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 | 24k | 8.8k |
| 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 | yesterday |
| 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. Firefly III has seen more recent development. 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