Budget Apps That Don't Connect to Your Bank (2026)

A budget app that doesn't connect to your bank asks you to record spending yourself, so no aggregator ever reads your accounts. The good ones make that fast. In 2026 the strongest picks are Money Manager for manual tapping, Finny or Voice Sheet for voice, a Google Sheet for full control, and Goodbudget (free plan) or Actual Budget for envelope budgeting. Below they're grouped by how you enter spending, with a facts table and a quick way to choose.

Prices and features as of November 2026, taken from each app's own website or App Store listing. Check them again before you buy.

What counts as "no bank connection"

Plenty of apps say "manual entry supported" while pushing you to link a bank on the first screen. For this list, an app had to pass three tests:

1. It works fully without a bank login. Every core feature, including budgets and reports, has to work with nothing linked.
2. Bank sync is absent or clearly optional. We note which apps offer it on a paid plan, so you know what you're declining.
3. You can see where your data goes. On the phone, in the app's cloud, or in a file you own. Where a listing doesn't say, we write "not stated".

We publish Voice Sheet, so we've kept to facts you can check yourself on each app's own page. If you want the background on why people skip bank linking in the first place, read is it safe to link your bank to a budgeting app? first.

Budget apps that don't connect to your bank, by input style

How you enter a purchase matters more than any feature list. If logging takes 20 seconds, you'll stop by week three. So pick the input style that fits your day first, then the app.

Manual tap: Money Manager

Money Manager Expense & Budget (by Realbyte) is a long-running iPhone and Android app built around tapping in each transaction. Its listing describes it as easy to "enter data anytime, anywhere", and it has no bank connection to set up.

• Good at: weekly, monthly and yearly budgets, double-entry bookkeeping for savings and loans, a calendar view, passcode lock and receipt photos.
• Price: free to download. A Data Sync Service subscription costs $2.49 a month or $19.99 a year on the US App Store.
• Watch out for: every entry is typed or tapped. That's fine at a desk and slower at a till.

Best for: people who like a classic ledger app and don't mind tapping.

Voice: Finny and Voice Sheet

Voice apps let you say "groceries 64.20, card" and save a full entry in a few seconds. That's the closest a manual app gets to the speed of a bank feed. See our voice expense tracking guide for how it works and where it trips up.

Finny is an iPhone app whose site says "No bank linking, ever." You can type, speak, scan up to five receipts at once or import screenshots. Data stays on your device unless you turn on cloud sync, and it supports CSV import and export.

• Does better than Voice Sheet: receipt scanning, screenshot import and an all-in-one iPhone experience.
• Watch out for: iPhone only. AI input, batch scanning and cloud sync are part of Finny Pro, and the price isn't listed on its homepage, so check the App Store.

Voice Sheet (our app) runs on iPhone and Android and saves every entry as a row in your own Google Sheet. It reads your column headers and dropdowns, so "lunch 12.50 yesterday, card" fills Date, Item, Amount and Payment. How voice entry works has the details.

• Good at: both phone platforms, a plain spreadsheet you own, offline logging that syncs later, and no bank linking at all (why we don't offer it).
• Watch out for: there's no receipt scanning or bank import, and each sheet uses one currency with no conversion. The free plan has forms, templates, the dashboard, reminders, 3 voice entries a day and 1 Quick Capture or widget entry a day, and shows ads. Premium ($4.99 a month or $39.99 a year) makes voice, Quick Capture and the widget unlimited.

Best for: Finny if you're on iPhone and want receipts too; Voice Sheet if you want the data in Google Sheets or you use Android.

Spreadsheet: a Google Sheet you own

A spreadsheet is the original budget app that doesn't connect to a bank. It costs nothing, nobody can shut it down, and your formulas are yours. The weak point is entry: opening a sheet on a phone and finding the right cell is slow.

• Good at: total control. You can build any budget method, share the file with a partner and keep years of history.
• Price: free with a Google account.
• Watch out for: phone entry. Pair it with a form, a widget or a voice app so logging stays quick.

Our free Google Sheets expense tracker template gives you a ready-made sheet. If you're coming from an app that closed, see budgeting in a spreadsheet as a Mint alternative.

One spreadsheet tool that doesn't belong here: Tiller fills Google Sheets from your bank feed, so it is a bank-connected app. We compare the two approaches in Tiller vs Voice Sheet.

Envelope: Goodbudget and Actual Budget

Envelope apps split income into pots (groceries, rent, fun) and subtract each purchase from its pot. Without a bank feed, you log spending against an envelope as you go.

Goodbudget runs on the web, iPhone and Android. Its free plan has no bank sync: 10 regular envelopes, 10 goal envelopes, one account, two devices and a year of history. Premium ($10 a month or $80 a year) adds "Automatic bank sync (US banks only)", so the free plan is the no-bank version.

• Does well: sharing one household budget across two phones, which a spreadsheet can't do as neatly.
• Watch out for: the 10-envelope limit fills up fast in a detailed budget.

Actual Budget is a free, open-source envelope app that keeps your budget locally and syncs in the background. Its docs call bank integration "optional", and you can import QIF, OFX, QFX, CAMT.053 or CSV files instead. You run it yourself or on PikaPods for about $1.50 a month. On phones it works as an installable web app, and an official iOS app is in beta.

• Does well: full envelope budgeting with no subscription and no company holding your data.
• Watch out for: setup takes more effort than an app-store download.

Prefer to build it yourself? Our envelope budget spreadsheet guide does the same job in Google Sheets.

Also works unlinked: YNAB

YNAB is built for linked accounts, but it supports unlinked accounts too. You enter transactions by hand, or import a QFX, OFX, QIF or CSV file on the web app or an iPad (not on iPhone or Android). It costs $14.99 a month or $109 a year after a 34-day free trial, whether or not you link anything, which makes it the priciest option here for people who never will.

The facts table

How to choose a budget app without bank linking

Answer these four questions in order. The first "yes" usually decides it.

1. Do you mostly pay at a till, on the move? Pick a voice app. Finny on iPhone, Voice Sheet on iPhone or Android.
2. Do you budget with a partner on separate phones? Goodbudget's free plan shares one budget across two devices.
3. Do you want to own the file and build your own reports? Use a Google Sheet, and add Voice Sheet or a form for phone entry.
4. Do you want full envelope budgeting with no subscription? Actual Budget, if you're happy to host it.

If none of these fits, start with Money Manager. It's free and simple, and you'll learn quickly whether manual tracking suits you. Our guide to manual expense tracking covers the habits that make it stick.

What you give up without a bank feed

No-bank apps trade automation for privacy, and it's worth being honest about the cost:

• You only see what you record. A forgotten coffee never shows up. A weekly two-minute check against your bank's own app catches the gaps.
• Subscriptions and fees don't log themselves. Add recurring bills once, and set a reminder for the ones that renew.
• Balances won't update on their own. Check your actual balance against the app's numbers once a month.

The upside is real too. Cash shows up the same way card spending does, which bank feeds miss entirely (see how to track cash spending). And logging each purchase as it happens makes you notice it, which is half the point of a budget.

Is there a budget app that doesn't connect to your bank?

Yes, and you have more choice than the app stores suggest. The best budget app that doesn't connect to your bank is the one with the fastest input for how you actually pay. Voice for spending on the move, a spreadsheet for control, envelopes for planning, a tap app for simplicity. For the full picture of building a no-bank system, from first sheet to daily routine, read our guide to tracking expenses without linking your bank. Voice Sheet's plans are on the pricing page if voice entry is the piece you want.