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APIs · head to head

Formance vs Puppet

Formance logo

Formance

APIs

Open source double-entry ledger and payment orchestration for money-moving software

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Puppet logo

Puppet

Cloud

Infrastructure automation for enterprises

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: Formance formance holds no money and provides no regulatory cover, so it must be paired with a payments provider or bank, and buyers occasionally mistake a ledger for a treasury system and discover the gap late.; Puppet no pricing published for commercial tiers; requires contacting sales
  • They diverge on capability: Formance covers Double-entry ledger, Puppet covers Manifests.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Formance and Puppet actually diverge.

Attributes where Formance and Puppet differ
AttributeFormancePuppet
Pricing modelOpen source, no licence feequote
PlatformsLinux, Docker, Kubernetes, Web, APILinux, Windows, Mac, Api
CategoryAPIsCloud
FoundedUnknown2005

Identical on both: starting price (Free), free tier (Yes), user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Formance

  • Double-entry ledger
  • Numscript transaction DSL
  • Multi-currency
  • Payments connectivity
  • Reconciliation
  • Self-hosted deployment
  • Cloud offering
  • API and SDKs

Only in Puppet

  • Manifests
  • Modules
  • Classes
  • Variables
  • Facts
  • Puppet Master
  • Hiera
  • Facter

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Formance

  • A marketplace splitting a single customer payment between seller, platform fee and tax that needs the split to be atomic and auditablenot Puppet
  • A fintech whose homegrown balances table produced numbers finance could not reconcile and now needs proper double-entry before an auditnot Puppet
  • A payments team that wants one normalised model across several PSPs so reconciliation is not written separately for eachnot Puppet
  • A company that wants its ledger under a licence it can keep running even if the vendor disappearsnot Puppet

Puppet

  • Infrastructure automationnot Formance
  • Configuration managementnot Formance
  • DevOps at scalenot Formance
  • Enterprise infrastructurenot Formance

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Formance

  • Formance holds no money and provides no regulatory cover, so it must be paired with a payments provider or bank, and buyers occasionally mistake a ledger for a treasury system and discover the gap late.
  • Numscript is a domain-specific language your team must learn, and while it makes complex splits expressible it also means transaction logic sits outside the languages your engineers already debug well.
  • Self-hosting a ledger that must never lose or duplicate a transaction is a serious operational commitment covering backups, upgrades and Postgres tuning, which is real cost the zero licence fee hides.
  • Enterprise pricing is not published, so the difference between the free path and the supported path cannot be evaluated without a sales conversation.
  • The company is much smaller than the incumbent alternatives, and while the MIT licence protects the code it does not protect the roadmap, so features on the hosted side may arrive slowly or change direction.

Puppet

  • No pricing published for commercial tiers; requires contacting sales
  • Enterprise and Advanced tiers require custom quote
  • Free tier limited to 25 nodes maximum

Pricing, plan by plan

Formance

Free
  • Open SourceFree
    • MIT licensed core ledger
    • Numscript transaction DSL
    • Multi-currency tracking
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Managed or private deployment
    • Payments connectivity and reconciliation
    • Support with response commitments

Puppet

Free
  • DeveloperFree
    • Up to 25 nodes
  • Core Commercial$null/custom
    • 25+ nodes
    • Vendor-backed SLAs
    • Training with Certified Engineers
  • Enterprise$null/custom
    • Web GUI
    • RBAC
    • Multi-environment support
  • Advanced$null/custom
    • AI-powered features
    • Advanced patching
    • Vulnerability remediation

Which should you pick?

Choose Formance if

  • You need double-entry ledger.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Web, API.
  • You also want numscript transaction dsl.
Formance review

Choose Puppet if

  • You need manifests.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux, Windows, Mac, Api.
  • You also want modules.
Puppet review

Questions people ask

Is Formance or Puppet better?
Neither clearly leads. Formance starts at Free and Puppet at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Formance or Puppet?
Formance starts at Free and Puppet at Free.
Does Formance or Puppet run on more platforms?
Formance runs on Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Web, API. Puppet runs on Linux, Windows, Mac, Api.
Can I use Formance for free?
Both have a free tier, so you can try either at no cost before committing.
What is Formance best used for?
Formance is most often used for a marketplace splitting a single customer payment between seller, platform fee and tax that needs the split to be atomic and auditable, a fintech whose homegrown balances table produced numbers finance could not reconcile and now needs proper double-entry before an audit, a payments team that wants one normalised model across several psps so reconciliation is not written separately for each, a company that wants its ledger under a licence it can keep running even if the vendor disappears. Of those, a marketplace splitting a single customer payment between seller, platform fee and tax that needs the split to be atomic and auditable and a fintech whose homegrown balances table produced numbers finance could not reconcile and now needs proper double-entry before an audit are not what Puppet is typically brought in for.
What can Formance do that Puppet cannot?
Formance covers Double-entry ledger, Numscript transaction DSL, Multi-currency, Payments connectivity. Puppet covers Manifests, Modules, Classes, Variables.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Formance: Is Formance really open source?

Yes. The core ledger is MIT licensed with full source access and no deployment restrictions.

Puppet: How much does Puppet cost?

Puppet's Developer tier is free for up to 25 nodes. Commercial, Enterprise, and Advanced tiers require contacting their sales team for a custom quote.

Source
Formance: Does Formance move money?

No. It records and orchestrates movements; the actual payments happen at a PSP or bank you connect.

Puppet: Is there a free version of Puppet?

Yes, Puppet's Developer tier is free forever for up to 25 nodes of infrastructure.

Source
Formance: What does the enterprise version cost?

Not published. It is an annual subscription quoted per customer.

Puppet: What does the Enterprise tier include?

Puppet's Enterprise tier includes web GUI, RBAC, and multi-environment support for organizations managing infrastructure at scale, with pricing available upon request.

Source
Formance: Do I have to use Numscript?

Yes for anything beyond the simplest transfers. It is how multi-party transactions are expressed atomically.

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