Forbidden Finance · Comparison
Forbidden Finance vs Actual Budget
Actual Budget is a free, MIT-licensed, local-first envelope budgeting app you run yourself — desktop apps with local files, or your own sync server for multi-device use. It is community-maintained (no company), funded through Open Collective, with optional end-to-end encrypted sync.
Actual Budget is best for: Self-hosters who want full control, open code, and $0 software.
Facts about Actual Budget were checked against their published pages in August 2026; every cell links its source. Spot something out of date? Tell us at support@403fin.io and we'll fix it.
At a glance
| Dimension | Forbidden Finance | Actual Budget |
|---|---|---|
| The basics | ||
| Price | Free tier forever; paid plans $4.99–$14.99/mo. No free trial — 30-day money-back guarantee on web purchases. | Free and open-source. Optional third-party costs: managed hosting ~$1.50/mo (PikaPods), North-American bank sync $1.50/mo via SimpleFIN Bridge.↗ |
| Business model | Subscriptions only. No ads, no data sales, no cross-sells. | Community-run open-source project funded by donations (Open Collective) — not a company.↗ |
| Security & privacy | ||
| Data selling & ads | We never sell user data, share it with advertisers, or build behavioral profiles for third parties. | You host it — there is no vendor collecting your data. "You own your data."↗ |
| Bank credentials & tokens | Bank credentials never touch our servers (entered with regulated aggregators); sensitive tokens encrypted with AES-256-GCM before storage. | Bank-sync tokens (SimpleFIN/GoCardless/Pluggy credentials) are stored on YOUR server and explicitly NOT covered by the end-to-end encryption — server admins can read them.↗ |
| Encryption inside the database | Sensitive financial fields are sealed under encryption keys unique to each account before they reach the database; keys live in a separate key service. Amounts are aggregated in memory after decryption, so financial values never need to sit readable in the database. | Optional end-to-end encrypted sync: "Before your data leaves your device, it is encrypted using keys only you have" — even the server operator cannot read budget data.↗ |
| Database-level isolation | PostgreSQL row-level security enforces per-account isolation inside the database engine itself. | Not applicable in the hosted-vendor sense — each install is its own server; multi-user isolation depends on your own deployment.↗ |
| Deletion & export | Self-serve: 30-day recovery window, then permanent deletion and destruction of the account’s encryption keys. Full data export on every tier. | You own the files — export a full Actual zip or CSV anytime; deletion is under your control (no vendor process exists).↗ |
| Sign-in security | Passkeys, authenticator-app (TOTP) MFA, biometric unlock, session management. | No built-in MFA/passkeys; multi-user auth delegates to an external OpenID provider (MFA comes from that provider).↗ |
| Security testing & audits | Built by a founder with a professional penetration-testing background; an independent, human-led penetration test is scheduled ahead of full launch. Not yet SOC 2 certified — we say so plainly. | Open source (MIT): anyone can audit every line, and issues are reported and fixed in public on GitHub. No formal audit or bounty program documented.↗ |
| Features | ||
| Bank sync | US & Canada via regulated aggregators (daily + updates when your bank reports changes); UK/EU via bring-your-own open-banking connections; CSV & JSON import. | Five optional self-configured bridges: SimpleFIN (N. America), Enable Banking (EU), GoCardless (EU — not accepting new accounts), Akahu (NZ), Pluggy (Brazil). Manual trigger only; server required.↗ |
| Budget methods | All 8 methods: 50/30/20, Pay Yourself First, Zero-Based, Envelope, Kakeibo, FIRE, Values-Based, Custom. | Envelope/zero-based budgeting, plus an alternative Tracking Budget mode.↗ |
| Investment tracking | Brokerage connections with holdings, activity & cost basis (Pro+); per-lot detail and tax-lot CSV export (Premium). | Balance-level only via off-budget accounts — no holdings, cost basis, or per-lot detail.↗ |
| Multi-currency | 1 / 3 / 10 / unlimited currencies by tier, with exchange-rate conversion. | "Currency agnostic and does not support multi-currency" — an experimental rule-templating workaround exists.↗ |
| Partner / household | 1 partner (Pro) or up to 5 users (Premium). You choose exactly which accounts to share; partners work in a shared budget while each also keeps a private budget; connection slots can be lent. | Unlimited users on your own server at no cost — but requires configuring an external OpenID provider.↗ |
| Platforms | Web (installable PWA), iOS, Android. Android direct download available today; app-store listings Coming Soon. | Desktop apps (Windows/Mac/Linux) + browser/installable PWA; no official native mobile apps (community projects only).↗ |
| Open source / self-host | Proprietary, not self-hostable. The exit stays open: full data export on every tier. | MIT licensed, ~28k GitHub stars, monthly releases (v26.8.0, 2026-08-02); fully self-hostable and forkable.↗ |
Security, side by side
We compare only what Actual Budget publicly documents. "Not publicly documented" means exactly that — it is not an accusation, and plenty of solid engineering never makes it to a marketing page. Here's what each side is willing to put in writing.
What Forbidden Finance puts in writing
- Data selling & ads: We never sell user data, share it with advertisers, or build behavioral profiles for third parties.
- Bank credentials & tokens: Bank credentials never touch our servers (entered with regulated aggregators); sensitive tokens encrypted with AES-256-GCM before storage.
- Encryption inside the database: Sensitive financial fields are sealed under encryption keys unique to each account before they reach the database; keys live in a separate key service. Amounts are aggregated in memory after decryption, so financial values never need to sit readable in the database.
