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 Spot something out of date?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.↗ |
| Receipt capture | Photograph a receipt or forward it by email (Starter and up). The merchant, total, currency and line items are read for you, checked against the receipt’s own arithmetic, and confirmed by you before anything is saved. 75 / 200 / 400 receipts per renewal month by tier. | Attachments are an open feature request; two requests were closed without being implemented.↗ |
| 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 | Your home currency is always included, plus 1 more on Free, 3 on Starter, 10 on Pro and unlimited on Premium, with exchange-rate conversion. Spending abroad is never capped: any plan can record a transaction in any supported currency. | "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
- 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.
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