Banktivity is a native Mac personal finance application developed by IGG Software that lets you track spending, build budgets, monitor investments, and reconcile accounts entirely on your own device.
What is Banktivity?
Banktivity is a full-featured personal finance manager built exclusively for Apple platforms — Mac, iPhone, and iPad — that aggregates your checking, savings, credit card, loan, and investment accounts into a single, unified ledger. Unlike web-based tools that live in a browser tab, Banktivity feels like a proper Mac app: column-sortable registers, keyboard-navigable transactions, and reports that render instantly rather than after a server round-trip.
I've been running it as my daily financial dashboard for several weeks now, and what strikes me most is how deliberate the design feels. There's no bloated sidebar stuffed with upsells. You open the app, you see your money. That focus is increasingly rare in personal-finance software.
What does Banktivity do best?
Banktivity's strongest suit is its offline-first, privacy-respecting architecture — your data lives in an iCloud-synced document on your own machines, not on a third-party marketing server. For anyone who grew uneasy when Mint was shut down and their transaction history ended up in a data broker's hands, that architecture is a genuine selling point, not a footnote.
Beyond data ownership, the budgeting engine deserves mention. Banktivity uses an envelope-inspired system that lets you allocate money to categories at the top of each month and watch the envelopes drain in real time as transactions download. It's more tactile than the percentage-based approach that Quicken and YNAB offer, and I found it easier to maintain discipline with it over the course of a month.
- Direct Connect & file import — downloads transactions automatically from thousands of institutions, or accepts OFX/QFX/CSV imports from banks that don't support direct access.
- Investment tracking — portfolio view with lot-level cost basis, return calculations, and allocation charts; not a Bloomberg terminal, but more than adequate for a passive index investor.
- Reports — net worth over time, spending by category, income vs. expense, and tax-schedule summaries that reduce the pain of gathering figures at year-end.
- Multi-currency — useful for anyone with accounts denominated in more than one currency, which competing apps like Copilot currently lack.
How much does Banktivity cost?
Banktivity is available on a subscription basis, with plans that cover Mac-only use or the full Apple platform suite (Mac + iPhone + iPad). A free trial is available so you can import your accounts and live with it for a couple of weeks before committing. Compared to Quicken's subscription tiers, Banktivity's pricing sits in a similar range — though Banktivity's native Mac experience feels noticeably more polished than Quicken's aging interface, which still carries the DNA of its Windows origins.
There is no permanently free tier. If you want capable personal finance software that costs nothing, YNAB's free trial and the web-based tools from your bank are your realistic alternatives. For what Banktivity charges, you get a well-maintained, Apple-native app with a team that has been shipping Mac software since long before the App Store existed.
Who should use Banktivity?
Banktivity is the right fit for Mac users who want genuine data ownership, are comfortable managing their own financial document, and want more depth than the budgeting tab inside their bank's app. It's particularly well-suited to people managing household finances with several account types — checking, savings, brokerage, mortgage — who want to see everything in one register without exporting spreadsheets.
It is not ideal for someone who wants a zero-configuration, bank-synced app with a gorgeous mobile-first UI. For that audience, Copilot (iOS/Mac, subscription) or YNAB (web + mobile, strong budgeting focus) are worth a look. And if investment analysis is your primary concern rather than day-to-day budgeting, a dedicated portfolio tracker will go deeper than Banktivity's brokerage view.
What are the best Banktivity alternatives?
The honest competitive landscape: YNAB wins on behavioural budgeting methodology and mobile experience; Quicken Classic has broader institutional support and a longer feature list, but its Mac app still feels like a port; Copilot is sleeker and more automated, but lighter on investment tracking and reporting depth; MoneyMoney is popular in Europe but nearly absent in North American markets. Banktivity sits in the middle — more capable than Copilot, more Mac-native than Quicken, more private than all of the above.
