6 free budget apps that work without a bank connection (2026)

Short answer: These six free tools let you track your spending without giving any app access to your bank: Where Went (in the browser, on your phone and computer), a free spreadsheet template for Excel or Google Sheets, Goodbudget (envelope budgeting), Monefy (quick logging on a phone), Money Manager by Realbyte (lots of reports) and Monee (no ads, no tracking). In all of them, you type in each payment yourself.

Full disclosure: Where Went is our app, so of course it's on the list. We've tried to be fair about the others and to say where they do things better than we do. Prices and features were checked in October 2026. App store prices change and differ by country, so look at the listing before you pay for anything.

Why use a budget app without a bank connection?

You get the overview without handing your whole transaction history to another company. An app that isn't linked can't read your account, can't move money and won't stop syncing when the bank connection expires. What it costs you is a few seconds of typing per payment. That typing is also what makes you notice where the money goes.

People have other reasons too. Some pay a lot in cash, which bank sync barely sees. Some have accounts in two countries. Some just don't like the idea of an app reading their statements. And sometimes there's no choice: Goodbudget, for example, only syncs with US banks.

Still deciding? Our guide to bank sync vs. manual tracking explains what a linked app can and can't do under EU rules.

The six options side by side

What each one does well, and where it falls short

1. Where Went: one tracker for your phone and your computer

Where Went is a free expense tracker that runs in the browser. You sign in with Google, add your accounts (current account, card, cash, savings) with today's balance, and log money in and out. It keeps every balance, your net worth and the month's income against expenses up to date, and shows your spending by category in a chart.

Because it's a website, the same data is on your phone and your laptop. Add it to your home screen and it opens like an app. It comes with 50 categories, and each account can have its own currency: euro by default, plus 11 others, including GBP, USD, CHF, PLN and BGN. Moving money between your own accounts counts as a transfer, not as spending. Your data is stored on servers in Frankfurt.

You can also set a spending budget for the month or the week. The dashboard then shows what's left and what that means per day, and you can leave fixed costs like rent out of it.

Where it falls short: it needs an internet connection, and you need a Google account. You get one overall budget, not separate limits per category, and there's no shared view for couples and no import from your bank or a spreadsheet.

Best for: people who log on the phone, check the numbers on a computer and have more than one account.

2. A spreadsheet template: full control, works offline

If you like spreadsheets, our free expense tracker template is a good place to start. One row per payment, dropdowns for type and category, and a Summary sheet that adds up each month by category. It opens in Excel, Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers, and in Excel it works offline.

The downsides show up after a few weeks. Typing into small cells on a phone is slow. Insert one row in the wrong place and a formula quietly stops counting it. Balances per account need running totals that you build yourself.

Best for: people who sit at a computer every day and like to set things up their own way.

3. Goodbudget: for planning every euro ahead

Goodbudget uses the envelope method. When money comes in, you split it into envelopes like Groceries, Rent or Going out, and every expense comes out of one of them. When an envelope is empty, you either stop spending in that category or move money over from another one.

The free plan has 20 envelopes (10 regular ones and 10 for yearly costs or goals), one account, two devices and one year of history. Two devices are enough for a couple to share one budget. Premium costs $10 a month or $80 a year and adds unlimited envelopes and accounts, five devices and seven years of history. It also adds bank sync, but only for US banks. In Europe, you type everything in either way.

Best for: people who want to decide where each euro goes before they spend it.

4. Monefy: the fastest way to log on a phone

Monefy opens on a chart of your spending, with category icons around it. You tap a category, type the amount and you're done. A coffee takes a few seconds to log, and that speed is the main reason to pick it.

The free version shows ads. A paid upgrade removes them and adds extra features, and the price depends on your country and app store. Monefy is built for the phone, so it's less handy if you like to look at your numbers on a big screen.

Best for: people who want to log quickly and glance at a chart, nothing more.

5. Money Manager by Realbyte: budgets and lots of reports

Money Manager is the most detailed app on this list. It has accounts and cards, a calendar view, budgets per category that you can compare with what you actually spent, and plenty of charts. Its PC Manager lets you open and edit your data in a browser on your computer, as long as the phone is on the same Wi-Fi.

The free version shows ads and limits how many accounts you can add. The paid version removes both. All that detail also means busy screens, and it takes a while to find your way around.

Best for: people who want spending limits per category, which Where Went doesn't have.

6. Monee: free, no ads, no tracking

Monee comes from an independent developer in Germany. Its App Store listing says it's free, has no ads and doesn't track you. The only in-app purchases are optional tips. It runs on iPhone, iPad and Android.

We couldn't find a desktop version, so if you want your numbers on a computer, check that before you start.

Best for: people who care most about privacy and only track on their phone.

Which one should you choose?

Pick by how you deal with money day to day, not by the longest feature list:

• You log on your phone and look at the numbers on a laptop: Where Went.
• You want to give every euro a job before you spend it: Goodbudget.
• You want spending limits per category and lots of charts: Money Manager.
• You only want to log fast on your phone: Monefy or Monee.
• You love spreadsheets or need to work offline: the template.

What Stiftung Warentest found about apps without a bank link

In October 2023, Stiftung Warentest, Germany's best-known consumer testing organisation, tested eight budgeting apps. Apps with a bank connection scored better, because each payment shows up in the app and gets a category on its own. The best app without a bank link only got a "satisfactory" grade. The testers pointed to confusing start screens, steps that weren't self-explanatory, poor navigation and gaps in privacy policies. They found no security problems in any of the apps (press release, in German).

We read that as good news for manual tracking. The weak spots were about design, not about the idea. The real risk with a manual app is that you stop opening it after two weeks. So pick the one that feels quickest to you, and use it for a full week before you pay for anything.

How to keep it going

Three habits do most of the work. Log each payment right after you pay. Check your balances against your banking app once a week. And record cash withdrawals as a transfer to a cash account, not as spending, or you'll count the same money twice. The full routine is in our guide to bank sync vs. manual tracking.

The bottom line

Any of these six beats not tracking at all. If you want to try ours, sign in with Google and add your first account. It takes about two minutes, it works in the browser you're reading this in, and there's nothing to pay. If it's not for you, the other five are one search away in your app store.