Keep Above
Budgeting apps with no bank connection
Keep Above has no bank connection: you enter each bill and your income once, keep your balance current now and then, and it projects your balance and your sinking funds from what you typed. The table below lists other budgeting apps whose own pages document manual entry as a first-class mode, with what each one asks you to keep entering.
Written and maintained by Manandai Ltd, the company that makes Keep Above. This is our comparison, not an independent review. No app here is scored, rated or ranked, and the table is alphabetical. How we compare.
Features and prices change. Check each provider before deciding.
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Last verified 21 September 2026Which budgeting apps work without connecting a bank?
"Does it need my bank login" is usually standing in for something else: how much of my life does this thing want. An app with no connection still has to learn what you owe and what you earn from somewhere, and the honest difference between these apps is not whether you type something in, it is what you type and how often.
That is the column to read below. Most of these apps ask for every transaction, because a record of what you spent is what they are for. Keep Above does not keep that record, so it asks for the bills and the income once, and then for your balance now and then.
| App | Bank connection | What you keep entering | Forecast horizon | Sinking funds or goals | Price | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Actual Budget | Optional, credentials you supply | Each transaction or an imported file; approve or auto-add each schedule; reconcile | Balance Forecast report, experimental; nothing past 12 months | Envelope budgeting | Free, open source | docs |
| Cashew | Not offered | Each transaction; mark each occurrence paid or skipped | Not documented | Budgets and goals | Free; Pro US$11.99/yr | FAQ |
| Dudget | Not offered | Each purchase | The current cycle | Not offered | Free; Premium US$24.99/yr | site |
| EveryDollar | Optional, paid tier; US | Each transaction on the free version | Within the month, paid tier | Funds | Free; Premium US$79.99/yr | help centre |
| Fudget | Not offered | Each entry, and mark it paid | Not documented | Not offered | Free; Plus US$19.99/yr | site |
| Goodbudget | Optional, paid tier; US banks | Each transaction, into an envelope | Not documented | Envelopes | Free; Premium US$10/mo or US$80/yr | features |
| Harbourline | Not offered | A check each payday that the bills are funded | 13 weeks | "Set aside" and savings goals | Free; household A$2.50/week | site |
| Keep Above | None, by design | Your balance, now and then. Bills and income are entered once | 30 years, free plan and Premium alike | Reserved funds and savings goals | Free; Premium from about US$6.99/mo | support |
| Money Manager | Not offered | Each transaction | Not documented | Budget and assets | Free with ads; ad-free US$5.99 one-time; data sync US$2.49/mo or US$19.99/yr | site |
| Monefy | Not offered | Each expense | Not documented | Budget limit | Free; Premium US$59.99, billing period not stated | site |
| NEKO | Not offered; statement import | Each transaction, or an import from a statement | "Projected daily balance as far ahead as your bills and income go" | Not named | Free; in-app purchases | site |
| PayCheck Budget | Not offered | Each purchase | To payday and the weeks after | Savings goals | From US$29.99/yr introductory | site |
| Sorted budget planner | None | Your own figures, updated by you | Not offered | A separate goal planner | Free | planner |
| Spendee | Optional | Each transaction on a manual wallet | Not documented | Budgets | Free; from US$1.99/mo | help centre |
| Toshl | Optional, top tier | Each entry on the free plan | 5 future months on the paid tier, 4 on iOS | Budgets | Free; Pro US$19.99/yr | pricing |
| YNAB | Optional; US, Canada, UK and EU banks named | Each transaction, and approve each scheduled one unless an import matches it | Not documented | Targets | US$109/yr | pricing |
Why would an app offer no bank connection at all?
Three documented reasons, none of them about secrecy.
- Coverage. Bank feeds work in some countries and not others. Several apps in the table name the countries their connections reach, and most of the world is outside them.
- They expire. A connection is a permission with a clock on it, set by regulation and by the bank. In the United Kingdom an app must obtain your explicit reconfirmation at least every 90 days; in the European Union the renewal is every 180 days; in Australia a consent runs for at most 12 months. In the United States it is event-driven instead, following a password or security change.
- They describe the past. A feed brings back what already happened. An app that works out what is still coming does not need one, because the bills you entered are the thing it is projecting.
Keep Above has no connection to expire and nothing imported to categorise. That is a design choice, not a security claim, and it is the reason the app works the same in any country.
What do you give up by not connecting a bank?
Without a bank connection there is no automatic capture of transactions, no automatic categorisation, no spending history and no category reports, and none of the subscription-spotting that several of the apps above do from the feed.
Keep Above gives up all of that, and more besides: it shows no spending history of any kind, it does not know your real balance unless you enter it, and it does not move money or pay bills. If what you want is a record of where the money went, an app built around a feed does that and Keep Above does not.
Our comparison, not a review. Every cell describes what that app's own pages document, on the date shown above the table. Projections described here are conditional on the figures a person enters and on nothing changing. This page takes no account of your circumstances. Nothing here is financial advice.
Keep Above
Enter each bill and your income once, and keep your balance current now and then. Keep Above works out the balance you would need to cover everything coming, and projects your balance and your sinking funds — which it calls reserved funds — forward. No bank connection.
Common questions
Can a budgeting app work without linking my bank?
Yes. Every app in the table above documents a way to use it without a bank connection, and several are built that way and offer no connection at all. What differs is what each one asks you to keep entering afterwards: most ask for every transaction, while Keep Above asks for your bills and income once and then your balance now and then.
What is the difference between manual entry and entering bills once?
Manual entry usually means you type each purchase as it happens, so the app can show you what you spent. Keep Above does not record purchases at all. You enter each recurring bill and your income once, and your day-to-day spending shows up on its own in the balance you keep current.
Why would an app choose not to connect to a bank?
Bank connections are not available in every country, they expire or break on a schedule set by regulation and by the bank, and the data they bring back describes the past. A trip you are planning for next May is in no feed at all, because none of it has happened yet. An app that forecasts forward from bills you entered does not need them, and it works the same in any country.
What do you give up without a bank connection?
Automatic capture of transactions, automatic categorisation, spending history and category reports, and in several apps the detection of subscriptions and recurring bills from the feed. Keep Above has none of these and shows no spending history at all.