Actual Budget
Empower Personal Dashboard
| Feature | Actual Budget | Empower Personal Dashboard |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free / from $0/mo | Free only |
| Free Plan | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Rating | 4.5 / 5 | 4.3 / 5 |
| Best For | budget-conscious-individuals, self-hosters, ynab-migrants, privacy-focused-budgeters | investors, retirement-planners, high-net-worth, financial-planners |
| Founded | 2019 | 2009 |
| Envelope Budgeting | ✓ | ✗ |
| Bank Sync | ✓ | ✗ |
| Reports | ✓ | ✗ |
| Goal Tracking | ✓ | ✗ |
| Rules | ✓ | ✗ |
| Scheduled Transactions | ✓ | ✗ |
| Self Hostable | ✓ | ✗ |
| Net Worth Tracking | ✗ | ✓ |
| Investment Checkup | ✗ | ✓ |
| Retirement Planner | ✗ | ✓ |
| Fee Analyzer | ✗ | ✓ |
| Cash Flow | ✗ | ✓ |
| Budgeting | ✗ | ✓ |
✓ 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
✓ Empower Personal Dashboard Pros
- Free tracking tools
- Investment analysis
- Retirement planner
- Net worth tracking
✗ Empower Personal Dashboard Cons
- Advisor upsell
- Limited budgeting
- US-focused
The Verdict
Actual Budget is built for budget conscious individuals and self hosters, with a focus on envelope-budgeting and bank-sync. Empower Personal Dashboard targets investors and retirement planners and leads with net-worth-tracking and investment-checkup.
Empower Personal Dashboard uses custom enterprise pricing, while Actual Budget starts at $0/mo — a tangible advantage for teams with a fixed budget.
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 Empower Personal Dashboard 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.