Budgero is a zero-based budgeting app with multi-currency support and end-to-end encryption — available as a single Docker container you run on your own hardware. No subscription. No vendor lock-in. Your financial data never touches a third-party server.
Free, forever · Docker · Single container · Import your YNAB budget
Your budget is one of the most sensitive datasets you have. Every salary, every expense, every debt — a near-complete picture of your life in numbers. Handing that to a SaaS vendor is a decision. Self-hosting is the option to not make it.
No vendor can raise your price. YNAB has raised prices multiple times. Mint shut down entirely. Self-hosting is immune to both.
No vendor can lose access to your budget. Cancel YNAB and you lose your data. Mint users got migrated to Credit Karma. Self-hosted Budgero works identically whether we exist or not.
No vendor can be breached with your data. If your budget lives on your own server, a SaaS breach somewhere else does not affect you. (And because Budgero encrypts data client-side, even a breach of your own server yields encrypted blobs.)
No vendor decides your feature roadmap. You update when you want to. You skip features you do not want. You can even fork the code if something really matters to you.
No ongoing subscription. You pay for the VPS or hardware. That is it. For many households, self-hosted Budgero costs less than a single month of YNAB — and keeps running forever.
If you can run a Docker container, you can self-host Budgero. Here is the whole process.
Any Linux VPS with Docker installed works. A €5/month droplet at Hetzner, DigitalOcean, OVH, or an old Raspberry Pi is plenty.
A minimal compose file looks like this:
services:
budgero:
image: ghcr.io/budgero/budgero:latest
ports:
- "3000:3000"
environment:
DATABASE_URL: file:/data/budgero.db
JWT_SECRET: ${JWT_SECRET}
PUBLIC_URL: https://budgero.yourdomain.com
volumes:
- budgero-data:/data
restart: unless-stopped
volumes:
budgero-data:Run one command:
docker compose up -dPut Caddy or Traefik in front for automatic HTTPS. The self-host docs include reference configs. This takes two or three minutes.
Export your YNAB budget as a ZIP, drop it into the Budgero import dialog, and your full history is now living on your own server. Categories, groups, transactions, and account balances all come across intact.
Feature-by-feature. The tradeoffs of self-hosting, honestly.
| Feature | Budgero Self-Host | YNAB |
|---|---|---|
| Where your data lives | Your serverYou control backups, location, retention | YNAB servers (US)US jurisdiction, their retention |
| Price | Free foreverPay for your VPS (~€5/mo) | $109/year |
| Deployment | Docker / docker-composeSingle container, 5-minute setup | N/A (SaaS only) |
| Source code | AvailableInspect, fork, extend | ProprietaryBlack box |
| Zero-based budgeting | ||
| Multi-currency | 168 currenciesLive FX rates, auto conversion | One currency per budget |
| Offline mode | PWA, full offline support | Requires internet |
| End-to-end encryption | Even on your own server | Plaintext |
| YNAB data import | Full transaction + category history | N/A |
| Account ownership when you stop paying | N/A — no subscriptionAlways yours | Lose access |
| Multi-user / shared budget | Up to 5 users on shared server | Up to 6 users |
| Update cadence | You decidedocker pull when ready | YNAB decidesForced updates |
If you have been researching self-hosted YNAB alternatives, you have probably found Actual Budget, Firefly III, and a handful of smaller projects. They are good in their own ways. Here is what makes Budgero different.
Most self-hosted budgeting apps are single-currency. Budgero handles 168 currencies with live FX rates and a unified home-currency rollup. For expats and multi-country households this is the feature that matters.
Budgero encrypts data client-side with AES-256-GCM regardless of where the server runs. On your own VPS this means that server compromise or backup leakage yields encrypted blobs, not your financial history.
With Actual or Firefly, if you get tired of running a server, your options are limited. With Budgero, export your data and import it into Budgero Cloud for $7.99/month. Same app, same features, fully managed. No lock-in in either direction.
Single Docker image. SQLite by default (no external Postgres required). One volume. One port. The minimal docker-compose.yml is about 15 lines. You do not need to understand anything about the app internals to run it.
Good news: the app is identical. You can switch between Cloud and Self-Host at any point with a single export/import.
The self-host edition is available to run on your own infrastructure with source access. You can read the code, build it yourself, and host it anywhere Docker runs. We are a small commercial project funded by the Cloud edition, but self-hosters can run Budgero for free, forever, without a subscription.
Pull the Docker image, copy the example docker-compose.yml, set a few environment variables (database URL, JWT secret, base URL), and docker compose up. Typical setup is under 10 minutes on a fresh VPS. There is a full walkthrough in the self-host documentation.
Very little. Budgero runs comfortably on any VPS with 1 vCPU and 1 GB of RAM. A €4–€6/month DigitalOcean, Hetzner, or OVH droplet is more than enough for a household. Raspberry Pi 4 also works.
Yes. Self-host is the same codebase as Cloud. You get zero-based budgeting, 168-currency multi-currency support, end-to-end encryption, offline PWA, YNAB import, shared budgets, AI-powered categorization (bring your own LLM or local Ollama), the push API, and everything else. The only difference is we do not manage the hosting, updates, or backups for you.
Export your data from self-hosted Budgero, then import it directly into Budgero Cloud. There is no lock-in in either direction. Your encrypted SQLite database is yours, in a standard format.
Self-host backups are your responsibility. Budgero's database is a single SQLite file (encrypted end-to-end with your key), so backup is as simple as scheduling a nightly copy to S3, Backblaze B2, or another server. The documentation includes a sample backup script. Because data is encrypted client-side, your backup storage provider cannot see your financial data even if they wanted to.
Yes. Point your domain at your server, put a reverse proxy (Caddy, Traefik, nginx) in front of Budgero, and you get a TLS-terminated, custom-domain deployment. The documentation has reference configs for Caddy and Traefik.
Yes. We ship new features continuously to the main branch, and tag stable Docker images. Self-hosters pull the latest image on their own schedule. You will never be forced to update, but you also will not miss out on improvements if you want them.
Yes. Budgero ingests YNAB export files directly — categories, transactions, budget groups, accounts, history. Same import flow as Cloud. Takes about 5 minutes.
Actual Budget is the other major self-hosted, open-source YNAB-style app. We like Actual and think it is a great project. The differences most people care about: Budgero supports 168 currencies natively in a single budget with live FX rates (Actual is largely single-currency). Budgero includes end-to-end encryption with zero-knowledge server architecture. Budgero ships a fully managed Cloud option if you ever stop wanting to run servers yourself. If you only need single-currency budgeting on your own box, Actual is a fine choice. If you need multi-currency or want a Cloud fallback, Budgero is the better fit.
Real Users, Real Budgets
People who switched from YNAB and other tools share their experience.
I used YNAB for years and love zero-based budgeting. Budgero nails the same methodology with a design I actually enjoy using. I keep coming back because I'm a budget geek. The SQL Explorer is a dream if you have a technical background.
I started with YNAB and then tried a bunch of different tools over the past year. Budgero is the closest to perfect for my use case while also matching what I want visually. Transaction entry is fast, the savings goals with sub-sections are exactly what I need, and the whole experience just feels right.
The app is really advanced in both functionality and UI. I was impressed by how polished the whole experience feels. This is a serious budgeting tool with a design that competes with anything on the market.
The latest update made a noticeable difference. Animations are smoother, everything feels faster. Nice to see a budgeting tool where the developer actually cares about performance.
Pull the image, start the container, import your YNAB budget. The whole process is under 10 minutes. Your data stays on your server, under your control, forever.
Also see: Full Budgero vs YNAB comparison · YNAB alternative for Europe