Firefly III vs MoneyWallet
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
MoneyWallet
Open-source personal finance manager for Android
| Feature | Firefly III | MoneyWallet |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 97 · Excellent | 11 · At risk |
| Category | Budgeting & Finance | Budgeting & Finance |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | PHP | Java |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 24,712 | ★ 635 |
| First released | 2016 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Mint, YNAB | Mint, Wallet by BudgetBakers |
What are Firefly III and MoneyWallet?
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
MoneyWallet
MoneyWallet is an open-source Android app for managing personal finances. It records transactions across multiple wallets and currencies, and supports budgets, debts, recurring payments, and optional backup to cloud storage.
- Multi-wallet support
- Budgets and recurring transactions
- Debt tracking
- Backup to cloud storage
Firefly III vs MoneyWallet: key differences
Firefly III is written in PHP, while MoneyWallet is built with Java. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Firefly III versus GPL-3.0 for MoneyWallet. MoneyWallet is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Firefly III. Firefly III has the considerably larger community, at 24,712 GitHub stars versus 635. Firefly III lists first-class Docker deployment; MoneyWallet does not.
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 MoneyWallet if…
- Works fully offline
- Material design interface
Watch out for
- Android only
- No web interface
Frequently asked questions
Is Firefly III or MoneyWallet better?
Neither is universally better. Firefly III has the larger community, while MoneyWallet is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Firefly III and MoneyWallet free and open-source?
Yes. Firefly III is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and MoneyWallet under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Firefly III and MoneyWallet with Docker?
Firefly III: yes. MoneyWallet: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Firefly III or MoneyWallet?
MoneyWallet has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Firefly III. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.