What is the difference between Actual and YNAB?

Actual: A local-first envelope budgeting app, similar to YNAB, with an optional self-hosted sync server, bank import and rules. YNAB: A zero-based budgeting app where every dollar is assigned a job, with bank import and shared household budgets.

When should I choose Actual?

You want zero-based budgeting without a subscription and are willing to run a small sync server for multiple devices.

When should I choose YNAB?

You want to change spending habits with a strict budgeting method and will use it regularly.

Actual vs YNAB

Actual and YNAB are both personal finance software. Actual is open source under MIT, with 30k GitHub stars. YNAB is a commercial product from You Need A Budget.

Which to pick

Pick Actual when: You want zero-based budgeting without a subscription and are willing to run a small sync server for multiple devices.
Pick YNAB when: You want to change spending habits with a strict budgeting method and will use it regularly.

Side by side

Actual YNAB

What it does

A local-first envelope budgeting app, similar to YNAB, with an optional self-hosted sync server, bank import and rules.

A zero-based budgeting app where every dollar is assigned a job, with bank import and shared household budgets.

Watch out

Automatic bank sync depends on third-party providers (GoCardless, SimpleFIN) with limited regional coverage.

The subscription is relatively expensive, bank sync coverage varies by country, and the method takes effort to learn.

Ready for

Production-ready (both)

Runs as

Self-hosted server and desktop app

Cloud service and mobile app

Built with

TypeScript, React, Node.js and SQLite

Not published

Source code

Open source, MIT (permissive)

Closed source, sold by You Need A Budget

What the license allows

You can build it into a product you sell, as long as you keep its copyright notice.

Closed source: you use it under the maker's terms and cannot change or resell the code.

How widely known

30k GitHub stars

430 Wikipedia readers a month on phones

How established

Established: started 4 years ago, latest release v26.11.0.

Not known

Other comparisons

Quicken Classic vs YNAB Actual vs Quicken Classic Monarch Money vs YNAB Firefly III vs YNAB Ghostfolio vs YNAB Actual vs Monarch Money Actual vs Firefly III Actual vs Ghostfolio

More personal finance and budgeting apps

Every personal finance product and project, ranked

Both sides were judged on 2026-11-03 from makers' descriptions, Wikipedia, READMEs and GitHub data. License, age and popularity lines are worked out directly.