Firefly III Review (2026)

Facts checked October 18, 2026 against Firefly III's own pricing, help and policy pages (14 sources, listed below). We re-check prices about once a month. We do not earn a commission from Firefly III.

Firefly III at a glance

What Firefly III costs

Our arithmetic from the listed prices, before sales tax, assuming today's prices hold; subscriptions can renew at a different rate. Firefly III itself costs nothing. If you do not run your own server, a third-party host charges its own fee (we did not collect those prices); the docs note that Hostinger and PikaPods pay the developer a referral fee. US bank sync is optional: SimpleFIN Bridge costs $1.50 a month or $15 a year plus tax, and Sophtron is free for personal use.

How Firefly III works

Firefly III keeps double-entry records: every transaction moves money from one account to another, so balances always add up. On top of that you set budgets for a period, file spending under categories and tags, and save toward goals with piggy banks. A rules engine can categorize and tag transactions for you, and recurring transactions cover bills that repeat.

A hypothetical month: you set a $600 groceries budget and a $1,200 vacation piggy bank you fund at $100 a month. You run your bank's CSV download through the Data Importer, and a rule you wrote ("description contains KROGER, set budget Groceries") files 20 store visits at once. The budget page then shows how much of the $600 is left.

Getting data in is a separate step. The Data Importer is its own tool (v2.3.5, September 23, 2026) that reads CSV or CAMT files, or pulls transactions from a provider. For US banks the docs list SimpleFIN (paid) and Sophtron (US, Canada and Mexico, free for personal use). Firefly III has no official phone app; the docs point to third-party ones.

Who Firefly III fits, and who should skip it

Limitations to know

• There is no official mobile app; phone access comes from third-party apps such as Abacus and Waterfly III. [9]
• Bank sync is not part of Firefly III: you install the Data Importer and sign up with a provider such as SimpleFIN or Sophtron. [10]
• The importer's readme lists CSV, CAMT.052 and CAMT.053 files; OFX and QIF downloads from US banks are not on that list. [12]
• Version 6.7.9 needs PHP 8.5 or newer, so an older server may need an upgrade first (the Docker image avoids this). [6]
• GoCardless, an EU bank-data provider, is shifting away from that product; the docs keep its instructions only for existing users. [10]

Firefly III compared with alternatives

• Pick Actual Budget if you want a self-hosted envelope budget that is simpler to learn.
• Pick hledger if you prefer plain-text files and the command line over a web server.
• Pick GnuCash if you want double-entry accounting on a desktop with no server at all.
• Pick Monarch Money if you would rather pay for a hosted app with bank sync built in.

Security and privacy

• The project says Firefly III is self-hosted and will never contact external servers until you tell it to. [2]
• Two-factor authentication is supported. [2]
• If you use bank sync, your bank connection runs through the provider you pick (for example SimpleFIN or Sophtron), not through Firefly III. [10]
• Updates are your job: the developer shipped ten stable releases between September 14 and October 11, 2026. [4]

Recent changes

Firefly III FAQ

Is Firefly III free?

Yes. It is open source under AGPL-3.0. You pay only for a server or a third-party host if you use one, and for a bank-data provider such as SimpleFIN if you want bank sync.

Can Firefly III connect to US banks?

Not directly. Its separate Data Importer can pull US transactions through SimpleFIN Bridge ($1.50 a month or $15 a year) or Sophtron (free for personal use).

Does Firefly III have a mobile app?

There is no official app. The docs list third-party apps, including Abacus for iPhone and Android and Waterfly III for Android.

Do I need Docker to run Firefly III?

No, but an official Docker image is the simpler route. Otherwise you need a web server with PHP 8.5 or newer and MySQL or SQLite.

Is there a hosted version of Firefly III?

Not from the developer. The docs list third-party hosts such as PikaPods, Hostinger and Cloudron that run it for you.

How we researched this review

We did not get paid or receive a free account for this page. We read Firefly III'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 Firefly III. Cost figures are our own arithmetic. We re-check prices and plans about once a month and log changes in the table above.

Sources

1. Firefly III, GitHub repository, checked October 18, 2026.
2. Firefly III, Readme, checked October 18, 2026.
3. Firefly III, Release v6.7.9, checked October 18, 2026.
4. Firefly III, Releases, checked October 18, 2026.
5. Firefly III, Release v6.7.0, checked October 18, 2026.
6. Firefly III, composer.json at v6.7.9, checked October 18, 2026.
7. Firefly III docs, Self-managed installation, checked October 18, 2026.
8. Firefly III docs, Third-party hosting, checked October 18, 2026.
9. Firefly III docs, Third-party apps, checked October 18, 2026.
10. Firefly III docs, Data Importer third-party providers, checked October 18, 2026.
11. Firefly III docs, Data Importer and Sophtron, checked October 18, 2026.
12. Firefly III, Data Importer readme, checked October 18, 2026.
13. Firefly III, Data Importer release v2.3.5, checked October 18, 2026.
14. SimpleFIN, SimpleFIN Bridge, checked October 18, 2026.

See every option in our budgeting apps comparison, and set your category targets with the free budget calculator.

This review is for general information, not financial advice. Prices and features change; check the vendor's site before you subscribe.