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Personal Financedocker-ready100% FOSS🟡 Standard · ~1GB

Firefly III: Open Source alternative to Mint in 2026

Firefly III is a complete personal finance manager: accounts, budgets, recurring bills and automatic categorization rules, with your banking data stored only on your own server.

Alternative to MintAlternative to YNAB
License AGPL-3.024.9k starsWebsite GitHub Repository

Audit Snapshot

View notes →

  • License — Matches GitHub

  • GitHub — Active

  • Latest release — v6.7.9 · 6 days ago

  • Docker Compose — Not verified

  • Production — Not production-tested by AltFreeStack

Firefly III vs. Mint

Pros

  • Budgets, recurring bills, automation rules and bank import in a single tool
  • Nobody else sees your bank transactions

Things to consider

  • Setting up import rules initially takes some time

Quick Docker installation guide

Copy this docker-compose.yml, adjust the example passwords and run docker compose up -d on your server. See the full step-by-step guide →

💡 Official SaaS or self-hosted with AltFreeStack?

  • On the official cloud: a recurring monthly fee and usage limits on Mint.
  • On your own VPS: 100% free software on your own server, with no artificial row, project or user limits.
docker-compose.yml
services:
  db:
    image: mariadb:11
    environment:
      MYSQL_RANDOM_ROOT_PASSWORD: "yes"
      MYSQL_DATABASE: firefly
      MYSQL_USER: firefly
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: change-me
    volumes:
      - firefly_db:/var/lib/mysql
  app:
    image: fireflyiii/core:latest
    depends_on:
      - db
    ports:
      - "8080:8080"
    environment:
      APP_KEY: change-me-32-characters-exactly
      DB_HOST: db
      DB_DATABASE: firefly
      DB_USERNAME: firefly
      DB_PASSWORD: change-me
    volumes:
      - firefly_upload:/var/www/html/storage/upload
volumes:
  firefly_db: {}
  firefly_upload: {}

🚀 Deploy in 1 command

Recommended for beginners

Copy this single command and paste it into your freshly created VPS's console (Vultr, DigitalOcean...). It downloads the script, prints it to your screen so you can see exactly what it's about to do (never a blind direct pipe), and only then installs Docker if needed, writes the files with secrets already generated, and starts everything — no nano, no pasting code blocks.

curl -sSL ".../api/deploy?stack=firefly-iii" -o deploy.sh && cat deploy.sh && bash deploy.sh
See what this script does →

This docker-compose corresponds to an actively maintained project — last commit today.

This docker-compose not working for you? Report it on GitHub →

Technical profile

License
AGPL-3.0
Category
Personal Finance
Replaces
Mint, YNAB
Tech stack
PHPLaravelMySQL

Under the hood

Database

MySQL / MariaDB

Language

PHP (Laravel)

Platforms

Web

Key features

  • Budgets, recurring bills and automatic rules
  • Bank transaction import (CSV, Nordigen/GoCardless)
  • Reports and spending charts by category
💾 Backups in 3 steps (Day 2)

As long as the ./data folder (the "volume" mapped into the container) exists on your server, your data survives any restart or container update — that's the only thing you need to back up.

1. Create a compressed backup on the server

tar -czvf backup-$(date +%F).tar.gz ./data

2. Download it to your computer

From your computer's terminal (not your server's):

scp root@YOUR_IP:~/app/backup-*.tar.gz ./

3. Restore in case of emergency

tar -xzvf backup-file.tar.gz
🌐 Connect your domain with free SSL

Step 1 — Set up the DNS

In your domain registrar's dashboard (Cloudflare, Namecheap, GoDaddy...), create a record:

Type
A
Name/Host
@ (root domain) or a subdomain, e.g. app
Content/Value
Your server's public IP

Wait 5 to 15 minutes for the record to propagate across the internet.

Step 2 — Automatic reverse proxy with Caddy

One single file, no Nginx config or manual certificates — Caddy issues and renews Let's Encrypt HTTPS on its own.

Create a file called Caddyfile:

yourdomain.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:8080
}

Start Caddy with this command (pulls the image and runs it in the background):

docker run -d -p 80:80 -p 443:443 --name caddy --restart always -v $PWD/Caddyfile:/etc/caddy/Caddyfile -v caddy_data:/data caddy