Is Actual Budget Down? Real-Time Status & Outage Checker

Actual Budget is an open-source local-first personal finance application with over 16,000 GitHub stars. Originally a paid app, it was open-sourced in 2022 and has grown into one of the most popular self-hosted YNAB alternatives. Actual Budget features envelope (zero-based) budgeting, transaction reconciliation, detailed spending reports, and bank sync via SimpleFIN and GoCardless integrations. Its sync server enables end-to-end encrypted synchronization across multiple devices — phones, tablets, and desktops — while keeping all data local-first, meaning the app continues working offline. Self-hosted via Node.js or Docker, the Actual Budget server stores encrypted budget files that clients download and decrypt locally. The combination of local-first architecture, end-to-end encryption, and zero vendor lock-in has made Actual Budget the go-to choice for privacy-conscious budgeting enthusiasts.

Because Actual Budget uses a local-first architecture, a server outage does not immediately prevent budgeting — clients continue working with their local data. However, sync stops, changes made on one device don't reach others, and automated bank transaction imports cease. A server crash after a reinstall, encryption key mismatch, or reverse proxy misconfiguration can silently break sync for days before a user notices that their phone and desktop have diverged, with potentially conflicting budget changes that are difficult to reconcile.

Quick Status Check

#!/bin/bash
# Actual Budget health check
# Checks web server, Node.js process, data directory, and port

ACTUAL_HOST="${ACTUAL_HOST:-localhost}"
ACTUAL_PORT="${ACTUAL_PORT:-5006}"
ACTUAL_DATA="${ACTUAL_DATA:-/data}"
FAIL=0

echo "=== Actual Budget Status Check ==="
echo "Host: ${ACTUAL_HOST}:${ACTUAL_PORT}"
echo ""

# Check root URL (web app should return 200)
HTTP_CODE=$(curl -so /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" --max-time 5 \
  "http://${ACTUAL_HOST}:${ACTUAL_PORT}/" 2>/dev/null)
if [ "$HTTP_CODE" = "200" ]; then
  echo "[OK] Web app root returned HTTP 200"
else
  echo "[FAIL] Web app root returned HTTP ${HTTP_CODE}"
  FAIL=1
fi

# Check API login endpoint exists (POST — 400/401 means API is live)
LOGIN_CODE=$(curl -so /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" --max-time 5 \
  -X POST "http://${ACTUAL_HOST}:${ACTUAL_PORT}/api/login" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{}' 2>/dev/null)
if echo "${LOGIN_CODE}" | grep -qE "^(400|401|422)$"; then
  echo "[OK] API login endpoint alive (HTTP ${LOGIN_CODE} = API responding)"
elif [ "$LOGIN_CODE" = "200" ]; then
  echo "[OK] API login endpoint returned HTTP 200"
else
  echo "[FAIL] API login endpoint returned HTTP ${LOGIN_CODE}"
  FAIL=1
fi

# Check Node.js process
if pgrep -f "actual\|actual-server\|@actual-app" > /dev/null 2>&1; then
  NODE_PID=$(pgrep -f "actual\|actual-server" | head -1)
  echo "[OK] Actual Budget Node.js process running (PID ${NODE_PID})"
elif docker inspect actual_budget 2>/dev/null | grep -q '"Running": true'; then
  echo "[OK] Actual Budget Docker container is running"
else
  echo "[WARN] Actual Budget process/container not detected"
fi

# Check port is listening
if ss -tlnp 2>/dev/null | grep -q ":${ACTUAL_PORT}" || \
   netstat -tlnp 2>/dev/null | grep -q ":${ACTUAL_PORT}"; then
  echo "[OK] Port ${ACTUAL_PORT} is listening"
else
  echo "[FAIL] Port ${ACTUAL_PORT} not listening"
  FAIL=1
fi

# Check data directory for SQLite budget files
if [ -d "${ACTUAL_DATA}" ]; then
  DB_COUNT=$(find "${ACTUAL_DATA}" -name "*.db" -o -name "*.sqlite" 2>/dev/null | wc -l)
  if [ "$DB_COUNT" -gt 0 ]; then
    echo "[OK] Data directory has ${DB_COUNT} SQLite file(s)"
  else
    echo "[WARN] Data directory exists but no .db files found — budget may not be initialized"
  fi
  # Check disk usage
  DISK_PCT=$(df "${ACTUAL_DATA}" 2>/dev/null | tail -1 | awk '{print $5}' | tr -d '%')
  if [ -n "${DISK_PCT}" ] && [ "${DISK_PCT}" -gt 90 ]; then
    echo "[WARN] Disk at ${DISK_PCT}% capacity — sync may fail when full"
  fi
else
  echo "[WARN] Data directory not found at ${ACTUAL_DATA}"
fi

echo ""
if [ "$FAIL" -eq 0 ]; then
  echo "Result: Actual Budget appears healthy"
else
  echo "Result: Actual Budget has failures — review output above"
  exit 1
fi

Python Health Check

#!/usr/bin/env python3
"""
Actual Budget health check
Verifies web server, API liveness, Node.js process, budget files, and disk usage
"""

import json
import os
import shutil
import subprocess
import sys
import time
from pathlib import Path

try:
    import urllib.request as urlreq
    import urllib.error as urlerr
except ImportError:
    print("ERROR: urllib not available")
    sys.exit(1)

HOST = os.environ.get("ACTUAL_HOST", "localhost")
PORT = int(os.environ.get("ACTUAL_PORT", "5006"))
DATA_DIR = Path(os.environ.get("ACTUAL_DATA", "/data"))
BASE_URL = f"http://{HOST}:{PORT}"
DISK_WARN_PCT = 90
TIMEOUT = 8
results = []


def check(label, ok, detail=""):
    status = "OK" if ok else ("WARN" if ok is None else "FAIL")
    msg = f"[{status}] {label}"
    if detail:
        msg += f" — {detail}"
    print(msg)
    if ok is not None:
        results.append(ok)
    return ok


def fetch(path, method="GET", data=None, timeout=TIMEOUT):
    try:
        url = f"{BASE_URL}{path}"
        headers = {"Content-Type": "application/json", "Accept": "application/json,text/html"}
        body = json.dumps(data).encode() if data else None
        req = urlreq.Request(url, data=body, headers=headers, method=method)
        with urlreq.urlopen(req, timeout=timeout) as resp:
            return resp.status, resp.read().decode("utf-8", errors="replace")
    except urlerr.HTTPError as e:
        return e.code, e.read().decode("utf-8", errors="replace")
    except Exception as e:
        return 0, str(e)


print(f"=== Actual Budget Python Health Check ===")
print(f"Target: {BASE_URL}")
print()

# 1. Root URL — web app should return 200 with HTML
t0 = time.time()
status, body = fetch("/")
latency_ms = (time.time() - t0) * 1000

if status == 200:
    # Look for Actual Budget app markers in the HTML
    has_markers = any(marker in body for marker in [
        "Actual", "actual", "budget", "Budget", "