Actual Budget vs Goodbudget
as AI assistants see them, week of 2026-10-12
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 | 20 | 21 |
| questions won | 13 | 14 |
By assistant
Actual Budget
| assistant | score | named in, this week | usual spot, this week |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 17 | 15% of answers | #1.7 |
| Claude | 34 | 45% of answers | #3.7 |
| Gemini | not sampled this week | ||
| Perplexity | 9 | 5% of answers | #1.0 |
Goodbudget
| assistant | score | named in, this week | usual spot, this week |
|---|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 19 | 35% of answers | #3.9 |
| Claude | 20 | 30% of answers | #4.8 |
| Gemini | not sampled this week | ||
| Perplexity | 25 | 35% of answers | #2.9 |
Where they differ
Only Actual Budget gets named for
- What's the best open-source or self-hosted budgeting app?
- Which budgeting app is worth paying for?
- Which budgeting app is best now that Mint has shut down?
- What's the best budgeting app that works with a spreadsheet?
- What are the best alternatives to Quicken Simplifi?
Only Goodbudget gets named for
- What's the best simple budgeting app for someone who has never budgeted?
- What are the best free budgeting apps?
- What's the best budgeting app for people with irregular income?
- What's the best budgeting app for couples sharing finances?
- Which budgeting app is best for someone paying off debt?
- What are the best alternatives to Actual Budget?
More comparisons
- Actual Budget vs Empower
- Actual Budget vs Copilot Money
- Actual Budget vs EveryDollar
- Actual Budget vs Rocket Money
- Empower vs Goodbudget
- Copilot Money vs Goodbudget
Not sold on either?
Scores count how often each assistant names a product, weighted by position. How the score works · Full Budgeting apps leaderboard