head to head · open source
Actual vs YAFFA
Actual has 29,923 GitHub stars, 3,242 forks, 252 open issues and last shipped yesterday. YAFFA has 114 stars, 11 forks, 12 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Actual leads on adoption by 26,148% (29,923 vs 114 stars). Actual is written in TypeScript under MIT; YAFFA is written in PHP under MIT. Actual has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, YAFFA 10%. Actual was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Actual | YAFFA | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 30K | ★ 114 |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | TypeScript | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.2K | ⑂ 11 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Actual if
- You weight community size — 30K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick YAFFA if
- You want the YAFFA feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and YAFFA fits your workflow better
About Actual
Getting Started Actual is a local first personal finance tool. It is 100% free and open source, written in NodeJS, it has a synchronization element so that all your changes can move between devices without any heavy lifting. If you are interested in contributing, or want to know how development works, see our contributing document we would love to have you. Want to say thanks? Click the ⭐ at the top of the page. Key Links Actual discord community. Actual Community Documentation Frequently asked questions Installation There are four ways to deploy Actual: 1. One click deployment via PikaPods ( 2.00 $/month)…
read the full Actual overview →
About YAFFA
Yet Another Free Financial Application (YAFFA 🍊) About Yaffa Yaffa is a personal finance web application, focusing on the support of long term financial planning. Yaffa is a self hosted web application, written in PHP, using Laravel framework. By hosting your own app instance, your financial data is not uploaded to the cloud, and shared with any third parties. Read more about YAFFA at Key features Support multiple currencies. There is a default currency, which is used on dashboards and charts. Currency rates are automatically updated daily. YAFFA utilizes the free Frankfurter service, requiring no API key or…
read the full YAFFA overview →
More in Productivity & Utilities
Related comparisons
More Personal Finance Management projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Personal Finance Management field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Actual or YAFFA more popular?
Actual has 29,923 GitHub stars and YAFFA has 114. Actual has the larger community by that measure.
Are Actual and YAFFA free?
Both are open source. Actual is licensed under MIT and YAFFA under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Actual and YAFFA?
Actual is written in TypeScript and YAFFA in PHP. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Actual or YAFFA?
Choose Actual if you want the larger community (29,923 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose YAFFA if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.