Actual Budget vs Monarch Money: Which to Pick

Pick Monarch Money if you want a hosted app that fills categories from your spending, a separate login for each person, receipt line items, and the official connector for Claude or ChatGPT. Pick Actual Budget if the envelope is the method, the core software should be free, and you will run it on your own machine or a small host. The file you control is why people open Actual. The categories, the household logins, and the connector are why they pay for Monarch. FYN (our product) closes this page.

Features and pricing checked October 29, 2026. Actual Budget figures come from Actual's site, the install guide, and the help articles in Sources. Monarch figures come from Monarch's pricing page. FYN's numbers are from our pricing page. If a figure was not on those pages, the cell says Not documented.

This page is the head-to-head: Actual Budget or Monarch. The method, before either app, is envelope budgeting and how to make a budget. How an envelope differs from a required zero is on zero-based budgeting. If the bill is the only question, that is Monarch Money pricing.

Actual Budget vs Monarch Money

Disclosure: we build FYN. This page is on FYN's site. The FYN column is the option for a free start, receipt scans, and purchases logged as you pay. Scroll the table sideways on a phone. Monarch prices are US list prices. Actual's core software has no list price. A host and a bank-sync provider can still send a bill. Monarch recommends checking out on the web rather than in the Apple or Google store.

Price, free tier, and trial

Actual Budget does not publish a paid subscription for the core app. On October 29, 2026 the July 1, 2024 post says Actual is free and open source, with no cost to download, use, or update the core software, and that a hosting service or a bank-sync provider may charge. The license file on GitHub grants permission, free of charge, to use, copy, modify, and distribute the software. The install guide points at a demo and a desktop app if you want to try Actual before you set up a server. A numbered trial that ends and charges a card: Not documented.

The same install guide recommends PikaPods if you want someone else to host the server. That page says you can run Actual for about $1.50 a month as of November 2025, and that a signup includes a $5.00 credit, which the page says should cover about 3 months. It also says the desktop app is not recommended with PikaPods, and that a PWA is the better client. Fly.io is named as cloud hosting for a similar amount. That sentence does not print a dollar figure, so this post does not invent one. Docker and a server CLI are the self-host paths, and those pages do not print a software fee.

Bank sync is a separate bill, and only if you turn it on. Actual's SimpleFIN setup page says current rates are $1.50 a month or $15 a year, and that you subscribe before the first account is added. The GoCardless setup page describes a free tier for existing users: up to 50 bank connections a month, and up to 4 syncs a day per bank. From July 2025, that page says GoCardless stopped accepting new Bank Account Data accounts. A person who self-hosts and imports a file can skip both fees. A person who wants a hosted server and North American bank sync is looking at the PikaPods figure plus the SimpleFIN figure, not at a single Actual checkout.

Monarch has no free plan. On October 29, 2026 the pricing page showed Core at $14.99 a month or $99.99 a year, displayed as $8.33 a month when billed yearly. Plus was $199.99 a year, displayed as $16.67 a month. The page's structured data lists the annual Core offer at 99.99 USD and the annual Plus offer at 199.99 USD. The Core offer description says plus tax where applicable. Both plan cards say a free 7-day trial, then the plan price, and that a payment method is required. Cancel in settings before the trial ends. The FAQ also offers a no-questions-asked money-back guarantee and does not say how long that window is. The full bill, including the current discount, is on Monarch Money pricing.

On October 29, 2026 the Monarch pricing page showed code WELCOME for 30% off Core for one year. The page says the discount is for new users only, valid for the annual Core plan only, cannot be combined with other offers, and may expire or be deactivated at any time.

FYN is free to start, with no card. The pricing page lists Pro at $9.99 a month, and that is the plan with bank sync. On a monthly bill, Pro is less than Monarch Core's $14.99. Actual's core software is $0, and a self-hosted server with file import can stay there. PikaPods, as of the November 2025 figure on Actual's guide, is about $1.50 a month before any bank-sync provider. FYN's pricing page does not list a yearly price. A free account does not sync a bank.

Envelopes vs categories

This is the split that should decide the page. Actual waits until money has arrived, then you assign it. Monarch starts from six months of spending and lets you stay at a flex number or budget category by category.

Actual's budgeting guide says envelope budgeting uses real income. You can only budget money you already have. The account balance is what you can assign. You enter a number in a category and continue until To Budget is 0. Income you do not budget this month rolls forward. The same guide says you can hold money for next month instead of budgeting it now. When a category is overspent, that overspend rolls too, until you move money from somewhere else or cover it next month. The tour says envelope is the default, and that a tracking budget is the other method. Tracking can budget future income. Settings offers the same two methods and says the docs mostly assume envelope. The homepage calls the product local-first: the app works on the device, and a server syncs in the background if you run one.

