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Fully Managed
Actual Budget
as a Service

Deploy Actual Budget as a fully managed service starting at €9/mo. Get automated backups, SSL, updates, support and monitoring included.

Actual Budget is an open-source envelope-budgeting app — bank sync, multi-user budgets, and end-to-end encryption — combining the methodology that made YNAB work with the privacy and control of software you own.

Free 7-day trial  99.9% Uptime SLA  No credit card  Cancel anytime

Free 7-day trial  99.9% Uptime SLA
No credit card  Cancel anytime

Actual Budget

Actual Budget

STARTING AT

€9/month
Automated Backups
Monitoring
Automated Updates
Auto SSL

USAGE

Unlimited
Human Support
Custom Domains
Terminal Access
File Manager Access
Deploy in your region 21 locations worldwide
GermanyFinlandNetherlandsUKSwedenUnited StatesCanadaSingaporeJapanAustraliaBrazilSouth Africa+9 more →
Actual Budget Preview Image

ABOUT THE SOFTWARE

What is Actual Budget

Actual Budget is a local-first personal finance app built around envelope budgeting. It tracks accounts, schedules, custom rules, and reports, and runs entirely on infrastructure the user controls.

Actual Budget is MIT-licensed and community-maintained. It started as a paid commercial product from James Long and was open-sourced in April 2022; today it is developed by a community of contributors with fiscal hosting on Open Collective.

The project ships over a million Docker container pulls per month, has more than 26,000 GitHub stars, and runs across thousands of self-hosted instances and hobby-platform tenancies. It is the canonical open-source envelope-budgeting app — the default recommendation in Reddit, Hacker News, and Bogleheads threads for buyers leaving subscription budgeting SaaS in 2025 and 2026.

FEATURES

What Actual Budget does

Actual Budget runs envelope budgeting with bank sync, multi-user access, end-to-end encryption, and a custom rules engine. Eight features that matter for day-to-day use.

Envelope budgeting

Assign every euro to a category before you spend it. The methodology that made YNAB work, without the per-seat subscription.

End-to-end encryption

Per-file encryption layer where the user holds the key. The server stores ciphertext only; loss of the password means loss of the data.

Custom rules engine

Match transactions on payee, account, amount, or notes. Auto-categorize, split, or rename without rebuilding category trees.

Reports

Net worth, cash flow, category spending, and custom dashboards. Filter by tag, account, or date range. Export to OFX or CSV.

Bank sync

SimpleFIN bridge for North American banks ($1.50/month) or GoCardless for EU and UK (legacy tenants). Automated daily import with categorization rules.

Multi-user access

OpenID Connect integration with Authentik, Authelia, Keycloak, Google, or GitHub. Basic and Admin roles, per-budget-file access lists.

Schedules

Recurring transactions for rent, salary, and subscriptions. Visual confirmation on the day a scheduled item is expected to clear the account.

Local-first sync

The desktop and web clients hold the full database locally. The server syncs the deltas. You can work offline and reconcile later.

WHAT'S ALWAYS INCLUDED

Every app. Fully managed.
Nothing extra to pay for.

Every app you deploy includes the full managed service — security, backups, updates, and support from day one.

Automatic updates and patches

Apps run the latest stable version. Security patches applied silently, with rollback if needed.

Daily off-site backups

Multiple daily backups in redundant off-site locations. One-click restore if anything goes wrong.

24/7 uptime monitoring

Continuous monitoring with instant alerting. We respond before you notice.

SSL, firewall, DDoS protection

Auto-renewing SSL, hardened firewall rules, DDoS mitigation on every deployment.

Performance and scaling

We monitor resource usage continuously. When your app needs more headroom, we flag it and upgrade with your explicit approval.

Dedicated engineering support

Real engineers on chat. DNS, SMTP & migration help. All included in €9.

WHY MANAGED

Why teams pick managed Actual Budget

YNAB's annual price moved to $109 in August 2024, and GoCardless stopped accepting new EU sign-ups in July 2025. Both nudged budgeters toward Actual Budget — but running it well in production is a different problem from using it well.

