Embers is an envelope budget: you plan the money you already have, category by category, before you spend it. Every account can hold its own currency, your bank's foreign-exchange fee is counted for you, and everything stays in your own iCloud.
Requires iOS 18, iPadOS 18 or macOS 15. Open source under the MIT License.
One number tells you how much money is still waiting for a job. Spending never changes it — only planning does.
Each account in its own currency, converted into your plan's — with your bank's fee folded in.
No sign-up, no tracking, no server of ours. Your budget lives on your devices and in your iCloud.
Features
Built for people who want to see exactly where their money stands — in more than one country, on more than one device.
Give the money you have a purpose before you spend it. Assign to bills, everyday spending and long-term goals; see at a glance what is left in each, and move money between categories when life changes. Plan months ahead, and look back at what any past month had left.
Hold a card in euros, a salary account in dollars and cash in pounds. Type an amount in whatever you paid and Embers converts it — adding your bank's foreign-transaction fee when the currency isn't the account's own.
Spend on a card from a funded category and the money moves to the card's payment, so you always know what you owe and whether it's covered. A card in credit balances the books too.
Move money between accounts in one step, even across currencies. Track investments, property or loans alongside your budget, and count money moving into them against the right category.
Set up rent, salaries and subscriptions once. A scheduled payment waits for your approval before it counts, so a subscription you cancelled is never spent from your plan by accident.
A nudge when a payment is due — approve or skip it right from the notification — plus warnings when a category won't cover an upcoming bill, before a card payment, and at the start and end of each month.
Where your money went, what came in against what went out, and your net worth over time — with a plain-English verdict, and colours chosen to stay readable for colour-blind eyes.
Mark entries as cleared, compare against your statement, and lock in a reconciled balance. Embers reminds you when an account hasn't been checked in a while, and a budget check points out anything that looks wrong.
A big keypad, the account's currency picked for you, and your payees remembered. On the Mac, type a pile of receipts in a row with the keyboard alone.
The iPhone app is made for one hand. The Mac app is a real Mac app, not a phone app in a window: a sidebar with every account and its balance, sortable tables, amounts typed straight into the plan, an inspector beside it, and keyboard shortcuts throughout. Light and dark appearance on both.
Money across borders
Banks don't just convert — they add a fee, and bill it as one line. Embers records the purchase the way your statement will show it.
Screenshots
Shown with a sample budget. Switch the page to dark mode to see the app's dark appearance.
Your data
There is no Embers account and no Embers server. Your budget moves between your devices through your own private iCloud.
Enter a purchase on your iPhone and it's on your Mac moments later. Two devices editing at once don't undo each other, and a new device shows its budget arriving rather than an empty one.
Save a complete backup to iCloud Drive whenever you like, in an open, readable format you can see in the Files app. Restore it on any device — and Embers reminds you when it's been a while.
Already budgeting? Bring your history with you: import a YNAB export and your accounts, categories, assignments, transfers, splits and card payments come across, with each account's currency recognised from its name.
Languages
Embers is fully translated into eight languages, with Arabic laid out right to left. Amounts and dates follow your region's conventions.
Pricing & license
All of Embers' source code is public under the MIT License. The App Store version costs a little, to cover what it takes to publish an app on Apple's platforms.
The easy way: ready to install on iPhone, iPad and Mac, signed, kept up to date, and syncing through iCloud out of the box.
Read it, build it yourself with Xcode, learn from it, or change it. The paid listing pays for convenience, never for the code.
The App Store price applies only to the copy distributed through the App Store. The license is the same either way.
FAQ
No. Embers uses the Apple ID you're already signed in with to sync through your own iCloud. There's nothing to sign up for, and no password of ours to remember.
On your devices, and in your private iCloud database when sync is on. The developer has no server and no way to see your budget. Read the privacy policy for the details.
No. You enter transactions yourself — which is what keeps you aware of every purchase — and reconcile against your statement when you like. The only thing Embers fetches from the internet is the day's exchange rates.
Publishing on the App Store has real costs, starting with Apple's yearly developer fee. The price covers those. If you'd rather, you're free to build Embers yourself from the source code.
Yes. Embers imports a YNAB export, including past months, transfers, split transactions and credit cards. You can also restore any backup made by Embers itself.
Embers runs on iPhone, iPad and Mac, and syncs between them through iCloud. Purchase details will be confirmed here when the App Store listing goes live.
See the support page.
Embers is coming to the App Store for iPhone, iPad and Mac.
Embers