FlashFi vs Ghostfolio: Managed Service or Self-Hosted?

Disclosure: FlashFi is a competitor to the products mentioned.

Disclosure: FlashFi is a competitor. This is our honest assessment based on publicly available information.

TL;DR¶

Choose Ghostfolio if you are technical, want full control over your data, and are comfortable running Docker, PostgreSQL, and Redis on your own infrastructure. You get a capable portfolio tracker for free (self-hosted) or about $15/year (cloud).

Choose FlashFi if you want a managed service with zero setup, personal finance features beyond portfolio tracking, and a product built specifically for digital nomads managing money across currencies and countries.

Quick Comparison¶

Pricing Breakdown¶

Ghostfolio’s pricing model is unique because the core product is open source:

• Self-hosted (free) — Download the code, run it on your own server with Docker Compose. You need PostgreSQL 15 and Redis. No license fees, ever. You handle setup, updates, backups, and uptime.
• Ghostfolio Premium (~$15/year) — The official hosted cloud version. Includes managed infrastructure, data provider access, and support. This is the easiest way to use Ghostfolio without touching a terminal.

FlashFi’s pricing:

• Operator — $12/month ($144/year). Full investment tracking, multi-currency cash accounts, debt tracking, savings, net worth calculation.
• Apex — $39/month ($468/year). Everything in Operator plus advanced analytics and portfolio insights.

The price gap is real. If cost is your primary concern and you can self-host, Ghostfolio at $0/year is hard to argue against. Even the cloud version at $15/year is a fraction of FlashFi’s cost. The question is what you get for the difference.

Setup and Maintenance¶

This is the core trade-off between these two products.

Ghostfolio self-hosted requires a server or NAS running Docker (Linux recommended, supports amd64 and arm64). You run three containers via Docker Compose: the Ghostfolio app, PostgreSQL 15, and Redis. You configure environment variables (database credentials, JWT secrets, data provider API keys) and handle ongoing maintenance — updates, backups, uptime monitoring, and troubleshooting.

If you already run a homelab, adding Ghostfolio is straightforward. If “Docker Compose” is not in your vocabulary, the learning curve is steep. The cloud version ($15/year) eliminates the infrastructure work but you lose the data sovereignty that makes self-hosting appealing.

FlashFi is a standard SaaS product. Create an account, log in, start adding holdings. Nothing to install, configure, or maintain. The trade-off is that your data lives on FlashFi’s servers and you pay $12/month for the convenience.

Portfolio Tracking¶

Both tools handle the core job competently, but Ghostfolio goes deeper on investment-specific analytics.

Ghostfolio offers multi-account tracking across brokerages, performance measurement across multiple timeframes (today, WTD, MTD, YTD, 1Y, 5Y, max), portfolio composition by asset class/region/sector, dividend tracking, rebalancing tools, risk analysis with a FIRE calculator, and CSV import for bulk transaction loading. It supports multiple data providers including Yahoo Finance, CoinGecko, and EOD Historical Data.

FlashFi covers real-time pricing via Tiingo (stocks, ETFs, mutual funds, crypto), portfolio allocation by type/sector/holding, performance charts (1W/1M/3M/ALL), transaction history with cost basis tracking, and multi-currency conversion on every holding.

For pure investment analytics, Ghostfolio has an edge with rebalancing and risk analysis. FlashFi’s investment tracking is solid but less specialized on the analytics side.

Personal Finance¶

This is where the products diverge significantly.

Ghostfolio is a portfolio tracker. It tracks investments and calculates net worth from those investments. It can hold cash balances within portfolio accounts, but it does not have standalone personal finance features.

FlashFi combines portfolio tracking with personal finance tools:

• Multi-currency cash accounts — track bank accounts across countries and currencies, all converted to your home currency
• Debt tracking — credit cards, loans, and liabilities in any currency with balance and interest rate tracking
• Savings tracking — emergency funds, travel funds, and goal-based savings across currencies
• Unified net worth — investments plus cash minus debt, across all currencies, in one number

If you only care about tracking your investment portfolio, both tools work. If you want your entire financial picture — including the cash in your bank accounts and the debt you owe — in one place, FlashFi covers that and Ghostfolio does not.

Data Privacy and Control¶

If data sovereignty matters to you, Ghostfolio has a clear advantage. Self-hosting means your financial data never leaves your infrastructure — no third party has access. You control the database, the backups, and the encryption.

FlashFi stores data on managed infrastructure with no self-hosted option. If keeping financial data on hardware you physically control is a hard requirement, self-hosted Ghostfolio is the only option here. If you are comfortable with a SaaS model (as most people are with banking apps and brokerage accounts), this may not be a deciding factor.

Where Ghostfolio Wins¶

• Price — free if self-hosted, $15/year for the cloud version
• Open source — full code transparency under AGPL-3.0
• Data privacy — self-hosting means your data stays on your hardware
• Portfolio analytics — rebalancing tools and FIRE calculator go deeper
• Data provider flexibility — Yahoo Finance, CoinGecko, EOD Historical Data, and others
• CSV import — bulk-load transaction history from brokerages

Where FlashFi Wins¶

• Zero setup — sign up and start tracking, no infrastructure to manage
• Personal finance — multi-currency cash accounts, debt tracking, savings goals
• Broader net worth — investments plus cash minus debt, not just portfolio value
• Built for nomads — multi-currency across cash, debt, and investments natively
• Managed updates and support — new features ship automatically with direct support

Who Should Choose Ghostfolio¶

Ghostfolio is the right choice if you:

• Are comfortable with Docker, PostgreSQL, and self-hosting infrastructure
• Want full control over your financial data with no third-party access
• Care about open-source transparency and want to audit the code
• Need portfolio-specific analytics like rebalancing and FIRE planning
• Want a free or near-free ($15/year) portfolio tracker
• Only need investment tracking, not personal finance management
• Enjoy contributing to open-source communities

Who Should Choose FlashFi¶

FlashFi is the right choice if you:

• Want a managed service with no setup or maintenance
• Are a digital nomad or expat managing money across multiple countries and currencies
• Need investments, cash accounts, and debt tracked together in one multi-currency dashboard
• Do not want to run your own server, database, and container infrastructure
• Prefer a product with dedicated support rather than community forums
• Value convenience over cost savings

Try FlashFi — Start Tracking

By David Brougham