Actual Budget
Hasura
| Feature | ||
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free / from $0/mo | Free / from $99/mo |
| Free Plan | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Rating | 4.5 / 5 | 4.4 / 5 |
| Best For | budget-conscious-individuals, self-hosters, ynab-migrants, privacy-focused-budgeters | backend-developers, startups, api-developers, full-stack-teams |
| Founded | 2019 | 2017 |
| Envelope Budgeting | ✓ | ✗ |
| Bank Sync | ✓ | ✗ |
| Reports | ✓ | ✗ |
| Goal Tracking | ✓ | ✗ |
| Rules | ✓ | ✗ |
| Scheduled Transactions | ✓ | ✗ |
| Self Hostable | ✓ | ✗ |
| Graphql Api | ✗ | ✓ |
| Rest Api | ✗ | ✓ |
| Real Time | ✗ | ✓ |
| Authorization | ✗ | ✓ |
| Event Triggers | ✗ | ✓ |
| Remote Schemas | ✗ | ✓ |
✓ Actual Budget Pros
- Open-source with no subscription fees
- Local-first with optional sync
- Beautiful and fast interface
- Bank sync via SimpleFIN/GoCardless
✗ Actual Budget Cons
- Self-hosting required for sync features
- Smaller community than YNAB
- Mobile experience less polished than native apps
✓ Hasura Pros
- Instant APIs
- Real-time subscriptions
- Great developer experience
- Performance
✗ Hasura Cons
- PostgreSQL-focused
- Complex authorization
- Pricing changes
The Verdict
Actual Budget is built for budget conscious individuals and self hosters, with a focus on envelope-budgeting and bank-sync. Hasura targets backend developers and startups and leads with graphql-api and rest-api.
On pricing, Actual Budget is the clear winner for budget-conscious users — starting at $0/mo compared to $99/mo for Hasura. That $99/mo difference adds up quickly for growing teams.
Both offer free plans, so you can test each with your real workflow before committing to a subscription.
Feature-wise, Actual Budget offers broader built-in capabilities (7 features vs 6), while Hasura takes a more focused approach — which can mean a simpler, faster onboarding experience.
This is a genuinely close comparison. If you can, sign up for both free trials (where available) and run a one-week test with your actual team tasks before deciding.