Count Your Coins Like a Pro: 4 Self-Hosted Budgeting Apps to Rule Your Wallet
Let’s be honest — budgeting sounds about as exciting as watching paint dry on a beige wall. But you know what’s even less exciting? Opening your banking app and realizing you accidentally spent your rent money on kebabs, concert tickets, and “impulse” tech gadgets.
The solution? Self-hosted financial software that gives you full control over your budgeting, spending, and privacy — with zero ads, zero data leaks, and 100% sysadmin-style satisfaction. And lucky for you, we’ve got just the shortlist.
Here are four awesome open-source personal finance and budgeting tools that you can host yourself on an
ITLDC VDS or dedicated server — because your money deserves its own private server, too.
Firefly III — The Heavyweight Champ of DIY Budgeting
If spreadsheets were rockstars, Firefly III would be Iron Maiden. It’s big, powerful, feature-packed, and it just works.
- Full budget control, tags, charts, bank statement imports, automatic transaction rules
- Clean UI, works great on mobile (and dark mode, of course!)
- Uses PHP + Laravel with MySQL/PostgreSQL under the hood
- Self-host with Docker in minutes
If you want the most mature and powerful solution — this is the one to install. Works great on a small
NVMe VDS — even if your wallet is as fat as Jeff Bezos’s and needs high-availability clustering.
Actual Budget — Sleek, Simple, and Surprisingly Addictive
This one’s for fans of YNAB-style budgeting — the kind where every euro gets a job and your future self sends you thank-you notes.
- Beautiful React interface, works great in mobile browsers
- No native apps, but you won’t miss them
- Built with JavaScript (Node + Electron) and self-hostable via Docker or manual install
- Perfect for those who want to stay financially healthy and design-conscious
Actual Budget is basically what would happen if minimalism and budgeting had a love child. It looks good, runs fast, and won’t yell at you when you buy another Raspberry Pi.
Kresus — The Privacy Geek’s Wallet Whisperer
🔗 kresus.org / GitHub
Not into spreadsheets? Hate exporting CSVs? Dreaming of automation and bank API magic? Enter Kresus.
- Fully self-hosted, Node.js + MongoDB stack
- Automatically imports transactions from EU banks (via Weboob — we didn’t name it)
- Clean, responsive UI that works well on mobile
- Ideal for privacy enthusiasts and people who say “I trust no one but my RAID array”
Set it up on a
VDS in your favorite ITLDC location (did we mention we’ve got 19 datacenters?) and sleep well knowing nobody’s monetizing your snack purchases.
Budget Zero — Simplicity Without Sacrifice
🔗 GitHub
Last but not least, here’s Budget Zero. It’s an open-source love letter to simplicity and clarity.
- Clean, Vue.js-based UI, fast and friendly
- YNAB-style budgeting without bloat
- No mobile apps, but the web UI is built mobile-first
- Node.js backend, easy Docker deployment
This one’s great if you just want to manage your monthly expenses without getting lost in the weeds. Think “clean budget with clean code” — your accountant would approve.
Sysadmin’s Reminder: Keep It Backed Up and RAID-ed
Whatever system you choose — do not store your financial data on a potato.
Deploy it on a proper ITLDC server with NVMe or SSD, protected by RAID. All our VDS nodes use RAID under the hood, and every
dedicated server we deploy comes with at least two drives for redundancy. Your money matters — treat it like your crown jewels.
In Conclusion
Money doesn’t grow on trees, but it can be managed with style — on your own terms.
Whether you want full control, rock-solid privacy, or just a slick interface to track your pizza spending — these self-hosted tools have you covered.
Get yourself a nice little
VDS, spin up Firefly or Actual Budget, and take back control of your cash.
Because honestly — who wants to budget on someone else’s server?