About ReadyCents

The short version

Why it exists.

ReadyCents started after an injury changed what its author could manage day to day. A zero-based budget had worked for years, but the pace and structure that system asked for no longer fit.

On top of that, the budget needed to handle tax tracking, not as a separate subscription to another company, but as part of the same tool. Nothing available did both well at a price that made sense, so ReadyCents got built instead.

That origin is still the design brief. The budget should fit the person using it, not the other way around, and it should not quietly get more expensive or more cluttered over time.

Read the longer version →

What it is built on

Six things that will not change.

Each one describes something the product already does today, not something planned.

Manual-first, permanently

Budgeting by hand is the free tier, not a trial. Envelopes, goals, imports, the calendar and reports never expire and never ask for a card. Connecting a bank is a choice you make later, if you want it.

One paid tier, no upsell ladder

Connected Premium includes every managed connection and every advanced insight. There is no tier that exists only to make the one above it look reasonable, and no ads for books or courses that have nothing to do with your budget.

Your data is yours

Export at any time, on any plan, with no lock-in. If you would rather not use a hosted service at all, a one-time license lets you run ReadyCents on your own infrastructure.

The math is written down

Ready to Budget, overspending, rollover and credit-card handling are documented in the open, with the formulas shown. A budgeting app that will not explain its own arithmetic is asking for trust it has not earned.

Careful with money and with data

Amounts are stored as integer cents, never floating-point dollars. Every financial table is scoped to its owner with row-level security. Budget math is covered by tests because rounding errors in a budget are not cosmetic.

Built in the open with the people using it

Feature requests, bugs and roadmap all live on one shared board, open to anyone with a ReadyCents account. What gets built next is shaped by what people actually ask for.

Where things stand

Honest about the stage.

ReadyCents is a small, independent project rather than a venture-backed company with a support floor. That has trade-offs worth knowing before you rely on it.

What it means in practice: the person building it reads every piece of feedback, changes ship quickly, and there is no roadmap dictated by an investor. It also means the team is small, so response times are human rather than instant.

If something is missing or broken, the fastest route is the feedback board. It sits behind a ReadyCents account so every request has a real person behind it, and it is read. It is what decides what gets built next.

Open the feedback board Compare with other apps

Try it and decide for yourself.

Manual budgeting, envelopes, goals and imports are free for as long as you like, with no card. Everything above is easier to judge from the inside.

Start free See pricing