Alternatives to Actual Budget
Envelope budgeting that keeps your data on your own device and syncs between machines without a company in the middle. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
Actual Budget
Envelope budgeting that keeps your data on your own device and syncs between machines without a company in the middle.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as Actual Budget.
Firefly III
A self-hosted personal finance manager with budgets, categories, rules and a lot of reports.
Firefly III is a self-hosted PHP server app under AGPL-3.0 with budgets, rules and detailed reports, but it has no official mobile app and needs a separate bank import tool.
HomeBank
Desktop personal finance app with budgets, reports and statement import.
HomeBank is a free GPL-2.0 desktop app for Windows, macOS and Linux with budgets and statement import, but no sync, mobile or web version and no bank connections.
Money Manager Ex
A straightforward personal finance program for accounts, budgets and spending history, storing everything in an encrypted local SQLite file.
Money Manager Ex stores budgets and accounts in an encrypted local SQLite file on desktop, with Android and iOS companions, but has no bank connection and leaves sync to you.
KMyMoney
Double-entry personal finance manager from the KDE community.
KMyMoney moves you to double-entry accounting on desktop with investment and loan handling, dropping envelope budgeting, and its Windows and macOS builds are heavy.
GnuCash
Double-entry accounting for personal and small-business finances.
GnuCash replaces envelope budgeting with full double-entry accounting on Windows, macOS and Linux, including invoicing, with a dated interface and no mobile or web app.
Skrooge
KDE personal finance manager with split transactions and detailed reports.
Skrooge is a GPL-3.0 KDE desktop finance manager for Linux and macOS with split transactions and detailed reports, but no Windows build, sync or mobile access.
YNAB
A subscription budgeting app built around zero-based budgeting, where every dollar is assigned a job.
YNAB offers zero-based budgeting as a paid hosted subscription with native mobile apps, but your financial data is held on its service instead of locally.
Buckets
A private envelope budgeting app that keeps finances on your own computer, sold for a one-time price.
Buckets keeps envelope budgeting on your own computer for a one-time price covering the household, but it is closed source and has no self-hosted sync server.
Also worth comparing
These listings name Actual Budget as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.
Cashew
An open-source budgeting and expense tracking app built with Flutter for managing budgets and purchases.
Actual Budget is free, MIT-licensed local-first envelope budgeting across desktop, mobile and web, syncing through a server you run instead of Firebase.
Copilot Money
A paid personal finance app for tracking spending, budgets, investments and net worth on Apple devices and web.
Actual Budget is free, MIT-licensed local-first envelope budgeting that keeps data on your devices, with sync through a server you run.
Denaro
An open-source desktop app for managing personal finances across several accounts on the GNOME desktop.
Actual Budget is free, MIT-licensed local-first envelope budgeting across desktop, mobile and web, with sync through a server you run.
EveryDollar
A zero-based budgeting app from Ramsey Solutions for planning a monthly budget and tracking spending.
Actual Budget is free, MIT-licensed local-first envelope budgeting that keeps data on your devices and syncs through a server you run.
ezBookkeeping
A lightweight self-hosted personal bookkeeping web app for recording and reviewing your own finances.
Actual Budget is MIT-licensed local-first envelope budgeting with desktop and mobile access, using an optional sync server rather than a web ledger.
Goodbudget
An envelope budgeting app for the web, Android and iPhone that syncs budgets across a household.
Actual Budget keeps envelope budgeting but is free, MIT licensed and local-first, syncing through a server you run, with mobile access through a web app rather than native apps.
Kresus
A free, self-hosted personal finance manager that fetches bank transactions daily onto your own server.
Actual Budget offers local-first envelope budgeting under the MIT license with optional self-hosted sync, and bank connections depend on your country and a third-party service.
Lunch Money
A web-based budgeting and spending tracker with multi-currency support, bank syncing and a developer API.
Actual Budget is free, MIT licensed and local-first, using envelope budgeting with sync through a server you run instead of a hosted service holding your data.
Monarch Money
A subscription money app that connects your accounts to track spending, budgets, net worth and goals.
Actual Budget is free, MIT licensed and local-first envelope budgeting, syncing through a server you run, so no company holds your full transaction history.
PocketGuard
A budgeting app that links your accounts and shows what is left to spend after bills.
Actual Budget is free and MIT licensed with local-first envelope budgeting, syncing through a server you run, though bank connections depend on your country.
PocketSmith
A budgeting and cash-flow forecasting service that projects account balances into the future.
Actual Budget is free MIT-licensed local-first envelope budgeting across all major platforms, syncing through a server you run rather than a hosted service.
Sure
A self-hostable personal finance and net-worth app maintained by the community as a fork of Maybe Finance.
Actual Budget is MIT licensed and local-first with envelope budgeting, syncing through a server you run, and offers cheap managed hosting as an option.
Tiller
A service that feeds bank transactions and balances into your own Google Sheets or Excel spreadsheets.
Actual Budget is free, MIT-licensed, local-first envelope budgeting that syncs through a server you run, with bank connections depending on your country.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
Portfolio Performance
Calculates how your investments are actually doing across several accounts, using the measures a professional would use.
Wallos
Self-hosted tracker for subscriptions and recurring bills.
Ghostfolio
A self-hosted wealth dashboard that tracks stocks, ETFs, crypto and cash across platforms and shows what your portfolio is actually made of.
hledger
Plain text accounting: double-entry bookkeeping in a text file you own, with command-line, terminal and web interfaces.
Splitwise
An app for splitting shared bills and tracking who owes whom among friends, housemates and groups.
