hledger-flow vs Lago
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?
Compare hledger-flow with
choose an app… Maybe HyperSwitch Actual Budget Firefly III Akaunting Invoice Ninja Sure Ghostfolio Wealthfolio
Compare Lago with
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Feature hledger-flow Lago Category Budgeting & Finance Budgeting & Finance License GPL-3.0 AGPL-3.0 Language Haskell Go Setup difficulty Hard Hard Min. RAM 128 MB 2,048 MB Deployment binary, source docker, kubernetes, source GitHub stars ★ 218 ★ 10,308 First released 2018 2022 Replaces QuickBooks import, Tiller Stripe Billing, Chargebee
Why pick each one
Choose hledger-flow if… Released under the GPL-3.0 license Written in Haskell Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM hledger-flow details Choose Lago if… Powerful for SaaS billing Developer-friendly Lago details
Frequently asked questions Is hledger-flow or Lago better? Neither is universally better. Lago has the larger community; both share a hard setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are hledger-flow and Lago free and open-source? Yes. hledger-flow is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Lago under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run hledger-flow and Lago with Docker? hledger-flow: check the project docs for container support. Lago: yes.