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Best Productivity ResourcesBy Shushant LakhyaniVerified creator

Desktop App

hledger

Plain-text accounting with a multi-currency engine.

Visit hledger4.4

  • Rating

    4.4 / 5

  • Pricing

    Free

  • Difficulty

    Advanced

  • Works on

    macOS, Windows, Linux

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What is hledger?

hledger is free accounting software that keeps your books in plain text. It describes a robust, general multi-currency accounting engine, strong CSV import and export, and reports in text, HTML, JSON and SQL. It installs on Unix, macOS and Windows with command-line, terminal and web interfaces.

Third-party open-source projects. We are not affiliated with their authors; repositories are provided as-is by their maintainers. Review each project's license, code and security before installing. See our Disclaimer.

Pros: what hledger does well

  • Your books stay in a readable text file
  • Imports bank CSV files
  • Handles several currencies

Cons: where it falls short

  • Command-line focused
  • Requires learning the format

Who hledger is for

People who want transparent, portable bookkeeping.

Who can skip it

Anyone wanting a graphical budgeting app.

hledger alternatives

Not sold on hledger? These do a similar job, and each card says what it has in common.

All Personal Productivity resources

Firefly III

Focus: personal finance, budgeting and expenses. Shares open source and github with hledger. A web app, not a desktop app. Adds Web. Rated 4.7 (hledger: 4.4).

Web AppFreeWeb
4.7Visit

Ghostfolio

Focus: investing, portfolio and self-hosted. Shares finance and open source with hledger. A web app, not a desktop app. Adds Web. Rated 4.5 (hledger: 4.4).

Web AppFreeWeb
4.5Visit

Free alternatives to hledger

Want to spend nothing? These free picks cover similar ground.

Atuin

Focus: shell history, terminal and command line. Shares open source and github with hledger. Rated 4.7 (hledger: 4.4).

Desktop AppFreemacOS, Linux
4.7Visit

btop

Focus: system monitor, terminal and processes. Shares open source and github with hledger. Adds Offline. Rated 4.7 (hledger: 4.4).

Desktop AppFreemacOS, Linux
4.7Visit

fd

Focus: file search, command line and developer tool. Shares open source and github with hledger. Adds Offline. Rated 4.7 (hledger: 4.4).

Desktop AppFreemacOS, Windows
4.7Visit

htop

Focus: process viewer, system monitor and terminal. Shares open source and github with hledger. Rated 4.7 (hledger: 4.4).

Desktop AppFreemacOS, Linux
4.7Visit

restic

Focus: backup, encryption and snapshots. Shares open source and github with hledger. Rated 4.7 (hledger: 4.4).

Desktop AppFreemacOS, Windows
4.7Visit

Actual Budget

Focus: budgeting, personal finance and self-hosted. Shares open source with hledger. A web app, not a desktop app. Adds Web. Rated 4.6 (hledger: 4.4).

Web AppFreeWeb, Windows
4.6Visit
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