Grisbi vs Hospitable Ledger
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted budgeting & finance options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Grisbi | Hospitable Ledger |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 68 · Good | 83 · Excellent |
| Category | Budgeting & Finance | Budgeting & Finance |
| License | GPL-2.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Language | C | C++ |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | binary, bare-metal | bare-metal, binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 157 | ★ 6,043 |
| First released | 2000 | 2003 |
| Replaces | Quicken | QuickBooks, Quicken |
What are Grisbi and Hospitable Ledger?
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
Hospitable Ledger
Ledger is the original command-line, double-entry plain-text accounting tool. It reads human-readable journal files and generates balance sheets, registers, and reports with powerful query options.
- Command-line accounting
- Plain-text journal files
- Powerful reporting queries
- No database required
Grisbi vs Hospitable Ledger: key differences
Grisbi is written in C, while Hospitable Ledger is built with C++. Licensing differs — GPL-2.0 for Grisbi versus BSD-3-Clause for Hospitable Ledger. Hospitable Ledger is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 128 MB for Grisbi. Grisbi is the more established project (first released 2000), while Hospitable Ledger arrived in 2003. Hospitable Ledger has the considerably larger community, at 6,043 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 Hospitable Ledger if…
- Extremely portable data
- Scriptable and version-controllable
Watch out for
- CLI only
- Steep learning curve
Frequently asked questions
Is Grisbi or Hospitable Ledger better?
Neither is universally better. Hospitable Ledger 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 Hospitable Ledger free and open-source?
Yes. Grisbi is licensed under GPL-2.0 and Hospitable Ledger under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Grisbi and Hospitable Ledger with Docker?
Grisbi: check the project docs for container support. Hospitable Ledger: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Grisbi or Hospitable Ledger?
Hospitable Ledger has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 128 MB for Grisbi. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.