ExpenseOwl vs Sure

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted budgeting & finance options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

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FeatureExpenseOwlSure
CategoryBudgeting & FinanceBudgeting & Finance
LicenseMITAGPL-3.0
LanguageHTMLRuby
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM64 MB1,024 MB
Deploymentdocker, binary, sourcedocker, source
GitHub stars★ 1,475★ 9,323
First released20242025
ReplacesMint, SpendeeMint, Quicken

Why pick each one

Choose ExpenseOwl if…

  • Extremely lightweight
  • Fast and simple
ExpenseOwl details

Choose Sure if…

  • Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Mature project with 9.3k GitHub stars
  • Written in Ruby
Sure details

Frequently asked questions

Is ExpenseOwl or Sure better?

Neither is universally better. Sure has the larger community, while ExpenseOwl is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are ExpenseOwl and Sure free and open-source?

Yes. ExpenseOwl is licensed under MIT and Sure under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run ExpenseOwl and Sure with Docker?

ExpenseOwl: yes. Sure: yes.

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