Expense management tools cover a wide spread here: simple personal spending trackers, self-hosted finance apps, freelancer finance workflows, invoice organization, and lightweight expense tracking. For May 2026, ToolVitals data shows a small open/source-visible set with scores ranging from Budget Board at 80 down to ExpenseOwl at 23, so the practical question is less “which tool is biggest?” and more “which one looks healthiest enough to trust?”
This ranking includes only open/source-visible tools and orders them by ToolVitals score first, with GitHub stars used only as a secondary popularity signal. All five listed tools are labeled OSI-approved OSS, with license labels of GPL-3.0, AGPL-3.0, or MIT, and none has pricing scope data listed beyond none.
Rankings
| Rank | Tool | Openness | License | Health | Shipping | GitHub Stars | Score | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Budget Board | OSI-approved OSS | GPL-3.0 | 79 | 73 | 748 | 80 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 2 | Kresus | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 64 | 45 | 335 | 66 | 🟢 Good |
| 3 | Midday | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 67 | 42 | 14255 | 64 | 🟢 Good |
| 4 | BuchISY | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 19 | 0 | 1 | 26 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 5 | ExpenseOwl | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 9 | 0 | 1429 | 23 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
Top 3 Highlights
Budget Board ranks first with a ToolVitals score of 80, the highest health score in the set at 79, and the strongest shipping score at 73. Its scope is narrow and clear: tracking monthly spending and financial goals. It is labeled OSI-approved OSS with a GPL-3.0 license, has no pricing scope listed, and has 748 GitHub stars, which is far below Midday’s 14,255 stars but backed by stronger ToolVitals health and shipping signals in this ranking.
Kresus ranks second with a ToolVitals score of 66 and a Good status. It is a self-hosted personal finance application, labeled OSI-approved OSS with an AGPL-3.0 license. Its health score of 64 is solid relative to this group, though its shipping score of 45 trails Budget Board by a noticeable margin. With 335 GitHub stars, it is not the most popular option here, but the ToolVitals score puts it ahead of more-starred tools.
Midday ranks third with a ToolVitals score of 64, just behind Kresus, despite having by far the largest GitHub footprint in this set at 14,255 stars. Its description points to a broader freelancer finance workflow: invoicing, time tracking, file reconciliation, storage, financial overview, and an assistant. It is labeled OSI-approved OSS with an AGPL-3.0 license. The main caution in the supplied data is its shipping score of 42, which is lower than its health score of 67.
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