Actual Budget

Actual's method is zero-based budgeting: rather than recording what you spent, you assign every dollar currently in your accounts to a specific category — rent, groceries, fuel, the kids' lessons — before spending any of it. When it is all assigned, you stop; you cannot borrow from next month. Overspend a category and you must move money from another, an action that forces the real question: where does this month spend less?

The method is not new — YNAB built a paid product on it — and Actual's contribution is that it is MIT-licensed open source and the data stays yours. 28,135 stars.

Technically it is local-first: data lives locally, the interface responds instantly, and it works fully offline. To sync between a computer and a phone you can run your own sync server (an official Docker image exists), with sync content end-to-end encrypted so the server is only a relay and cannot read your books. There is also an official paid hosted option, or you can simply stay single-device.

Things it does well in practice: payee and category autocompletion during entry, rule-based automatic categorization, imports from YNAB4, nYNAB and CSV, and reports covering category trends and net worth over time. The interface is modern web styling and far more pleasant than GnuCash's.

Limits to be clear about:

• Automatic bank connections are region-limited. Users in some countries can sync transactions through third-party aggregators; elsewhere it is manual entry or CSV import. This is the biggest friction point depending on where you bank.
• It is a budgeting tool, not accounting software. No double-entry, no invoices or receivables, not suited to company books. Use GnuCash for that.

Who it suits: individuals and households who want real control over monthly spending and are willing to spend ten minutes a week reconciling.