What budgeting method does Actual Budget use?
Actual uses envelope budgeting, where you assign money to categories and track spending against those amounts.
Actual Budget: Envelope Budgeting
Actual Budget uses envelope budgeting to plan household spending. Its optional self-hosted server syncs budgets across devices while keeping your data on hardware you control.
Actual Budget requirements
The key facts for Actual Budget.
Common questions
Can I run Actual Budget without a hosted service?
Yes. You can run its sync server on your own hardware with Docker, or use the desktop app locally without a server.
Does the self-hosted server sync budgets between devices?
Yes. The server syncs your budget data between connected Actual apps.