Actual Budget vs Goodbudget

as AI assistants see them, week of 2026-09-14

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Actual Budget edges out Goodbudget overall, scoring 23 versus 18, with Claude the biggest fan of both (36 vs 20) and Perplexity favoring Goodbudget slightly (22 vs 13). Actual Budget shows up in 18 of 64 answers, Goodbudget in 17. Both apps get named in every answer to "best envelope or zero-based budgeting app," and Actual Budget also sweeps privacy-focused and self-hosted questions. Goodbudget instead leads on "best free budgeting apps," appearing in all 3 answers. Head-to-head, Actual Budget comes out ahead in 6 questions, Goodbudget in 5, and they tie in 9. Neither gets mentioned for tracking net worth, automatic bank syncing, or freelancer-specific questions.

Head to head

metric	Actual Budget	Goodbudget
score	23	18
questions won	10	10

By assistant

Actual Budget

assistant	score	named in, this week	usual spot, this week
ChatGPT	20	25% of answers	#2.6
Claude	36	50% of answers	#3.5
Gemini	not sampled this week
Perplexity	13	15% of answers	#2.3

Goodbudget

assistant	score	named in, this week	usual spot, this week
ChatGPT	12	15% of answers	#2.7
Claude	20	35% of answers	#6.0
Gemini	not sampled this week
Perplexity	22	30% of answers	#3.3

Where they differ

Only Actual Budget gets named for

What's the best open-source or self-hosted budgeting app?
Which budgeting app is best now that Mint has shut down?
What's the best budgeting app that works with a spreadsheet?
Which budgeting app is worth paying for?

Only Goodbudget gets named for

What are the best budgeting apps?
What's the best simple budgeting app for someone who has never budgeted?
What's the best budgeting app for couples sharing finances?
Which budgeting app is best for someone paying off debt?

More comparisons

Not sold on either?

Scores count how often each assistant names a product, weighted by position. How the score works · Full Budgeting apps leaderboard