Actual Budget

What is Actual Budget?

Actual Budget is a local-first, open source personal finance app that uses envelope budgeting to plan spending and track your accounts. It runs as a fast web app in your browser, stores your data on your own devices, and syncs between them through a small server you control — so your transaction history never lives in someone else’s cloud.

What is Actual Budget best for?

People who want serious envelope budgeting without a subscription or handing their financial history to a company’s servers. It fits privacy-conscious budgeters, former YNAB and Mint users, and anyone comfortable running a small sync server — or paying a couple of dollars a month for managed hosting to skip the upkeep.

What can Actual Budget do?

• Envelope (zero-based) budgeting that assigns every dollar of real income to a category
• Sync across devices with optional end-to-end encryption, through a server you run
• Import transactions from QIF, OFX, QFX, CAMT.053, and CSV files
• Connect bank feeds via SimpleFIN (US/Canada) or GoCardless (EU/UK)
• Track net worth and cash flow with a custom report builder
• Automate categorization with payee rules, plus split transactions and transfers
• Migrate existing budgets from YNAB4, nYNAB, and Mint
• Script and extend it through a documented developer API

Where does Actual Budget fall short?

• Mobile is the weak spot. The official mobile apps were deprecated in favor of an installable web app (PWA); a native iOS/iPad app now exists, but Android users rely on the PWA or community-built clients rather than a first-party app.
• Automatic bank sync isn’t free or built in. US and Canadian users need a paid third-party bridge (SimpleFIN, roughly $1.50/month) and European users set up GoCardless — neither is the one-click direct integration paid apps advertise.
• Reporting is deliberately lean. If you want deep pivot-table analysis or heavy custom formulas, Actual will feel restrictive next to a spreadsheet.

Is Actual Budget free?

Yes — Actual Budget is 100% free and open source under the MIT license, with no paid tiers or feature gates. Self-host it for free with Docker or the desktop app, or use managed hosting like PikaPods ($2/month) or Fly.io ($1.50/month) to avoid server upkeep. The only optional extra cost is automatic bank sync in North America through SimpleFIN.

What does Actual Budget replace?

Actual Budget is a self-hosted YNAB alternative: it delivers the same envelope-budgeting workflow that YNAB charges about $109/year for, without the subscription. It’s also a common landing spot for former Mint users, since its local-first design means a service shutdown can never take your budget offline.

FAQ

Is Actual Budget open source? Yes. It’s fully open source under the permissive MIT license, and the code is public on GitHub — there’s no source-available catch or paid edition.

Can I self-host Actual Budget for free? Yes. Running the sync server with Docker, or using the desktop app, is free; you only pay for the machine it runs on. Managed hosts like PikaPods cost a couple of dollars a month if you’d rather not maintain a server.

Is Actual Budget a good YNAB alternative? For envelope budgeting on a budget, yes — it mirrors YNAB’s method with no yearly fee and keeps your data private. YNAB still wins on polished mobile apps and hands-off bank sync.

What do I need to run Actual Budget? A server with Docker (or a managed host), plus an optional SimpleFIN or GoCardless account for automatic bank imports. Everything else runs from your browser or the desktop app.