14 Best Open Source Personal Finance Tools in 2026

Actual is the open source budgeting app we suggest to most people. It uses envelope budgeting (also called zero-based budgeting): every bit of income gets assigned to a category, and you move money between categories when plans change. If you have used YNAB, it will feel familiar, and it is fast even with years of history.

You can use it three ways: the free desktop app for Windows, Mac and Linux, the browser app (data stays in your browser), or a self-hosted server that syncs between devices with optional end-to-end encryption. There is no official phone app, but the web version installs on your phone and works offline. Version 26.10.0 shipped on October 2, 2026, and 2026 releases added a command-line tool, Enable Banking sync for Europe, and a retirement forecast report.

Bank sync works through SimpleFIN in the US and Canada, Enable Banking in Europe, Pluggy in Brazil and Akahu in New Zealand. Everyone else imports OFX, QIF or CSV files from their bank.

Firefly III is a self-hosted web app for people who want to see exactly where their money goes. It uses double-entry bookkeeping under the hood (every transaction moves money from one account to another), but you do not need to know accounting to use it. Budgets, bills, savings goals ("piggy banks"), tags and a strong rules engine that sorts transactions for you are all built in.

Bank data comes in through a separate Data Importer. It supports CSV files plus connections such as SimpleFIN and Teller in the US, Enable Banking in Europe, FinTS in Germany and Basiq in Australia. Version 6.7, released in September 2026, brought a refreshed layout and new transaction forms; 6.7.8 landed on October 10, 2026. There is no official phone app, but the community app Waterfly III works well on Android.

If you already run a home server, Firefly III fits right next to the apps in our home lab projects guide.

Maybe Finance was a well-funded, good-looking personal finance app that went open source and then stopped development in July 2025. "Maybe" is a trademark, so the community continued it as Sure. It is a modern dashboard for net worth, accounts, transactions, budgets and investments, with a long list of bank and broker connections, including Plaid, SimpleFIN, Enable Banking, Wise and several crypto exchanges.

Sure is young and moving fast (version 0.7.5 shipped on September 30, 2026), so expect some rough edges. Self-hosting is free; there is no paid hosted plan yet.

Budget Board is a simpler self-hosted app built to feel like Mint: monthly category budgets, savings goals, and a clear spending trend view. It syncs banks through SimpleFIN (US and Canada) or Lunch Flow (a paid service covering many countries), and it can auto-categorise transactions. Version 3.8.2 shipped on September 26, 2026.

GnuCash has been around for over 25 years and is still the most complete free accounting program for a home or a small business. It does true double-entry bookkeeping, which keeps your books balanced and catches mistakes. It handles bank accounts, credit cards, loans, stocks, mutual funds and multiple currencies, and it has invoicing and payroll basics for freelancers.

It looks dated and the learning curve is real, but nothing free matches its depth. It imports OFX, QIF and CSV, and German users get direct bank connections through FinTS. Version 5.17 shipped on September 26, 2026.

KMyMoney is double-entry accounting made friendlier for households. It looks and works like Quicken, with budgets, scheduled bills, loans, investments and reports, and it can import GnuCash files if you want to switch. Bank connections work through OFX and FinTS where your bank supports them. Version 5.2.2 shipped on February 22, 2026.

HomeBank is the easiest desktop app here. Import your bank statements (OFX, QIF or CSV), let its rules assign categories, and get clear charts of where your money went. It has budgets, scheduled transactions and vehicle cost tracking, without the accounting jargon. Version 5.10.3 shipped on September 14, 2026. There is no official Mac installer; Mac users install it through Homebrew or MacPorts.

Money Manager Ex (MMEX) is one of the few tools here with a real phone app. The desktop app (version 1.9.4, August 31, 2026) handles accounts, budgets, bills, stocks and reports. The Android app reads the same database file, so you can log a cash expense on your phone and see it on your PC by keeping the file in a cloud folder you already use.

There are no ads and no account. There is also no bank sync, so you import statements or type entries by hand.

Beancount reads your text ledger and checks that every transaction balances. Fava is its web interface: run it on your computer and you get balance sheets, income statements, charts, budgets and a search box in your browser. Install both with pip install beancount fava. Beancount 3.2.3 and Fava 1.30.16 are the current releases.

Importers that turn bank CSV files into ledger entries are available, so the daily work is mostly running an import and reviewing it.

hledger is a fast, well-documented plain-text accounting tool with a command line, a terminal interface and a simple web view. Its CSV rules make bank imports repeatable, and its reports are excellent. Version 1.52.4 is the current stable release, with hledger 2.0 in preview. If you are new to plain-text accounting, hledger's own guides are the friendliest place to start. (Ledger, the original tool in this style, is still updated too, under the BSD licence.)

Paisa is a dashboard built on plain-text accounting, made with Indian users in mind. It works in rupees and tracks prices for mutual funds, NPS funds and stocks, so you can see your real investment returns next to your spending and budgets. It has a desktop app, so you do not need a server, and it imports bank statements from CSV, Excel and PDF using templates.

Version 0.7.6 shipped on September 6, 2026. Updates come in bursts rather than on a fixed schedule, so check the release notes before relying on a new feature.

Ghostfolio tracks stocks, ETFs, crypto and other assets across all your brokers in one place. It shows performance over time, allocation by asset class and region, dividends, and a "FIRE" view for early retirement planning. You add trades by hand or import broker CSV files; it does not connect to bank accounts.

Self-hosting with Docker is free. If you would rather not run it, Ghostfolio Premium is the official hosted version at $48 a year. It updates almost daily; version 3.83.0 shipped on October 10, 2026.

Wealthfolio is a good-looking desktop app that keeps your portfolio data on your own computer. Version 3, released in February 2026, added net worth, budgets, goals and a mobile app on top of its investment tracking. Version 3.9.1 shipped on September 27, 2026.

The app is free. An optional paid add-on, Wealthfolio Connect, adds encrypted device sync from $2.99 a month and brokerage account sync from $7.99 a month. It is a hosted service, so skip it if you want everything local.

Portfolio Performance is a desktop app that calculates your true returns (time-weighted and money-weighted rates of return) across accounts, including fees, taxes and dividends. It is especially popular in Germany and Austria because it imports PDF statements from many European brokers. Version 0.88.0 shipped on October 4, 2026.

GnuCash and plain-text ledgers are powerful, but they ask a lot. If your goal is "stop overspending each month", start with Actual Budget or HomeBank. You can move to double-entry later.

A self-hosted finance app on a home server holds years of records. Back up its database on a schedule and test a restore once. Our Proxmox VE guide covers snapshots and backups if you run your apps in virtual machines.

Do not open a port on your router so you can reach Firefly III or Actual from outside. Use a private network tool such as Tailscale, or keep it reachable only at home. Your bank history is exactly what attackers want.

Importing ten years of statements before you have set up categories and rules creates a mess. Start with the last two or three months, get your rules right, then add older history if you need it.