- Database-level isolation: PostgreSQL row-level security enforces per-account isolation inside the database engine itself.
- Deletion & export: Self-serve: 30-day recovery window, then permanent deletion and destruction of the account’s encryption keys. Full data export on every tier.
- Sign-in security: Passkeys, authenticator-app (TOTP) MFA, biometric unlock, session management.
- Security testing & audits: Built by a founder with a professional penetration-testing background; an independent, human-led penetration test is scheduled ahead of full launch. Not yet SOC 2 certified — we say so plainly.
The full story, including what we're NOT certified for, is on the Security & Privacy page.
What Actual Budget documents
- Data selling & ads: If you use a third-party host (PikaPods, Fly.io…), that host’s terms apply to the server, and bank-sync tokens sit on that server outside the end-to-end encryption (see encryption cell).↗
- Bank credentials & tokens: Documented plainly by the project: "Server administrators or hosting providers with direct access to the server’s database can read these tokens."↗
- Encryption inside the database: Stronger than a hosted vendor’s model in this one dimension: nobody but you holds the key. Two hard edges: a forgotten password means unrecoverable data, and encryption cannot be turned off once enabled.↗
- Database-level isolation: Not applicable in the hosted-vendor sense — each install is its own server; multi-user isolation depends on your own deployment.↗
- Deletion & export: You own the files — export a full Actual zip or CSV anytime; deletion is under your control (no vendor process exists).↗
- Sign-in security: No built-in MFA/passkeys; multi-user auth delegates to an external OpenID provider (MFA comes from that provider).↗
- Security testing & audits: Open source (MIT): anyone can audit every line, and issues are reported and fixed in public on GitHub. No formal audit or bounty program documented.↗
Where Actual Budget is a better fit
An honest comparison cuts both ways. If these match what you need,Actual Budget is a fine choice — we'd rather you pick the right tool than churn out of the wrong one.
- You want zero trust in any vendor: Actual is the only app here where your financial data can live entirely on hardware you control, with optional end-to-end encryption where only you hold the keys. We encrypt per account in our database — but it is still our database.
- You want genuinely $0 forever: self-hosted with manual imports, there is no subscription at all.
- You want software nobody can take away: MIT-licensed and forkable — no price change, acquisition, or shutdown can end your setup.
- You need bank coverage we don’t reach: Brazil (Pluggy) and New Zealand (Akahu) bridges exist.
- You want unlimited users on a shared budget at no per-seat cost (once you’ve set up an OpenID provider).
Trade-offs to know about Actual Budget
- DIY: you run the server, configure sync bridges, and trigger bank syncs manually
- No official native mobile apps (PWA + community projects)
- No multi-currency ("currency agnostic"), investments are balance-only
- Bank-sync tokens sit on the server outside the end-to-end encryption
Why pick Forbidden Finance over Actual Budget
Shipped today
- Managed and automatic: daily sync plus bank-triggered updates, no server to run, no manual sync button.
- Native mobile apps and an installable web app, versus PWA-plus-community-projects.
- Multi-currency with conversion and investments with cost basis — Actual has neither.
- Encrypted-in-the-database without operating your own infrastructure — including the bank tokens Actual’s E2E explicitly doesn’t cover.
- A team on the hook for support, uptime, and the roadmap.
- 30-day money-back guarantee on web purchases instead of a trial that auto-converts.
On the way
- Flexible budget periods — pick your own start date and frequency, or alternate phases: run a 6-month budget, or three high-income months followed by three lean ones, the way contractor income actually works Coming Soon
- AI-powered insights (privacy-gated, on open models) Coming Soon
- API access Coming Soon
- MCP connector for AI assistants Coming Soon
- Dedicated FIRE planning tools Coming Soon
- Debt payoff tools Coming Soon
Unshipped features stay labeled until they're real — that's the same honesty rule the rest of this page runs on.
Switching from Actual Budget?
Export your data from Actual Budget, then bring it in with Forbidden Finance's CSV & JSON import — available on every tier, including Free, so you can test-drive with your real data before paying anything. The help docs walk through imports step by step.
Common questions
The software is genuinely free and MIT-licensed. The "cost" is operational: you run the server (or pay ~$1.50/month for managed hosting), set up bank-sync bridges yourself with third-party providers, trigger syncs manually, and there is no official native mobile app or vendor support. Forbidden Finance is the managed inverse: hosted, synced automatically, supported — and paid.
In one important dimension, yes: with self-hosting and end-to-end encryption enabled, nobody but you can read your budget data — not even the server operator. Two honest caveats from Actual’s own docs: bank-sync tokens are NOT covered by that encryption and are readable by whoever administers the server, and a forgotten encryption password means unrecoverable data. Forbidden Finance holds encrypted data under per-account keys in our database with key destruction on deletion — a strong managed model, but you are trusting us to operate it.
Semi-automatically. North American sync goes through SimpleFIN Bridge ($1.50/month), which you sign up for and configure yourself, and syncing is triggered manually by clicking "Bank Sync" — there is no scheduled background sync. Forbidden Finance syncs daily automatically, plus updates when your bank reports changes.
Neither deeply. Investments are balance-only "off budget" accounts with no holdings or cost basis, and the docs state Actual "does not support multi-currency" (an experimental workaround exists). Forbidden Finance covers both — holdings with cost basis from Pro, and multi-currency with conversion.
Ready to Take Control?
Join thousands who've stopped guessing and started growing.