Monarch's budget help, updated October 22, 2026, offers two types. Flex budgeting is the default: one flexible bucket, plus fixed and non-monthly groups. Category budgeting assigns an amount to each category. The first budget is filled from the average of the last six months, and you can recalculate that later. The budget is monthly cash flow: expected income, then expenses and savings. Monarch says you can still follow an envelope or zero-based style if income equals expenses plus savings. It is not required. Transactions are categorized for you, and you can move money between categories when one runs over. In flex, that move is to or from the flexible bucket as a whole.

So the practical difference is what the number is allowed to be. Actual's envelope starts from cash on hand and asks you to drive To Budget to 0. Monarch starts from recent spending and from income you expect this month. If a required zero in a hosted app is the method you want, the closer comparison is YNAB vs Monarch Money. The method itself is on envelope budgeting and zero-based budgeting.

Bank sync

Neither company publishes a single reliability score, so this post does not crown a winner. What they document is who can connect, which provider, and what you have to run.

Actual's bank-sync page says the link is optional, that it works only with actual-server, and that you supply the provider's keys. Those keys are stored on the server and are not covered by end-to-end encryption. The same page lists five providers: Akahu for New Zealand banks, Enable Banking for European banks, GoCardless BankAccountData for European banks (not accepting new accounts), SimpleFIN Bridge for North American banks, and Pluggy.ai for Brazilian banks. The homepage names a shorter pair: goCardless for the EU and UK, and SimpleFIN for the US and Canada. The install table also names GoCardless and SimpleFIN as the server bank-sync feature. A person who only opens the homepage does not see Akahu, Enable Banking, or Pluggy.

The bank-sync page says Actual can download transactions in the background. Automatic syncing is off by default. The choices are every 12 hours, every day, every week, or a custom interval with a shortest step of 15 minutes. Syncing only happens while Actual is open. If you close it, the catch-up waits until the next time you open it. Manual sync is still there: All Accounts, then Bank Sync, or the button on one account. The GoCardless setup FAQ still says it is not yet possible for Actual to sync with the bank automatically, and that you press Bank Sync yourself. Those two pages do not agree. Which behavior a GoCardless account follows: the bank-sync page is the general one, and the GoCardless FAQ has not caught up on the pages checked.

SimpleFIN, on Actual's setup page, pulls at most 90 days, and the amount can be shorter. Data updates about once a day. The page says the upstream provider is MX. GoCardless's free-tier limits, on the setup page, are 50 bank connections a month and 4 syncs a day per bank, for people who already have an account. New GoCardless Bank Account Data accounts stopped in July 2025.

Monarch's data-provider article, June 9, 2026, names three providers: Plaid, MX, and Finicity. Monarch suggests the provider with the stronger history for that institution, and you can switch. The same article says connections can still break, that some institutions are hard to keep synced, and that on an OAuth connection the bank login stays at the bank. The download page limits the product to the United States and Canada. There is no free plan, so the feed sits on Core or Plus.

FYN's bank connection is Plaid, up to 15 accounts, and it is on Pro only. A free account does not sync a bank.

Sharing with a partner

Actual's sync guide says the budget lives on the device and on the server you choose. Other devices download that file and stay in sync when they can reach the server. Optional end-to-end encryption means the server cannot read the budget. The same guide says bank-sync tokens are a separate store. The encryption page in settings says the same thing: encryption covers budget data, not those tokens. If you forget the encryption password and you have no local copy, the guide says the file cannot be recovered.

Separate logins are a different feature. The multi-user page says you need an OpenID provider. Usernames come from that provider. Roles are Basic and Admin. Basic users can create budgets and work on budgets other people made. Admin can also add users, open every budget file, and transfer ownership. Inside an open budget, you tick a user to grant access or untick them to revoke it. That is a server you configure. An invite email that creates a second login without OpenID: Not documented.

Monarch's household article, updated October 20, 2026, invites one or more people onto a single subscription. Each person has a login and can add accounts. The household shares one dashboard and one budget. You cannot hide a bank account or a transaction once someone is invited. Roles are admin (the owner, who manages billing), member, and an optional professional role for an advisor. You cannot invite an email that already has a Monarch account. The Plus article says Plus covers the whole household, the same way Core does.

If each person must have a login and you do not want to run OpenID, Monarch is the product whose help article says that. You still cannot hide an account from them. If one budget file on devices you already trust is enough, Actual documents sync without a second product login. The app roundup for a shared login is best budget apps for couples. The conversation before you pick an app is how to budget as a couple.

