Compare
How Simple Balance compares with other budget apps.
Simple Balance is a free budget app and spending tracker, and the only one of these five apps with a free plan somebody hosts for you. Like Actual Budget, it’s open source and free to run on your own server, but Actual Budget has no hosted service of its own. YNAB, Monarch and Quicken Simplifi can connect to your bank. Simple Balance has no bank connection today, so you import a CSV file you download from your bank.
Feature comparison.
| Feature | Simple Balance | YNAB | Monarch | Quicken Simplifi | Actual Budget |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hosted for you, and what it costs | Free, or $3 a month or $30 a year for Premium | $14.99 a month, or $109 a year[1] | Core: $14.99 a month or $99.99 a year. Plus: $199.99 a year[1] | $6.99 a month, billed once a year. There’s no monthly plan.[1][2] | Not by Actual Budget, whose hosted service shut down in 2024. PikaPods hosts it for about $1.50 a month[7][13] |
| A free plan, hosted for you | Yes, with every feature, for three accounts in use at once and with ads | No. A 34-day free trial, with no card needed[1] | No. A 7-day free trial, with a payment method[1] | No, and no free trial. A 30-day money-back guarantee[2] | No. A free web app keeps your budget in that one browser, with no sync, auto-save or backups[6] |
| Run your own copy | Yes, free, on a server you look after, with no plan, no account limit and no ads | No | No | No | Yes, free. A server you set up is the standard way to use Actual Budget[1][6] |
| How your transactions get in | You download a CSV file from your bank and import it, or type entries in. There’s no bank connection today. | Direct Import can connect to your bank through MX or Plaid. It’s optional, and you can import files instead.[2] | By connecting to your bank, through Plaid, Finicity or MX[3] | By connecting to your bank, which brings transactions in automatically[3] | Optional bank sync on a server you run, with your own keys, through SimpleFIN at $15 a year in North America and other services elsewhere. Or you import a file.[2][10] |
| Open source | Yes, under the AGPL-3.0 license | No | No | No | Yes, under the MIT license[5] |
Detailed comparisons.
- Simple Balance vs. YNAB. YNAB costs $14.99 a month or $109 a year and can connect to your bank. Simple Balance has a free plan, imports your bank’s CSV file, and is open source.
- Simple Balance vs. Monarch. Monarch costs $14.99 a month or $99.99 a year and connects to your bank. Simple Balance has a free plan, imports a CSV file instead, and is open source.
- Simple Balance vs. Quicken Simplifi. Quicken Simplifi is $6.99 a month, billed yearly, and connects to your bank. Simple Balance has a free plan, imports a CSV file, and is open source.
- Simple Balance vs. Actual Budget. Both are open source and free to run on your own server. Only Simple Balance also has a hosted app with a free plan; Actual Budget has no hosted service.