Actual Budget vs BudgetBee
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted budgeting & finance options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Actual Budget
Local-first envelope budgeting app
VS
BudgetBee
Self-hosted personal finance and budgeting manager
| Feature | Actual Budget | BudgetBee |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 98 · Excellent | 80 · Excellent |
| Category | Budgeting & Finance | Budgeting & Finance |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | TypeScript | JavaScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal, source | docker, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 29,118 | ★ 644 |
| First released | 2022 | 2024 |
| Replaces | YNAB, Mint | YNAB, Mint |
What are Actual Budget and BudgetBee?
Actual Budget
Actual is a free, open-source personal finance app focused on zero-based, envelope-style budgeting. It is local-first with end-to-end encrypted sync across devices.
- Envelope budgeting method
- Local-first with encrypted sync
- Fast and responsive UI
- Bank import via plugins
BudgetBee
BudgetBee is an open-source, self-hosted personal finance manager that runs entirely on your own infrastructure via Docker. It tracks day-to-day expenses, plans monthly budgets, monitors upcoming bills, and visualizes financial health through charts.
- Expense and budget tracking
- Upcoming bill monitoring
- Charts and reports
- Runs entirely via Docker
Actual Budget vs BudgetBee: key differences
Actual Budget is written in TypeScript, while BudgetBee is built with JavaScript. Actual Budget is the more established project (first released 2022), while BudgetBee arrived in 2024. Actual Budget has the considerably larger community, at 29,118 GitHub stars versus 644.
Why pick each one
Choose Actual Budget if…
- Snappy offline-first experience
- Privacy-focused sync
Watch out for
- Bank sync needs extra setup
- Fewer reports than alternatives
Choose BudgetBee if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Written in JavaScript
Frequently asked questions
Is Actual Budget or BudgetBee better?
Neither is universally better. Actual Budget has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Actual Budget and BudgetBee free and open-source?
Yes. Actual Budget is licensed under MIT and BudgetBee under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Actual Budget and BudgetBee with Docker?
Actual Budget: yes. BudgetBee: yes.