LemSubs vs Firefly III
Open-source self-hosted personal finance — powerful but heavy, no subscription portfolio
Firefly III is the most-loved self-hosted personal-finance app — bills, budgets, rules, recurring transactions, the lot. The trade-off is the work: you run the Docker container, the database, and the upgrades. Subscriptions live as "bills" or "recurring transactions" — not a portfolio with vendor rollup and overpayment flags.
LemSubs is hosted and subscription-first. LemSubs sends a one-tap owner-claim email to whoever signed up for a tool. The owner confirms, declines, or reassigns — without a paid seat. Finance and Viewer roles give your bookkeeper read-only access on the same plan.
Agency retainers, lawyer fees, and household subs live in the same product, separated by workspace. The retainers card on the dashboard surfaces service spend so it isn't lost in the SaaS list. Many Firefly users keep it for personal finance and add LemSubs as the subscription specialist.
Firefly III pricing
Free (self-hosted only)
Firefly III is best for
Self-hosters who currently run Firefly III but want a sharper subscription view
Where Firefly III wins
- Full open-source personal finance
- Powerful rules engine
- Self-hosted = full ownership
Where Firefly III falls short
- You run the infra
- Subscriptions are bills, not a portfolio
- No vendor rollup or overpayment flag
Moving from Firefly III to LemSubs
- Export the bills or recurring transactions list from Firefly as CSV.
- Sign up for LemSubs and pick a workspace.
- Smart Import the CSV.
- Turn on renewal and trial alerts.
- Keep Firefly for the rest of personal finance.
Frequently asked questions
Is LemSubs open source?
Not today. We're hosted SaaS. The privacy posture is manual-first — no bank login required.
Can I keep Firefly?
Yes — that's the cleanest setup. Firefly for personal finance, LemSubs for subscriptions.