Paisa 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?
Paisa
Personal finance manager on plain-text accounting
VS
Beancount
Double-entry bookkeeping in plain text with a query language
| Feature | Paisa | Beancount |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Budgeting & Finance | Budgeting & Finance |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Language | TypeScript | Python |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Hard |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker, binary, source | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 3,190 | ★ 5,881 |
| First released | 2022 | 2008 |
| Replaces | Mint, 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 Paisa or Beancount better?
Neither is universally better. Beancount has the larger community, while Paisa is simpler to set up (medium difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Paisa and Beancount free and open-source?
Yes. Paisa is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Beancount under GPL-2.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Paisa and Beancount with Docker?
Paisa: yes. Beancount: check the project docs for container support.