Grisbi vs Sure

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted budgeting & finance options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
FeatureGrisbiSure
CategoryBudgeting & FinanceBudgeting & Finance
LicenseGPL-2.0AGPL-3.0
LanguageCRuby
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM128 MB1,024 MB
Deploymentbinary, bare-metaldocker, source
GitHub stars★ 156★ 9,323
First released20002025
ReplacesQuickenMint, Quicken

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
Grisbi details

Choose Sure if…

  • Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Mature project with 9.3k GitHub stars
  • Written in Ruby
Sure details

Frequently asked questions

Is Grisbi or Sure better?

Neither is universally better. Sure 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 Sure free and open-source?

Yes. Grisbi is licensed under GPL-2.0 and Sure under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Grisbi and Sure with Docker?

Grisbi: check the project docs for container support. Sure: yes.

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