Money Manager Ex vs MoneyWallet
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted budgeting & finance options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Money Manager Ex | MoneyWallet |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 86 · Excellent | 11 · At risk |
| Category | Budgeting & Finance | Budgeting & Finance |
| License | GPL-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | C++ | Java |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, source | bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,265 | ★ 635 |
| First released | 2005 | 2017 |
| Replaces | Quicken, Mint | Mint, Wallet by BudgetBakers |
What are Money Manager Ex and MoneyWallet?
Money Manager Ex
Money Manager Ex is a free, open-source personal finance application. It tracks accounts, transactions, budgets, and investments in a simple desktop interface backed by an SQLite database.
- Account and budget tracking
- Investment management
- Reports and charts
- SQLite-backed database
MoneyWallet
MoneyWallet is an open-source Android app for managing personal finances. It records transactions across multiple wallets and currencies, and supports budgets, debts, recurring payments, and optional backup to cloud storage.
- Multi-wallet support
- Budgets and recurring transactions
- Debt tracking
- Backup to cloud storage
Money Manager Ex vs MoneyWallet: key differences
Money Manager Ex is written in C++, while MoneyWallet is built with Java. Licensing differs — GPL-2.0 for Money Manager Ex versus GPL-3.0 for MoneyWallet. Money Manager Ex is the more established project (first released 2005), while MoneyWallet arrived in 2017. Money Manager Ex has the considerably larger community, at 2,265 GitHub stars versus 635.
Why pick each one
Choose Money Manager Ex if…
- Simple and approachable
- Portable data file
Watch out for
- Desktop only
- No multi-user support
Choose MoneyWallet if…
- Works fully offline
- Material design interface
Watch out for
- Android only
- No web interface
Frequently asked questions
Is Money Manager Ex or MoneyWallet better?
Neither is universally better. Money Manager Ex has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Money Manager Ex and MoneyWallet free and open-source?
Yes. Money Manager Ex is licensed under GPL-2.0 and MoneyWallet under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Money Manager Ex and MoneyWallet with Docker?
Money Manager Ex: check the project docs for container support. MoneyWallet: check the project docs for container support.