{"slug": "gnucash", "name": "GnuCash", "category": "finance", "category_name": "Finance", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 8, "warners": 2, "score": 1.589, "rising": -0.98, "first": "2026-01-02", "latest": "2026-06-08", "why": "It is a perfect replacement for MS Money and and has many excellent features.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 3, "compare": 0, "warn": 3}, "spark": [0, 0, 2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "It is a perfect replacement for MS Money and and has many excellent features.", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.gnucash.org", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["GnuCash"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 775127488, "item_id": 48445468, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48445468", "by": "vitalikpie", "date": "2026-06-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It's pretty good at auto-categorization.", "excerpt": "Agree. I wish banks have their APIs open. It's 2026 and we have OIDC. But I used to actually pull the CSV once a week and feed it to GnuCash. It's pretty good at auto-categorization. Also I simplified my finances to only a couple of checking accounts and only one credit account (for car rentals).", "context": "", "use_case": "personal finance from bank CSVs", "switched_from": "", "story": "Spanish traders set the standard forGnuCash database design"}, {"id": 743448656, "item_id": 46465541, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46465541", "by": "ekjhgkejhgk", "date": "2026-01-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "(I use GnuCash. It's not without its flaws, but it's great if you agree with the above views)", "excerpt": "A lot of people in this thread comingling \"plain text\" with \"double entry\". Beancount is both, but you can do either one or the other or both. In particular, you DONT need to learn double entry to do plain text accounting. Of course, you SHOULD learn double entry accounting because it's a great tool for organizing knowledge. Whether plain text is beneficial for accounting is less clear cut in my mind. I think plain t", "context": "", "use_case": "double-entry accounting", "switched_from": "", "story": "10 years of personal finances in plain text files"}, {"id": 743438336, "item_id": 46464896, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46464896", "by": "shoknawe", "date": "2026-01-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It is a perfect replacement for MS Money and and has many excellent features.", "excerpt": "I used a Windows 95 version of MS Money for years. After I switch over to Linux full time years ago, I kept running it in Wine with little problem. About 3 years ago I decided to try GnuCash. It is a perfect replacement for MS Money and and has many excellent features. With GnuCash, I am never overdrawn and always know my cash flow situation. Works with multiple currencies, for Linux, Windows and Mac.", "context": "full-time Linux user", "use_case": "personal finance and cash flow", "switched_from": "Microsoft Money", "story": "GnuCash \u2013 Free Accounting Software"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 775139937, "item_id": 48446246, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48446246", "by": "bregma", "date": "2026-06-08", "stance": "warn", "quote": "it's a whale of a lot faster than manually entering through GNUCash", "excerpt": "Well, there is legislation before Committee to mandate open APIs that any accredited institution can use. As a consumer you will not be eligible, but you will be allowed to pay some third-party to pull your data from your bank and save it in their database, after which maybe they might allow you to download it in their proprietary format should they choose. Me, I use plain-text accounting (hledger) that automatically", "context": "", "use_case": "personal finance", "switched_from": "", "story": "Spanish traders set the standard forGnuCash database design"}, {"id": 755742160, "item_id": 47233885, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47233885", "by": "sgtaylor5", "date": "2026-03-03", "stance": "warn", "quote": "GNUcash isn\u2019t it for me.", "excerpt": "I\u2019ve got a M2 MBA and I love it. I can /live/ with Tahoe, would rather have Sequoia or something a little older (but keep the Password app!) I certainly /don\u2019t need/ a touchscreen Mac laptop, which is what Liquid Glass seems to be designed for. Having said that, I probably would\u2019ve switched to some version of Linux many years ago if it wasn\u2019t for the lack of business accounting software that was easy to set up. GNUca", "context": "M2 MacBook Air user", "use_case": "business accounting", "switched_from": "", "story": "Welcome (back) to Macintosh"}, {"id": 743452322, "item_id": 46465770, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46465770", "by": "bregma", "date": "2026-01-02", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Then there were migration issues with GNU Cash.", "excerpt": "I started decades ago using Quicken. Then had to re-enter all my data when a new version came out and support for the old version was EOLed. So I switched to GNU Cash and re-entered everything again. Then there were migration issues with GNU Cash. Finally I discovered PTA. I chose hledger (because of possible performance issues with beancount). I learned double-entry bookkeeping (it's pretty simple, honestly). I writ", "context": "", "use_case": "personal finance", "switched_from": "Quicken", "story": "10 years of personal finances in plain text files"}]}], "who": [{"by": "abdullahkhalids", "context": "in Canada", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48445406", "date": "2026-06-08"}, {"by": "WhyNotHugo", "context": "used in Argentina", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48445131", "date": "2026-06-08"}, {"by": "shoknawe", "context": "full-time Linux user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46464896", "date": "2026-01-02"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["personal finance", "personal finance from bank csvs", "personal finance tracking", "multi-currency finance tracking", "business accounting", "recording transactions"], "compared": [{"slug": "hledger", "name": "hledger", "co": 4, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 3}, {"slug": "microsoft-money", "name": "Microsoft Money", "co": 1, "switched_from": 1, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "beancount", "name": "beancount", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48444784", "title": "Spanish traders set the standard forGnuCash database design", "mentions": 4}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46463644", "title": "10 years of personal finances in plain text files", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47224118", "title": "Welcome (back) to Macintosh", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46464895", "title": "GnuCash \u2013 Free Accounting Software", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 2, "warn": 1, "neutral": 1}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {"warn": 1}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {"neutral": 2, "recommend": 1, "warn": 