Host Actual Budget without installing anything
Envelope budgeting where every euro gets a job, synced between the browser and the mobile apps, on a server that is yours.
Starting at €4.99/month
Introduction
Actual Budget installed, updated and backed up by us, on a machine in France. A fast, private envelope-budgeting tool: every euro is assigned to a category. You install nothing and configure no server: the application is online a few minutes after you order, under your own name.
The plan that suits it is App Essentiel at €4.99/month incl. VAT — 2 GB of memory, against a theoretical minimum of 768 MB. Actual is frugal by design: the server only stores the budget file and arbitrates synchronisation, while the envelope maths happens in your browser. The headroom is there for the longer history imports and for bank synchronisation, not for decoration.
If you are coming from YNAB, the move is planned for: Actual opens a YNAB4 file and takes in an nYNAB export with accounts, categories and history. Otherwise it swallows statements in QIF, OFX, QFX, CAMT.053 and CSV with column mapping. In the other direction, your budget is a plain SQLite file you can download whenever you like — nothing keeps you here.
What managed hosting changes
A budget of envelopes, not a dashboard
Every euro sitting in your accounts is assigned to a category until the "to budget" line reaches zero. Whatever is left in an envelope at the end of the month rolls over: that is the method, and Actual does not let you dodge it.
Takes over your YNAB budgets and your statements
Direct import of a YNAB4 file or an nYNAB export. For statements: QIF, OFX, QFX, CAMT.053 and CSV, with a choice of columns and date formats.
European bank synchronisation
Actual connects to banks through GoCardless (formerly Nordigen), which covers European institutions under PSD2, or through SimpleFIN. You supply your own provider credentials: they stay inside your instance.
Mobile apps and end-to-end encryption
The iOS and Android apps point at your own server address. Synchronisation can be encrypted with a passphrase only you hold — in which case we host a file we cannot read.
Why hand it over rather than install it
A couple done with the shared spreadsheet
Two browsers, one budget file: the "groceries" envelope goes down on both sides at once, with no conflicting copies and no file sent back and forth by email.
A freelancer separating business from personal
One instance holds several independent budget files. The business one keeps its own categories, matching rules and history, with nothing mixed in.
A household planning building work
Category goals and scheduled transactions spread a known expense across the months left, and say each month how much has to be set aside.
Someone leaving YNAB after a price rise
The old budget export is imported as it stands. Categories, payees and several years of transactions follow, and the monthly subscription stops there.
The treasurer of a small association
Each line of the approved budget becomes an envelope. Through the year, the cash-flow report shows what has been spent and what is left, line by line.
Someone who will not hand bank statements to a US service
The instance runs in our own infrastructure in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, and Actual's end-to-end encryption can be switched on if you want even us to be unable to read anything.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. Actual opens a YNAB4 file directly, and takes in an nYNAB export: accounts, categories, payees and transaction history are preserved. Past monthly budgets come across too, so your reports do not start from scratch.
Yes, through GoCardless (formerly Nordigen), which covers most European banks via the PSD2 APIs, or through SimpleFIN. You open your own account with the provider and paste the key into the application: it stays in your instance. Failing that, importing an OFX or CSV file downloaded from your bank always works.
A budget file works in a single currency. There are no separate user accounts with different rights: whoever has the password sees the whole budget. And tracking an investment portfolio is not its job — Ghostfolio is built for that. For company bookkeeping, look at Akaunting or Dolibarr instead.
Nothing. You choose the application, fill in the two or three fields it asks for, and it goes online; the address and credentials arrive by email. The recommended plan for Actual Budget is App Essentiel, at €4.99/month incl. VAT with 2 GB of memory, and it can be changed later without reinstalling.
Yes, they are part of the service. A self-hosted application left un-updated is a security risk, not a saving. Actual's version upgrades are applied and checked by us, and an automatic backup kept for 14 days lets you roll back from the client area.