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.
| Feature | Grisbi | Sure |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 68 · Good | 93 · Excellent |
| Category | Budgeting & Finance | Budgeting & Finance |
| License | GPL-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | C | Ruby |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | binary, bare-metal | docker, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 157 | ★ 10,024 |
| First released | 2000 | 2025 |
| Replaces | Quicken | Mint, Quicken |
What are Grisbi and Sure?
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
Sure
Sure is a self-hosted personal finance application maintained by the community as a continuation of an archived finance project. It tracks accounts, transactions, budgets, and net worth in a single dashboard.
- Accounts and transaction tracking
- Budgets and net worth view
- Community-maintained
- Self-hosted with Docker
Grisbi vs Sure: key differences
Grisbi is written in C, while Sure is built with Ruby. Licensing differs — GPL-2.0 for Grisbi versus AGPL-3.0 for Sure. Grisbi is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 1,024 MB for Sure. Grisbi is the more established project (first released 2000), while Sure arrived in 2025. Sure has the considerably larger community, at 10,024 GitHub stars versus 157. Sure lists first-class Docker deployment; Grisbi does not.
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 Sure if…
- Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Mature project with 10k GitHub stars
- Written in Ruby
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.
Which is lighter on resources, Grisbi or Sure?
Grisbi has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 1,024 MB for Sure. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.