Firefly III

Open source alternative to YNAB (You Need A Budget), Monarch Money, Simplifi by Quicken, Copilot Money and Quicken

25.1K stars
AGPL-3.0
Active this week
Last commit 1 day ago

Last verified Nov 4, 2026

Manage personal finances with self-hosted double-entry bookkeeping, rule-based automation, recurring transactions, and a full REST API. AGPL-3.0 licensed.

Visit website GitHub25.1K Deploy on Hostinger

Read the full breakdownWho it is for, how it works, trade-offs and the FAQ

who it's for

Who Firefly III is for#

Privacy-focused households tracking joint or personal finances

Firefly III keeps transaction data entirely on your own server. Households that handle medical expenses, sensitive income sources, or simply prefer not to share spending habits with a third party gain full data ownership without giving up budgeting structure.

Skip if:

If your household does not control a server or is not willing to run Docker, the self-hosting requirement will block initial setup. Cloud-first alternatives like Monarch Money are simpler to start.

Technically comfortable individuals replacing a paid subscription

Users paying for YNAB, Quicken, or Simplifi can migrate to Firefly III and eliminate the monthly or annual fee. The data importer accepts CSV exports from most banks, and the rule engine replicates the automatic categorization those paid tools provide.

Skip if:

If automatic bank sync is a hard requirement and no third-party connector exists for your bank, Firefly III will require manual CSV imports for every transaction. For users who want zero-touch import, a managed paid tool remains easier.

Home lab and self-hosting enthusiasts

Firefly III fits naturally into a self-hosted stack alongside tools like Nextcloud or Vaultwarden. It supports Docker and Kubernetes deployment, integrates with the broader self-hosting ecosystem through its REST API, and has community-built packages for Cloudron, YunoHost, and Softaculous.

Skip if:

If you are new to self-hosting and have no existing server infrastructure, Firefly III should not be your first project. Build familiarity with Docker and reverse proxies on a simpler service first.

Developers building personal finance automations

The full REST JSON API covers every Firefly III object: accounts, transactions, budgets, categories, rules, and piggy banks. Developers can write scripts that create transactions from bank email alerts, sync with spreadsheets, or trigger notifications from home automation tools.

Skip if:

If you want off-the-shelf automation with no code required, Firefly III's API requires you to build or find the connector yourself. YNAB has a larger existing ecosystem of third-party apps built on its API.

the problem

The problem it solves#

Most budgeting apps require you to link bank accounts and store transaction data on their servers. That creates a dependency: if the service raises prices, changes terms, or shuts down, you lose access to years of financial history and have no clean export path.

The practical pain is data portability. A household that has tracked spending in YNAB or Quicken for three years cannot easily move that history to another tool. Subscription costs accumulate while the data stays locked in a proprietary format on a third-party server. Users who want to track finances without cloud exposure, or who need a self-hosted option for privacy reasons, have few viable paths between maintaining a spreadsheet and paying a subscription.

how Firefly III solves it

How it solves it#

Double-entry bookkeeping

Every transaction records a source account and a destination account. This model ensures that money moving out of one account always appears in another, producing accurate balance sheets across all asset, liability, expense, and revenue accounts without rounding errors or orphaned entries.

Rule-based transaction handling

Incoming transactions can be matched against user-defined rules that apply categories, tags, budgets, or notes automatically. Rules fire on amount, description, account, or currency, reducing the manual work of categorizing recurring expenses like subscriptions or groceries.

Recurring transaction templates

Bills, paydays, and regular transfers can be defined as recurring entries that Firefly III creates on a schedule: daily, weekly, monthly, or annually. The upcoming-transactions view shows what is due, so account balances reflect expected future activity and nothing gets missed.

Budget management with piggy banks

Budgets can be assigned monthly spending caps and tracked against actual expenses. The overview shows available, spent, and over-budget amounts. Piggy banks handle savings goals with a target amount and optional deadline, letting households ring-fence funds for specific purchases.

Income and expense reports

Built-in reports cover income by category, expenses by budget, cash flow by month, and account balance over time. Reports can be scoped to any date range and filtered by account or category, so reviewing a full year or a single month requires no configuration change.

Full REST JSON API

Every object in Firefly III (accounts, transactions, budgets, categories, rules) is accessible through a REST API that returns JSON. Third-party apps and home automation tools can read and write transactions programmatically without touching the web interface.

strengths · trade-offs

Strengths and trade-offs#

Strengths

No cloud dependencyFirefly III contacts no external servers unless explicitly configured to do so. Financial data stays on your host, isolated from third-party breaches, vendor shutdowns, and pricing changes. For households with privacy requirements or restricted networks, this is the defining advantage over YNAB or Monarch Money.
AGPL-3.0 license with no subscription costRunning Firefly III on your own server costs nothing beyond the infrastructure. The AGPL-3.0 license makes the source auditable and prevents retroactive relicensing. The paid alternatives it replaces (YNAB, Monarch Money, Simplifi by Quicken, Copilot Money, Quicken) all charge monthly or annual subscription fees.
Active development since 2014The project has been in continuous development since 2014 and reached over 25,000 GitHub stars, with the last code push in November 2026. Longevity and consistent maintenance matter more for a finance app than for most categories, since users build years of transaction history they cannot afford to migrate.
Third-party ecosystem built on the REST APIThe Firefly III REST API has generated a community ecosystem: a dedicated data importer handles bank CSV files, and community-built mobile apps and automation connectors extend the web interface. The official documentation lists verified third-party tools and integrations.

