Budgeting apps without bank linking (2026)

Why not link your bank

Linking an app to your bank means allowing a third party (the app, or the aggregator it uses under the hood) to read your transactions on an ongoing basis. It's legal and regulated, but it has three drawbacks worth knowing:

• Your data goes through more hands. Even read-only, someone else has permanent access to what you earn, what you spend and where.
• It breaks often. Banks ask you to re-authorise the connection every so often, and a change on the bank's website is enough to leave the sync stuck.
• Somebody has to pay for it. Connecting to banks costs the app money. If you don't pay for it, the app charges you some other way: offering you loans, insurance or cards based on what it sees in your accounts.

The alternative doesn't have to be going back to a notebook. Here's what's out there:

Three ways to add transactions without handing over your login

1. By hand

The most private option and the most tiring. It works if you have few transactions or you like logging things as they happen (the coffee, the groceries). Almost every app on the list does it well, and the best ones do it in two taps. The problem is sticking with it: most people give up within a few weeks.

2. Importing your statement

Almost every bank lets you download your transactions from its website as Excel or CSV. You download it once a month and load it into the app. Your login never leaves the bank's website and you don't type anything. What makes the difference is whether the app understands your bank's format without you wrestling with columns, and whether it avoids duplicating what you'd already entered. In the table, Cuéntamo, Aurio, Sumant, Bluecoins, Money Pro, Wallet and Actual Budget import files; Aurio and Sumant also read Norma 43, the standard format of Spanish banks; Money Manager only with its own template.

3. Reading them on your own device

The middle way: a tool that reads your transactions from your own computer or phone, without your login going through anyone else's server. Cuéntamo uses Habeas, a browser extension: you log into your bank's website as usual and Habeas reads the transactions in your own browser (it doesn't work with every bank yet). Bluecoins does something similar on Android by reading your bank's notifications and text messages.

What each one gives you beyond logging

Once your transactions are in, the question is what you do with them. Most apps on the list are for tracking: they show you where your money went, by category, and some let you set budgets. Neto, Margen and Dinerio also focus on your net worth (accounts, investments, property).

Two recent Spanish apps go a bit further. Aurio (iPhone and web) adds expense splitting, net worth, a VAT and income tax view for the self-employed and, on Premium, a balance forecast at 30, 60 and 90 days. Sumant is a mobile-first web app with budgets and receipt scanning, and its PRO plan is a one-off payment (€19.99).

Cuéntamo goes further: from your salary and your bills it projects each account's balance months ahead and warns you before you go into the red, which is the question a spending app almost never answers (more on that in balance forecast apps).

Our pick: Cuéntamo

We have a stake in this, so here are the reasons, for you to check yourself:

• All three ways in, on any device. Log by hand in two taps with the floating button, import your statement (CSV, Excel or ODS, with your bank's setup remembered) or use Habeas. On the list, only Bluecoins (with your bank's notifications on Android) and Aurio (with Apple Pay on iPhone) also have a third way in, and it's tied to your phone; Cuéntamo runs on the web, Android, iPhone and desktop.
• It tells you how much money you'll have, for free. It's the only one in the table with a per-account, day-by-day forecast months ahead on the free plan (6 months; up to 5 years on Cuéntamo Más). In Bluecoins and Money Pro the projection is a paid report, Aurio offers it on Premium at 30, 60 and 90 days, and Wallet only looks at the next period.
• Genuinely free. No limit on accounts or transactions, and not a single ad.
• And what comes after. Expense splitting and debts, net worth and investments and, if you're self-employed in Spain, VAT and income tax.

If all you want is to import files into a tracking app, Aurio, Sumant, Bluecoins, Money Pro, Wallet and Actual Budget do that too. If logging by hand and seeing your net worth is enough, Neto, Margen or Dinerio.