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← Cancel your subscriptions · Mission 3 of 10

Cancel your budgeting app: a free, private budget on your own PC

Import a month of bank transactions and watch seven simple rules sort 20 of them into the right categories. Actual Budget gives you that, plus envelope budgeting and spending reports, running on your own computer with no subscription and no account with anyone.

44 minBeginnerTools: FreeStep 1 free
Tested 8 Oct 2026 · Actual 26.10.0 (npm server) on Node 26, Microsoft Edge, Windows 11
Rules that sort your spending into categories automatically, every month
Your own budgeting app running on your PC, opened in your browser
Bank transactions imported from a CSV file, with UK dates read correctly
  • A monthly envelope budget and spending reports, plus a one-click backup
  • A Windows launcher that starts it silently when you log in, so there's no terminal to keep open
Before you start
01/07Install Actual0 done
STEP 01 of 07~3 min

Install Actual

Actual is one small program you install with a single command. No admin rights needed.

  1. Actual runs on Node.js. Check you have version 22 or newer:

    Terminal
    node --version

  2. If that prints v22 or higher, install Actual's server. This is the official command from the Actual docs ↗:

    Terminal
    npm install --location=global @actual-app/sync-server
    Output
    npm warn install-scripts 2 packages have install scripts not yet covered by allowScripts:
npm warn install-scripts   argon2@0.44.0 (install: cross-env ZERO_AR_DATE=1 node-gyp-build)
npm warn install-scripts   bcrypt@6.0.0 (install: node-gyp-build)
...

  3. It takes under a minute and uses 127MB of disk. The yellow npm warn lines about install scripts are normal: nothing in this mission needs them. Check it's installed:

    Terminal
    actual-server --version
    Output
    v26.10.0
✓
Checkpointactual-server --version prints a version number.
If it breaks'actual-server' is not recognised + 1 more
'actual-server' is not recognised
Close the terminal and open a new one, so it picks up the new command. If it still fails, run npm config get prefix and check that folder is on your PATH.
'npm' or 'node' is not recognised, or Node is older than v22
Install the current LTS version of Node.js from nodejs.org ↗, then open a new terminal.
Still stuck? Ask the community
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