1}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "quotes": [{"id": 775139937, "item_id": 48446246, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48446246", "by": "bregma", "date": "2026-06-08", "stance": "warn", "quote": "it's a whale of a lot faster than manually entering through GNUCash", "excerpt": "Well, there is legislation before Committee to mandate open APIs that any accredited institution can use. As a consumer you will not be eligible, but you will be allowed to pay some third-party to pull your data from your bank and save it in their database, after which maybe they might allow you to download it in their proprietary format should they choose. Me, I use plain-text accounting (hledger) that automatically", "context": "", "use_case": "personal finance", "switched_from": "", "story": "Spanish traders set the standard forGnuCash database design"}, {"id": 775127488, "item_id": 48445468, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48445468", "by": "vitalikpie", "date": "2026-06-08", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It's pretty good at auto-categorization.", "excerpt": "Agree. I wish banks have their APIs open. It's 2026 and we have OIDC. But I used to actually pull the CSV once a week and feed it to GnuCash. It's pretty good at auto-categorization. Also I simplified my finances to only a couple of checking accounts and only one credit account (for car rentals).", "context": "", "use_case": "personal finance from bank CSVs", "switched_from": "", "story": "Spanish traders set the standard forGnuCash database design"}, {"id": 775126496, "item_id": 48445406, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48445406", "by": "abdullahkhalids", "date": "2026-06-08", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I would like to use finance tracking products like GNUCash.", "excerpt": "I would like to use finance tracking products like GNUCash. But I don't have the patience to download the csv for half a dozen every month (Products like plaid are a no go from a basic security perspective). I am in Canada, and there seems to be no hope that I will have API access to my bank accounts anytime soon. Also, did I mention how much it annoys me that the transaction description differs between the CSV and t", "context": "in Canada", "use_case": "personal finance tracking", "switched_from": "", "story": "Spanish traders set the standard forGnuCash database design"}, {"id": 775122096, "item_id": 48445131, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48445131", "by": "WhyNotHugo", "date": "2026-06-08", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I used GNUCash years ago in Argentina while we had high inflation.", "excerpt": "I used GNUCash years ago in Argentina while we had high inflation. Some operations were in local currency and other are Dollars. The currency exchange changing hourly. Tracking finance is a nightmare, since you basically need an exchange rate for every operation.", "context": "used in Argentina", "use_case": "multi-currency finance tracking", "switched_from": "", "story": "Spanish traders set the standard forGnuCash database design"}, {"id": 755742160, "item_id": 47233885, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47233885", "by": "sgtaylor5", "date": "2026-03-03", "stance": "warn", "quote": "GNUcash isn\u2019t it for me.", "excerpt": "I\u2019ve got a M2 MBA and I love it. I can /live/ with Tahoe, would rather have Sequoia or something a little older (but keep the Password app!) I certainly /don\u2019t need/ a touchscreen Mac laptop, which is what Liquid Glass seems to be designed for. Having said that, I probably would\u2019ve switched to some version of Linux many years ago if it wasn\u2019t for the lack of business accounting software that was easy to set up. GNUca", "context": "M2 MacBook Air user", "use_case": "business accounting", "switched_from": "", "story": "Welcome (back) to Macintosh"}, {"id": 743489522, "item_id": 46468095, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46468095", "by": "shivekkhurana", "date": "2026-01-02", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I have been recording every txn with GnuCash for the last 8 years.", "excerpt": "I have been recording every txn with GnuCash for the last 8 years. I reached a point where I started writing scripts on top to support my multi-currency setup. Then Claude became a thing, and I thought what if I use Hledger and let Claude manage my books ? I was reluctant to migrate years of txns, so I started with an opening balance. This has been the highest leverage usage of Claude for me. I drop everything: bank ", "context": "", "use_case": "recording transactions", "switched_from": "", "story": "10 years of personal finances in plain text files"}, {"id": 743452322, "item_id": 46465770, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46465770", "by": "bregma", "date": "2026-01-02", "stance": "warn", "quote": "Then there were migration issues with GNU Cash.", "excerpt": "I started decades ago using Quicken. Then had to re-enter all my data when a new version came out and support for the old version was EOLed. So I switched to GNU Cash and re-entered everything again. Then there were migration issues with GNU Cash. Finally I discovered PTA. I chose hledger (because of possible performance issues with beancount). I learned double-entry bookkeeping (it's pretty simple, honestly). I writ", "context": "", "use_case": "personal finance", "switched_from": "Quicken", "story": "10 years of personal finances in plain text files"}, {"id": 743448656, "item_id": 46465541, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46465541", "by": "ekjhgkejhgk", "date": "2026-01-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "(I use GnuCash. It's not without its flaws, but it's great if you agree with the above views)", "excerpt": "A lot of people in this thread comingling \"plain text\" with \"double entry\". Beancount is both, but you can do either one or the other or both. In particular, you DONT need to learn double entry to do plain text accounting. Of course, you SHOULD learn double entry accounting because it's a great tool for organizing knowledge. Whether plain text is beneficial for accounting is less clear cut in my mind. I think plain t", "context": "", "use_case": "double-entry accounting", "switched_from": "", "story": "10 years of personal finances in plain text files"}, {"id": 743438336, "item_id": 46464896, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46464896", "by": "shoknawe", "date": "2026-01-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "It is a perfect replacement for MS Money and and has many excellent features.", "excerpt": "I used a Windows 95 version of MS Money for years. After I switch over to Linux full time years ago, I kept running it in Wine with little problem. About 3 years ago I decided to try GnuCash. It is a perfect replacement for MS Money and and has many excellent features. With GnuCash, I am never overdrawn and always know my cash flow situation. Works with multiple currencies, for Linux, Windows and Mac.", "context": "full-time Linux user", "use_case": "personal finance and cash flow", "switched_from": "Microsoft Money", "story": "GnuCash \u2013 Free Accounting Software"}]}