Personal Finance · alternatives
Alternatives to Actual Budget
20 personal finance tools sit alongside Actual Budget in this directory. Below is what separates each from Actual Budget on the figures we hold, price, model, tier count and rating, and a direct comparison for every one.
- Alternatives listed
- 20
- With a free tier
- 17
- Cheaper to start
- -
- Actual Budget starts at
- Free
Why people look past Actual Budget
Nothing on the record flags a reason to move. Actual Budget has a free tier. People still switch over fit and workflow, and those are not things a catalogue entry can measure, which is what the comparisons below are for.
What each alternative does differently
Ordered by the aggregated rating on each catalogue entry. Differences are drawn from price, pricing model, tier count and rating, the fields the category listing carries. For a feature-level difference, follow the head-to-head link on each card: those pages read both full records.
You Need A Budget
- Publishes an entry price of $9.08/month, where Actual Budget does not.
- Sold on a subscription model rather than Open source, no licence fee; optional paid hosted sync and subscription tier.
Free, open source, self-hosted personal finance manager with double-entry style accounting
- Sold on a Open source, no licence fee model rather than Open source, no licence fee; optional paid hosted sync and subscription tier.
- 1 tier to Actual Budget's 2.
Hosted budgeting app with bank sync, crypto and multi-currency tracking, pay-what-you-want annual pricing
- No free tier, where Actual Budget has one.
- Publishes an entry price of $60/year, where Actual Budget does not.
- Sold on a Pay what you want, annual, above a published minimum model rather than Open source, no licence fee; optional paid hosted sync and subscription tier.
- 1 tier to Actual Budget's 2.
UK-licensed digital bank with FSCS-protected deposits and no foreign currency card fees
- Sold on a Free core current account; paid Plus and Premium tiers add features model rather than Open source, no licence fee; optional paid hosted sync and subscription tier.
- 3 tiers to Actual Budget's 2.
Multi-currency financial app operating as a licensed bank in parts of the EU and as an e-money institution elsewhere
- Sold on a Free standard tier; paid plans add higher limits, insurance and perks model rather than Open source, no licence fee; optional paid hosted sync and subscription tier.
- 3 tiers to Actual Budget's 2.
Buy now pay later app offering short interest-free plans and longer plans that charge real APR interest
- Sold on a Free for short Pay in 4 plans; longer plans carry a disclosed APR up to roughly 36 percent, merchant pays a transaction fee model rather than Open source, no licence fee; optional paid hosted sync and subscription tier.
Every Actual Budget alternative at a glance
A dash means the catalogue entry carries no figure, not that the answer is nothing.
| Tool | Entry price | Model | Tiers | Head to head |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Actual Budget (this page) | Free | Open source, no licence fee; optional paid hosted sync and subscription tier | 2 | |
| YNABIf you want the same envelope method with vendor-run sync and support included in the subscription | Free, then $9.08/month | Subscription | 2 | vs Actual Budget |
| Firefly IIIIf you want a fully self-hosted, double-entry accounting-style tool rather than envelope budgeting | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs Actual Budget |
| Lunch MoneyIf you want hosted bank sync and multi-currency support without running anything yourself | $60/year | Pay what you want, annual, above a published minimum | 1 | vs Actual Budget |
| Monzo | Free | Free core current account; paid Plus and Premium tiers add features | 3 | vs Actual Budget |
| Revolut | Free | Free standard tier; paid plans add higher limits, insurance and perks | 3 | vs Actual Budget |
| Affirm | Free | Free for short Pay in 4 plans; longer plans carry a disclosed APR up to roughly 36 percent, merchant pays a transaction fee | 2 | vs Actual Budget |
| Starling Bank | Free | Free personal current account; business accounts have free and paid tiers | 2 | vs Actual Budget |
| IRS2Go | Free | Free government app, no payment of any kind | 1 | vs Actual Budget |
| Afterpay | Free | Free to shoppers with no interest on the standard plan; merchant pays a per-transaction fee, late fees apply to missed payments | 1 | vs Actual Budget |
| Google Pay | Free | Free | - | vs Actual Budget |
| Goodbudget | Free | Freemium | 2 | vs Actual Budget |
| Copilot Money | Free, then $95/year | Subscription | 2 | vs Actual Budget |
| Investopedia Stock Simulator | Free | - | - | vs Actual Budget |
| Credit Karma | Free | Freemium | 1 | vs Actual Budget |
| Kraken | Free | Freemium | 2 | vs Actual Budget |
| Mint | Free | Free | - | vs Actual Budget |
| Apple Pay | Free | Free | 1 | vs Actual Budget |
| Cash App | Free | Free | 2 | vs Actual Budget |
| Strands | On request | Quote | 1 | vs Actual Budget |
| Betterment | Free | Subscription | 4 | vs Actual Budget |
Ratings are aggregated from third-party sources and imported with each catalogue entry; Softwr hosts no reviews of these products. How each figure is used is set out on the Actual Budget badges page.
