head to head · open source
Lago vs ExpenseOwl
Lago has 10,568 GitHub stars, 750 forks, 23 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ExpenseOwl has 1,510 stars, 151 forks, 58 open issues and last shipped 11 months ago. Lago leads on adoption by 600% (10,568 vs 1,510 stars). Lago is written in Go under AGPL-3.0; ExpenseOwl is written in HTML under MIT. Lago has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, ExpenseOwl 10%. Lago was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (go), 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
| Lago | ExpenseOwl | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 11K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | HTML |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2025-10-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 750 | ⑂ 151 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Lago if
- You weight community size — 11K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick ExpenseOwl if
- You want the ExpenseOwl feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches HTML
- You evaluated both and ExpenseOwl fits your workflow better
About Lago
Lago is an open source metering and usage based billing API written in Go under AGPL 3.0. It lives in the Business Software and Finance & Accounting ecosystem and sits between product usage and revenue. It turns events such as AI tokens, compute, API calls, seats, and custom events into billable metrics, pricing, credits, entitlements, invoices, and payments.
About ExpenseOwl
ExpenseOwl is self hosted expense tracker for personal finance. It lives in open source homelab and finance management ecosystem. It uses Go and HTML. It is MIT licensed. It ships as self contained binary and Docker container. It focuses on quick monthly look at expenses. It avoids accounts, budgeting, and other features found in broader finance trackers.
read the full ExpenseOwl overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Lago or ExpenseOwl more popular?
Lago has 10,568 GitHub stars and ExpenseOwl has 1,510. Lago has the larger community by that measure.
Are Lago and ExpenseOwl free?
Both are open source. Lago is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and ExpenseOwl under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Lago and ExpenseOwl?
Lago is written in Go and ExpenseOwl in HTML. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Lago or ExpenseOwl?
Choose Lago if you want the larger community (10,568 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose ExpenseOwl if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.