hledger-web vs Sure
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted budgeting & finance options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Sure
Community-driven personal finance app
| Feature | hledger-web | Sure |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 89 · Excellent | 93 · Excellent |
| Category | Budgeting & Finance | Budgeting & Finance |
| License | GPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Haskell | Ruby |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, binary, source | docker, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 4,730 | ★ 10,024 |
| First released | 2010 | 2025 |
| Replaces | QuickBooks, Quicken | Mint, Quicken |
What are hledger-web and Sure?
hledger-web
hledger-web is the web interface for hledger, a robust plain-text, double-entry accounting tool. It allows browsing, adding, and reporting on transactions stored in plain-text journal files.
- Plain-text journal files
- Add and edit transactions in browser
- Balance and register reports
- Fast Haskell core
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
hledger-web vs Sure: key differences
Hledger-web is written in Haskell, while Sure is built with Ruby. Licensing differs — GPL-3.0 for hledger-web versus AGPL-3.0 for Sure. Hledger-web is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 1,024 MB for Sure. Hledger-web is the more established project (first released 2010), while Sure arrived in 2025. Sure has the considerably larger community, at 10,024 GitHub stars versus 4,730. Sure lists first-class Docker deployment; hledger-web does not.
Why pick each one
Choose hledger-web if…
- No database needed
- Data is plain text and portable
Watch out for
- CLI knowledge helps
- Minimal UI
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 hledger-web or Sure better?
Neither is universally better. Sure has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are hledger-web and Sure free and open-source?
Yes. hledger-web is licensed under GPL-3.0 and Sure under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run hledger-web and Sure with Docker?
hledger-web: check the project docs for container support. Sure: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, hledger-web or Sure?
hledger-web 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.