Mobile

Actual's download page lists desktop clients: Windows (Microsoft Store, plus x64 and arm64 downloads), macOS (Intel and Apple Silicon), and Linux (Flathub and AppImage). The install guide says those desktop apps can connect to a server, take automated backups, and work offline. A phone, on the install table, needs a server. The server is a web app, and the PikaPods guide says to install that site as a PWA rather than the desktop client, because the desktop version can fall behind the server. A native iPhone or Android app on the App Store or Google Play: Not documented on the download page.

Monarch's download page lists web, iPhone, iPad, and Android, in the United States and Canada. The same download page also lists the connector. The Plus article, updated August 31, 2026, says Plus features are on desktop web, with only parts of business tracking on mobile. The pricing FAQ describes Plus as forecasting, more than one income source such as a small business, and deeper investment tools. The same Plus article says net worth, goals, the budget, and connected accounts stay on the plan you already have. Plus adds the forecast and the deeper investment tools.

Receipts

Monarch's receipt help, updated October 28, 2026, lets you scan or upload a receipt, or forward the email to [email protected]. It reads merchant, amount, and date, and line items when the receipt has them. It can split one receipt across categories. Scanning is documented on the phone, and upload is documented on the web. The pricing page script marks that receipt scan on Core and on Plus. Those receipts sit inside the paid subscription. There is no free plan to put them on.

A product page or help article that says Actual reads a receipt photo, stores a receipt image, or pulls line items was not on the pages checked. That cell stays Not documented. What the homepage does document is file import: QIF, OFX, QFX, CAMT.053, and CSV, plus built-in importers for YNAB4 and nYNAB. That is a file you export from a bank or from another budget, not a photo of a receipt.

AI and MCP

Monarch's blog post dated October 21, 2026 says the connector is back after a pause. The help article, updated October 22, 2026, is on Core and Plus. Official clients are Claude, ChatGPT on a paid web plan, Cursor, and Gemini CLI. Read-only is the default. Write access is granted only if the tool asks and you approve. You do not share your Monarch password with the tool. Accounts linked through Finicity are left out, which can include some Fidelity brokerage accounts. Plus members get more weekly usage than Core. The server URL on the help page is https://api.monarch.com/mcp.

Actual's homepage documents a developer API for custom importers and other features, and it says that API runs on your data. The install table says the API needs a server. An official Actual connector, with an Actual server URL and a consent screen for Claude or ChatGPT: Not documented on the pages checked.

The practical split: Actual's documented developer path is an API on the server you run. Monarch's documented assistant path is the official connector, read-only unless you allow write.

Who should pick Monarch, and who should pick Actual Budget

Pick Monarch if you want the app to categorize spending, a separate login without running OpenID, receipt line items, net worth on the paid plan, or an official connector for Claude or ChatGPT. Core is the right tier for cash flow, a budget seeded from the last six months, goals, net worth, receipts, and a household where nobody hides an account. Pay for Plus only if you want forecasting, business income, or the deeper investment tools, and plan to use them on the desktop site. The trial is a week, and the plan card says a payment method is required, so decide before it rolls into $99.99 or $14.99. Whether that price is worth the dashboard is on Is Monarch Money worth it?. The Monarch pages checked do not show a free plan, and they do not show a budget that refuses to assign money you have not received yet.

Pick Actual Budget if you will run the envelope, and if owning the file matters more than a hosted login. The core software is free. The license lets you use, copy, and modify it. Desktop apps cover Windows, Mac, and Linux. A server adds sync, the web app, bank sync, and the API. PikaPods is the hosted shortcut the docs recommend, at about $1.50 a month as of November 2025, with a $5 credit. SimpleFIN, if you want North American bank sync, is $1.50 a month or $15 a year on Actual's setup page. GoCardless is not taking new accounts. Multi-user logins need OpenID. A receipt photo that becomes line items was not on the pages checked. If you are leaving a hosted app and you want the steps for the file you take with you, that is how to switch from Monarch Money.

If neither of these two fits, the wider list is Monarch Money alternatives. The narrower grid, written as FYN next to Monarch, is FYN vs Monarch.

Failure modes

Actual fails when you wanted a hosted app that stays current without a server. The install table says a phone, the browser client, sync, bank sync, and the API need a server. The local-browser shortcut can lose the file if the browser storage is cleared. It fails when you wanted new GoCardless bank sync. That signup stopped in July 2025. It fails when you close the app and expected the bank to keep updating. Automatic sync, on the bank-sync page, runs only while Actual is open, and the GoCardless FAQ still describes a manual button. It fails if the second person must have a login and you will not set up OpenID. It fails if you wanted a receipt photo to become line items. The documented import is a financial file. It fails if you opened the PikaPods page, treated $1.50 as a price checked in October 2026, and missed the page's own date of November 2025. And it fails if you wanted an official connector that does not hold a server you operate. The documented path is the API.

