What is Maybe Finance used for?

Maybe Finance is listed as a Productivity tool on TiloBox. Review the overview, features, and official documentation on this page to decide whether it solves your specific workflow.

How do I get started with Maybe Finance?

Start with the project's GitHub repository and official website for supported installation and deployment instructions. Test the setup with representative data or a small project before rolling it out more widely.

What license does Maybe Finance use?

Maybe Finance is listed under the AGPL-3.0 license. Read the complete license text and the project's notices before using, modifying, or distributing the software.

Is Maybe Finance ready for production use?

Production readiness depends on your requirements. Review maintenance activity, security practices, documentation, backup and upgrade procedures, and compatibility with your stack; then validate it in a non-production environment.

Is Maybe Finance an alternative to YNAB?

Maybe Finance is listed as an alternative to YNAB. Compare the core workflow, deployment model, integrations, and licensing against your must-have requirements before switching.

Productivity Alternative to YNAB Alternative to Personal Capital Alternative to Mint

Maybe Finance

Open-source personal finance and wealth management app, alternative to Mint and YNAB.

View on GitHub Visit website

LicenseAGPL-3.0

GitHub stars54.3k

Last commit1 years ago

Tags6 topics

InvestmentsRuby On RailsNet WorthBudgetingSelf HostedPersonal Finance

Overview

Why consider Maybe Finance?

Maybe Finance is an open-source personal finance and net worth tracking app. It connects bank accounts, tracks investments, visualizes spending, and projects retirement scenarios.

Guided learning

Learn Maybe Finance by building

Practical setup notes, real use cases, and copy-ready examples in one focused guide.

3 min read 10 sections

In this guide10 sections

What is Maybe Finance?

Maybe Finance is an open-source personal finance and wealth management application developed with Ruby on Rails, Hotwire, and PostgreSQL. Originally a venture-backed SaaS startup, the team open-sourced the entire application after shutting down the commercial service, making it a fully self-hostable alternative to commercial personal finance tools like Mint, YNAB (You Need A Budget), and Personal Capital.

Maybe Finance aggregates your complete financial picture: connect bank accounts, credit cards, brokerage accounts, and retirement funds through Plaid, manually import transaction CSV files, track net worth over time, analyze spending patterns by category, set budget targets, and project retirement scenarios with Monte Carlo simulations.

Who Is It For?

Personal Finance Enthusiasts: Building a private, self-hosted financial dashboard with complete visibility into assets, liabilities, and net worth.
Privacy Advocates: Aggregating financial data on private infrastructure instead of sharing account credentials with commercial apps.
Developers: Extending an open-source Rails application with custom integrations and financial calculators.

Key Features

Comprehensive net worth dashboard: Track assets (investments, real estate, cash) and liabilities (loans, credit cards) in one view.
Transaction management: Import bank transactions via Plaid or CSV, categorize expenses, and track monthly spending budgets.
Investment portfolio tracking: Monitor brokerage performance, dividend history, and asset allocation.
Retirement projection modeling: Run retirement scenario simulations with customizable savings rate and return assumptions.
Multi-currency and multi-account support across checking, savings, brokerage, and crypto wallets.

Deploying Maybe Finance with Docker Compose

yaml

1version: '3.7'

3services:

4 postgres:

5 image: postgres:15-alpine

6 container_name: maybe_db

7 restart: unless-stopped

8 environment:

9 - POSTGRES_DB=maybe_production

10 - POSTGRES_USER=maybe

11 - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=secure_maybe_pass

12 volumes:

13 - ./pgdata:/var/lib/postgresql/data

15 redis:

16 image: redis:7-alpine

17 container_name: maybe_redis

18 restart: unless-stopped

20 app:

21 image: ghcr.io/maybe-finance/maybe:stable

22 container_name: maybe_app

23 restart: unless-stopped

24 ports:

25 - "3000:3000"

26 environment:

27 - RAILS_ENV=production

28 - SECRET_KEY_BASE=generate_a_secure_random_128_char_secret_key

29 - DB_HOST=postgres

30 - DB_USERNAME=maybe

31 - DB_PASSWORD=secure_maybe_pass

32 - REDIS_URL=redis://redis:6379/1

33 - SELF_HOSTING_ENABLED=true

34 depends_on:

35 - postgres

36 - redis

Start the instance:

bash

1docker compose up -d

Open http://localhost:3000 in your browser to register your account and begin adding financial accounts.

Practical Use Cases

1. Complete Net Worth Dashboard

A user connects 3 bank accounts, a Vanguard brokerage, and a mortgage; Maybe Finance plots net worth growth month by month, revealing that investment gains outpaced debt reduction in Q2.

2. Spending Category Analysis

A user imports 6 months of credit card CSV transactions; Maybe categorizes spending into "Dining", "Transportation", and "Entertainment", revealing that dining costs exceed budget by 40%.

3. Retirement Scenario Planning

A 35-year-old uses Maybe's retirement projector, simulating outcomes at different savings rates (15% vs 20%) and expected annual returns (6% vs 8%) over 30 years.

Troubleshooting and Limitations

SECRET_KEY_BASE Generation: Generate a unique secret with openssl rand -hex 64 and set it as the SECRET_KEY_BASE environment variable; never reuse secrets across instances.
Plaid Integration: Plaid account aggregation requires a separate Plaid API key; for privacy-only usage, manual CSV imports work without any external API credentials.

Official Resources

Official Website: https://maybe.co
GitHub Repository: https://github.com/maybe-finance/maybe
Documentation: https://github.com/maybe-finance/maybe/wiki

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