What is Actual Budget used for?

Actual Budget is a local-first personal finance and envelope budgeting app that syncs between devices and can be self-hosted or run locally. It is a good fit for budgeting without handing data to a cloud service and moving from another budgeting app.

Is Actual Budget open source?

Yes. Actual Budget is open source under the MIT licence. Its source code is on GitHub at actualbudget/actual and is written mainly in TypeScript.

Is Actual Budget free?

Yes. Actual Budget is open source, so the software itself is free to use. A managed cloud version is also available.

Can I self-host Actual Budget?

Yes. Actual Budget can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.

What is Actual Budget an alternative to?

Actual Budget is an open-source alternative to YNAB, Monarch, Quicken and Copilot Money. Other open-source alternatives to YNAB include Sure, Firefly III and Paisa.

Is Actual Budget actively maintained?

Yes. The most recent commit to Actual Budget was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v26.10.0, published on 2 October 2026. The project has 29k stars on GitHub.

Actual Budget: open-source alternative to YNAB, Monarch

About Actual Budget

Actual is a personal finance tool built around a local-first design. It is free and open source under the MIT license, written in TypeScript on NodeJS, and includes a synchronization layer so changes move between your devices without much effort. Its budgeting approach follows the envelope method, and the community documentation covers budgeting, account management and tips.

There are four ways to run it: a one-click deployment on PikaPods, managed hosting on Fly.io, self-hosting with a Docker image, or local-only apps for Windows, macOS and Linux that run on your own device. The code is organized into packages such as loot-core for the cross-platform core, desktop-client for the user interface and desktop-electron for the desktop app. The community offers guides for starting fresh and for migrating from other budgeting apps.

Key features

Local-first personal finance and budgeting
Envelope budgeting method
Sync of changes between devices
Docker image for self-hosting
Desktop apps for Windows, macOS and Linux
Migration and starting-fresh community guides

Good fit for

→Budgeting without handing data to a cloud service
→Moving from another budgeting app

Built with: TypeScript
Tags: budgeting; personal-finance; local-first; self-hosted; envelope-budgeting; money; typescript; nodejs

Actual Budget: questions and answers

What is Actual Budget used for?: Actual Budget is a local-first personal finance and envelope budgeting app that syncs between devices and can be self-hosted or run locally. It is a good fit for budgeting without handing data to a cloud service and moving from another budgeting app.
Is Actual Budget open source?: Yes. Actual Budget is open source under the MIT licence. Its source code is on GitHub at actualbudget/actual and is written mainly in TypeScript.
Is Actual Budget free?: Yes. Actual Budget is open source, so the software itself is free to use. A managed cloud version is also available.
Can I self-host Actual Budget?: Yes. Actual Budget can be self-hosted on your own server or infrastructure.
What is Actual Budget an alternative to?: Actual Budget is an open-source alternative to YNAB, Monarch, Quicken and Copilot Money. Other open-source alternatives to YNAB include Sure, Firefly III and Paisa.
Is Actual Budget actively maintained?: Yes. The most recent commit to Actual Budget was on 2 October 2026, and the latest release is v26.10.0, published on 2 October 2026. The project has 29k stars on GitHub.