Self-hosting Actual is not just docker run actualbudget/actual-server. A production instance needs HTTPS termination at a reverse proxy that passes the right Cross-Origin headers (without them, SharedArrayBuffer is disabled and the app degrades silently). It needs ACTUAL_TRUSTED_PROXIES set to your ingress CIDR or rate limiting and SSO header passing break. It needs SQLite backup verification on a schedule, version bumps each month for the v26.x release cadence, and credential rotation for bank-sync providers like SimpleFIN and GoCardless.

The most expensive failure mode is the quiet one: when Actual is accessed over plain HTTP or behind a misconfigured proxy, browsers strip the COOP and COEP headers that SharedArrayBuffer requires. The app then falls back to a broken sync path, and separate budget files can merge into one another — corrupting data without warning (upstream issue #436). The fix is HTTPS at a properly configured proxy plus the right trusted-proxy CIDR. We ship that by default, on every instance.

REVIEWS

Hear from customers ​like you​​​​​​​

Successful businesses and professionals around the world rely on DANIAN every day

USE CASES

Three teams who run Actual Budget on DANIAN

These are representative team types we set up most often. Each starts with the same flat €9 plan.

COUPLE, EX-YNAB

Replacing YNAB after the $109 renewal email

US-based household, two adults sharing finances. Region: Germany for latency to their accountant in Europe. SimpleFIN bridge connected to two checking accounts, one savings, and one joint credit card. End-to-end encryption on, passphrase escrowed offline. ~150 transactions per month with a weekly category review.

EU FREELANCER

Locked out of GoCardless after July 2025

Solo design freelancer in Paris. Region: France. Two budget files on one Actual instance — personal and freelance — with separate VAT categories. GoCardless via a legacy tenant we maintain, since new EU sign-ups closed in July 2025. Monthly OFX export to her accountant. 4 accounts, ~120 transactions per month.

FAMILY, FOUR USERS

Past the YNAB Together cap of six

Parents and two college-aged kids sharing finances. Region: UK. OpenID Connect wired to Authentik so each person logs in separately. One shared family budget plus two personal child budgets. Parents have Admin role; kids have Basic. ~300 transactions per month total across the four users.

COMPARISON

Four ways to run Actual Budget

Four real paths to running Actual Budget in 2026: the proprietary SaaS most buyers are leaving, a VPS you operate yourself, a home server, or fully managed by us. The math holds at every scale.

 PATH1 USER5 USERS 10 USERSWHAT'S INCLUDED YOUR TIME
YNAB
Proprietary SaaS
$109/year
$14.99/mo
$109/year
household, up to 6
$218/year
two YNAB Together groups
Bank sync, mobile apps, customer support, vendor-controlled data
0 hours / mo
Self-host on a VPS
DIY
$44/mo infra
+ €60–240/mo time
Same infra, same timeSame infra, more time on user mgmtWhat you build: $24 production-class VPS, $5 object-storage backup, $15 monitoring1–2 hours/mo, plus on-call
Home server
Synology DS923+ class
€210–667/mo effectiveSame hardware,
same time
Same hardware,
same time
What you build: ~€650 hardware over 36mo + electricity + business internet + off-site backup2–4 hours/mo
DANIAN Managed SOFTWARENAME€9/mo€9/mo€9/moHosting, HTTPS, daily backup, monitoring, updates, OIDC, human support0 hours/mo

YNAB pricing is per household (max 6 members per YNAB Together group); the 10-user column reflects two groups. VPS path adds operational time at €60–120/hour for patching, certificate renewal, backup verification, and on-call. Home server amortises a €650 NAS-class device over 36 months and adds electricity at €0.30/kWh, a business-grade static-IP line, and an off-site backup target.

BY INDUSTRY

Actual Budget for specific industries

Actual Budget fits where a buyer needs methodology over reporting, privacy over integrations, and one engine that scales from solo budgets to small-team configurations. Four segments where the fit is strongest.

