Ghostfolio vs Lago
| Tagline | Wealth dashboard tracking stocks, ETFs, and crypto with privacy in mind | Open-source metering and usage-based billing API for SaaS products |
| Category | Finance & Budgeting | Finance & Budgeting |
| Replaces | Mint, YNAB | QuickBooks, Mint |
| GitHub stars | 8.8k | 10k |
| Language | Docker | 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 Kubernetes Manual |
| Managed hosting | ||
| Last updated | yesterday | 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.
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
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
Both are a similar lift to self-host; choose Lago for the larger community and ecosystem. Ghostfolio has seen more recent development. Open each guide below for deploy steps and the full feature gap.
Ghostfolio
Wealth dashboard tracking stocks, ETFs, and crypto with privacy in mind