Why We Built an Expense Tracker With No Bank Login and No Required Subscription

The problem with most budget apps

When we went looking for a budgeting app, we kept running into the same trade-offs. Many of the most popular options ask you to link your bank before you've logged a single expense. Many require an account, so your data lives on their servers. And many of them — including well-known names people search for alternatives to, like YNAB — only work with an ongoing subscription.

None of that is necessary to answer the question a budget app exists for: where is my money going, and am I on track?

The principles Balance is built on

1. Your data stays on your device

Every account, transaction, category and budget is stored locally. There is no Muffinly Labs server that receives your financial data — so there is nothing of yours on our side to breach, sell, or lose. The app works fully offline.

2. No bank connection, ever

Balance never asks for bank credentials and never connects to a bank or data aggregator. You enter transactions yourself, which takes seconds and keeps you aware of every expense. (We explain the risks of bank-linking in this guide.)

3. No account to create

Open the app and start tracking. There's no email, no password, and nothing to lose access to.

4. You own your data — and can take it with you

Back up to your own Google Drive if you want to — it's optional and off by default — and export transactions, accounts, categories and budgets to CSV any time.

5. A free version that's actually usable

The free version of Balance has unlimited transactions, accounts, and categories, plus budgets, recurring transactions, reports, CSV export, Google Drive backup and theming. No subscription is required to use any of it.

How we keep the lights on

We'd rather be upfront about this. The free version shows ads, served through Google AdMob; your financial data is never shared with the ad network or used to target ads. If you'd rather not see ads, Premium removes them and adds PDF report export and a home-screen shortcut for adding transactions. It's available monthly, yearly, or as a one-time lifetime purchase — so if you dislike subscriptions, you never need one. Prices are set by Google Play for your region.

Who Balance is for

• People who want a budget app without a bank connection.
• Anyone looking for a YNAB alternative without a subscription, or a free expense tracker with no transaction cap.
• Travellers and expats who need multi-currency tracking that works offline — see our multi-currency guide.
• Arabic and Urdu speakers who want a finance app with proper right-to-left layout, not just translated text.