Firefly III vs Maybe
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted budgeting & finance options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Firefly III
Self-hosted personal finance manager
VS
Maybe
Archived
Open-source personal finance and wealth app
| Feature | Firefly III | Maybe |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 97 · Excellent | 15 · At risk |
| Status | Actively maintained | Archived |
| Category | Budgeting & Finance | Budgeting & Finance |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | PHP | Ruby |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | docker, bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 24,712 | ★ 54,272 |
| First released | 2016 | 2024 |
| Replaces | Mint, YNAB | Mint, Personal Capital |
What are Firefly III and Maybe?
Firefly III
Firefly III is a free, open-source personal finance manager. It helps you track income, expenses, budgets, and bills, with rules for automatic transaction categorization and detailed reporting.
- Budgeting and bill tracking
- Rule-based auto-categorization
- Detailed financial reports
- REST API and data importer
Maybe
Maybe is an open-source personal finance and wealth management application built with Ruby on Rails. It helps users track accounts, net worth, investments, and budgets in one dashboard.
- Net worth tracking
- Investment portfolio view
- Budgeting tools
- AI-assisted insights
Firefly III vs Maybe: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: Maybe's repository is archived and no longer developed, while Firefly III is actively maintained. Firefly III is written in PHP, while Maybe is built with Ruby. Firefly III is the lighter option, starting around 512 MB of RAM against 1,024 MB for Maybe. Firefly III is the more established project (first released 2016), while Maybe arrived in 2024. Maybe has the considerably larger community, at 54,272 GitHub stars versus 24,712.
Why pick each one
Choose Firefly III if…
- Powerful budgeting features
- Strong API for automation
Watch out for
- Manual entry unless importing
- Steeper learning curve
Choose Maybe if…
- Modern polished interface
- Active development
Watch out for
- Young project
- Bank integrations still maturing
Frequently asked questions
Is Firefly III or Maybe better?
Neither is universally better. Maybe has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Firefly III and Maybe free and open-source?
Yes. Firefly III is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Maybe under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Firefly III and Maybe with Docker?
Firefly III: yes. Maybe: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Firefly III or Maybe?
Firefly III has the smaller minimum footprint at 512 MB of RAM, compared to about 1,024 MB for Maybe. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.