Cheaper ways to solve the same problem
Free to start (17)
These publish a tier that costs nothing, so they can be evaluated before any money changes hands.
- YNAB , Free, then $9.08/month
- Firefly III , Free
- Monzo , Free
- Revolut , Free
- Affirm , Free
- Starling Bank , Free
- IRS2Go , Free
- Afterpay , Free
What you would be giving up
Actual Budget is most often brought in for a former ynab user who wants the same envelope method without an ongoing subscription, someone who wants their financial data to stay on hardware they control, using a home server for sync, a technically comfortable household running a small self-hosted stack who wants budgeting alongside it, a user who is fine paying a small hosted fee for sync convenience without wanting a full ynab-style subscription. Anything replacing it has to cover the ones you actually depend on, and a cheaper tool that misses one of them is not cheaper.
Two things this page cannot settle. It compares on price, model, tier count and rating, because those are the fields the category listing carries, feature-level differences need both full records, which is what the head-to-head pages load. And the ratings are third-party aggregates imported with each entry rather than reviews written here, so a 0.2 difference between two tools is noise rather than a finding.
If Actual Budget is broadly right and the question is cost, the Actual Budget pricing breakdown covers every tier and what each one adds. If you want the whole field rather than a shortlist, the Personal Finance category lists everything the directory holds, and best personal finance tools ranks them.
Actual Budget runs on web, macos, windows, linux, ios, android. Platform coverage is not carried on the category listing for the alternatives, so it is one more thing to check on each head-to-head page rather than here.
Questions about Actual Budget alternatives
- What are the main alternatives to Actual Budget?
- 20 other personal finance tools are listed in this directory, led by YNAB, Firefly III, Lunch Money, Monzo. They are ordered by the aggregated rating on each catalogue entry, not by any Softwr ranking.
- What is the best free alternative to Actual Budget?
- 17 of the alternatives listed here can be used without paying: YNAB, Firefly III, Monzo, Revolut, Affirm.
- Is there a reason to switch away from Actual Budget?
- Nothing in the data flags one. Actual Budget has a free tier. Fit and workflow are the usual reasons to move, and those are not things this record can measure.
- What would I give up by switching from Actual Budget?
- Actual Budget is most often brought in for a former ynab user who wants the same envelope method without an ongoing subscription, someone who wants their financial data to stay on hardware they control, using a home server for sync, a technically comfortable household running a small self-hosted stack who wants budgeting alongside it, a user who is fine paying a small hosted fee for sync convenience without wanting a full ynab-style subscription. Anything you replace it with has to cover the ones you actually rely on, the side-by-side comparisons linked from each alternative below put the two feature records against each other.
- Is there an open-source alternative to Actual Budget?
- None of the personal finance tools listed here are recorded as open source. That is what the licence field on each entry says, and the field is not always filled in, so it is worth checking directly for any tool you are serious about.
- How were these Actual Budget alternatives chosen?
- They are the tools filed in the same category, Personal Finance, ordered by the aggregated rating on each entry. There is no editorial shortlist, and nothing on this page is paid: no sponsored placement runs on alternatives pages and the order cannot be bought. Softwr has not used these products.
- Where can I compare Actual Budget against one of these directly?
- Every alternative below has a side-by-side page against Actual Budget covering price, platforms, features and what each one is used for. Those pages read the full record for both products rather than the summary shown here.
- Does this list cover every personal finance tool?
- No. It covers what this directory holds in the Personal Finance category, 20 tools beside Actual Budget. The category page lists the rest of the catalogue as it grows.