Five good budget apps—each for a different kind of household.

The shortlist

Pigget

Best to evaluate for Apple households using multiple currencies.A native iPhone and iPad envelope budget with shared editing and European bank connections. It is still a private beta.

YNAB

Best mature budgeting method and education ecosystem.Cross-platform, polished, and designed around a well-documented zero-based method, but one spending plan cannot combine currencies.

Banktivity

Best native Apple suite for financial depth.Budgeting, investments, real estate, loans, reports, bank connections, and multiple currencies across Mac, iPhone, and iPad.

Actual Budget

Best open-source and self-hosted envelope budget.Fast, privacy-focused, and highly controllable, but it expects more technical setup and does not natively support multiple currencies.

PocketSmith

Best for global finances and long-range forecasting.Bank feeds in many countries, live multi-currency conversion, flexible budgeting, shared access, and projections up to 60 years.

Feature comparison

“Starting price” does not mean equivalent features. Currency support, bank limits, and taxes can require a higher tier. Facts checked 20 August 2026.

Pigget: best to evaluate for an Apple, multi-currency household

Pigget is a native iPhone and iPad envelope budget built around European household realities: several currencies, shared planning, read-only bank connections, and quick transaction review. Accounts and goals stay in their natural currency while the budget has one base-currency view.

The limitation is maturity. Pigget is distributed through TestFlight, has not announced public pricing, supports Apple mobile devices rather than web or Android, and has a much smaller community than the established products below. It is a good beta to evaluate when its specific fit matters—not a default recommendation for everyone.

YNAB: best mature budgeting method and ecosystem

YNAB combines a focused zero-based method with extensive education, support, and cross-platform access. The annual plan is US$109, the monthly plan is $14.99, and YNAB Together covers a group of up to six people. Direct Import is officially offered in 17 European countries, though coverage varies by institution and account type.

Its clearest European limitation is currency architecture: official guidance says multiple currencies cannot coexist in one spending plan. Cross-border households need separate plans or another product.

Banktivity: best native Apple suite for financial depth

Banktivity runs natively on Mac, iPhone, and iPad. It supports traditional and envelope budgeting, more than 15 types of reports, investment and real-estate tracking, foreign currencies, and shared ledgers through Cloud Sync. The current plans run from US$6.99 to $10.99 per month billed annually; multi-currency features sit on the Gold tier.

Choose it when budgeting is one part of a broader personal-finance system. If the household mainly wants a clear spending plan, its depth may be unnecessary.

Actual Budget: best open-source and self-hosted choice

Actual is free, open-source, privacy-focused envelope budgeting software. Desktop clients are available for macOS, Windows, and Linux; its responsive web app can be installed as a PWA. A self-hosted server enables multi-device sync and bank syncing, with optional end-to-end encryption for the budget data.

The trade-off is setup and responsibility. Bank sync requires a server and your own provider credentials, is manually triggered, and bank tokens are not covered by budget-data encryption. New European GoCardless accounts are no longer accepted; Enable Banking support is experimental. Actual's own documentation also says native multi-currency is not supported, although it documents an experimental rule-based workaround.

PocketSmith: best for forecasting and global finances

PocketSmith is a web-based personal-finance product with iOS and Android companion apps. It advertises bank feeds in 49 countries, live multi-currency conversion, collaborator access, calendar budgeting, and forecasts ranging from six months on free to 60 years on its highest tier.

Its strengths are global aggregation and forward-looking financial analysis rather than strict envelope-first simplicity. Paid plans are listed in Australian dollars and rise with the number of connected banks, dashboards, and forecast horizon.

How to choose without wasting a migration

1. List the non-negotiables. Exact banks, currencies, devices, household members, and whether investment tracking belongs in the same app.
2. Test one complete week. Connect or import accounts, categorize normal spending, make a cross-currency transfer if relevant, and let both household members edit.
3. Inspect the exit. Find the export format and understand what remains accessible if you stop paying or stop hosting.
4. Measure routine friction. The best app is the one the household will review after an ordinary Tuesday—not the one with the longest feature page.
5. Do not migrate on a bank-count headline. Verify each essential institution and account type.

Methodology and official sources

We included products that answer a distinct European household need and have enough current official documentation to compare responsibly. We did not assign numeric scores, use affiliate links, or treat customer quotes as verified product facts.

• Pigget product facts and bank catalogue
• YNAB pricing, European import, and YNAB Together
• Banktivity pricing and features
• Actual installation, bank sync, and currency support
• PocketSmith pricing and features and global bank and currency support

Pigget is not affiliated with YNAB, Banktivity, Actual Budget, or PocketSmith. All product names and trademarks belong to their respective owners.