Is Actual Budget actually better?

This is not a comprehensive review. Just some thoughts!

— Me

So, I tried out Actual Budget since who doesn't love that open source self hosted goodness? It has everything going for it!

Unfortunately, for me it just didn't cut the mustard. The mobile experience is not great, it is a PWA but the actual experience leaves a lot to be desired. One of my real gripes is the small touch area for closing/opening category groups, you have to hit the little arrow directly - let me tap the whole row! (Please)

The reasons why the mobile experience matters so much to me:

1. It needs to be good for my partner who does most of her stuff on her phone not a laptop or PC!
2. It needs to be good for me who likes to add things as I make the purchases throughout the day, constantly being up to date with the latest spending.

I have heard a UI refresh is in the works from some random Reddit thread but not sure on the veracity of that statement as I didn't do my due diligence.

Now I'm not really complaining, the maintainers of Actual owe me nothing and I'm not lamenting that they haven't made the software "good enough" or anything! If it were just me, I might find a way to make it work, on the principle that I prefer to use OSS where I can. It's just that sometimes - for me, and I'm sure others - having something that works how you need it to out of the box is the most valuable thing.

I'm not saying I'll never come back to Actual, I think it's a great piece of software and has loads of potential! For now though, I will crawl back to YNAB and pay my silly little monthly fee. I must say that YNAB is really good, the price tag does annoy me and it goes up and up but damn, the product is actually so good!

Honourable mention: Beyond Budget

Beyond Budget is an (at the time of writing) Android only budgeting app, and it's really, really good!

I like it a lot, and used it a fair bit, so much so that I even purchased a lifetime license to support the development! (It's not that expensive!)

Unfortunately it also didn't possess the capability to cut the somewhat viscous condiment made of the seeds of any one of several plant species in the genera Brassica. This time, because it is Android only. My partner uses an iPhone so this was just a no go sadly. I prefer to have web/desktop versions of apps too so that did play a part, but mostly it was it's inability to work for me and my partner, as our finances are inextricably linked!

I'll be keeping an eye on this one too, ready to return to the fold of those who Budget Beyond (not sure what that means) if and when the iOS/Web/Desktop versions are released.

So, I guess - thanks YNAB for being the application that I need you to be!

There's also the very real possibility that I am just so used to YNAB that I can't switch. Change is like, hard I guess?