Personal Finance · pricing
Actual Budget pricing
Actual Budget publishes 2 tiers. Below is each one, what it adds over the tier beneath it, and where the ladder stops being worth climbing for most people.
As of 1 September 2026, Actual Budget pricing is free across 2 published tiers. Figures are the vendor's list prices as recorded on this page's last check; the vendor's site is the final word.
- Entry price
- Free
- Model
- Open source, no licence fee; optional paid hosted sync and subscription tier
- Tiers
- 2
- Free tier
- Yes
Actual Budget plans, side by side
Every published tier in ascending order of price, with the number of features each one lists. An absence here means the record does not itemise it, not that the tier lacks it.
| Plan | Price | Features listed | Step up from the tier below |
|---|---|---|---|
| Actual Budget | Free | 3 | Entry tier |
| Actual Budget | $7.99/month | 3 | +$7.99/month, 3 more features |
What each tier adds
The set difference between each tier's feature list and the one beneath it. Where a tier lists nothing new, the vendor has either stopped repeating the inherited list or the tier raises limits rather than adding capability, the record does not distinguish the two, so this page does not either.
Actual Budget
FreeThe entry tier. It covers full budgeting features, self-hosted sync server, community support only.
Actual Budget
$7.99/monthOver Actual Budget, this tier adds:
- Managed hosted sync
- Mobile app access
- No server to maintain
Where Actual Budget stops being free
Actual Budget, Free
- Full budgeting features
- Self-hosted sync server
- Community support only
Actual Budget, $7.99/month
The first thing you pay for:
- Managed hosted sync
- Mobile app access
- No server to maintain
What the product covers
The full Actual Budget feature record, grouped as the catalogue groups it. This is the product as a whole; the record does not map every feature onto a specific tier.
Other
- Envelope budgeting
- Local-first data
- Self-hosted sync
- Bank sync via SimpleFIN or GoCardless
- Rules engine
- Reports
People bring Actual Budget 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. If that is not the job you are buying for, the alternatives to Actual Budget are worth a look before you commit to a tier.
How that compares in Personal Finance
Too few personal finance tools in this directory publish a starting price to quote a meaningful median, so the table below is a like-for-like list rather than a ranking.
| Tool | Entry price | Model | Rated | Head to head |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Actual Budget (this page) | Free | Open source, no licence fee; optional paid hosted sync and subscription tier | - | |
| Monzo | Free | Free core current account; paid Plus and Premium tiers add features | - | vs Actual Budget |
| Revolut | Free | Free standard tier; paid plans add higher limits, insurance and perks | - | vs Actual Budget |
| Strands | On request | quote | - | 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 | - | vs Actual Budget |
| Firefly III | Free | Open source, no licence fee | - | vs Actual Budget |
| Lunch Money | $60/year | Pay what you want, annual, above a published minimum | - | vs Actual Budget |
Ratings are aggregated from third-party sources and imported with each catalogue entry, they are not reviews hosted on Softwr. How each figure is used is set out on the Actual Budget badges page.
Before you pay for Actual Budget
Three things this page cannot tell you, and all three change the bill. The record carries a price and a billing period but not the unit - per-seat and flat-rate pricing are indistinguishable in this data, so a five-person team may be looking at five times the figure above. It carries no annual rate, so any discount for paying yearly is not something this page can quote. And it carries no trial length.
What it can tell you is the shape of the ladder: 2 tiers between Free and $7.99/month, with the jump itemised above. Because there is a free tier, the cheapest way to answer the rest is to use it before paying anything.
Actual Budget runs on web, macos, windows, linux, ios, android, and is published by Actual Budget (open source project) of Remote, community maintained. The full record is on the Actual Budget review, and the rest of the category is under best personal finance tools.
Actual Budget pricing questions
- How much does Actual Budget cost?
- Actual Budget publishes 2 tiers, from Free for Actual Budget up to $7.99/month for Actual Budget. The entry tier costs nothing.
- Does Actual Budget have a free plan?
- Yes. The Actual Budget tier costs nothing and covers full budgeting features, self-hosted sync server, community support only. Paying starts at $7.99/month for Actual Budget.
- What is the difference between Actual Budget and Actual Budget on Actual Budget?
- Actual Budget costs $7.99/month against Free, and adds managed hosted sync, mobile app access, no server to maintain.
- Which personal finance tools can I use without paying?
- 6 of the 8 personal finance tools listed alongside Actual Budget have a free tier: Monzo, Revolut, Affirm, Firefly III, Starling Bank.
- What am I actually paying for with Actual Budget?
- The record lists 6 features across 1 area: other. In practice it is 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.
- Does Actual Budget charge per user?
- The record carries a price and a billing period for each of its 2 tiers, but not the unit that price is charged in. Per-seat and flat-rate billing look identical in this data, so check the vendor's page before budgeting for a team.
- Are these Actual Budget prices current?
- They are what the catalogue entry holds, refreshed when the entry is. Vendors change pricing without notice and nobody at Softwr re-verifies each tier by hand, so treat this as a structured summary and the vendor's own pricing page as the authority.
- What should I compare Actual Budget against before paying?
- The closest personal finance tools in this directory are Monzo, Revolut, Strands, Affirm. Each has a side-by-side comparison with Actual Budget covering price, platforms and features.