ezbookkeeping vs Lago
| Tagline | Lightweight self-hosted personal bookkeeping app with multi-currency support | Open-source metering and usage-based billing API for SaaS products |
| Category | Finance & Budgeting | Finance & Budgeting |
| Replaces | Mint, YNAB | QuickBooks, Mint |
| GitHub stars | 5.1k | 10k |
| Language | Go | Docker |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Self-host difficulty | 2/5 Easy | 3/5 Moderate |
| Deploy options | Docker Manual | Docker Docker Compose Kubernetes Manual |
| Managed hosting | ||
| Last updated | 2 days ago | 7 days ago |
| View repo | View repo |
Where each falls short
The honest trade-offs — what you give up with each, versus the proprietary tools they replace.
ezbookkeeping
- No automatic bank/account import; transactions must be entered or imported via CSV
- Budgeting is basic; no envelope or zero-based budgeting like YNAB
- No bill reminders or subscription tracking
- Reporting is limited to basic charts; no advanced financial planning features
Lago
- Developer-oriented billing API, not a personal finance or budgeting tool for end-users
- No AR/AP or general-ledger accounting; revenue recognition requires integration with an ERP
- Tax calculation engine is basic; real-world tax compliance needs third-party integration (e.g. Avalara)
- Dunning workflows and payment retries are less mature than Chargebee or Stripe Billing
Bottom line
Choose ezbookkeeping if you want the lower-effort setup; choose Lago for the larger community and ecosystem. ezbookkeeping has seen more recent development. Open each guide below for deploy steps and the full feature gap.
ezbookkeeping
Lightweight self-hosted personal bookkeeping app with multi-currency support