head to head · open source
Lago vs Expensify
Lago has 10,568 GitHub stars, 750 forks, 23 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Expensify has 5,025 stars, 4,010 forks, 2,252 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Lago leads on adoption by 110% (10,568 vs 5,025 stars). Lago is written in Go under AGPL-3.0; Expensify is written in TypeScript under MIT. Lago has attracted 7% as many forks as stars, Expensify 80%. Expensify 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
| Lago | Expensify | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 11K | ★ 5.0K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Go | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 750 | ⑂ 4.0K |
| 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 Expensify if
- You want the Expensify feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Expensify 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 Expensify
Expensify (New Expensify) is a chat centered financial collaboration application built in TypeScript and published under the MIT license, aimed at developers and contributors who build and extend expense management workflows across web, iOS, and Android.
read the full Expensify overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Lago or Expensify more popular?
Lago has 10,568 GitHub stars and Expensify has 5,025. Lago has the larger community by that measure.
Are Lago and Expensify free?
Both are open source. Lago is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Expensify under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Lago and Expensify?
Lago is written in Go and Expensify 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, Lago or Expensify?
Choose Lago if you want the larger community (10,568 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Expensify if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.