Actual Budget vs Firefly III
Actual Budget
actualbudget.orgFirefly III
firefly-iii.orgSide by side
| Figure | Actual Budget | Firefly III |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 2 |
| Spec score · Personal Finance Software | 8.7 (#18) | 8.3 (#51) |
| Spec score · Budgeting And Expense Tracking | 8.7 (#4) | 8.3 (#7) |
| Bill tracking | Yes | Yes |
| Budgeting tools | Yes | Yes |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Net-worth tracking | Yes | Yes |
| Purpose | Actual Budget is a privacy-focused finance app built around envelope budgeting. | Firefly III is a self-hosted personal finance manager for tracking expenses and income. |
| Support | The documentation directs users to the maintainers and community for help and support. | The project lists GitHub Discussions for questions and support, Gitter for chat, and GitHub Issues for bugs. |
| Transactions | Users can manage split transactions and transfers in the transaction editor. | Users can create recurring transactions and rules to handle transactions automatically. |
Plans
In their own words
Actual Budget
Actual Budget is a privacy-focused finance app built around envelope budgeting. It lets users assign only cash they have on hand, manage split transactions and transfers, and track bills and net worth. The app stores data on the local device and a selected Actual server, and it works without a network connection. Reports include net worth and cash flow, alongside a custom report engine, and users can export reports. Actual imports QIF, OFX, QFX, CAMT.053 and CSV files. Bank syncing requires actual-server and credentials from a chosen provider, and automatic syncing is off by default. Optional end-to-end encryption prevents the server from accessing encrypted budget data, but it does not cover bank sync tokens; losing the encryption password without a local copy means the encrypted data cannot be recovered. Desktop clients are available for Windows, macOS and Linux, with web access and several self-hosting options. The free, MIT-licensed plan costs nothing.
Firefly III
Firefly III has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.