Hospitable Ledger 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 | Hospitable Ledger | Sure |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 83 · Excellent | 93 · Excellent |
| Category | Budgeting & Finance | Budgeting & Finance |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | C++ | Ruby |
| Setup difficulty | Hard | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 1,024 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, binary, source | docker, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 6,043 | ★ 10,024 |
| First released | 2003 | 2025 |
| Replaces | QuickBooks, Quicken | Mint, Quicken |
What are Hospitable Ledger and Sure?
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
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
Hospitable Ledger vs Sure: key differences
Hospitable Ledger is written in C++, while Sure is built with Ruby. Licensing differs — BSD-3-Clause for Hospitable Ledger versus AGPL-3.0 for Sure. Hospitable Ledger is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 1,024 MB for Sure. Hospitable Ledger is the more established project (first released 2003), while Sure arrived in 2025. Sure lists first-class Docker deployment; Hospitable Ledger does not.
Why pick each one
Choose Hospitable Ledger if…
- Extremely portable data
- Scriptable and version-controllable
Watch out for
- CLI only
- Steep learning curve
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 Hospitable Ledger or Sure better?
Sure is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler medium setup. Consider Hospitable Ledger if its specific feature set fits your needs better.
Are Hospitable Ledger and Sure free and open-source?
Yes. Hospitable Ledger is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and Sure under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Hospitable Ledger and Sure with Docker?
Hospitable Ledger: check the project docs for container support. Sure: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Hospitable Ledger or Sure?
Hospitable Ledger has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 1,024 MB for Sure. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.