hledger-web vs Beancount
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?
hledger-web
Web interface for hledger plain-text accounting
VS
Beancount
Double-entry bookkeeping in plain text with a query language
| Feature | hledger-web | Beancount |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Budgeting & Finance | Budgeting & Finance |
| License | GPL-3.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | Haskell | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, binary, source | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 4,620 | ★ 5,881 |
| First released | 2010 | 2008 |
| Replaces | QuickBooks, Quicken | QuickBooks, Xero |
Why pick each one
Choose Beancount if…
- Released under the GPL-2.0 license
- Mature project with 5.9k GitHub stars
- Written in Python
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is hledger-web or Beancount better?
Neither is universally better. Beancount has the larger community, while hledger-web is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are hledger-web and Beancount free and open-source?
Yes. hledger-web is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Beancount under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run hledger-web and Beancount with Docker?
hledger-web: check the project docs for container support. Beancount: check the project docs for container support.