Alternatives to Buckets
A private envelope budgeting app that keeps finances on your own computer, sold for a one-time price. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
Buckets
A private envelope budgeting app that keeps finances on your own computer, sold for a one-time price.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as Buckets.
Actual Budget
Envelope budgeting that keeps your data on your own device and syncs between machines without a company in the middle.
Actual Budget is free, MIT-licensed local-first envelope budgeting, syncing through a server you run, with a web app instead of native mobile apps.
YNAB
A subscription budgeting app built around zero-based budgeting, where every dollar is assigned a job.
YNAB offers zero-based budgeting as a subscription hosted service with extensive learning material, replacing the one-time price and local data storage.
Goodbudget
An envelope budgeting app for the web, Android and iPhone that syncs budgets across a household.
Goodbudget is a freemium hosted envelope budgeting app for web, Android and iPhone that shares budgets across a household, with data held by the service.
EveryDollar
A zero-based budgeting app from Ramsey Solutions for planning a monthly budget and tracking spending.
EveryDollar is a freemium web-only zero-based budgeting app from Ramsey Solutions that stores budget data on a hosted service.
HomeBank
Desktop personal finance app with budgets, reports and statement import.
HomeBank is a free GPL desktop finance app with budgets and statement import, using single-entry tracking rather than the envelope method.
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 is a free GPL local finance program with budgets and an encrypted SQLite file, plus Android and iOS companions, without envelope budgeting.
Fudget
A simple monthly budgeting app with manual entry and no bank connections.
Fudget is a simple freemium monthly budget app with manual entry across desktop and mobile, using a synced service rather than the envelope method.
Also worth comparing
These listings name Buckets as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.
iFinance 5
Personal finance app for Mac, iPhone and iPad that tracks income, spending and account balances.
Buckets keeps a one-time price and local data but uses envelope budgeting, runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS, and one license covers a household.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
Firefly III
A self-hosted personal finance manager with budgets, categories, rules and a lot of reports.
Tiller
A service that feeds bank transactions and balances into your own Google Sheets or Excel spreadsheets.
Honeydue
A mobile finance app for couples to track shared money, bills and expenses together.
Wallos
Self-hosted tracker for subscriptions and recurring bills.
Splitwise
An app for splitting shared bills and tracking who owes whom among friends, housemates and groups.
