Lekkalu vs Actual Budget: two honest ways to keep your money data private
When people in privacy communities ask for a private budget app, one answer comes up again and again: Actual Budget. It deserves the reputation. It is open source, it has no paid tier, and you can run every part of it on hardware you control.
I built Lekkalu, so I am not a neutral referee. What I can do is give you an honest comparison, name the places where Actual Budget is the better choice, and let you decide. Both apps start from the same belief: your money data is your’s alone.
What the two apps agree on
- Your financial data should not sit readable on someone else’s server.
- The core product should be free. Actual Budget has no paid tier at all. Lekkalu’s core app is free forever.
- No ads, no data mining, no selling your attention to a third party.
The real difference: where your data lives
Actual Budget is local-first and self-hosted. Your budget lives on your device, and if you want sync across devices you run a small sync server yourself, or pay a managed host to run it for you. You control the infrastructure end to end, and because the code is open source, you can read exactly what it does.
Lekkalu is a zero-knowledge PWA. You install it from your browser in about a minute. Your transactions, accounts, budgets, and goals are encrypted on your device before they are stored, and they are never sent to my server. The server holds your login and the wrapped key material that lets you recover access. It cannot decrypt your financial data, and neither can I. That is not a policy promise, it is how the encryption is built.
Both approaches genuinely protect you. They just ask different things of you. Actual Budget asks you to run or rent a bit of infrastructure. Lekkalu asks for two minutes of healthy skepticism: open your browser’s developer tools and check for yourself. The network tab shows your transactions never leave your device, the local database shows your financial data sitting encrypted, and the app keeps working in airplane mode. The one part you cannot check is the source code itself, and I count that as a real win for Actual Budget below. Lekkalu also asks you to export a backup now and then, since your data lives only on your device.
Where Actual Budget is the better choice
- You want to audit the code. Actual Budget is fully open source. Lekkalu is not, so on this point you have to take my word for the implementation.
- You want to own the whole stack. If running your own server sounds like a feature rather than a chore, self-hosting is hard to beat. I personally am a self-host nerd so I know what it is like.
- You want zero dependence on a single developer. Actual Budget is community-maintained. Lekkalu is one person, me.
- You love envelope budgeting on a desktop. Actual Budget’s envelope method is mature and well documented.
Where Lekkalu is the better choice
- You want zero setup. No server, no Docker, no hosting fees. Open the site, install, start logging.
- You want a budget app without bank sync. Lekkalu never connects to your bank. You log by hand, so there is no bank connection to trust and no credentials to hand over.
- You live on your phone. Lekkalu is built phone-first, works offline, and is designed around a habit of about a minute a day.
- You want help staying consistent. Logging by hand only works if you actually do it, so streaks and achievements are built into the core of it.
- You track more than a budget. Accounts, savings goals, multi-currency, and by-hand investment tracking for up to 100 holdings are all part of the free app.
What each one costs
- Actual Budget: free, with no paid tier. Self-hosting means you supply the server. If you would rather not, managed hosting via PikaPods runs about $2 a month, roughly $24 a year, and a share of that supports the project. (Prices checked July 2026.)
- Lekkalu: free forever for the core app, ready to install, nothing to set up. A paid Pro tier with extras is coming soon so that the project can sustain in the long run..
Quick comparison
| Actual Budget | Lekkalu | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, no paid tier | Free forever core, optional Pro planned |
| Source code | Open source | Closed source |
| Privacy model | Local-first, self-hosted sync | Zero-knowledge encryption on your device |
| Setup | Self-host, or about $2/mo managed | Install from the browser, no setup |
| Habit mechanics | Not a focus | Streaks and achievements built in |
The bottom line
If you enjoy running your own services and want code you can read line by line, choose Actual Budget. It is the reference open-source answer for a reason, and I mean that without reservation.
If you want the same core promise, that nobody else can read your money data, with zero setup and a habit system that keeps you logging, try Lekkalu. It is free, it takes about a minute a day, and your data never leaves your device.
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Spotted something inaccurate about Actual Budget in this post? Email [email protected] and I will fix it.