head to head · open source
Firefly III vs Monetr
Firefly III has 24,649 GitHub stars, 2,289 forks, 169 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Monetr has 677 stars, 49 forks, 88 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Firefly III leads on adoption by 3,541% (24,649 vs 677 stars). Firefly III is written in PHP under AGPL-3.0; Monetr is written in Go under a custom or non-standard licence. Firefly III has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, Monetr 7%. Monetr 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.
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Side by side
| Firefly III | Monetr | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 25K | ★ 677 |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | PHP | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.3K | ⑂ 49 |
| 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 Monetr if
- You want the Monetr feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and Monetr 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 Monetr
monetr is a free, self hostable budgeting application written in Go that helps people plan around recurring expenses and see exactly how much money is left over for unplanned spending.
read the full Monetr overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Firefly III or Monetr more popular?
Firefly III has 24,649 GitHub stars and Monetr has 677. Firefly III has the larger community by that measure.
Are Firefly III and Monetr free?
Both are open source. Firefly III is licensed under AGPL-3.0, and Monetr has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Firefly III and Monetr?
Firefly III is written in PHP and Monetr in Go. 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 Monetr?
Choose Firefly III if you want the larger community (24,649 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Monetr if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.