SHSelfHostIndex

Money Manager Ex vs Skrooge

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?
MO Money Manager Ex Free cross-platform personal finance manager VS SK Skrooge Personal finance manager for the KDE desktop
FeatureMoney Manager ExSkrooge
Deploy effortRead-the-docs projectRead-the-docs project
CategoryBudgeting & FinanceBudgeting & Finance
LicenseGPL-2.0GPL-3.0
LanguageC++C++
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM128 MB256 MB
Deploymentbare-metal, sourcebinary, bare-metal
GitHub stars★ 2,265★ 200
First released20052009
ReplacesQuicken, MintQuicken

What are Money Manager Ex and Skrooge?

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

Read the full Money Manager Ex guide →

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

Money Manager Ex vs Skrooge: key differences

Both projects are written in C++. Licensing differs — GPL-2.0 for Money Manager Ex versus GPL-3.0 for Skrooge. Money Manager Ex is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Skrooge. Money Manager Ex is the more established project (first released 2005), while Skrooge arrived in 2009. Money Manager Ex has the considerably larger community, at 2,265 GitHub stars versus 200.

Why pick each one

Choose Money Manager Ex if…

  • Simple and approachable
  • Portable data file

Watch out for

  • Desktop only
  • No multi-user support
Money Manager Ex details

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
Skrooge details

Frequently asked questions

Is Money Manager Ex or Skrooge 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 Skrooge free and open-source?

Yes. Money Manager Ex is licensed under GPL-2.0 and Skrooge under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Money Manager Ex and Skrooge with Docker?

Money Manager Ex: check the project docs for container support. Skrooge: check the project docs for container support.

Which is lighter on resources, Money Manager Ex or Skrooge?

Money Manager Ex has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Skrooge. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.

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