Replace / YNAB
Best free YNAB alternatives (open source, self-hosted) 2026
The best open-source alternative to YNAB is Actual Budget or Firefly III, self-hosted on Railway. A budget you host. Actual Budget is MIT envelope budgeting; Firefly III is AGPL-3.0 books — YNAB and Mint without the subscription.
Estimated save $1,200 a year.
Open the stackStart on Railway
How YNAB compares
| YNAB | Actual Budget / Firefly III | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Hosted subscription | Open-source or fair-code license; you pay the host |
| Hosting | Vendor cloud | Self-hosted on Railway or any VPS |
| Rough monthly cost | Public list price not verified this run | Hosting only — no SaaS seat meter in this repo |
- Actual Budget
MIT local-first envelope budget you can self-host
- Firefly III
AGPL-3.0 personal finance ledger if you want books, not envelopes
FAQ
- What is the best free open-source YNAB alternative?
- The best open-source alternative to YNAB is Actual Budget or Firefly III, self-hosted on Railway. A budget you host. Actual Budget is MIT envelope budgeting; Firefly III is AGPL-3.0 books — YNAB and Mint without the subscription.
- Is it free?
- The Actual Budget / Firefly III licenses are open source or fair-code. You still pay hosting (Railway or any VPS) and any APIs the stack calls. There is no YNAB seat or task bill on this path.
- Can I migrate from YNAB?
- Yes. Start with the workflows or data you actually use, then cut over. The Actual Budget / Firefly III stack page has the agent prompt and the cost table; most teams rebuild the slice that matters and leave old YNAB links until they expire.
- How do I deploy it?
- Open the Actual Budget / Firefly III stack, copy the agent prompt, and deploy on Railway (one service, PORT, and a volume when the app needs disk). Placeholder: Actual Budget server + a volume, or Firefly III + a database. Bind HTTP to 0.0.0.0:$PORT. No one-click template in this repo yet — Start on Railway. Expense reports stay on /stacks/firefly-expenses.
- What does this replace?
- YNAB / Mint. The published small-team estimate on this stack is $1,200 a year.
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