Trade-offs

-Requires self-hosting and technical setupFirefly III has no managed cloud version. Setting it up means provisioning a PHP server or running Docker with a database backend. For non-technical users, even with detailed documentation, the initial configuration takes more than a few minutes and requires some familiarity with servers or containers.
-No native bank syncFirefly III does not connect to bank APIs. Importing transactions requires a manual CSV export from your bank or a third-party sync connector. This adds friction compared to YNAB or Monarch Money, which pull transactions automatically and categorize them on arrival.
-188 open issuesThe repository carries 188 open issues (pull requests excluded, read from the GitHub API). Most are feature requests or edge-case bugs, but it is worth reviewing the open issue list for your specific use case before committing years of financial history to the tool.
-Per-deployment maintenance responsibilityUpdates, database migrations, and configuration changes are the owner's responsibility. Cloud users of YNAB or Copilot Money have zero maintenance overhead. A self-hosted Firefly III install requires periodic attention to stay current and to manage backups.

versus alternatives

Firefly III vs alternatives#

Firefly III vs YNAB

YNAB (You Need A Budget) and Firefly III both center on budget-based expense tracking, but they represent opposite deployment models. YNAB is a managed subscription service with native bank sync; Firefly III runs on your own server with no ongoing fees.

Feature	Firefly III	YNAB
License	AGPL-3.0	Proprietary
Self-hosting	Yes	No
Bank sync	Via third-party connectors	Native
Pricing	Free (self-hosted)	Paid subscription
Mobile app	Community third-party	Official iOS and Android

Firefly III is the better choice when data ownership and zero ongoing cost matter more than setup convenience. YNAB's native bank sync and official mobile apps make it faster to start and easier to maintain for non-technical users.

Firefly III vs Monarch Money

Monarch Money is a cloud-only budgeting service that emphasizes household and partner financial visibility. Like YNAB, it connects to bank accounts automatically and requires no server administration.

Feature	Firefly III	Monarch Money
License	AGPL-3.0	Proprietary
Self-hosting	Yes	No
Bank sync	Via third-party	Native
Pricing	Free (self-hosted)	Paid subscription
Multi-user support	Yes	Yes

Firefly III handles multi-user household budgets through shared account access, but without the purpose-built partner views Monarch Money provides. For households already comfortable with self-hosting, Firefly III cuts the subscription cost entirely.

Firefly III vs Quicken

Quicken is a paid personal finance application with a long history in the category. The two tools differ primarily on deployment model and cost structure.

Feature	Firefly III	Quicken
License	AGPL-3.0	Proprietary
Deployment	Self-hosted web	Paid application
Pricing	Free (self-hosted)	Annual subscription
Self-hosting	Yes	No

Firefly III covers the core budgeting and expense-tracking use cases Quicken addresses but runs on your own server at no ongoing cost. Quicken suits users who want a managed desktop or mobile experience without server administration responsibility.

tech stack · detected from GitHub

What it's built on#

Languages: JavaScriptPHP
Infrastructure: Docker

frequently asked

FAQ#

Is Firefly III free to use?

Yes. Firefly III is free to self-host under the AGPL-3.0 license, with no subscription, usage fee, or premium tier. You pay only for the server it runs on, which can be a low-cost VPS or a home machine. Paid managed hosting options like PikaPods and Hostinger also exist for a convenience-first install.

What is the difference between Firefly III and YNAB?

YNAB is a managed cloud service that syncs bank accounts automatically and charges a monthly fee. Firefly III is self-hosted and free, but requires manual or CSV-based transaction import. YNAB offers a polished official mobile app and automatic categorization; Firefly III gives you full data ownership, no recurring cost, and a REST API for custom automation.

Can I import my existing transaction history into Firefly III?

Yes. A companion data importer tool is available for loading bank CSV exports and other common financial formats. You run the importer once to migrate historical data and can then continue with manual entry or third-party bank sync connectors. The importer is a separate tool documented on the Firefly III documentation site.

Does Firefly III have a mobile app?

No official mobile app exists. The web interface is accessible from a mobile browser, and several community-built mobile apps connect to the Firefly III REST API. These are third-party projects; a list of verified integrations is available in the official documentation.

What technical requirements does self-hosting Firefly III involve?

Firefly III requires either a PHP web server with a MySQL or PostgreSQL database, or a Docker environment. The project recommends Docker for most home users. Basic server administration knowledge is helpful: you will need to manage updates, backups, and configuration changes yourself. The official documentation covers self-managed and Docker installation paths in detail.

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