PikaPods
PikaPods offers one click "instant open source app hosting", allowing you to run Actual for less than $ 1.50 per month (as of July 2024).
Using PikaPods is also a simple way to support the development of Actual Budget, as PikaPods will share some of its revenues with Actual for customers using their Actual Budget pods.
You get a $ 5.00 credit when you sign up, which means that you should be able to run Actual for over 3 months before your credit runs out.
For web clients, PikaPods will automatically update anywhere from a couple of days to a week after the latest monthly release is deployed. This is because PikaPods tests each new release before deploying it.
For desktop clients, you will need to reinstall the desktop client to update to the latest version. We suggest first checking on the web client if PikaPods has updated, then reinstalling the desktop client.
Deploying Actual on PikaPods
If you are technically inclined, just Click here to create an account and run Actual on PikaPods.
You can leave the resources at their lowest setting (although you will need a non-zero amount of storage for your budget files).
Actual does almost all of its computation in your browser, so purchasing more resources for the server won’t necessarily result in a better experience
After you have set up your Pod, head over to our Starting Fresh guide to get started with Actual Budget.
A step by step guide to setting up Actual Budget with PikaPods
Click here to go to PikaPods setup for Actual.
You will be greeted with the following screen.
Click on the register link inside the blue banner, which will take you to the user registration screen.
The user registration screen
This screen is self-explanatory, but a kind reminder is to use a password only you know. You will need to use a working email address, as you will receive an email with a link you need to click on to complete the signup process.
Verification email
By clicking the green button saying Activate and Login, you are now registered as a PikaPods customer. You will be returned to the login screen.
Login screen
Enter the email address and password you registered yourself with.
Naming your Pod
A simplistic explanation of a Pod in layperson's terms is that a Pod is a very tiny computer running in the cloud. Typically, a Pod only runs one application - like Actual Budget.
In 1), you enter a name for your Pod. This name really does not matter unless you plan to run several different Pods. In 2), you decide which region your Pod should run - choose the most suitable region.
One Pod running Actual can have multiple budgets available at the same time. You do not need to set up a new Pod for each budget you want to set up. The number of budgets is only limited by the storage capacity you assign to your Pod.
Assigning storage to your Pod
The minimum storage you can assign to your Pod is 10 GB (gigabytes). We promise you that this is more than enough for your budget purposes.
Example: With around 1,200 transactions, 18 months of budgeting, and approximately 200 rules and payees, it takes around 33 megabytes of storage. 10 gigabytes equals 10,000 megabytes, equivalent to 303 18-month budgets.
Your Pod will be created when you click on the green *ADD POD button. This step takes less than one minute.
Your pod is now ready to be used
When you click on the green OPEN POD button you will be taken to your Pod.
The address for your Actual Budget is found in the Domain field. In the screenshot example, this is
https://berserk-bullmastiff.pikapod.net/budget/. Yours will be something completely different.
Setting a password for your Actual Budget
Before you can start using Actual, you need to set a password for your server. This password is used next time you log into your server - and should never be the same as your PikaPods account password.
Keep this password safe, as it cannot be retrieved. If you forget your server password, you will not be able to retrieve your budget.
Getting started with using Actual Budget
Go to our Starting Fresh guide to get started with Actual Budget.