Your financial data is probably trapped.

Every budgeting app you’ve used - YNAB, Mint, Monarch, Personal Capital - they all store your data on their servers. Your transaction history, your account balances, your budget categories. All of it sits in databases you can’t access, controlled by companies that can change their policies, raise their prices, or shut down tomorrow.

This is the app-centric model. Your data lives in the app, and you’re just renting access to it.

The alternative

File-based apps work differently. Instead of storing your data in a database on someone else’s server, they store it as files on your devices. Files you can open, read, back up, and move wherever you want.

Obsidian does this with notes. Your notes are Markdown files on your computer, not in some cloud service. If Obsidian disappears tomorrow, your notes still work - they’re just text files.

1Password does this with passwords. Your vault is an encrypted file you own. The app is just the interface.

Bear does this with notes. Plain text files.

These aren’t edge cases. These are apps that understand your data is more important than the software.

The spreadsheet era proves the point

People still open Excel spreadsheets from the 1990s. They still read Word documents from 2005. The formats survived because they’re open, file-based standards.

But the iBank financial software from 2010? Gone. Quicken files from the 90s? Good luck opening those without jumping through hoops.

The apps come and go. Your files can last.

The problem with most budgeting apps

The big budgeting apps store your financial life in proprietary formats on servers you don’t control. If the company gets acquired, changes direction, or goes bankrupt, your data goes with it.

Even before that happens, you’re trapped. Want to switch apps? You’ll spend hours exporting CSV files, losing your categories, notes, and history in the process. Your data isn’t really yours - you’re just allowed to rent it in fragments.

This isn’t an accident - it’s a business model. Most budgeting apps, including ones you pay for, sell your data to data brokers and advertisers.

How Basalt handles it

Basalt stores your budget as text files on your Mac or iPhone. These are plain text files in a standard format. You own them.

If you want to export, you can - anytime. If you want to back up, you can - to any storage you control. If you want to switch apps, your data is accessible in a format anyone can read.

Basalt can’t lock you in because there’s nothing to lock. We don’t hold your data hostage on our servers. Your financial life is yours, in files you control.

Why it matters for your finances

Your financial data is the most sensitive data about you. It shows your income, your spending, your debts, your goals. It reveals health conditions from pharmacy purchases, relationship status from payments, travel plans from bookings.

Do you want that data trapped in someone else’s database? Or do you want it in files you own?

The file-based model means:

  • No company can sell your financial data because they never see it
  • Your history is accessible forever, in standard formats
  • You can back it up anywhere, on your own storage
  • You’re never locked in to a specific app or service

If you want a budgeting app built on these principles, here are the top privacy-first alternatives in 2026, including Basalt itself.

The real point

Software is ephemeral. Companies get acquired, pivot, or shut down. Apps get deprecated. But your files - the actual data you create - those can last.

Steph Ango, who co-founded Obsidian, put it well: if you want your notes to be readable in 2060, they should be readable in 1960. The same logic applies to your financial data.

When you store your financial life in files instead of subscriptions, you’re not just protecting your data today. You’re protecting your ability to access it for years to come.

Basalt is built around one idea: your financial data should be files you own, not a subscription you rent. Your data, your files, your control.



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