Grisbi vs hledger-web
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted budgeting & finance options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Grisbi | hledger-web |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 68 · Good | 89 · Excellent |
| Category | Budgeting & Finance | Budgeting & Finance |
| License | GPL-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | C | Haskell |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | binary, bare-metal | bare-metal, binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 157 | ★ 4,730 |
| First released | 2000 | 2010 |
| Replaces | Quicken | QuickBooks, Quicken |
What are Grisbi and hledger-web?
Grisbi
Grisbi is a free, lightweight personal accounting application aimed at individuals and small associations. It tracks accounts, third parties, categories, and budgets, and can import statements in standard formats.
- Personal accounting
- Budget tracking
- Statement import
- Multi-currency support
hledger-web
hledger-web is the web interface for hledger, a robust plain-text, double-entry accounting tool. It allows browsing, adding, and reporting on transactions stored in plain-text journal files.
- Plain-text journal files
- Add and edit transactions in browser
- Balance and register reports
- Fast Haskell core
Grisbi vs hledger-web: key differences
Grisbi is written in C, while hledger-web is built with Haskell. Licensing differs — GPL-2.0 for Grisbi versus GPL-3.0 for hledger-web. Grisbi is the more established project (first released 2000), while hledger-web arrived in 2010. Hledger-web has the considerably larger community, at 4,730 GitHub stars versus 157.
Why pick each one
Choose Grisbi if…
- Released under the GPL-2.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Written in C
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Watch out for
- Dated interface
- Slow development
Choose hledger-web if…
- No database needed
- Data is plain text and portable
Watch out for
- CLI knowledge helps
- Minimal UI
Frequently asked questions
Is Grisbi or hledger-web better?
Neither is universally better. hledger-web has the larger community, while Grisbi is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Grisbi and hledger-web free and open-source?
Yes. Grisbi is licensed under GPL-2.0 and hledger-web under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Grisbi and hledger-web with Docker?
Grisbi: check the project docs for container support. hledger-web: check the project docs for container support.