Firefly III vs Ghostfolio
| Tagline | Self-hosted personal finance manager with budgets, rules, and bank import | Wealth dashboard tracking stocks, ETFs, and crypto with privacy in mind |
| Category | Finance & Budgeting | Finance & Budgeting |
| Replaces | Mint, YNAB, QuickBooks | Mint, YNAB |
| GitHub stars | 25k | 9.3k |
| Language | PHP | Docker |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Self-host difficulty | 3/5 Moderate | 3/5 Moderate |
| Deploy options | Docker Docker Compose Manual | Docker Docker Compose Manual |
| Managed hosting | ||
| Last updated | today | today |
| View repo | View repo |
Where each falls short
The honest trade-offs — what you give up with each, versus the proprietary tools they replace.
Firefly III
- Bank import requires a separate importer container and CSV/OFX manipulation; no one-click bank sync
- UI can feel complex and verbose for casual users compared to Mint's simplicity
- No built-in mobile app; third-party apps exist but vary in quality
- Investment and brokerage account tracking is limited compared to dedicated wealth tools
Ghostfolio
- No budgeting or expense tracking; purely an investment portfolio tool
- Market data depends on free Yahoo Finance tier, which can be rate-limited or return stale data
- Tax-lot accounting and tax reporting are limited; not a replacement for dedicated tax software
- Import from brokers is manual (CSV) unless you write a custom scraper
Bottom line
Both are a similar lift to self-host; choose Firefly III for the larger community and ecosystem. Open each guide below for deploy steps and the full feature gap.
Firefly III
Self-hosted personal finance manager with budgets, rules, and bank import
Ghostfolio
Wealth dashboard tracking stocks, ETFs, and crypto with privacy in mind