Sole traders carry mixed personal and business finances on one cash flow. IRS Publication 583 sets a 3-year minimum for business records, with 7 years recommended; in the UK, Making Tax Digital for Income Tax Self-Assessment requires sole traders and landlords with gross income above £50,000 to keep digital records from April 2026 (ICAEW TAXguide 01/25).

On managed Actual Budget, we configure two budget files on one instance — personal and business — with daily off-site SQLite snapshots and ACTUAL_UPLOAD_FILE_SYNC_SIZE_LIMIT_MB raised to 100 for multi-year files. A typical workflow tags every business expense at entry, runs a category-by-category review at month-end, and exports to OFX for the accountant at each quarter. Expect 3 to 5 accounts, 150 to 300 transactions per month, and a fiscal-year close in late January (US) or early April (UK).

A household running joint and individual finances needs separate logins, not a shared password. The Association for Financial Counseling and Planning Education's Code of Ethics is the relevant operational standard — informed consent for shared financial data and transparent allocation.

On managed Actual, we wire OpenID Connect to a shared Authentik or Keycloak so each partner authenticates separately, then run one shared budget file alongside one or two personal files. End-to-end encryption stays on, with a shared passphrase escrowed offline so loss of the key does not lose the data. A common cadence is a weekly money date — both partners log in together, review categories, and reset envelope allocations. Expect 2 to 4 accounts, 100 to 200 transactions per month, and one budget file per legal entity in the household.

IRS Schedule E requires per-property income and expense tracking; UK landlords above £50,000 of property income fall under MTD-ITSA from April 2026 (ICAEW TAXguide 01/25).

On managed Actual, we run one budget file per property or use category groups for the smaller portfolio, with SimpleFIN bridge on each dedicated rental account ($1.50 per month per SimpleFIN). Schedules in Actual handle the recurring rent receipt; reports filtered by category group give a per-property profit-and-loss at any point in the year. Expect 1 to 5 properties, 30 to 80 transactions per month per property, and a calendar-year close. The €9 per month floor stays the same whether the portfolio is one duplex or five units across two cities.

Coaches who recommend tools to clients are increasingly steering away from SaaS that monetises client data. The AFCPE Code of Ethics is explicit: client data must not be co-mingled or marketed to third parties.

On managed Actual, we run per-client isolated instances or one multi-tenant instance with OpenID Connect and per-budget-file access lists. The coach holds the Admin role on each client's budget; the client holds Basic. Coaches often use the public demo at demo.actualbudget.org to teach envelope budgeting, then graduate clients to their own managed instance. Expect 5 to 20 client instances per coach and 50 to 150 transactions per month per client.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Everything teams ask before signing up — answered straight, without sales speak.

Three groups: technical setup, migration, and how DANIAN works as a service.

01

Technical and configuration

Yes. We set ACTUAL_OPENID_DISCOVERY_URL, ACTUAL_OPENID_CLIENT_ID, and ACTUAL_OPENID_CLIENT_SECRET to your provider. Once enabled, you manage users from the User Directory page, assign Basic or Admin roles, and grant per-budget-file access from User Access. OpenID support landed upstream in 2025 and is stable in the v26.x release stream.
Yes, when you turn it on. Actual's end-to-end encryption is a per-file layer where you hold the passphrase; the server stores ciphertext. Bank-sync tokens (SimpleFIN, GoCardless) are stored separately and are not covered by end-to-end encryption — that is a known upstream design. If you lose the passphrase, the data is not recoverable from our side.
The native iOS and Android apps are deprecated upstream. The web client works as a Progressive Web App — installable from Safari or Chrome, responsive on phones and tablets, and able to run with a local cache. Plan for PWA, not native.
No REST endpoints. The @actual-app/api NPM package runs the UI headless against a server, which is the supported automation path. We can wire a long-lived API token into your instance for the headless client on request.
Yes. Each app is its own €9 per month instance on its own subdomain. They do not share data — and they should not. Firefly III is a double-entry ledger and Actual is envelope budgeting. Pick the one that matches the methodology you want, or run both for different purposes.

