Guide · no bank sync: Budget Apps That Don't Connect to Your Bank
Five budget apps work without a bank login. Wealtie never connects to a bank at all, Goodbudget’s free plan is manual, Actual Budget runs locally with sync as an option, and YNAB and Spendee let you skip the connection. Here is what each costs, how much is manual, and who it suits.
Updated 7 October 2026 · 5 min read · By the Wealtie team
Why skip the bank connection
Linking a bank means handing a login, or an ongoing permission, to a third party, usually an aggregator you never chose. Plenty of people would rather not. Others can’t: aggregators cover some banks in some countries, and the rest get a broken feed or none. And a synced feed can’t see cash at all.
The trade is a few taps per purchase. The apps below make that smaller in different ways: repeating payments, widgets, file import. None of them makes it zero, and if you want it to be zero, a syncing app is the honest answer.
The five, side by side
| App | Bank connection | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Wealtie | Never; there is nothing to connect | Free plan; Pro from $5.99/mo |
| Goodbudget | Manual on Free; Premium syncs US banks | Free plan; Premium $10/mo |
| Actual Budget | Optional; local-first | Free, open source; you host it |
| YNAB | Optional; manual or file import | $14.99/mo after a 34-day trial |
| Spendee | Optional; manual cash wallets | Free plan; from $1.99/mo |
Prices in US dollars; they can vary by country.
1. Wealtie: never connects, free plan with a real budget
Wealtie has no bank connection to turn on. You add each account with the balance it has today, then log what moves in a few taps: card, cash and savings in one total. Rent and subscriptions set to repeat log themselves on the due date, and a home screen widget shows where you stand without opening the app.
The free plan has no time limit and needs no card. It includes two accounts, ten categories, a monthly budget and an income goal, and Budget Health, which warns you mid-month if your spending pace will take you over. Pro is $5.99 a month, $34.99 for six months or $59.99 a year. iPhone and Android.
Good for: people who want a monthly budget they keep, accounts in more than one currency, or income that changes month to month.
2. Goodbudget: envelope budgeting, manual on the free plan
The free plan is manual: you record transactions as you make them, or import a QFX or OFX file downloaded from your bank. Premium adds automatic sync for US banks.
The free plan includes 10 regular envelopes and 10 more, 1 account, 2 devices, 1 year of history. Premium: $10/month or $80/year. iPhone, Android and web.
Good for: envelope budgeting, and households that want to share one budget across devices.
3. Actual Budget: free, open source, runs locally
A local-first envelope budgeting app that works without a network connection. Bank sync is optional, through GoCardless (EU and UK) or SimpleFIN (US and Canada).
Free and open source; the hosted subscription closed in 2024, so you run it yourself, for example with Docker or PikaPods. It runs as a web app on any device, installable to a phone's home screen; the official mobile apps are deprecated.
Good for: people comfortable running their own software who want their data on their own machine.
4. YNAB: zero-based budgeting, bank optional
YNAB is built around importing from banks, but the connection is optional: direct import covers select US, Canadian, UK and EU banks, and everything else is file import or manual entry. There is no free plan: a 34-day trial, then $14.99 a month or $109 a year. iPhone, Android and web.
Good for: zero-based budgeting, where every dollar is given a job before it’s spent. See Wealtie vs YNAB.
5. Spendee: simple tracking with manual cash wallets
Spendee offers bank sync, but cash wallets are filled in by hand and work without it. The free plan includes one cash wallet and one budget. Plus is $1.99 a month or $14.99 a year, Premium $5.99 a month or $35.99 a year. iPhone and Android.
Good for: a simple spending tracker at a low price. See Wealtie vs Spendee.
How to make manual tracking stick
- Log at the till, not at the end of the day. Ten seconds then saves ten minutes of reconstructing later.
- Set everything predictable to repeat (rent, subscriptions, installments) so you only ever log the variable spending. See bills and subscriptions.
- Once a week, check each account’s balance against your bank’s app and correct any drift.
- Keep the number in sight. A home screen widget means you see the budget without deciding to open anything.
Sources
Every fact about another app is from that app’s own website: Goodbudget and Actual Budget checked 7 October 2026, YNAB and Spendee checked 4 October 2026.
Questions people ask
Yes, several. Wealtie never connects to a bank at all and has a free plan with no time limit. Goodbudget's free plan is manual, Actual Budget is free, open-source and works offline with sync as an option, and YNAB and Spendee both let you skip the bank connection and enter transactions yourself.
It depends on how you budget. Wealtie's free plan gives you a monthly budget, an income goal, a mid-month warning and two accounts on iPhone and Android, with no bank connection to turn on. Goodbudget's free plan suits envelope budgeting on one account. Actual Budget is free if you're happy to host it yourself.
A manual one can, and counts it the same as a card. In Wealtie, cash is an account like any other: add it with what's in your wallet today, log what you spend, and correct the balance in one step if it drifts.
For most people it takes a few taps per purchase, and less once rent and subscriptions are set to repeat. The effort is also the point: typing in what you spent makes you notice it, which a synced feed doesn't. If you'd rather never log anything, a syncing app is the better fit.
