head to head · open source
Firefly III vs Ghostfolio
Firefly III has 24,649 GitHub stars, 2,289 forks, 169 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Ghostfolio has 9,311 stars, 1,314 forks, 315 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Firefly III leads on adoption by 165% (24,649 vs 9,311 stars). Firefly III is written in PHP under AGPL-3.0; Ghostfolio is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. Firefly III has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, Ghostfolio 14%. Firefly III was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (finance), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Firefly III | Ghostfolio | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 9.3K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | PHP | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.3K | ⑂ 1.3K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Firefly III if
- You weight community size — 25K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Ghostfolio if
- You want the Ghostfolio feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Ghostfolio fits your workflow better
About Firefly III
Firefly III is an AGPL 3.0 licensed, self hosted personal finance manager written in PHP that uses double entry bookkeeping to track income, expenses, budgets, categories, tags and savings goals, and it is built for individuals and households who want to own and control their own financial data instead of renting a cloud accounting subscription.
read the full Firefly III overview →
About Ghostfolio
Ghostfolio is open source wealth management software built with web technology and released under the AGPL 3.0 license. It lives in the personal finance management ecosystem and uses TypeScript, Nx, Angular, NestJS, Prisma, PostgreSQL, and Redis. The project provides a self hostable application for tracking stocks, ETFs, and cryptocurrencies, while also offering a hosted Ghostfolio Premium cloud service.
read the full Ghostfolio overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Firefly III or Ghostfolio more popular?
Firefly III has 24,649 GitHub stars and Ghostfolio has 9,311. Firefly III has the larger community by that measure.
Are Firefly III and Ghostfolio free?
Both are open source. Firefly III is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Ghostfolio under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Firefly III and Ghostfolio?
Firefly III is written in PHP and Ghostfolio in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Firefly III or Ghostfolio?
Choose Firefly III if you want the larger community (24,649 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Ghostfolio if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.