Actual Budgetvs
YNAB
YNAB: If you want the same envelope method with vendor-run sync and support included in the subscription
Actual Budget
Free, open source, local-first envelope budgeting with optional self-hosted sync
As of 1 September 2026, Actual Budget is free to use. A zero-based budgeting app in the YNAB style that runs local-first: your budget file lives on your device by default, and syncing across devices is done through a small self-hosted server you can run yourself rather than a company you must trust with the data. Softwr lists it under Personal Finance. Actual Budget is made by Actual Budget (open source project), available on Web, macOS, Windows, Linux.
Overview
What Actual Budget does
Actual Budget is an open source personal budgeting tool that implements zero-based, envelope-style budgeting: every dollar is assigned a category, and overspending in one category has to come from another. The core app and its data format are free and the project is developed in the open on GitHub, with a small non-profit-adjacent team maintaining it after it was open sourced. What separates it from Lunch Money is architecture, not just price. Actual is local-first: your budget lives in a file on your device, and if you want it synced across a phone and a laptop you run the sync server yourself, on a Raspberry Pi, a home NAS or any small host, or use the optional hosted sync the project itself sells for a modest fee. That is a genuinely different ownership model from a cloud service where the vendor holds the only copy of your data. Buyers are people who liked the YNAB method but do not want an ongoing subscription, and people who specifically want their financial data to never leave hardware they control. The trade-off against Lunch Money or YNAB is that bank sync is less polished, self-hosting sync requires comfort running a small server, and there is no dedicated support line, just community channels.
What people use it 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
Related searches
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Actual Budget.
- Self-hosting the sync server requires basic comfort with running and updating a small application, which is a real barrier for non-technical users.
- Bank sync depends on SimpleFIN or GoCardless connectors rather than a broad built-in aggregator network, so coverage of smaller banks varies by region.
- There is no dedicated customer support line, only community Discord and GitHub issues, which suits technical users but frustrates people expecting vendor support.
- The mobile apps are less mature than the web and desktop experience, and some budgeting workflows are easier on desktop.
- Because it is a smaller open source project, feature development depends on maintainer time and community contribution rather than a funded product roadmap.
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of Actual Budget
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- Actual BudgetvsFirefly III
Firefly III: If you want a fully self-hosted, double-entry accounting-style tool rather than envelope budgeting
- Actual BudgetvsLunch Money
Lunch Money: If you want hosted bank sync and multi-currency support without running anything yourself
Pricing
What Actual Budget costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Actual Budget
Free
- Full budgeting features
- Self-hosted sync server
- Community support only
Actual Budget
$7.99 /mo
- Managed hosted sync
- Mobile app access
- No server to maintain
Capabilities
Features
Envelope budgeting
Zero-based category assignment for every dollar of income
Local-first data
Budget stored as a local file, not dependent on a remote server to function
Self-hosted sync
Run your own sync server to share a budget across devices
Bank sync via SimpleFIN or GoCardless
Optional automated transaction import through third-party connectors
Rules engine
Automatic categorisation and transaction matching rules
Reports
Spending, net worth and category trend reports built into the app
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
Is Actual Budget really free?
The core app and self-hosted sync are free and open source; there is also an optional paid hosted sync subscription if you do not want to run a server.
Do I need a server to use it?
Only if you want to sync a budget across multiple devices; a single-device budget works without any server at all.
Does it connect to my bank automatically?
Yes, through SimpleFIN or GoCardless connectors, though coverage is narrower than commercial aggregators used by YNAB or Lunch Money.
Keep looking
Where to go from Actual Budget
- Actual Budget alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- Actual Budget pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- Actual Budget badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All Personal Finance softwareThe full category
- Best Personal Finance softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best Personal Finance software for
Compare Actual Budget with
- Firefly III
- Lunch Money
- YNAB
- GnuCash
- Money Manager
- EveryDollar
- Wise
- Affirm
- Apple Pay
- Goodbudget
- Monzo
- Revolut
- Afterpay
- Betterment
- Fidelity
- Mint
- Monarch Money
- Firefly III
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Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Actual Budget, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
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