Self-Host Your Own Personal Finance Dashboard for Free

Ever feel like your financial data is scattered across a dozen apps, each with its own subscription fee and privacy concerns? What if you could pull all that data into a single, clean dashboard that you own and control? That’s the promise of Sure, a project that’s essentially a self-hosted, open-source alternative to expensive personal finance platforms.

It’s built on a simple but powerful premise: your financial data should be private, portable, and not locked behind a paywall. By running it yourself, you cut out the middleman, keep your information on your own hardware, and avoid those monthly fees that add up over time.

What It Does

Sure is a self-hosted web application that aggregates your financial information into a single dashboard. You connect it to your various accounts (like bank accounts, credit cards, or investment portfolios) via secure, read-only APIs. Once set up, it gives you a unified view of your net worth, cash flow, spending trends, and upcoming transactions—all from a clean, modern interface you host yourself.

Why It’s Cool

The obvious win here is cost and privacy. You’re not paying a subscription, and your sensitive transaction data never leaves a server you control. But the developer-centric approach is what makes it stand out.

It’s built with a pragmatic stack (like Node.js and React) that’s familiar and easy to extend. The architecture is designed for self-hosting from the start, with clear documentation on deployment via Docker. It also emphasizes using official, read-only API connections (like Plaid) where possible, which is a more secure and reliable method than sketchy screen scraping. It feels less like a monolithic "product" and more like a solid foundation you can tweak and build upon for your own specific needs.

How to Try It

The quickest way to get started is to check out the GitHub repository. The README has all the details you’ll need.

1. Head over to the repo: github.com/we-promise/sure
2. Check the prerequisites: You’ll need Docker and Docker Compose installed on your machine or server.
3. Follow the setup guide: The repository provides a docker-compose.yml file and environment configuration instructions. You’ll need to sign up for the necessary API keys (like from Plaid) to enable connections to your financial institutions.
4. Deploy and run: A few commands will spin up the entire stack locally or on a server of your choice.

There’s no live demo because, well, it’s meant for you to host with your data. The setup is the demo.

Final Thoughts

As a developer, tools like this are appealing not just for the end result, but for the ethos behind them. Sure represents a growing trend of taking back control over our own data with software we can audit and modify. It’s a practical project that solves a real problem—financial visibility—without over-engineering it.

If you’ve been wanting a clearer view of your finances but are wary of another SaaS subscription or data leak, spending an afternoon getting this running could be a great investment. It’s the kind of project that just makes sense for the technically inclined.

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