Grisbi vs Money Manager Ex
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted budgeting & finance options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Grisbi | Money Manager Ex |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 68 · Good | 86 · Excellent |
| Category | Budgeting & Finance | Budgeting & Finance |
| License | GPL-2.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | C | C++ |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | binary, bare-metal | bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 157 | ★ 2,265 |
| First released | 2000 | 2005 |
| Replaces | Quicken | Quicken, Mint |
What are Grisbi and Money Manager Ex?
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
Money Manager Ex
Money Manager Ex is a free, open-source personal finance application. It tracks accounts, transactions, budgets, and investments in a simple desktop interface backed by an SQLite database.
- Account and budget tracking
- Investment management
- Reports and charts
- SQLite-backed database
Grisbi vs Money Manager Ex: key differences
Grisbi is written in C, while Money Manager Ex is built with C++. Grisbi is the more established project (first released 2000), while Money Manager Ex arrived in 2005. Money Manager Ex has the considerably larger community, at 2,265 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 Money Manager Ex if…
- Simple and approachable
- Portable data file
Watch out for
- Desktop only
- No multi-user support
Frequently asked questions
Is Grisbi or Money Manager Ex better?
Neither is universally better. Money Manager Ex has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Grisbi and Money Manager Ex free and open-source?
Yes. Grisbi is licensed under GPL-2.0 and Money Manager Ex under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Grisbi and Money Manager Ex with Docker?
Grisbi: check the project docs for container support. Money Manager Ex: check the project docs for container support.