ActualvsNATS
Two self-hosted projects, compared on the numbers selfhost.directory tracks live: score, popularity, release cadence and setup effort.
| Actual | NATS | |
|---|---|---|
| Score | 81/100 | 80/100 |
| Rank in category | #2 of 62 in Personal Finance | #2 of 12 in Message Broker |
| GitHub stars | 29 830 | 20 954 |
| Stars, last 30 days | +715 | +192 |
| Stable releases, 12 months | 15 | 18 |
| Latest release | v26.10.0 · 2 Oct 2026 | v2.14.9 · 26 Oct 2026 |
| Setup | Moderate | Moderate |
| Official Docker image | Yes | Yes |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Main language | Typescript | Go |
Which one should you pick?
Actual scores 81/100 against 80/100 for NATS, so it is the safer default.
NATS ships more often: 18 stable releases in the past year, against 15 for Actual.
Actual is growing faster right now (+715 stars in 30 days).
Actual details →NATS details →
Swap a project
Keep Actual, compare it with
Keep NATS, compare it with