An offline budgeting app for Mac that keeps your data local

An offline budgeting app for Mac keeps your budget in a file on your own computer instead of on a company’s server. If you are looking for one, the useful questions are concrete: where is the data stored, what gets sent over the internet, and how do you back it up? This page answers those for four popular options, including FireBudget, which we make.

Why people want a local budget

The reasons are usually some mix of these:

• Privacy. A full transaction history says a great deal about you: where you live, shop, travel, and give money.
• Control. A local file does not disappear if a company changes its pricing, gets acquired, or shuts down.
• No bank credentials. Many cloud apps work best when you connect your bank through a data aggregator. Some people would rather not.
• Working offline. On a plane or a bad connection, the app still opens.

The trade-off is convenience. Cloud apps sync across your phone and computer and pull transactions from your bank automatically. A local app generally does neither.

Where your budget lives in each app

Information about other apps is from their websites and documentation as of October 2026.

	Where the budget is stored	Bank connection	Works offline
YNAB	YNAB’s cloud	Optional, through Plaid or MX	Partly: the phone apps can enter transactions offline and sync later; the web app needs a connection
Monarch Money	Monarch’s cloud	Yes, through Plaid, MX, or Finicity	No
Actual Budget	Locally in the desktop app, or on a sync server you host or rent	Optional, through third-party providers, via the server	Yes, the desktop app works offline
FireBudget	A local database on your Mac	None	Yes

YNAB and Monarch are cloud services. Your budget lives on their servers, which is what makes their phone apps and multi-device sync work. Both are established products with security programs of their own. If you want a cloud budget, they are reasonable choices.

Actual Budget is open source and stores data locally by default. If you set up a sync server for multi-device use, a copy also lives on that server, and Actual offers optional end-to-end encryption so the server cannot read it. It is the best choice if you want local-first with optional sync. See Actual Budget without self-hosting.

FireBudget has no sync and no server for budget data. Your budget never leaves your Mac unless you export it or ask an AI agent to read it.

What FireBudget sends over the internet

Being specific matters here, so this is the complete list:

1. Purchase verification when you activate. You enter your purchase email and the six-digit code FireBudget emails you. After that, activation is stored on your Mac and the app opens without a connection.
2. A purchase re-check, at most once every 24 hours. It confirms the purchase has not been refunded. It never blocks the app, and if it fails because you are offline, nothing happens.
3. An update check. FireBudget downloads a small file from firebudget.org describing the latest version. Nothing installs automatically.

None of these includes budget data. Day to day, FireBudget works offline.

There is one optional exception you control: if you turn on agent access, AI agents such as Claude Code or Codex can read your budget through a server that listens only on your Mac. The agent then sends what it reads to its AI provider. Agent access is off by default.

Where the file is

FireBudget stores your data in:

~/Library/Application Support/FireBudget/

That folder contains the database, a backups folder, and an exports folder. You do not need to touch these files directly. Use the backup and export tools in the app.

How to back up a local budget

A local budget is only as safe as your backups. A cloud service handles that for you; with a local app, it is your job. In FireBudget:

• Full data backup. In Settings, under Data tools, choose Full data backup. This writes a single .firebudget-backup file containing all your budgets, with a checksum so FireBudget can confirm it is intact before restoring.
• Automatic safety snapshots. FireBudget also takes a snapshot before every CSV import, YNAB import, and AI agent import or edit. These appear in the same Backups list.
• Restore. Pick a backup from the list in Settings and choose Restore. FireBudget checks the file, upgrades older backups to the current format if needed, and reloads.
• Export. In Budget Settings, Export budget data writes a zip of plain CSV files: accounts, categories, transactions, budgeted amounts, and loan interest settings, rates, and postings. These open in any spreadsheet, so your data is never locked into FireBudget.

Keep a copy off your Mac

Backups in the same folder will not help if the Mac itself is lost. Two simple habits cover that:

• Time Machine already includes ~/Library/Application Support/, so if you use it, FireBudget’s data and backups are included.
• After a big change, such as a month-end reconcile, make a full backup and copy the file somewhere else: an external drive, or a cloud folder you trust.

To restore a backup from elsewhere, copy the .firebudget-backup file into the backups folder above. It then appears in the list in Settings.

Is a local budget right for you

A local budget suits you if you budget at a computer, are willing to enter or import transactions yourself, and value privacy and control more than automation. If you check your budget at the store, rely on bank sync, or share it with a partner on another device, a cloud app or Actual with a sync server will serve you better.

What FireBudget does not do

FireBudget runs only on Macs with Apple Silicon (M1 or later). It has no bank sync, no iPhone or Android app, and no sync between devices. Backups are manual apart from the safety snapshots before imports and agent edits, so set up Time Machine or another backup routine.