Open-source alternative
Replace Expensify with Firefly III / Akaunting
The best open-source alternative to Expensify is Firefly III or Akaunting, self-hosted on Railway. Spending you host. Firefly III is AGPL-3.0 books; Akaunting is open-source accounting — Expensify without the report seat.
Estimated save $1,200 a year.
Open the stackStart on Railway
How Expensify compares
| Expensify | Firefly III / Akaunting | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Hosted subscription | Open-source or fair-code license; you pay the host |
| Hosting | Vendor cloud | Self-hosted on Railway or any VPS |
| Rough monthly cost | Public list price not verified this run | Hosting only — no SaaS seat meter in this repo |
- Firefly III
AGPL-3.0 personal and small-business finance
- Akaunting
Open-source accounting (already on the QuickBooks stack)
FAQ
- Is it free?
- The Firefly III / Akaunting licenses are open source or fair-code. You still pay hosting (Railway or any VPS) and any APIs the stack calls. There is no Expensify seat or task bill on this path.
- Can I migrate from Expensify?
- Yes. Start with the workflows or data you actually use, then cut over. The Firefly III / Akaunting stack page has the agent prompt and the cost table; most teams rebuild the slice that matters and leave old Expensify links until they expire.
- How do I deploy it?
- Open the Firefly III / Akaunting stack, copy the agent prompt, and deploy on Railway (one service, PORT, and a volume when the app needs disk). Placeholder: Firefly III + a database and a volume for attachments, or reuse Akaunting on /stacks/invoice-ninja-books. SMTP via Resend.
- What does this replace?
- Expensify. The published small-team estimate on this stack is $1,200 a year.
Related pages
Stack of the Week
Get one stack a week that replaces a SaaS bill.