Arrel: Budget & Money
Arrel: Budget & Money is a personal finance application for iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch developed by ThXou. It combines budgeting, account tracking and investment portfolio monitoring in a single app that works offline by default, storing records on the device and requiring no account sign-up. Signing in is only necessary when the user wants free sync across devices. Privacy is the app's central design premise: it ships no analytics, advertising or third-party SDKs, and it can be locked with Face ID or Touch ID. Users can track cash, bank, savings and credit-card accounts in their own currencies, record income and expenses, transfer between accounts without distorting spending totals, and reconcile balances against bank statements. Budgeting is organised around a monthly category limit aligned to the user's pay cycle, separating spent money from committed money so upcoming obligations such as rent are not mistaken for available funds. Net worth, income versus expenses and category spending are tracked over time, and users can build portfolios of stocks, ETFs, crypto and other assets, with quantities and cost basis calculated from recorded purchases and sales. Live market prices require the optional Premium subscription, while manual values always work. Additional features include trackers for trips, moves or instalment plans, CSV bank statement import and full CSV export, Home Screen widgets and a read-only Apple Watch app. Arrel Premium adds unlimited accounts, portfolios, budgets, recurring transactions and trackers, full analytics history, European Central Bank multi-currency rates, shared trackers, PDF reports, live prices and a cash-flow forecast; sync, CSV export, budget alerts and the app lock stay free. The app is not financial advice.
- Category
- Budgeting Apps
- Pricing
- Unknown
Problem solved
Most free personal finance apps monetise user data through analytics, advertising and third-party SDKs, forcing a trade-off between cost and privacy. Arrel addresses this by keeping financial records on-device with no account required, while still offering budgeting, account tracking, net worth monitoring and investment portfolio management, funded by an optional subscription rather than data-driven monetisation.
Use cases
- Track monthly spending against category budgets aligned to a pay cycle
- Manage cash, bank, savings and credit-card accounts in their own currencies
- Reconcile account balances against an imported bank statement
- Monitor net worth and income-versus-expense trends over time
- Build and track stock, ETF and crypto portfolios with automatic cost basis calculations
- Group trip, moving or instalment-plan costs in trackers without changing balances
- Import transactions from CSV and export all data to CSV
- Check balances and recent activity from a read-only Apple Watch app
Audience
- Business Users
- Hobbyists
Pros
- On-device data storage with no account required and no analytics, advertising or third-party SDKs
- Free cross-device sync and CSV export, with biometrical app lock via Face ID or Touch ID
- Combines budgeting, multi-currency accounts, net worth tracking and investment portfolios in one app
- Separates spent from committed money so upcoming bills are not treated as available funds
- Apple Watch companion app, Home Screen widgets and on-device Apple Intelligence features
Cons
- Live investment prices and advanced features such as PDF reports, forecasts and shared trackers are locked behind the Premium subscription
- Available only on Apple platforms (iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch); no Android, web or desktop version
- Privacy policy notes that some data, such as purchase history, may be collected and linked to the user's identity
- Young product with a short version history and too few ratings to display an App Store rating overview
- No automatic bank connection; transactions are entered manually or imported via CSV
Official website: https://apps.apple.com/app/arrel-budget-money/id6800465268
Canonical LambdaBase page: https://www.lambdabase.com/tools/arrel-budget-money