Self-Host Your Personal Finance Manager in 5 Minutes with Docker

SaaS finance apps know your salary, your spending, your net worth, and where you invest. That data is product for them. If you'd rather keep it on your own hardware, Open Finance gives you a full-featured personal finance dashboard you deploy with one Docker command.

Here's how to go from zero to tracking your finances in 5 minutes.

Prerequisites

Docker and Docker Compose
Any Linux server, NAS, or your laptop
5 minutes

Step 1: Clone and Deploy

git clone https://github.com/albilu/open-finance.git
cd open-finance
cp .env.example .env
docker compose up -d

Open http://localhost:3000. You're looking at your dashboard.

The .env uses SQLite by default — zero config. You can swap for PostgreSQL later, but SQLite is fine for personal use.

Step 2: Set Up Your Accounts

Open Finance tracks everything in one place:

Assets:

Bank accounts (checking, savings)
Investments (stocks, ETFs, crypto)
Real estate (property value, mortgages, equity)
Cash

Liabilities:

Credit cards
Loans
Mortgages

Go to Accounts → Add Account, pick a type and currency.

Step 3: Import Existing Transactions

Open Finance imports:

QIF — from GnuCash, Quicken, MS Money
OFX — from most banks
CSV — manual spreadsheets

Go to Transactions → Import, map your columns, done. Auto-categorization learns after the first few tags.

Step 4: Explore the Dashboards

This is where Open Finance pulls ahead of GnuCash and HomeBank:

Net Worth — assets minus liabilities, charted over time
Spending — categorized breakdown with drill-down
Investments — portfolio allocation and performance
Real Estate — property trends, mortgage amortization
Cash Flow — income vs expenses, month by month

Step 5: AI Assistant (Optional)

Ask natural language questions about your finances:

"How much did I spend on groceries last month?"
"What's my net worth trend over the last year?"
"Show me my top 5 expense categories"

Enable in Settings → AI Assistant. Runs locally — only queries your database.

Beyond the Basics

File Attachments — attach receipts and contracts to transactions

Multi-Currency — each account in its own currency, exchange rates auto-fetched

Financial News — filtered to your holdings, no ads, no tracking

Undo/Redo/Backup — every change tracked, one-click database backup

Bilingual EN/FR — switch in Settings

How It Compares

Feature	Open Finance	Firefly III	GnuCash	Finary
Self-hosted	✅	✅	✅	❌
Modern UI	✅	✅	⚠️	✅
Real estate	✅	⚠️	⚠️	✅
AI assistant	✅	❌	❌	❌
Financial news	✅	❌	❌	❌
Docker deploy	✅	✅	❌	❌
QIF/OFX import	✅	✅	✅	❌
File attachments	✅	✅	✅	❌