Hospitable Ledger vs Skrooge
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted budgeting & finance options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Hospitable Ledger | Skrooge |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Category | Budgeting & Finance | Budgeting & Finance |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | C++ | C++ |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, binary, source | binary, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 6,043 | ★ 200 |
| First released | 2003 | 2009 |
| Replaces | QuickBooks, Quicken | Quicken |
What are Hospitable Ledger and Skrooge?
Hospitable Ledger
Ledger is the original command-line, double-entry plain-text accounting tool. It reads human-readable journal files and generates balance sheets, registers, and reports with powerful query options.
- Command-line accounting
- Plain-text journal files
- Powerful reporting queries
- No database required
Skrooge
Skrooge is an open-source personal finance manager built on the KDE platform for tracking accounts, transactions, and budgets. It supports importing common file formats, scheduled operations, and detailed reporting.
- Account and transaction tracking
- Budget management
- OFX and QIF import
- Reporting and graphs
Hospitable Ledger vs Skrooge: key differences
Both projects are written in C++. Licensing differs — BSD-3-Clause for Hospitable Ledger versus GPL-3.0 for Skrooge. Hospitable Ledger is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Skrooge. Hospitable Ledger is the more established project (first released 2003), while Skrooge arrived in 2009. Hospitable Ledger has the considerably larger community, at 6,043 GitHub stars versus 200.
Why pick each one
Choose Hospitable Ledger if…
- Extremely portable data
- Scriptable and version-controllable
Watch out for
- CLI only
- Steep learning curve
Choose Skrooge if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Written in C++
- Tiny footprint — runs in 256 MB RAM
Watch out for
- Desktop only
- KDE dependencies
Frequently asked questions
Is Hospitable Ledger or Skrooge better?
Neither is universally better. Hospitable Ledger has the larger community, while Skrooge is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Hospitable Ledger and Skrooge free and open-source?
Yes. Hospitable Ledger is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and Skrooge under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Hospitable Ledger and Skrooge with Docker?
Hospitable Ledger: check the project docs for container support. Skrooge: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Hospitable Ledger or Skrooge?
Hospitable Ledger has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Skrooge. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.