Finlynq vs Actual Budget — open-source PFM with investments & MCP

When to choose Actual Budget

Actual Budget is the right call if any of these matter more than ownership:

You want best-in-class envelope / zero-based budgeting UX — a keyboard-driven register, payee autocomplete, splits, and schedules. Actual nails budgeting in a way Finlynq does not aim to.
You want true local-first with opt-in end-to-end encryption — your data lives on-device and the sync server stores opaque encrypted blobs. Architecturally very private for a single user's data.
You want a permissive MIT license (proprietary forks allowed) rather than Finlynq's copyleft AGPL v3.
You want built-in bank sync via GoCardless (EU/UK), SimpleFIN Bridge (US/Canada), or Pluggy.ai (Brazil). Finlynq has no first-party bank sync today.
You want a desktop app and offline-first multi-device via Actual's sync engine.

When to choose Finlynq

Finlynq is the right call if any of these matter:

You want native investment / portfolio tracking — holdings, lot-tracked cost basis, dividends. Actual has none; it is a budgeting app, full stop. This is the single largest feature gap.
You want first-party multi-currency. Actual's docs state it is currency-agnostic and does not support multi-currency; the workaround is separate budgets. Finlynq locks FX at trade date.
You want a first-party MCP server. Actual has shipped none and closed AI feature requests without merging. A capable community server exists (s-stefanov/actual-mcp) but is not blessed or in-app.
You want an official managed cloud from the project. Actual offers none — you self-host or trust a third-party host. Finlynq offers finlynq.com/cloud directly.
You want per-user encryption that is on by default. Actual's E2EE is opt-in; default installs store plaintext on the sync server.
You want loans / amortization, goals, and subscription detection in the same app. Actual is budgeting-only.

Side-by-side

	Finlynq	Actual Budget
License	AGPL v3	MIT (more permissive)
Hosting	Self-host (Docker + PostgreSQL) or managed cloud	Self-host Docker or local-first; no official managed cloud
First-party MCP	Yes — 91 HTTP / 87 stdio tools	No — AI requests closed unmerged; community s-stefanov/actual-mcp exists
MCP auth	OAuth 2.1 + DCR, Bearer API key, or stdio	Community MCP supports optional bearer auth against the server
REST / HTTP API	Yes — full surface mirrored from MCP	Programmatic access via the @actual-app/api Node library
Bank sync	File / email import + connector framework. No first-party Plaid today.	GoCardless (EU/UK, no new accounts since 2025) + SimpleFIN (US/Canada) + Pluggy.ai (Brazil); CSV/QIF/OFX import
Encryption at rest	Per-user envelope encryption (AES-256-GCM, scrypt-derived KEK), on by default	Opt-in end-to-end; default is plaintext on the sync server
Multi-currency	Native, per-currency cost basis, FX locked at trade date	No — currency-agnostic; single-currency budget per docs
Investment / portfolio	Lot-tracked cost basis, dividends, FX-aware aggregation; RRSP/TFSA/RESP	None
Native mobile app	React Native (Expo) app — functional, not at parity with consumer apps	No native app; mobile-responsive web / PWA + desktop
Multi-user / household	No (single-user)	Multi-user shipped (requires an OpenID provider for login)
Pricing	Donation-based; same features on self-host and managed cloud	Free / donation-based; third-party managed hosts ~$1-5/mo
Funding / revenue model	Bootstrapped, donations	Community-governed (actualbudget org); donations

Migrating from Actual Budget

Export from Actual — use the file export, or pull data via the @actual-app/api Node library.
Import into Finlynq at /import/reconcile — review and edit each row; transfer pairs, multi-currency, and dedup are handled in staging.
Connect Claude (or any MCP client) at /mcp — paste the URL into Claude → Customize → Connectors; OAuth handles auth.

FAQ

Is Actual's budgeting better than Finlynq's?▾

For pure envelope / zero-based budgeting UX, generally yes — Actual's register and shortcuts are excellent. Finlynq covers a wider surface (investments, loans, goals, multi-currency) and adds MCP.

Actual is local-first and end-to-end encrypted — isn't that more private?▾

For a single device, Actual's opt-in E2EE is architecturally strong. But it is opt-in (the default stores plaintext on the sync server), whereas Finlynq's per-user envelope encryption is always on server-side, which is also what makes the MCP story work.

Does Actual have a first-party MCP or AI feature?▾

No. AI requests were closed unmerged and the roadmap is silent on AI. A capable community MCP exists (s-stefanov/actual-mcp), but it is third-party and not integrated into the app.

Does Actual track investments?▾

No — it is budgeting only. If you want budgets and a portfolio in one app, that is a Finlynq advantage.

Can Actual do multi-currency?▾

Not natively; its docs say it is currency-agnostic. Finlynq handles per-account and per-holding currency with FX locked at trade date.

Sources

actualbudget/actual on GitHub— MIT, fetched 2026-05-29
Actual bank-sync docs (GoCardless + SimpleFIN)— fetched 2026-05-29
s-stefanov/actual-mcp— community (not official) MCP
Finlynq on GitHub— AGPL v3 source

Try Finlynq

Free, open source, AGPL v3. Run it on our managed cloud or self-host with one Docker Compose file. Same features either way.

Try the managed cloud Self-host with Docker Source on GitHub