Firefly III
Personal/small-org finance manager for cashflow visibility
Review status: Research backlog. Research candidate with incomplete checks; not a vetted recommendation.
Official Website · Source Code
oss-osi-approved stub guideOverview
Firefly III is a double-entry finance manager. Solo operators sometimes track space cashflow here while accountants own official books.
At a glance
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Categories | accounting |
| Deployment | self-hosted |
| License class | oss-osi-approved (AGPL-3.0-only) |
| Cost model | free-self-hosted |
| Implementation difficulty | easy |
| Maintenance burden | medium |
| Maturity | stable |
| Freshness status | partially-verified (2026-07-17) |
| Completeness | partial |
| Confidence | low |
| Directory tier | research-backlog |
Cost reality
Free self-hosted; not a replacement for statutory accounting software in many jurisdictions.
Pricing and free-tier limits change frequently; re-check official pricing before budget decisions.
Tasks reduced or augmented
Software does not replace community or ops staff. It may reduce or augment:
- Cashflow categorization
- Budget envelopes for ops
Human oversight still needed
- Not a substitute for accountant tools where required
- Data sensitivity
Manual process this can replace
Structured task-fit review has not been completed for this tool. Treat the free-text examples above as evaluation prompts, not replacement claims.
Data held
-
accounts
-
transactions
-
budgets
-
Personal data: yes
-
Payment data: no / not primary
Risks
| Area | Notes |
|---|---|
| Vendor lock-in | Evaluate export formats and API completeness before deep customization. |
| Security | Apply updates promptly; restrict admin access; enable TLS. |
| Compliance | Operator remains responsible for privacy and local regulatory obligations. |
| Licensing | Confirm license fits commercial coworking use. |
| Operational | Plan backups, monitoring, and a restore drill before production use. |
Coworking fit
Roles: owner-operator, finance
Workflows: reporting-kpis, invoice-collections
Problems: replace-spreadsheets, self-host-for-data-control
Smallest useful experiment
Import three months of business transactions and categorize membership vs facilities costs.
Initial planning estimate (unverified): 1–3 days
Links
Implementation guide
See the human-written implementation guide.
Verification
- Status:
partially-verified - Completeness:
partial - Confidence:
low - Tier:
research-backlog - Last reviewed:
2026-07-17 - Sources:
Seed entry compiled from official project sites and repositories. Re-verify pricing, license text, and feature claims before production decisions. Star counts and free-tier numeric limits intentionally omitted unless verified at review time.