SHSelfHostIndex

Cashew Self-Host vs Paisa

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?
CA Cashew Self-Host Self-hosted sync server for personal budgeting VS PA Paisa Personal finance manager on plain-text accounting
FeatureCashew Self-HostPaisa
Deploy effortUnder-an-hour setupUnder-an-hour setup
Health score54 · Fair88 · Excellent
CategoryBudgeting & FinanceBudgeting & Finance
LicenseMITAGPL-3.0
LanguageDartTypeScript
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM256 MB256 MB
Deploymentdocker, sourcedocker, binary, source
GitHub stars★ 4,649★ 3,217
First released20222022
ReplacesYNAB, MintMint, Personal Capital

What are Cashew Self-Host and Paisa?

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

Paisa

Paisa is an open-source personal finance manager built on top of the Ledger plain-text accounting format. It provides budgeting, net worth tracking, retirement planning, and rich visualizations.

  • Built on Ledger format
  • Net worth and retirement planning
  • Rich interactive charts
  • Goal tracking

Read the full Paisa guide →

Cashew Self-Host vs Paisa: key differences

Cashew Self-Host is written in Dart, while Paisa is built with TypeScript. Licensing differs — MIT for Cashew Self-Host versus AGPL-3.0 for Paisa.

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)
Cashew Self-Host details

Choose Paisa if…

  • Beautiful visualizations
  • Plain-text portable data

Watch out for

  • Requires Ledger knowledge
  • Single-user focused
Paisa details

Frequently asked questions

Is Cashew Self-Host or Paisa better?

Cashew Self-Host is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Paisa if its specific feature set fits your needs better.

Are Cashew Self-Host and Paisa free and open-source?

Yes. Cashew Self-Host is licensed under MIT and Paisa under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Cashew Self-Host and Paisa with Docker?

Cashew Self-Host: yes. Paisa: yes.

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