Firefly IIIvs
Actual Budget
Actual Budget: If you want a lighter envelope-budgeting model with an optional paid hosted sync for less setup
Firefly III
Free, open source, self-hosted personal finance manager with double-entry style accounting
As of 1 September 2026, Firefly III is free to use. A self-hosted-only personal finance tool built for users who run their own server infrastructure. Softwr lists it under Personal Finance. Firefly III is made by Firefly III (open source project), available on Web, Linux, Self-hosted.
Overview
What Firefly III does
Firefly III is an open source web application for tracking income, expenses, transfers and budgets, built around a double-entry-influenced ledger rather than a pure envelope system. It supports multiple accounts and currencies, recurring transactions, bill tracking, rule-based auto-categorisation and reporting, and it is licensed under the AGPL with no paid tier of any kind from the core project. The defining fact against both Actual Budget and Lunch Money is that Firefly III is self-hosted only. There is no company selling a managed hosted version; you run it yourself via Docker or a manual install, on your own server, NAS or a cheap VPS, and third-party hosting providers offer paid Firefly III hosting independently of the project. That makes it the strictest data-ownership option of the three: nothing about your finances passes through infrastructure run by another company unless you choose to use a third-party host. Buyers are people already comfortable self-hosting other services, who want full control of their financial ledger and do not mind the setup overhead. The trade-off against Actual Budget is a steeper learning curve and a more accounting-literate interface, and against Lunch Money it is the complete absence of an easy managed option; if you do not want to run a server, Firefly III is not a realistic choice.
What people use it for
- A self-hoster already running a home server or NAS who wants their financial ledger on the same infrastructure
- Someone who wants double-entry style accuracy rather than simple envelope budgeting
- A privacy-focused user who refuses to put financial data on any third-party server, hosted or otherwise
- A developer who wants API access to build custom bank import scripts for accounts with no standard connector
Related searches
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Firefly III.
- There is no official managed hosting, so a non-technical user has no easy on-ramp the way Actual Budget offers with its paid hosted sync.
- The double-entry-influenced model is less intuitive for newcomers than simple envelope budgeting, and the learning curve is real.
- Automatic bank sync depends on the community-run importer and third-party connectors, and coverage and reliability vary a lot by bank and country.
- Mobile access is via a web interface rather than a polished native app, which is a step behind Actual Budget or Lunch Money on phones.
- Because there is no company behind it, security patching and feature development depend entirely on volunteer maintainer time.
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of Firefly III
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- Firefly IIIvsLunch Money
Lunch Money: If you want automatic bank sync and multi-currency tracking without running any server yourself
- Firefly IIIvsYNAB
YNAB: If you want a fully managed, supported product and are willing to pay a subscription for it
Pricing
What Firefly III costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Firefly III
Free
- Full functionality, self-hosted
- No usage limits
- Community support, donations accepted
Capabilities
Features
Double-entry style ledger
Every transaction recorded as a transfer between accounts, not just a category tag
Multi-currency accounts
Track balances and transactions in different currencies natively
Bill and subscription tracking
Recurring bills matched against actual transactions
Rule engine
Automated categorisation and tagging based on configurable rules
Reports and charts
Income, expense and net worth reporting built into the dashboard
API access
A documented API for building custom imports or integrations
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
Can I pay someone to host Firefly III for me?
Not through the core project; some third-party providers sell Firefly III hosting independently, but there is no official managed service.
Does it support multiple currencies?
Yes, natively, including accounts and transactions in different currencies.
Is it really free with no paid tier?
Yes, the software is free and open source under the AGPL; the project accepts donations but sells nothing.
Keep looking
Where to go from Firefly III
- Firefly III alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- Firefly III pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- Firefly III badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Personal Finance softwareThe full category
- Best Personal Finance softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best Personal Finance software for
Compare Firefly III with
- Actual Budget
- Lunch Money
- YNAB
- GnuCash
- Money Manager
- Wise
- Affirm
- Kraken
- Coinbase
- PayPal
- Monzo
- Revolut
- Banktivity
- Charles Schwab
- Copilot Money
- Credit Karma
- E*TRADE
- EveryDollar
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Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Firefly III, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
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