Pretzel Finance vs Beancount
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?
Pretzel Finance
Self-hosted stock and crypto portfolio tracker
VS
Beancount
Double-entry bookkeeping in plain text with a query language
| Feature | Pretzel Finance | Beancount |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Budgeting & Finance | Budgeting & Finance |
| License | EPL-1.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | Java | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, source | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 4,006 | ★ 5,881 |
| First released | 2012 | 2008 |
| Replaces | Sharesight, Personal Capital | QuickBooks, Xero |
Why pick each one
Choose Beancount if…
- Released under the GPL-2.0 license
- Mature project with 5.9k GitHub stars
- Written in Python
- Tiny footprint — runs in 128 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Pretzel Finance or Beancount better?
Neither is universally better. Beancount has the larger community, while Pretzel Finance is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Pretzel Finance and Beancount free and open-source?
Yes. Pretzel Finance is licensed under EPL-1.0 and Beancount under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Pretzel Finance and Beancount with Docker?
Pretzel Finance: check the project docs for container support. Beancount: check the project docs for container support.