Mobile companion
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
Cashew Self-Host vs Kresus: key differences
Cashew Self-Host is written in Dart, while Kresus is built with JavaScript. Licensing differs — MIT for Cashew Self-Host versus AGPL-3.0 for Kresus. Kresus is the more established project (first released 2015), while Cashew Self-Host arrived in 2022. Cashew Self-Host has the considerably larger community, at 4,649 GitHub stars versus 800.
Why pick each one
Choose Cashew Self-Host if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (4.6k GitHub stars)
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 Cashew Self-Host or Kresus better?
Cashew Self-Host is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Kresus if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Cashew Self-Host and Kresus free and open-source?
Yes. Cashew Self-Host is licensed under MIT and Kresus under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Cashew Self-Host and Kresus with Docker?
Cashew Self-Host: yes. Kresus: yes.