Bufin: private personal budgeting in storage you control
Bufin is a free budgeting web app that saves your financial data to your own Google Drive, your own OneDrive, or only this device, never to a database of ours. Track spending, plan budgets, manage recurring bills, follow net worth, plan a debt payoff and keep track of investments: with no ads, no third-party trackers, and no bank connection.
What it costs
Nothing. Every feature is available to everyone: no plans, no trial that runs out, no card, and nothing held back for a paid tier. Running costs are covered by voluntary donations and by clearly-marked referral links; donating unlocks nothing, because nothing is locked.
Where your data is stored
In storage you already own. Sign in with Google and Bufin writes your budget as files in a hidden application folder of your own Google Drive; sign in with Microsoft and it uses your OneDrive the same way. Use it with no account at all and everything stays in this browser's local storage: which means it is gone if you clear your browser data, so exporting a copy matters. Bufin keeps no database of anybody's transactions.
What Bufin can and cannot see
Not your personal budget: it lives in your own cloud and Bufin's servers never receive a copy. What Bufin's server does hold is a small account record: the name, email and profile picture from sign-in, your roadmap votes and your two-factor setting, plus shared household budgets if you choose to use them, and anonymous counts of page views and clicks. No transactions, no balances, no merchant names.
Does it connect to my bank?
No, and it cannot. Bufin never asks for banking credentials and uses no open-banking aggregator. Transactions are typed, imported from a CSV your bank exports, or read from a photographed receipt or a screenshot of your bank's transaction list: with the image processed on your own device.
Features
- Spending and income across 20+ categories, with CSV import and on-device receipt scanning
- Monthly budgets per category, with paycheque-based budget splitting
- Recurring bills and pay days on a calendar you can drag to reschedule
- Sinking funds and envelopes for the costs that arrive once a year
- Net worth tracking, debt payoff planning (snowball or avalanche), and investment portfolios
- Shared household budgets with people you invite
- Export everything as JSON or Excel, at any time
- Fully bilingual: English and French, legal pages included
- Installable on a phone, and usable offline once loaded
Frequently asked questions
How much does Bufin cost?
Nothing. Bufin is free: every feature, for everyone, with no plans, no trial to run out, no card and nothing held back for a paid tier. It's paid for by optional donations and by clearly-marked referral links on the tools page. Donating unlocks nothing extra, because nothing is locked.
Do I need an account to use Bufin?
No. You can start with no account at all. Bufin saves your budget in this browser's storage and asks you for nothing. Signing in with Google or Microsoft instead keeps it in your own cloud, which syncs across devices and survives a wiped browser. Both cost nothing.
Is it safe to use Bufin without an account?
It works, but understand the trade-off. Device-only budgets live in your browser's local storage: clearing site data or "resetting" the browser deletes them, private windows forget them when closed, and they exist on that one device only, with no backup anywhere. Export a copy from Settings, or sign in to move it to your own cloud.
Where is my data stored?
In storage you own. Sign in with Google and Bufin writes your budget as files in a hidden app folder of your own Google Drive; sign in with Microsoft and it uses your OneDrive the same way. Without an account, it stays in this browser. Bufin has no database of anybody's transactions.
Can Bufin see my financial data?
Not your personal budget, no. It's stored in your own Drive or OneDrive, and Bufin's servers never receive a copy. What Bufin's server does hold is your account record: name, email and profile picture from sign-in, your roadmap votes, and your two-factor setting. Shared household budgets are the exception: those entries are on Bufin's servers so the other members can see them.
Does Bufin connect to my bank?
No, and it can't. Bufin never asks for bank credentials and has no open-banking connection, so there is no login of yours for anyone to lose. Transactions get in by typing them, importing a CSV your bank exports, or photographing a receipt or statement and letting Bufin read the numbers on-device.
Is Bufin a Google Sheets template?
No. Bufin is a full web app you open in a browser: dashboards, budgets, a bill calendar, net worth, debt payoff and investment tracking. Google Drive is only where the files are kept, the way a photo app keeps photos in your own cloud. Nothing is a spreadsheet you have to maintain.
Does it work on my phone, and offline?
Yes to both. Bufin is installable to a phone home screen as a web app, there's an Android app, and the interface is built for a phone first. Once loaded, a signed-in device keeps a local mirror, so an existing budget opens and accepts changes with no signal; edits sync when you're back online.