Core Lightning vs Firefly III
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?
Compare Core Lightning with
choose an app… Maybe HyperSwitch Actual Budget Lago Akaunting Invoice Ninja Sure Ghostfolio Wealthfolio
Compare Firefly III with
choose an app… Maybe HyperSwitch Actual Budget Lago Akaunting Invoice Ninja Sure Ghostfolio Wealthfolio Crater Wallos BTCPay Server OctoBot Hospitable Ledger Beancount Kill Bill ezbookkeeping Frappe Books hledger-web Cashew Self-Host GnuCash Pretzel Finance Rotki Paisa Spliit mempool Fava Money Manager Ex BTC RPC Explorer Crater Self-Hosted Invoicing ExpenseOwl I Hate Money Sequence Finance LNbits Elements Core BlueWallet Lightning RoboSats Tracktor Invio Bitcart OpenBudgeteer WYGIWYH Specter Desktop Kresus Ride The Lightning (Core Lightning) Fedimint Lightning Gateway Bitcoin Knots monetr Budget Zero BudgetBee Tellico SHKeeper Lightning Terminal REI3 Ocular VoucherVault Fulcrum Beancount Import ThunderHub Public Pool Suredbits Wallet Family Accounting Tool Jam BillManager MyFin Alby Hub ✨ Receipt Wrangler SatSale LNDg chantools CLI hledger-flow Tryton Cashu.me Wallet Skrooge OFX Importer Monero Daemon Grisbi DATUM DePay Circuit Breaker Bitfeed Budgetwarrior Nostr Wallet Connect YAFFA Bitcoin Ordinals Shopstr Econumo Libre Relay Bitcoin Node ItchySats Nutstash Wallet nolooking Squeak Road Krystal Bull BTC Tracker Helipad Bassin Costflow Tallycoin Connect PeerSwap sat.watch LndBoss Lightning Node Bitaxe Sentry Mybucks.online Blockstream Blind Oracle DeepSea Dashboard WoofBot (LND) LN Markets Bleskomat Server Canary MinerSentinel TDEX Provider Bitwatch Electrs Kollider LnVisualizer Public Pool's Web Urbit Bitcoin Connector Sparkkiosk Samourai Server LNbits Holesail Proxy Lightning Network+ Toshi Moto bitBalance ElectrumX Bitcoin Regtest Dashboard ChainForensics Lightning Shell lnSwitchboard Oak Node Pancake Saifa
Feature Core Lightning Firefly III Category Budgeting & Finance Budgeting & Finance License free AGPL-3.0 Language TypeScript PHP Setup difficulty Easy Medium Min. RAM 512 MB 512 MB Deployment docker, one-click docker, bare-metal, source GitHub stars ★ 51 ★ 24,254 First released 2022 2016 Replaces — Mint, YNAB
Why pick each one
Choose Core Lightning if… Easy to set up — beginner-friendly First-class Docker support for quick deployment One-click install on common self-host platforms Written in TypeScript Core Lightning details
Frequently asked questions Is Core Lightning or Firefly III better? Neither is universally better. Firefly III has the larger community, while Core Lightning is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Core Lightning and Firefly III free and open-source? Yes. Core Lightning is licensed under free and Firefly III under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Core Lightning and Firefly III with Docker? Core Lightning: yes. Firefly III: yes.