2.5k stars · MIT · no GitHub releases at all, which is a determination rather than a gap; PyPI shows 1.30.16 (2026-08-18) with the year stated in full · Track this in Scout
Turns a plain text Beancount ledger into a website with balances, charts and a filter that narrows every page at once.
▶Repo detailsthe review · specs · pros & cons · install
What it is
A web interface for Beancount, which is a double-entry accounting system where your books are a text file you edit yourself. Double-entry means every amount is recorded twice, once where it came from and once where it went, so the books have to balance. Fava adds income statements, balance sheets, charts over time, a query screen, and an editor that checks the file as you type.What it is good for. A solo founder who wants their own books without a subscription and without handing their finances to a website. The problem it removes is the gap between having the data and being able to see it. Edition 20 recommended hledger and said plainly that it has no bank connection and no screen, and that you type the entries yourself. Fava is the answer to the second half of that. It works with Beancount rather than hledger, so the two are a choice rather than a pair: hledger has its own web interface, and Beancount plus Fava is the more polished of the two.
- Your books stay a text file you can read in any editor, and this only reads it.
- The filter at the top narrows every page at once, which makes "what did this quarter actually cost" a ten-second question.
- MIT licence, nothing to pay, and it runs on your own machine.
- You still type every transaction. Nothing here connects to a bank.
- You have to learn Beancount's format first, and that is an evening of reading.
- It is a viewer for one file on one machine. It is not built for two people using it at once.
simonmichael/hledgerThe same plain-text accounting idea with its own web interface included, so it is one project where this is two.
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Keeps your finances in a database behind a web application instead of a text file, which is easier to start and harder to take with you.
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actualbudget/actualAimed at deciding where money will go before you spend it, rather than recording where it went.
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```bash python3 -m venv venv source venv/bin/activate pip install fava
