Maybe not.
this post was submitted on 31 Jul 2025
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Actual Budget
The overall trend of these personal finance apps to online subscription-only models over the years has been unfortunate, though as others have mentioned it is somewhat understandable. For what it's worth, my app of choice is still You Need a Budget (YNAB) v4, which was the last version they released that was just a desktop app.
It's no longer available to buy on Steam (or download anywhere) but given the hours I've apparently clocked using that app the devs will have to pry it from my cold, dead hands before I use anything else...
Actual Budget is an amazing piece of software.
There are some really annoying "features" though that they refuse to fix, like being able to mutate transactions that come from a bank connection.
Personal finance software is tough. It's costly to develop, even with a very limited feature set. Automatic transaction downloads are a must if you want widespread adoption and that has its own set of complications.
I still use Quicken -- which doesn't get anyone excited since it's still a Windows (and Mac) desktop app built on an ancient codebase -- but I'm a power user and have yet to find an adequate replacement. It's not sexy but it does the job. I'm more the exception than the rule. The average user probably doesn't need or care about the same features that I do.
Oddly enough, one of its redeeming qualities is that it runs quite well on Linux through Wine.
Does quicken still sync well with most American banks, investment accounts, and credit card companies?
I used to be a power user as well but then moved overseas where is syncs with nothing.
Now I use gnucash with a ton of custom python scraping and importing scripts. It isn't perfect but as close as I have been able to find.
Yes. I rarely have any sync issues.
Not sure it is the same kind of thing, but I've been using Homebank ever since the various personal financial management applications pulled out of the UK market.
I use Firefly III for personal finance
Are they making this open source?
I missed the link somehow, I've edited the post now. It's open source (GPLv3).
They started as a startup, then shut down and open-sourced the project, and now it looks like they're pivoting to something else
Yeah, and on the soon-to-be-closed discord the creator has mentioned Sure https://github.com/we-promise/sure as the most active fork at the moment.
I'm not convinced it's possible to make a Free Software finance tracker with the feature that matters -- synchronizing with your bank accounts -- because banks (at least in the US) don't seem to be interested in letting you connect to their API unless you're an 800 lb gorilla, like Intuit, or at least a for-profit middleman willing to constantly jump through hoops, like Plaid.
You don't have an open banking requirement for banks?
in Europe all banks are obligated to provide psd2
Actual Budget does it through simple fin.
But I hope most American banks work better than PayPal, with PayPal I only get half the transactions. Like I get that I paid Apple 99 cents, but where is the transaction that PayPal charges my bank account 99 cent? Spoiler they don't include it in their exports.
I never used it, but I remember reviewing the code base and it was such an empty shell of an app. Maybe I'm remembering incorrectly.
Vibe coded?
PTA is the way to go.
hledger, especially, is amazing.
I hate how they don't differentiate between bookkeeping and accounting, where I am from using accountancy is even a resevered term for certified accounting or firms.
Also, the more automation you do the more you can focus on actual analysing your finances which can help you improve.
Not sure what you are trying to say. There's little point to simply keeping records in a plaintext file, but that's not what PTA is about.
It's about using plaintext files that can work with various tools, such as ledger, hledger, or beancount, all capable of generating relevant reports and more, all while being able to edit/automate easily because, well, they're just text files.
Also, the more automation you do the more you can focus on actual analysing your finances which can help you improve.
I'm sure every other tools like this can handle automation very well but provided that you are capable of writing scripts and stuff, PTA is much more versatile and it can work for you better.
They are calling what is basically bookkeeping accounting which is incorrect. Bookkeeping is the act of doing the administration, creating reports etc. Accountants do audits, make actual annual reports and other things more along those lines.
Why would I need a script to automate my bookkeeping? Nearly every software has the ability to connect to your bank. Actual Budget and Firefly III both do it through GoCardless and nearly every software I have worked with both personally and proffesionally has the ability to make rules that say that transactions to say Shell need to be processed to "gas costs" or whatever you want.
I understand that you want more versatile bookkeeping and it sounds nice in theory, but in my experience working in the field with a lot of different software is you don't want to much freedom in the bookkeeping itself. If there is a payment that is done form the bank it should be something debit and bank credit for that same amount and the bank credit part should never change.
Some of the best software solutions are once with automatic bank connections, OCR/AI recognition software for purchase invoices and where the whole sales process can be connected to automated sales bookkeeping. There are few who do all of this, and a lot of them don't support fringe solutions like automatically calculating the Dutch margeregeling for second hand products.
I am all for more open source and free bookkeeping software, but I am missing more software with immutable bank connections f.e. If my banks sens a file to the software containing 11 transactions I want my software to process those 11 transactions exactly like they are on the sheet. This reduces the daily/weekly/mostly reconciliation almost entirely.
Maybe Funke?
Maybe tonight.
What are the chances?
keeps picking pieces until he gets one that fits
I tried maybe, Actual budget but then settled on GNU Cash (Native Linux app).
Firefly III works pretty darn well
I use Copilot. It’s the only app I’ve tried that can actually connect to all my accounts directly.