Essential Budget
Our Story
Budgeting tools built by our family, for yours.
Why We Built This
If you've ever had that knot in your stomach checking your bank balance, wondering if a bill will clear, counting the days to your next paycheck, trying to keep it all straight in your head... this is for you.
We've been there. Those honest moments about money. Not about investments or portfolios. About making it work this month.
We knew we could build something that helps. Something free, respectful, and simple.
Our mission: Make powerful budgeting tools freely available to everyday people living paycheck to paycheck, helping them easily organize and improve their financial lives.
And when we say free, we mean it. No trial period. No paywalled core features. No tracking your data to sell it. Free. No time limit. No catch.
Your money. Your decisions. Your way.
15 Years of Building Budgeting Tools
Financial Forecaster
A desktop application written in C# for our own family to manage our finances. Never a public product, just a tool we needed and built for ourselves.
Easiest Budget
A free public web app that has been serving hundreds of users for over six years. No bait-and-switch. No shutdown of the free tier. Six years of keeping our word.
Essential Budget
The evolution of everything we learned. Fifteen years of budgeting tools, rebuilt from the ground up with more power, more flexibility, and the same commitment to free.
Our Team
Completely bootstrapped. No venture capital. No investors. No board of directors. We answer to you, not shareholders.
Weston
CEO
Third-year student in the Computer Science degree program at the University of Florida, leading the company's vision and strategy.
Alexis
Experience Manager
A business degree and the perspective that keeps us focused on real people, not just technology.
What We Believe In
Your Data Is Yours
We don't sell or share your personal information. We don't use it to train AI models. Your budget data is stored securely and encrypted on Google Cloud, with no intermediate hosting providers between us and your data.
No Financial Advice
We build the tool. You use it however works for you. 50/30/20 budgeting, zero-based, envelope method, or your own system that doesn't have a name. Your money, your way.
Transparent Business
No funding means no one to pay back. No investors means we decide what stays free. We sustain the free tier through Amazon affiliate links, icon credits, and premium subscriptions for cost-intensive features.
Community First
We're building a community of real people passionate about securing their future. Share templates, themes, and icon sets. Encourage each other with tools, not advice.
Free Means Free
The free tier stands completely on its own. Premium doesn't unlock the "real" app. The free version IS the real app. No trial period. No catch.
Global Vision
Currently available in the US, but we want to reach people everywhere. When we expand, we'll do it right: your data hosted in your country, under your privacy laws, with trusted local partners.
Try Essential Budget
Free. Private. Built by people who genuinely care.
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