See what's left before you spend it. Private budgeting with bank sync in Europe, the UK, the US and Canada — self-hosted or in the Cloud.
I'm Mark. I build Balance in the evenings, once my actual job is done. It's a slow way to build software — but it also means nobody's rushing me into decisions I'd regret later.
Your backing helps me finish something that already works. Self-hosting is free, and it stays free. Balance Cloud is for everyone who'd rather not wrestle a server into shape at nine in the evening.
The app is real: it already works, the code is public, and there's a live demo. Go poke at it first. If it's not for you, that's genuinely fine. And if it is — this is the moment where backing it actually makes a difference.
Envelopes that give your money a place, one figure for what is safe to spend once the bills still to come are set aside, and a month that can start on payday.
Bank sync on your own key — Enable Banking in Europe and the UK, SimpleFIN in the US and Canada — and statements for what the sync does not reach. Balance matches the two sides of a transfer between your own accounts, so neither counts as spending.
Net worth across accounts, investments and the assets you value yourself, in more than one currency at daily ECB rates, and savings goals for which Balance works out the pace.
Self-host it for free: open source under AGPL-3.0, on your own hardware. Or Balance Cloud, if you would rather not look after a server — then your data sits on our server, and technically we can reach it.
Here's the honest version, and it has two halves. Self-hosted, the server is YOURS: the app, the database and the key all sit on a machine you own, and nobody else — us included — can reach any of it. That is the version we would pick, and it is free. Balance Cloud is the other half: we host it, so technically we can reach your data. We would rather write that down than let a word like sealed do the work. What protects it there: what is encrypted on disk — your two-factor secret, your SimpleFIN access, your notification channels and the backup you download — guards against a stolen disk or a copied backup, not against us, because the key sits on the same server; the Enable Banking key and the copilot API key you bring are files on that server, not encrypted. The bank connection is read-only and can never move money, and nothing is sold, mined or shared with anyone.
Automatic bank sync runs through Enable Banking in 31 countries of Europe (the EEA and the UK), where it reaches 2,700+ banks, and through SimpleFIN Bridge in the US and Canada. Both run on a key of your own, the same whether you self-host or use Balance Cloud: an Enable Banking key is free and runs in restricted mode, where you link your own accounts in its control panel, and SimpleFIN Bridge is a paid subscription of your own. Anywhere else, you import your statements.
There is nothing to pay for yet. The way to back Balance today is to try it — and, if it fits, to run it yourself.
An invented household on the real app: its accounts, envelopes and net worth, right in your browser. Nothing to install, no sign-up.
Install Balance on your own server with one line. Open source under AGPL-3.0, free now and free for good, on a machine nobody else can reach.
Then you still have live open-source software — Balance is AGPL-3.0 and free to self-host, and that doesn't change.
Depends which one you run, and the difference is real. Self-hosted: the server is yours, so the answer is simply yes — nobody else can reach it. Balance Cloud: we host it, so we can technically reach your data, and we would rather name that than bury it. Your two-factor secret, your SimpleFIN access, your notification channels and the backup you download are encrypted on disk, which guards against a stolen disk or a copied backup and not against us — the key sits on the same server. Unlike the SimpleFIN access, the Enable Banking key and the copilot API key you bring are plain files there. The bank connection is read-only, and nothing is ever sold, mined or shared.