Beancount Review (2026)
Beancount is a free, open-source accounting tool where your books are a plain text file that you write and a Python program checks. It suits programmers who want finances they can version with Git, script and audit line by line. It is not a budgeting app in the usual sense: there is no bank sync, no phone app, and budgets come from its add-on web interface, Fava.
By Wealthy Pot Editorial · Facts checked October 18, 2026
Facts checked October 18, 2026 against Beancount's own pricing, help and policy pages (12 sources, listed below). We re-check prices about once a month. We do not earn a commission from Beancount.
Beancount at a glance
| Price | Free, open source (GPL-2.0-only) [3] |
|---|---|
| Latest release | 3.2.3 on PyPI, May 5, 2026 (the project does not publish GitHub releases) [4] |
| Maintenance | Version 3 stable since June 2024; last commit to the main branch August 22, 2026 [5] |
| Requirements | Python 3.9 or newer, installed with pip [3] |
| Interface | Command line; Fava adds a web interface that runs on your own computer [6] |
| Fava | Version 1.30.16, August 18, 2026; MIT license [7] |
| Phone app | None [6] |
| Bank connections | None; the beangulp framework runs importers for statement files such as CSV or OFX [9] |
| Budgets | Only through Fava "budget" entries per account (daily to yearly) [8] |
| Investments | Lots, cost basis and price entries for any commodity [1] |
| Who builds it | Created by Martin Blais; community project with no company [1] |
What Beancount costs
| Plan | Paying monthly, 1 year | Annual plan, 1 year | 3 years (cheapest way) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | - | $0 |
Our arithmetic from the listed prices, before sales tax, assuming today's prices hold; subscriptions can renew at a different rate. Beancount and Fava cost nothing. Beancount.io is a separate company that sells hosting built on the open-source language and says it is independent of the project: its free tier allows 1 ledger and 1,000 entries, and Premium costs $14.99 a month, or $8.33 a month billed annually.
How Beancount works
Your books are a text file. Each transaction is a few lines naming the date, a description and the accounts it touches, under double-entry rules. Beancount reads the file into memory and generates reports from it. Because it is plain text, you can keep it in Git, search it with any editor and review every change.
A hypothetical budget in Fava: you add the line 2026-01-01 custom "budget" Expenses:Groceries "monthly" 600.00 USD to your file. Fava breaks that into a daily amount and, in its income statement charts and reports, shows how much of the $600 is left for any month you pick. A $90 grocery run on October 3 then appears as $510 remaining for October.
Data entry is where the work is. There is no bank connection; instead the beangulp framework runs Python importers that turn a CSV or OFX statement into Beancount entries, and you write or adapt one per bank. Reports come from Fava or from beanquery, a SQL-like query tool that is now a separate project.
Pros
- Books are a plain text file you own and can version
- Fava adds a local web interface with charts and budgets
- Lot-level investment tracking
Cons
- Importing a bank statement means writing or adapting a Python importer
- Budgets exist only through Fava, not in Beancount itself
- No phone app
- Slow release pace: the last PyPI release was May 5, 2026
Who Beancount fits, and who should skip it
A good fit if
- You write some Python and want your finances in Git, with every change reviewable.
- You track investments by lot and cost basis and want the math to be checkable.
- You want no vendor at all: the file and the tools live on your computer.
Look elsewhere if
- You do not code: HomeBank or GnuCash import bank files without writing an importer.
- You want plain-text accounting with a budget report built in: hledger has one in the main program.
- You want a guided monthly budget with bank sync: YNAB or Monarch Money.
Limitations to know
- There is no bank sync; importers for each bank's statement format run through beangulp. [9]
- Budgeting is not part of Beancount; it comes from Fava's custom "budget" entries. [8]
- Version 2 is frozen and many of its tools moved to separate projects, so older guides may not match version 3. [1]
- Beancount.io is not the official site; the project's documentation is at beancount.github.io. [1]
Beancount compared with alternatives
| App | Price | Free plan | Bank sync | Platforms | Method |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Beancount | Free | Yes | No (statement importers you write or borrow) | Desktop, Self-host | Plain-text double-entry |
| hledger | Free | Yes | No (CSV import with rules files) | Desktop, Self-host, Web | Plain-text double-entry |
| GnuCash | Free | Yes | OFX Direct Connect only where the bank offers it | Desktop | Double-entry + investments |
| Firefly III | Free (self-host only) | Yes | Via Data Importer (SimpleFIN or Sophtron in the US) | Web, Self-host | Double-entry + rules |
| Actual Budget | Free (self-host); hosting about $1.50/mo (PikaPods); US bank sync needs SimpleFIN ($15/yr) | Yes | Via SimpleFIN ($15/yr), US | Web, Desktop, Self-host | Envelope / zero-based, local-first |
- Pick hledger if you want plain-text accounting with a built-in budget report and a terminal interface.
- Pick GnuCash if you want double-entry books in a desktop app with point-and-click import.
- Pick Firefly III if you want a self-hosted web app with rules and an API instead of a text file.
- Pick Actual Budget if you want an envelope budget you can host yourself without writing code.
Security and privacy
- Your ledger is a file on your own computer, and Fava serves it on your machine, so nothing goes to a vendor unless you choose a hosting service. [6]
- Beancount.io, as a hosted service, keeps your ledger on its servers; it describes itself as an independent service, not part of the Beancount project. [11]
- The code is open source under GPL-2.0-only, so anyone can read what it does with your data. [3]
Recent changes
| Date | What changed |
|---|---|
| May 5, 2026 | Beancount 3.2.3 published on PyPI. [4] |
| Jun 2024 | Version 3 became the stable version; version 2 is frozen. [1] |
Beancount FAQ
Is Beancount free?
Yes. Beancount is GPL-2.0-only and Fava is MIT licensed. Beancount.io is a separate paid hosting service, not the project.
Does Beancount have a graphical interface?
Beancount itself is a command-line tool. Fava, a project in the same GitHub organization, gives it a web interface that runs on your computer.
Can Beancount import from my bank?
Not automatically. You download a statement and run it through an importer built on the beangulp framework, often one you write in Python.
Should I use Beancount or hledger?
Both keep double-entry books in text files. Beancount relies on Fava for budgets and a web view; hledger has a budget report plus terminal and web interfaces of its own.
How we researched this review
We did not get paid or receive a free account for this page. We read Beancount's own pricing page, help center, security and privacy pages and app-store listing on October 18, 2026, quoted each fact from those pages, and link every one below. We did not run a long-term hands-on test, so we do not score the app; where a point rests on what the company says rather than something we can check, we attribute it to Beancount. Cost figures are our own arithmetic. We re-check prices and plans about once a month and log changes in the table above.
Sources
- Beancount, Readme, checked October 18, 2026.
- Beancount, GitHub repository, checked October 18, 2026.
- Beancount, pyproject.toml, checked October 18, 2026.
- PyPI, beancount package, checked October 18, 2026.
- Beancount, Commit history, checked October 18, 2026.
- Fava, GitHub repository, checked October 18, 2026.
- PyPI, fava package, checked October 18, 2026.
- Fava, Help: Budgets, checked October 18, 2026.
- Beancount, beangulp importer framework, checked October 18, 2026.
- Beancount, beanquery, checked October 18, 2026.
- Beancount.io, Homepage (independent hosted service), checked October 18, 2026.
- Beancount.io, Pricing, checked October 18, 2026.
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