Monarch fails when you wanted a free app you can keep, a file on your own server, or envelopes that only assign cash you already have. There is no free plan. The trial is 7 days, a payment method is required, and then Core is $14.99 a month or $99.99 a year. Flex can look accurate while spending does not change, because the app does not make you fill an envelope before you spend. Connections can still break, which Monarch's own article says. You cannot hide an account from someone you invited, and you cannot invite an email that already has a Monarch account. Plus tools are on the desktop site. Finicity-linked accounts are left out of the connector, so an assistant can miss a brokerage. And the WELCOME code is annual Core only, for new users, and the page says it can expire.

Where FYN fits

FYN is our product, and it is last because the job is the record of the purchase. A photo of the receipt and an emailed receipt share one monthly count: 20 a month on Free, 200 a month on Pro. Apple Pay and Google Wallet purchases are logged as you pay, on Free and on Pro, including a payment alert tap on iOS. FYN tracks subscriptions. The limits below are the ones on the pricing page. Subscription tracking is on the subscriptions page.

The free plan does not expire and does not ask for a card. It includes 1 household member. Pro is $9.99 a month, with unlimited household members on Pro. Everyone shares the plan's limits. A shared member can be an owner, a member, or view-only. Bank sync is Pro only, via Plaid, up to 15 accounts. A free account does not sync a bank. Ask FYN is 20 questions a month on Free and 500 on Pro. The same page lists read-only MCP calls so assistants such as Claude and ChatGPT can read your FYN data. They do not get a bank password. The free plan includes 500 of those calls a day, and Pro includes 10,000. Monarch also publishes a connector, on Core and Plus, read-only unless you allow write. FYN is not the only one.

The pricing page lists an autopilot budget on Free and Pro. An envelope fill: Not documented on the pricing page. The household row is: 1 on Free, unlimited on Pro. On a monthly bill, Pro at $9.99 is the plan with bank sync, under Monarch Core's $14.99. FYN is free to start.

FAQ

Sources

Checked October 29, 2026. Vendor claims in the table and the FAQ point at these pages. A cell that says Not documented was not on the pages that loaded that day.

• Local-first app, envelope budgeting, goCardless for the EU and UK, SimpleFIN for the US and Canada, file import, YNAB importers, reports, and a developer API: actualbudget.org.
• Envelope method. Budget only money you already have. To Budget at 0. Hold for next month: How budgeting works.
• Envelope is the default. Tracking can budget future income: A tour of Actual.
• Settings: Envelope or Tracking. End-to-end encryption does not cover bank-sync tokens: Settings.
• What needs a server. Desktop apps. PikaPods, Fly.io, Docker, and the server CLI. A demo before the server: Installing Actual.
• Desktop downloads for Windows, macOS, and Linux: Downloads.
• PikaPods at about $1.50 a month as of November 2025. $5 signup credit. Desktop app not recommended. Use a PWA: PikaPods.
• Optional bank sync. Five providers. Automatic sync off by default, and only while Actual is open: Connecting your bank.
• GoCardless stopped new Bank Account Data accounts in July 2025. Free-tier limits for existing users. The FAQ still says sync is manual: GoCardless setup.
• SimpleFIN at $1.50 a month or $15 a year. At most 90 days. About one update a day. Upstream provider MX: SimpleFIN setup.
• Multi-user logins require OpenID. Roles are Basic and Admin. Access is per budget file: Managing multi-user support.
• Sync across devices. Optional end-to-end encryption. Bank-sync tokens stay on the server: Syncing across devices.
• Core software is free and open source. Hosting or bank sync may cost. Posted July 1, 2024: Actual vs YNAB.
• License grants use, copy, modification, and distribution free of charge: LICENSE.txt.
• Monarch pricing, trial, Plus price, and the WELCOME code: monarch.com/pricing.
• Platforms, United States and Canada: monarch.com/download.
• Plus features, desktop, household coverage, net worth on the existing plan, and the 7-day trial. August 31, 2026: Monarch Plus tier.
• Budget, flex and category, six-month average. Updated October 22, 2026: Creating your budget.
• Households. Updated October 20, 2026: Monarch for couples and households.
• Bank connections. June 9, 2026: Data providers and connections.
• Receipts, line items, and email forwarding. Updated October 28, 2026: Importing receipts.
• Connector restored. October 21, 2026: Bring your money into the conversation with the Monarch MCP.
• Monarch connector, read-only unless you allow write. Updated October 22, 2026: MCP connector.
• FYN plan limits: fyn.fyi/pricing.