Cashew Self-Host vs Sure
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted budgeting & finance options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Sure
Community-driven personal finance app
| Feature | Cashew Self-Host | Sure |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 54 · Fair | 93 · Excellent |
| Category | Budgeting & Finance | Budgeting & Finance |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Dart | Ruby |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, source | docker, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 4,649 | ★ 10,024 |
| First released | 2022 | 2025 |
| Replaces | YNAB, Mint | Mint, Quicken |
What are Cashew Self-Host and Sure?
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
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
Cashew Self-Host vs Sure: key differences
Cashew Self-Host is written in Dart, while Sure is built with Ruby. Licensing differs — MIT for Cashew Self-Host versus AGPL-3.0 for Sure. Cashew Self-Host is the lighter option, starting around 256 MB of RAM against 1,024 MB for Sure. Cashew Self-Host is the more established project (first released 2022), while Sure arrived in 2025. Sure has the considerably larger community, at 10,024 GitHub stars versus 4,649.
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 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 Cashew Self-Host or Sure better?
Neither is universally better. Sure has the larger community, while Cashew Self-Host is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Cashew Self-Host and Sure free and open-source?
Yes. Cashew Self-Host is licensed under MIT and Sure under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Cashew Self-Host and Sure with Docker?
Cashew Self-Host: yes. Sure: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Cashew Self-Host or Sure?
Cashew Self-Host 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.