We’ve all read stories about people trying to live without spending money at all. Some grow their own food, wash in rivers, use solar panels for electricity, and barter for goods and services. These experiments can be fascinating, but they usually have limited practical success. For most of us, money remains unavoidable. We need it to buy food and clothing, pay bills, cover everyday costs, and enjoy the occasional extra.
Making ends meet isn’t always easy, but good money management can make a real difference. Personal finance is about planning income and spending, keeping track of where money goes, and making informed decisions that help you stay financially secure. With household budgets under pressure, it’s more important than ever to keep a close eye on your finances and avoid unpleasant surprises when the next bank statement arrives.
This roundup looks at terminal-based personal finance software for tracking income, expenses, budgets, transfers, and account balances without relying on a web service or heavy graphical application. These tools range from simple expense loggers to more capable finance managers, but they share a common focus: keeping personal finance records accessible from the command line or a text-based user interface.
Here’s our verdict in the legendary LinuxLinks-style ratings chart. We only feature free and open source software.
Click the links in the table below to read more about each application.
| Terminal-Based Personal Finance Tools | |
|---|---|
| Bagels | Record and analyse your personal finances |
| moneyflow | Track your money from the terminal |
| Helius Personal Finance Tracker | Local-first personal finance application |
| Budget Tracker TUI | Track personal budgets |
| MoneyTerm | TUI expense and budget tracker |
| cashd | TUI for personal finance management |
| Rex | Keep track of incomes and expenses |
| FiTui | Small terminal-based personal finance tracker |
| tuidger | Track expenses, revenues, transfers, and account balances |
| SmartWallet | Offline-first TUI application for managing personal finances |
| Ledge | Lightweight terminal-based personal finance tracker |
 Explore our carefully curated directory of recommended free and open source software, covering every major software category.The directory forms part of our extensive collection of articles for Linux enthusiasts. It includes hundreds of detailed reviews, together with free and open source alternatives to proprietary software from companies such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. LinuxLinks also covers interesting projects worth exploring, Linux-compatible hardware, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. Know a useful free and open source Linux application that we haven’t covered? Tell us about it using our submission form. |
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.
The real appeal is control: know where the money went, own the data, and keep the system simple enough that you’ll actually use it.