How does it differ from YNAB?

The budgeting method is the same: every amount you receive is assigned to an envelope before it is spent. The differences come from the model: Actual is MIT-licensed, with no subscription, your data sits on your server rather than in the vendor's cloud, and both export and import remain entirely in your hands. In return, YNAB offers a more polished mobile application, where Actual relies on a fast PWA and an active open-source community.

Does my financial data stay private?

It is stored in a SQLite file on your VPS, and no third-party service has access to it. Actual also offers end-to-end encryption of the sync: once enabled on a budget file, the server only keeps encrypted data and sees neither your transactions nor your balances. If you turn on bank imports, only the gateway you chose (GoCardless or SimpleFIN) sees the transactions sent by your bank.

Can Actual import my bank transactions automatically?

Yes, through two optional integrations: GoCardless for European banks, which relies on open banking APIs, and SimpleFIN for North America. If your bank is not covered, you import OFX, QFX, QIF or CSV files manually — most banking portals offer an export. Manual entry also remains a perfectly viable way to work, and often the most instructive one about your own spending.

What resources should I plan for?

The Node.js server uses less than 80 MB of RAM at rest. A 1 GB VPS handles several simultaneous users without effort, and the budget file stays in the order of a few megabytes. Actual is one of the leanest self-hosted finance tools in the catalogue, which makes it easy to run alongside other services on the same machine.

Run commercial and administrative operations.

Actual Budget

Zero-based budgeting for a household or a small team: the self-hosted alternative to YNAB — envelopes, multi-device sync and bank imports.

1 GB (less than 80 MB at rest for the server) RAM 1 vCPU Port 5006 Available

Tech stack

DockerNode.jsSQLite

Minimum RAM1 GB (less than 80 MB at rest for the server)

Minimum CPU1 vCPU

Default port5006

Compatible OSubuntu-24.04

Actual Budget is an open-source personal finance application, designed to run local-first, and built around the proven zero-based budgeting method — the envelope method. Every amount you receive is assigned a job before it is spent: groceries, rent, savings, emergency fund. You therefore always know where your money goes and what is genuinely left, category by category. Actual flags overspent envelopes in real time as you enter your transactions, and its rollover mechanism carries surpluses from one month into the next.

Self-hosted on a ServOrbit VPS, Actual replaces a YNAB subscription with no recurring software cost. Your data lives in a SQLite file on your own server: private, portable, entirely under your control. The sync engine, a very light Node.js server, lets you reach the same budget from a phone, a tablet and a computer at the same time. Automatic bank imports are available as an option, through GoCardless in Europe and SimpleFIN in North America; failing that, the OFX, QFX, QIF and CSV files exported by your bank can be imported manually. The web application is a React PWA that keeps working offline. The project is released under the MIT license and has around 26,000 stars on GitHub.

Key features

Zero-based envelope budgeting — every amount you receive is assigned to a category before it is spent, and overspending is flagged in real time.

Multi-device sync — view and edit the same budget from a phone, a tablet and a computer at the same time, through your own server.

Optional bank import — automatic transaction retrieval through GoCardless (Europe) or SimpleFIN (North America), or manual import of OFX, QFX, QIF and CSV files.

Detailed reports — net worth over time, spending by category, cash flow summary and custom reports.

Fast, offline-capable PWA — the application keeps working without a connection once loaded, and re-syncs when the network comes back.

Import from YNAB 4 and nYNAB, MIT license: no subscription, no per-user billing, a single VPS for an unlimited number of budgets and users.

When to use this solution?

1

Personal budgeting without a subscription

Replace a YNAB, Wallet or Spendee subscription with Actual on a small VPS. The envelope method keeps your spending aligned with your goals — rent, groceries, savings — and the synced mobile interface lets you record an expense the moment it happens, without waiting until you are back at a computer.

2

Shared budget for a family or two business partners

A single Actual server is enough to share budget files with the members of your household or a business partner. Everyone installs the PWA on their own device and changes propagate through the server you host. No third-party service is in the loop: your accounts, your balances and your transactions stay on your VPS.

3

Cash flow tracking for freelancers

Track your incoming payments by client and your expenses by category. Carrying balances over from one month to the next is the mechanism spreadsheets most often lack: it naturally absorbs the irregular income of freelance work, with no formula juggling at every month-end close.

Deploy Actual Budget on your VPS

Guide optimized for ServOrbit Cloud VPS.

01

Order a ServOrbit VPS

A VPS with 1 vCPU and 1 GB of RAM is more than enough: Actual's Node.js server uses less than 80 MB at rest and handles several simultaneous users without difficulty. The storage to plan for is modest — the budget fits in a SQLite file of a few megabytes, even after several years of history.

02

Deploy from the Marketplace

In your ServOrbit client area: Marketplace → ERP & Business Management → Actual Budget → Deploy. The actualbudget/actual-server image starts in a few seconds and answers on port 5006. The named volume actual-budget, mounted on /data, holds your budget files: it is the only location to back up.

03

Log in for the first time

The first time you open the URL, Actual Budget asks you to SET the server password (there is no username): it is what will protect your entire budget. Do it immediately.

04

Create your first budget

Open the application in your browser, then click “Create new budget”. Actual guides you through naming the budget and creating the first accounts — checking, savings, credit card. No user account and no email address are required: the server is yours, and the budget exists from that screen on.

05

Enter your balances, then build your envelopes

For each bank account, create the matching account in Actual and record the current balance as an opening transaction; for a credit card, enter the balance of the latest statement. Then create your categories (Housing, Food, Transport, Savings, Emergency fund…) and spread the expected monthly income across them. Actual starts from those balances and tracks everything that follows.

06

Serve the application over HTTPS and install it on mobile

The install asks for an address: a subdomain of one of your own domains, or your VPS's free subdomain (budget.<your-vps>.servorbit-dns.com), HTTPS included. As soon as you want to reach the budget from outside, attach a subdomain to it (for example budget.example.com) from your ServOrbit client area: HTTPS is set up and renewed for you, with no reverse proxy or certificate to manage. Then open that address on your phone and add it to the home screen: the PWA behaves there like a native application.

Frequently asked questions

Actual Budget is an open-source, MIT-licensed personal finance application that runs local-first and is based on zero-based budgeting (the envelope method). It is a self-hosted alternative to YNAB: you run the sync server on your own VPS and reach your budget from any device.

Actual can import a budget exported from YNAB 4 (local export) and from nYNAB (web export): categories, accounts, budgeted amounts and transaction history are all carried over. On the backup side, everything fits in the actual-budget volume mounted on /data: a regular copy of that volume, or a budget export from the interface, is enough to restore everything on a new VPS.

Embed the deploy button

Maintaining a project that uses Actual Budget? This button lets your readers deploy it on a VPS in one click, without reading Docker documentation.

Markdown

[![Deploy Actual Budget on ServOrbit](https://servorbit.com/brand/deploy/button.svg)](https://servorbit.com/vps-cloud?template=actual-budget&utm_source=deploy-badge&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=actual-budget)

HTML

<a href="https://servorbit.com/vps-cloud?template=actual-budget&utm_source=deploy-badge&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=actual-budget"><img src="https://servorbit.com/brand/deploy/button.svg" alt="Deploy Actual Budget on ServOrbit" height="40"></a>

The button points to a VPS order with the template preselected. The image is served from servorbit.com — nothing to host on your side.

Complementary solutions

ERP & Business Management

Activate Actual Budget on your infrastructure.

Dedicated Cloud VPS — IPv4 included, European datacenter, support included. Your data never leaves your server.

Recommended configuration: 1 GB (less than 80 MB at rest for the server) RAM · 1 vCPU