Actual Budget, the closest thing to a peer.
Most comparisons on this site are about a gap. This one is not: Actual Budget is free, open source, and built around the same envelope idea as Spendthrift. Worth naming honestly, and worth understanding where the two design decisions actually diverge.
| Actual Budget | Spendthrift | |
|---|---|---|
| Method | Envelope budgeting | Envelope budgeting |
| Licence | Open source | Not open source |
| Hosting | Self hosted, or the project's hosted sync | Data stays on your own phone |
| Price | Free (bank import add-ons extra) | One time payment |
| Splits a shared bill | No | Yes, in the same ledger |
| Setup | A server to run or rent | Install and go |
What Actual Budget does well.
It is free, genuinely, not a free tier of a paid product, and open source, so anyone can read exactly how it works or run it themselves. Its envelope model is close to first principles zero based budgeting, and multi-device sync keeps every device current whether or not the network is up at that moment. For someone who wants to self-host their own finances and is comfortable running a small server, it is a strong, honest choice.
Where the two diverge.
Actual Budget asks something of the person running it, a server, a sync setup, and optionally a paid import service for automatic bank feeds. Spendthrift asks nothing of the kind: install it, and the data stays on the phone without a server to maintain. Neither app splits a bill between people who are not sharing the same household budget; Spendthrift's difference there is the same one described throughout this site, a shared bill's paid share lands as real spending automatically, in the same ledger, which is not what either app's core budgeting was built to solve on its own for Actual Budget, and is exactly what Spendthrift adds.
Where Spendthrift adds the second half.
Budgeting plus splitting, in one ledger
Both apps hold a household's own envelopes well. Spendthrift's difference is what happens when a bill is shared outside that household: the payer's own share lands as real spending, and the rest is recorded as owed back, automatically.
Questions.
Is Actual Budget really free
Yes. It is free, open source software you can self-host, or use through the project's own hosted sync, funded by donations. Automatic bank import through SimpleFIN costs about $15 a year in the US; the EU's GoCardless route now requires a paid business account for new signups, checked 1 September 2026.
Does Actual Budget split bills between people
No. It is a budgeting tool, one household's own envelopes. It has no feature for tracking what one person owes another outside that household's own budget.
Why compare Spendthrift to Actual Budget specifically
Because it is the closest architectural peer: both are built around envelope budgeting rather than a plain balance. The difference is what sits beside the envelopes, splitting a shared bill, not self-hosting.
Is Spendthrift open source
No, and it is not trying to be. Its promise is a one time payment and data that stays on your own phone, which is a different design decision from Actual Budget's self-hosted, open source model, not a better or worse one.
What an on-device ledger and a sealed relay look like.
Drawn as our own chart
Every record kept on your own phone, and the sealed relay that is the only thing that ever leaves it, splitting a bill with the people you owe.
Where your records actually sit.
Every transaction, balance and calculation stays on your phone. Only sealed messages a group needs ever leave it, and our relay cannot open them.
Seven days with no connection.
Every expense captured, every split calculated, every envelope updated, every balance correct. When a connection returns, one sealed message goes to the group.
A backup you actually hold.
A file, wherever you keep files. It opens without us, and you choose where it lives.
See the zero based budgeting guide for the method both apps share, or YNAB alternatives for a subscription-based comparison instead.