Actual Budget Hosting: Your Own Budget Sync Server

Actual Budget is an open-source (MIT) personal finance app built around envelope budgeting: you give every dollar a job, then track spending against it. It is local-first, so the app works on your device's copy of the budget and is fast even offline; the server's job is to store your budget files and keep your devices in sync. Choose it with a plan, pay, and we build the VPS (KVM, NVMe, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS) and install it in about two minutes after boot. You get:

• Actual 26.10.0, the sync server with the web app included.
• An HTTPS address like yourname-x7k2.devoster.app with a Let's Encrypt certificate.
• The server password already set. A fresh Actual server asks its first visitor to choose the password; ours is set before the app is reachable, to the generated password shown in the Devoster dashboard, where you can also reset it.
• Larger upload limits: 50 MB for budget files and 100 MB for encrypted ones, so a budget with years of history still syncs.
• Dashboard controls to open the app, restart, stop or start it, read its logs, run an update and connect your own domain.

The app is free; you pay only the VPS plan, with 10% off yearly. The server comes with full root, free nightly backups kept 3 days plus one snapshot, a dedicated IPv4 and DDoS protection. Already have a Devoster VPS? You can install Actual Budget on it from VPS Control, after the panel checks the OS, free ports 80/443 and disk, or reinstall the server with it, at no charge. Other apps that install this way are on the One-Click Apps page.

Actual's server has a single password and no usernames. Open your address, type the password from the Devoster dashboard, and you're in. That shapes how you use it:

• A household shares one login. Anyone who should see the budget uses the same server password; there are no per-person accounts in this setup.
• Several budgets on one server: you can keep separate budget files, for example personal and a side business, and switch between them.
• Optional end-to-end encryption: Actual can encrypt a budget file with a separate key password before it is uploaded, so the server stores only encrypted data. If you lose that key password, the server copy can't be decrypted.
• Resetting the server password from the dashboard signs out every device; log in again on each one.

There are three ways to fill a budget, and most people mix them:

• Import files from your bank: download a statement as OFX, QFX, QIF, CSV or CAMT.053 and import it into an account. Actual matches duplicates and runs your rules on the new transactions.
• Move from another app: Actual can import budgets exported from YNAB (both YNAB4 and the current version), as well as Actual's own budget exports.
• Bank sync: Actual can pull transactions automatically through supported providers, such as SimpleFIN Bridge for many North American banks; Actual's documentation lists the others for European and Brazilian banks, and whether each is taking new accounts. All of them need your own account and keys with the provider, which you enter in Actual; nothing is set up for you, and coverage depends on the provider and your bank.

Once transactions are in, rules rename payees and assign categories automatically, and schedules track recurring bills so upcoming payments show in the budget before they happen.

The web app at your address is the whole of Actual, and it works in desktop and mobile browsers; on a phone you can add it to the home screen to open it like an app. There is also a desktop app for Windows, macOS and Linux that can connect to your server: choose the option to use a server and enter your HTTPS address.

Because the app is local-first, each device keeps its own copy of the budget and syncs changes through your server when it can. You can enter a purchase on your phone in a shop with a weak signal and it reaches your other devices once you're back online.

Actual is a budgeting tool, not a bank or financial adviser, and nothing on your server moves money. It only records and organises what you import or type in.

Very little: the heavy lifting happens in your browser, and the server stores and syncs budget files. Nano (1 vCPU, 1 GB, 25 GB) is the smallest plan it is offered on and runs it for a person or a household. We recommend Micro (1 vCPU, 2 GB, 50 GB) for $1 more, which leaves headroom for large imports, long histories and the occasional update.

If you want to run other apps alongside it, such as a password manager, a larger plan gives them room; you can upgrade from the panel later.

Backups: nightly backups (kept 3 days) and your snapshot slot cover the whole VPS. Your devices also hold copies of the budget, and Actual can export a budget as a file from its settings; keep one somewhere else now and then.

Updates: we check new Actual versions and apply them in a maintenance hour you choose, or when you press Update now. A snapshot of the VPS is taken first, and if Actual doesn't come back healthy the server is rolled back automatically.

The server is unmanaged: you have full root, and its security is your responsibility. Financial data deserves a strong server password and a hardened server; our VPS hardening checklist covers the basics. And if your financial data must stay outside the US, note the servers are in Utah.