A budgeting app that doesn't sell your data
Your money is yours to see — not ours to sell. Misto's is a local-first personal finance app: your ledger lives on your device, your backups are encrypted so only you can read them, and your information is never sold, tracked, or turned into ads. Free forever core.
Why most "free" budgeting apps aren't really free
When a budgeting app is free and you can't tell how it pays the bills, there's usually a quiet answer: your data. The classic model is to aggregate everyone's transactions, then monetize them — selling anonymized spending data, powering targeted ads, or marketing credit cards and loans back to the very people whose finances they can see.
It works because your spending is astonishingly revealing. Where you shop, what you owe, when your paycheck lands — that's a detailed portrait of your life, and it's valuable to people who aren't you. "Free" often just means you are what's being sold.
How Misto's is built differently
Misto's isn't privacy-as-a-feature bolted onto the usual model — it's built so there's nothing to sell in the first place.
Local-first by design
Your financial ledger lives on your own device, not on a company server. There's simply no central pile of your transactions for anyone to mine, share, or sell.
Zero-knowledge backups
Anything you back up is encrypted before it leaves your device, with a key only you hold. Not even we can read your finances — so we couldn't sell them if we tried.
No ads, no tracking, no resale
No advertisers, no data brokers, no behavioural profiles. Your information is never the product — no tracking pixels, no exceptions, at any tier.
What you give up to get this (spoiler: not much)
Choosing a private app usually means settling for less. Not here — the free-forever core is a complete budgeting app:
So how does Misto's make money?
The honest, boring answer — the one you want from anyone handling your finances. The core app is free forever. Misto's Premium is $4.99/month (or $49.90/year) for the always-on services like automatic read-only bank sync and instant alerts. And Grove Patron is a one-time $129 lifetime unlock for people who'd rather pay once than subscribe.
That's the entire model: subscriptions and a one-time purchase. No hidden data business underneath it. You can see current pricing any time on the pricing section.
See exactly what protects your data
TLS 1.3, AES-256 encryption, read-only by design, zero-knowledge backups, and a plain promise never to sell your information.
Frequently asked
Do free budgeting apps really sell your data?
Many free finance apps monetize the data they collect — selling anonymized (and sometimes re-identifiable) spending data, powering targeted ads, or marketing financial products back to you. If an app is free and you're not sure how it makes money, your data is often part of the answer.
How does Misto's make money if it doesn't sell data?
Honestly and simply: the core app is free forever, Misto's Premium is $4.99/month (or $49.90/year) for the always-on services like automatic bank sync, and Grove Patron is a one-time $129 lifetime unlock. That's the whole model — subscriptions and a one-time purchase, never your data.
Is my data really never sold — even the free version?
Yes, at every tier. Misto's is local-first, so your ledger stays on your device; backups are encrypted with a key only you hold; and there are no ads, no trackers, and no data resale. Your information is never the product.
What does 'local-first' mean for my privacy?
It means your data is created and kept on your own device by default. Misto works fully offline and never uploads your ledger to a company server — so there's no central store of your finances to be breached, subpoenaed, or sold.
Is the free version stripped down to push me toward paying?
No. The free-forever core is a complete budgeting app — ledger, budgets, goals, Tax Vault, statement imports, and every export. Premium only adds the optional always-on conveniences; plenty of people never need it.
Money software that's actually on your side
Create your free account and start budgeting today — local-first, encrypted, and never for sale. Your data stays yours.