Actual Budget

Actual Budget is the open-source, local-first personal finance app for people who want envelope-style budgeting without handing their bank data to a SaaS company. We rate it 87/100 — the best free YNAB alternative for anyone willing to either self-host or pay roughly $1.50/month for managed hosting.

What is Actual Budget?

Actual Budget is an MIT-licensed personal finance app built around zero-based envelope budgeting — the same methodology that made YNAB famous. Originally a paid commercial product, it was open-sourced by founder James Long on April 29, 2022, and the project is now maintained by a community of contributors under the actualbudget/actual GitHub organization. As of April 26, 2026, the repo has 26,083 stars and 2,364 forks, with the latest stable release v26.4.0 shipped on April 5, 2026.

The pitch is unusually direct in a category dominated by subscriptions: every feature you would normally pay for in YNAB or Monarch — recurring transactions, multi-device sync, custom reports, bank sync, end-to-end encryption — is in the free, self-hosted build. The hosted PikaPods option exists for non-technical users, not as a paywall to feature-gate the open-source app.

Key Features of Actual Budget

• True envelope budgeting: You can only assign cash you actually have on hand — no fake projections or aspirational numbers — so the budget reflects reality, not wishful thinking.
• Local-first sync with optional end-to-end encryption: Data lives on your device first and syncs in the background; turning on E2EE means even the server you're using cannot read your transactions.
• Bank Sync via GoCardless and SimpleFIN: Native integration pulls transactions automatically — GoCardless covers EU/UK (free, up to 50 banks/month, 4 syncs per day), and SimpleFIN covers US/Canada at $15/year. Note that GoCardless stopped accepting new Bank Account Data accounts in July 2025; existing connections still work.
• Custom reports engine: Net worth and cash flow reports ship by default, but you can build your own custom dashboards with filters across accounts, categories, and date ranges.
• YNAB4 and nYNAB importers: One-click migration tools preserve your full budgeting history, so leaving a paid app for Actual takes minutes rather than a weekend of CSV cleanup.
• QIF / OFX / QFX / CAMT.053 / CSV import: The transaction importer reads every common bank export format, so even banks without API integrations are usable.
• Public JavaScript API: A documented Node API runs against your local data file — useful for custom importers, automated rules, or syncing with external tools.
• Cross-platform: Web app, plus desktop (macOS, Windows, Linux) and mobile-friendly PWA. A community-maintained iOS/Android app exists in the App Store and Play Store.

What Users Say About Actual Budget

Sentiment on r/selfhosted, r/ynab and the official Discord is genuinely positive but with a consistent thread of caveats worth taking seriously. XDA Developers' 2025 review called it "the open-source app that changed my financial life," and a widely-shared r/selfhosted comment praised it for "not paywalling basic features like reminders, attachments, and filters behind a paid plan." Multiple ex-YNAB4 users on Reddit highlight the GoCardless integration syncing 21+ accounts for free — something YNAB charges $14.99/month for.

The recurring complaints are equally consistent. The UI, while clean, is not as polished as Monarch or modern YNAB. There is no first-party native iOS or Android app — you get a Progressive Web App or a community-maintained build, which means push notifications can be flaky on iOS. Self-hosting requires comfort with Docker or a managed host, and on r/ynab one user dismissed it as being "for us dumb dumbs" — meaning anyone who doesn't want to think about servers.

Actual Budget Pricing

Actual Budget itself is free and MIT-licensed forever. The only money question is hosting and bank sync.

Option	Price	Notes
Self-hosted (Docker / source)	$0/month	You run the server. Free, infinite users, full feature set.
PikaPods managed hosting	~$1.50/month	One-click deploy, $5 signup credit (≈3 months free); 20% of fees go back to the project.
Fly.io managed hosting	~$2/month	Comparable to PikaPods, requires a bit more setup.
SimpleFIN bank sync (US/Canada)	$15/year	Optional. Pulls up to 90 days of history per account, daily updates.
GoCardless bank sync (EU/UK)	$0/month	Free for existing accounts; closed to new sign-ups since July 2025.

Who Should Use Actual Budget?

Best for: Privacy-conscious individuals, ex-YNAB4 holdouts, technically-comfortable households, and anyone who wants real envelope budgeting without a $14.99/month subscription. Also a strong fit for couples who want shared budgets without two seats of YNAB.

Not ideal for: People who want investment tracking, credit-score monitoring, or a polished native iOS/Android app out of the box. If you've never heard of Docker and don't want to pay $1.50/month for PikaPods, Monarch or Copilot are easier first steps.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Truly free and open source under MIT — no feature gating between self-hosted and paid versions.
• Local-first architecture means it works offline, syncs in the background, and can be end-to-end encrypted.
• Bank sync, custom reports, recurring transactions, and a JavaScript API all included with no premium tier.
• Active community: 26k+ GitHub stars, regular monthly releases, healthy Discord.
• One-click YNAB4 and nYNAB importers preserve full budget history.

Cons:

• No first-party native mobile app — community PWA/wrapper apps fill the gap but iOS notifications can be inconsistent.
• Setup curve is non-trivial unless you use PikaPods; Docker and reverse-proxy familiarity helps.
• Reports and UI feel functional rather than delightful next to Monarch's polish.
• GoCardless EU bank sync is closed to new sign-ups, narrowing automatic-import options for new EU users.
• No built-in investment portfolio tracking — you'll need a separate tool for net worth from brokerages.

Alternatives to Actual Budget

YNAB — the gold-standard envelope-budgeting SaaS at $14.99/month; more polished and has stronger mobile, but it's a closed-source subscription with your data on their servers. Firefly III — another open-source self-hosted option, but oriented toward double-entry accounting rather than zero-based budgeting, with a steeper learning curve. Monarch Money — a polished US-focused commercial app with great net-worth tracking, $14.99/month, but no envelope budgeting and no self-hosting.

Verdict: Is Actual Budget Worth It?

Yes, if you've ever considered YNAB but balked at the subscription, or if you're an ex-YNAB4 user still nostalgic for that app. Actual Budget is the rare open-source product that has matched and in some ways exceeded its commercial origins — the budgeting model is sound, the bank sync works, the data is yours, and the project is being maintained at a pace most VC-backed apps would envy. We score it 87/100: the polish gap is the only thing keeping it out of the 90s, and for the price (free, or $1.50/month) almost no one will care.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Actual Budget free?

Yes. Actual Budget is MIT-licensed and entirely free to self-host. Managed hosting on PikaPods costs about $1.50/month, and US/Canada bank sync via SimpleFIN is $15/year — both are optional.

Is Actual Budget open source?

Yes. The full source code is on GitHub at actualbudget/actual under the MIT license, with 26,000+ stars and active community development.

How does Actual Budget compare to YNAB?

Actual uses the same zero-based envelope methodology as YNAB and started life as a YNAB4-style app. It's free vs. YNAB's $14.99/month, and your data stays on your own server. The trade-off is YNAB has a more polished native mobile app and slicker onboarding.

Does Actual Budget support bank sync?

Yes — via GoCardless for EU/UK banks (existing accounts only since July 2025) and SimpleFIN for US/Canada banks ($15/year). Manual CSV/QIF/OFX imports are also supported for any bank.

What platforms does Actual Budget run on?

Web (browser), macOS, Windows, Linux desktop, and a mobile-friendly Progressive Web App. Community-maintained iOS and Android wrappers exist.

Is Actual Budget end-to-end encrypted?

Optionally, yes. End-to-end encryption is a built-in feature you can enable in the sync settings — when on, even the sync server cannot read your data.