Ghostfolio vs Paisa
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted budgeting & finance options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Ghostfolio
Open-source wealth and portfolio tracker
VS
Paisa
Personal finance manager on plain-text accounting
| Feature | Ghostfolio | Paisa |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 92 · Excellent | 88 · Excellent |
| Category | Budgeting & Finance | Budgeting & Finance |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | docker, binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 9,340 | ★ 3,217 |
| First released | 2021 | 2022 |
| Replaces | Personal Capital, Sharesight | Mint, Personal Capital |
What are Ghostfolio and Paisa?
Ghostfolio
Ghostfolio is an open-source wealth management application for tracking stocks, ETFs, and cryptocurrencies. It provides portfolio analysis, performance charts, and asset allocation insights.
- Multi-asset portfolio tracking
- Performance and allocation charts
- Dividend and fee analysis
- REST API access
Paisa
Paisa is an open-source personal finance manager built on top of the Ledger plain-text accounting format. It provides budgeting, net worth tracking, retirement planning, and rich visualizations.
- Built on Ledger format
- Net worth and retirement planning
- Rich interactive charts
- Goal tracking
Ghostfolio vs Paisa: key differences
Both projects are written in TypeScript. Paisa is the lighter option, starting around 256 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Ghostfolio. Ghostfolio has the considerably larger community, at 9,340 GitHub stars versus 3,217.
Why pick each one
Choose Ghostfolio if…
- Clean, focused dashboard
- Supports many asset classes
Watch out for
- Requires manual or imported data
- No automatic broker sync
Choose Paisa if…
- Beautiful visualizations
- Plain-text portable data
Watch out for
- Requires Ledger knowledge
- Single-user focused
Frequently asked questions
Is Ghostfolio or Paisa better?
Neither is universally better. Ghostfolio has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Ghostfolio and Paisa free and open-source?
Yes. Ghostfolio is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Paisa under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Ghostfolio and Paisa with Docker?
Ghostfolio: yes. Paisa: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Ghostfolio or Paisa?
Paisa has the smaller minimum footprint at 256 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Ghostfolio. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.