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# Actual: An Open-Source Privacy-Friendly Personal Finance App
- URL: https://itsfoss.com/news/actual-finance-app/
- Published: 2023-11-16T10:10:43.000Z
- Updated: 2023-11-19T06:02:44.000Z
- Description: A fairly new open-source finance app with privacy in mind.
- Author: Sourav Rudra
- Tags: First Look, News, #Import 2025-11-08 21:15

Earlier last year, Actual, a personal finance app, decided to [open-source](https://actualbudget.com/open-source?ref=itsfoss.com) its source code in a bid to ensure the continuation of its development.

Back then, the main reason behind that move was that **the lead developer was unable to juggle between a full-time job and the 'Actual' project**, even hiring people had to be ruled out owing to cost concerns.

For those unfamiliar, Actual is a privacy-focused app that allows you to manage your personal finances by providing you with **a neat user interface** and **seamless syncing across devices**.

With this article, we shall see how Actual operates now, and what kind of functionality is on offer.

Let's dig in!

## A Super Fast Open-Source Finance App

![a screenshot of the actual personal finance software](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/2023/10/Actual.png)

Actual primarily uses **TypeScript** and **JavaScript** as its foundation, with a hint of C++/C here and there. Going open has allowed a lot of its previous features to stay intact, and even made way for various improvements over them.

Some **key feature highlights** include:

- **Easy transaction tracking.**
- **Fine-tuned for fast performance.**
- **Dedicated budgeting options.**
- **Intuitive reporting of transactions.**

There is even support for **optional end-to-end encryption**, **multi-device sync**, **importing of transactions** from popular financial file formats, and more.

Of course, the ability to generate reports should be helpful for everyone who decides to manage personal finance using the app:

![actual](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/2023/11/actual-report-cash-flow.png)

Unfortunately, you do not get an option to use any official hosted instance. So, it will be **a completely self-hostable experience** (cloud or local).

That is not entirely a bad thing, though, as **many privacy-conscious users swear by self-hosting apps** to get the most secure experience possible. Sure, if you have never self-hosted services, you might want to explore its documentation first.

Actual also has a neat option where **you can** [**instantly deploy**](https://www.pikapods.com/pods?run=actual&ref=itsfoss.com) **it on PikaPods**, pricing starts at **$1.4 per month**.

In a nutshell, your data should remain secure if you use a local-first personal finance app like Actual.

![actual finance app](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/2023/11/AddAccount-actual.png)

📋

You can refer to the [official documentation](https://actualbudget.org/docs/?ref=itsfoss.com) to get started with self-hosting on the cloud or locally on your computer.

Furthermore, since going open, **Actual has been receiving a steady flow of updates.** 

The recent [Actual 23.11.0](https://actualbudget.org/blog/release-23.11.0?ref=itsfoss.com) release came in with **s**tability improvements, tweaks, and bug fixes.

I even checked out Actual's GitHub repo, and the commit activity has been pretty good ever since it landed on GitHub. See for yourself. 👇

![a graph showing the commit activity on the github repository of actual](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/2023/10/Actual_2.png)

I am glad to see that the contributors for [Actual](https://actualbudget.org/?ref=itsfoss.com) can pull this off quite gracefully by regularly pushing updates that matter.

If you are **interested in trying out Actual**, then you can visit its [official website](https://actualbudget.com/?ref=itsfoss.com) or try out the [live demo](https://demo.actualbudget.org/config-server?ref=itsfoss.com). For those who want to **contribute to the code**, I highly suggest you head over to the [GitHub repo](https://github.com/actualbudget/actual?ref=itsfoss.com) to get started.

[Actual (GitHub)](https://github.com/actualbudget/actual?ref=itsfoss.com)

I think that Actual can be a great contender for our [best open-source accounting software](https://itsfoss.com/open-source-accounting-software/) list.

[12 Best Open Source Accounting SoftwareWant to use an open-source software for accounting? These are some of the best options.![](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/size/w256h256/2022/12/android-chrome-192x192.png)It's FOSSAnkush Das![](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/2023/05/open-source-accounting.png)](https://itsfoss.com/open-source-accounting-software/)

*💬 What do you think about Actual? Will to give it a try? Have you used it before?*