02

Migration and onboarding

We can activate your app on your own custom domain/subdomain. Examples: mydomain.com, anyword.mydomain.com.
Or, on our randomized free subdomain. Example: 963.apps.danian.cloud
If you wish to use a custom domain/subdomain, select that option when ordering your app (or notify us later). We will send you the required DNS records and if needed, our tech team will modify them for you.
21 datacenter locations across six continents. You choose the region at provisioning. Application data sits in the region you choose; pick whichever is closest to your users or matches your data-residency preference.
Yes. Request a region migration from the dashboard and we run the move in the background. The system emails you when the migration completes; total transfer time depends on data volume but typical instances finish in a few hours. There is no extra charge for a region change.
Yes. Full data export is available at any time, in a portable format you can bring to any infrastructure.

03

Billing, support, and platform

€9 covers everything we do for that app: hardware in the region you choose, daily off-site backups with one-click restore, automatic security patches and version upgrades, 24/7 monitoring, SSL and firewall, and engineering support on Email/LiveChat. There are no setup fees or hidden line items. For more info see our Pricing page.
If you decide to continue, we charge €9/app/month from day 8. If you don't, the trial ends and you can export your data. No card is required for the trial, and we never auto-charge you without explicit consent.
No. The €9/month is flat regardless of how many users log into your app. Add 5 users or 50; the price doesn't change.
24/7 Live chat and email support, both staffed by engineers who run the systems. We handle DNS configuration, SMTP setup, app integrations, performance tuning, troubleshooting, and migration help. Response time is typically under an hour. There is no tier system — every customer gets the same support.
Yes. Cancel from the dashboard. We don't charge a cancellation fee, we don't lock data, and we will export your data to you on request before deletion. data to you on request before deletion.
Every customer instance is backed up daily to a separate region from the primary. We test restores. You can request a restore at any backup point within the retention window — usually 7 days for daily backups.
Your application data sits in the region you choose at provisioning — 21 datacenter locations across six continents. Account-level data (billing, account email, support ticket history) is processed centrally. Application data region is picked by you, per app.
99.9% uptime SLA on every app, every tenant. Service credits are documented at danian.co/service-level-agreement. The status page is located at status.danian.co.
When your tenant approaches the resource ceiling — the base tier holds 1 vCPU/RAM, 30 GB storage — we notify you. Resource upgrades happen with your explicit consent; we will not upgrade your tenant or charge you without it.
We wait. We don't suspend the app or delete your data on the first failed charge. We email you, you fix the card on file, and we continue.
Invoices can be downloaded from the billing dashboard in PDF the day each charge succeeds. EU VAT is added where applicable and the VAT-reverse-charge regime applies for VAT-registered businesses with a valid number.
150+ open-source apps across automation, team chat, file sync, analytics, AI, password management, email marketing, dev tools, project management, smart home, CMS, and federated social. See the full catalog →
Yes. Every instance comes with a web-based terminal and a file manager in your DANIAN management dashboard. Useful for managing your data and customizations.
Resources scale with your usage. If your app needs more vCPU, RAM, or storage, we add it — and we ask first before any change to your plan. €9 is the floor; resource-heavy workloads may price higher, but you'll always know in advance.
Yes. We have both a Partner program and an Affiliate program available. Anybody can sign up.
No contract. No minimum commitment. Cancel anytime from the dashboard with one click. The 7-day free trial requires no credit card. After the trial converts to paid, you can still cancel at any month without notice or penalty.

DEPLOY IN YOUR REGION

21 datacenter locations on six continents

Pick the region closest to your users.

United States, Germany, Finland, Singapore, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Netherlands, UK, Spain, Italy, France, Sweden, Malaysia, India, Japan, Mexico, Poland, South Korea, Chile, South Africa and more coming soon

Global Reach Map

Try managed Actual Budget for 7 days

No card. Cancel from the dashboard.