Firefly III is the benchmark for keeping your finances on your own hardware and your books in strict double-entry. 2Fin runs on your machine too — but it arrives as an app rather than a server you administer, and it categorises for you instead of waiting for you to write every rule first.
Built differently where it counts — here is how.
Firefly III keeps your data private by making you host it: Docker, a database, updates, backups, a proxy. 2Fin desktop puts the same data on the same machine and asks none of that — it takes a checked copy of your records daily, keeps about a month of them beside your data, and restores from one by itself if the file is ever damaged. An outbound record inside the app lists every request that left, so it is a claim you check rather than take on trust.
Firefly III categorises what its rules tell it to, which means a blank slate until you have written them. 2Fin categorises immediately and learns from every correction — and still gives you a rule engine underneath for what you want pinned exactly.
Firefly III tracks where money went. 2Fin also works out what it means at tax time, in whichever country you file — GST, VAT and BAS treatment, deductions surfaced through the year, and filing exports. 2Fin helps you find and organise potential deductions; always confirm eligibility with your accountant or tax authority.
Both give you charts. 2Fin also answers in words: ask what you spent on fuel last quarter against the one before, and get the number without assembling a report to find it.
The same situation, in both
You buy a $1,650 laptop on your card and use it about 80% for work.
You record the withdrawal into an expense account you set up, and the rule that files the next one is yours to write; the tax side — what is claimable and over how long — is yours to work out.
The card transaction is categorised as it arrives, with its GST or VAT split out, and goes into the asset register with an 80% business share, so the depreciation schedule follows the rules of the country you file in.
Firefly III is free, open-source software — the cost is hosting it. 2Fin starts free, with tax treatment, reporting and filing exports on Premium (US$23/month).
Based on publicly available information. Competitor features and pricing may change — verify directly.
Three things you notice in the first week with 2Fin, whichever tool you are coming from.
A 3D calendar of every transaction in six layouts on every plan, and on ELITE+ an expense terrain, a pattern map and a cash-flow Sankey you can turn and zoom.
Interactive views →Each category projects where you will land from what you have spent so far, flags what is running ahead and suggests limits from your real spending — free.
Budget allocations →An Integrations API, API keys, signed webhooks and an MCP server, documented end to end — and invoices from any tool, tracked to paid.
For developers →Both are good tools — the right pick depends on what your business needs most.
2Fin is free to start. Premium is US$23 a month (US$222 a year), ELITE+ is US$42 a month (US$432 a year) and AUTO+ is US$54 a month (US$555 a year), billed in US dollars.
Hover, tap or tab to any underlined feature to learn more.
For getting every record in one place, at no cost.
Included
For employees and sole traders who want every deduction found and the busywork done.
Everything in Free, plus
For businesses and accountants who lodge, report and keep the books.
Everything in Premium, plus
For owners who want receipts and reports to arrive on their own.
Everything in ELITE+, plus
Swipe to see every plan
| Feature | FREEUS$0 | PREMIUMUS$23 / month | ELITE+US$42 / month | AUTO+US$54 / month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capture | ||||
| Statement uploads into bucketsCSV, Excel or PDF. On the free desktop app, statements come in through the CSV import instead | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| Live feeds from your own sheet or bank-feed accountA Google Sheet, or a provider account you hold such as SimpleFIN or BankSync | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| Photo and PDF receipts, read and matchedRead in the language they are printed in | Not included | Included | Included | Included |
| Forward receipts by email | Not included | Not included | Not included | Included |
| Organise | ||||
| Transactions, categories and bills in one placeIncluding recurring payments | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| Upcoming bills, pay days and money you are owedPayments matched to what you are owed as they land | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| Budgets against what you actually spent | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| Travel and vehicle trips | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| Properties: what each one really costsRented, business and private parts | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| Automatic categories | Not included | Included | Included | Included |
| Your own categorising rules | Not included | Included | Included | Included |
| Spending and bills analytics | Not included | Included | Included | Included |
| Views by project, client or tax purposeCalled Lenses in the app; the Properties lens is built in on every plan | Not included | Not included | Included | Included |
| Tax | ||||
| Tax analysis that knows your situation | Not included | Included | Included | Included |
| Tax exports, including ATO myDeductions | Not included | Included | Included | Included |
| Tax reports and summaries | Not included | Not included | Included | Included |
| BAS, VAT and GST statements | Not included | Not included | Included | Included |
| Asset register, depreciation, profit & loss and TPAR | Not included | Not included | Included | Included |
| Property write-offs and scheduleDepreciation, capital works, a schedule for your accountant | Not included | Not included | Included | Included |
| Automate | ||||
| Ask Fin about your money | 25 messages a month | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Fin reads the files you upload | Not included | Included | Included | Included |
| Fin, your assistant, with its own workspace | Not included | Not included | Included | Included |
| Your week in review, on the dashboard | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| Signed webhooks for Zapier, Make and n8n | Not included | Not included | Not included | Included |
| Reports emailed on the schedule you set | Not included | Not included | Not included | Included |
| Share | ||||
| Push to Google Sheets, Excel, Notion or AirtableBank-feed transactions included | Not included | Not included | Included | Included |
| Send transactions to Xero or QuickBooks OnlineCoded, with the receipt attached | Not included | Not included | Included | Included |
| Practice workspace for accountantsYour clients can be on any plan | Not included | Not included | Included | Included |
| Connect Claude or ChatGPT, with the access you approveWhat they can read follows your plan | Included | Included | Included | Included |
| Desktop app, with your data on your machine | Included | Included | Included | Included |
Enterprise-grade data control is the default here — on every plan.
Your records can stay on your own machine or in your own cloud, telemetry stays off unless you turn it on, and Fin keeps an auditable record of everything it sends. Enterprise adds the people and the paperwork: dedicated support, custom deployment and reviews for large-scale operations.
Verify it yourselfNot as the way you ENTER things, and deliberately so — Firefly III asks you to think in debits and credits, which is more machinery than most sole traders want when they are photographing a receipt. 2Fin records transactions the way a bank statement reads. But it exports a real double-entry journal: every transaction expands to a balanced entry naming both accounts, with GST split into its own account, and total debits equal total credits. Single-entry to use, double-entry to hand over.
Yes. Match on description, merchant or amount using contains, equals, starts-with, regex and numeric comparisons, and order rules by priority so the specific ones win. The difference is that 2Fin also categorises with no rules at all and learns from your corrections, so the rule engine is for what you want pinned exactly rather than for everything.
On the desktop app your records, receipts and database are files in a folder you own, and the free plan has no account to create. The app shows an outbound record of every request that left, and a Sovereign setting stops all of it. Self-hosting Firefly III gives you the same data locality; 2Fin gets there without asking you to run and secure a server.
Yes. You set a spending limit per category before the period starts, each one shows a progress bar that turns amber at 80 per cent and red at 100, and a drift strip lists the categories running ahead of pace so you see them the moment you open the page. Savings goals hold a running balance towards a target and are topped up in priority order, with one press, from whatever income is left once your limits are covered — Firefly III calls those piggy banks; the idea is the same. You can also cap a whole set of categories at once rather than one at a time.
Yes. Export your transactions to CSV and import them — 2Fin maps the columns for you and handles multiple currencies. You can also keep a spreadsheet as a live source and it will stay in step as rows are added.
Open-source, self-hosted net worth and budget tracker (formerly Maybe)
vs Reckon OneAustralian small-business accounting with payroll and invoicing
vs LodgeProAustralian tax lodgement with accountant review
vs TaxTankAustralian tax portal built from modular Tanks
vs FreeAgentUK accounting for sole traders and small companies (NatWest Group)
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