What it does
Flow is a free, open-source expense tracker for iOS and Android that works without sign-up. It supports multiple currencies, recurring transactions and spending limits, with local backup and restore. The core expense record works offline; fetching exchange rates needs an internet connection.
A repeating salary or subscription belongs in Flow's recurring-transaction schedule rather than being recreated each time. In a transaction, open Recurrence and then Recurrence setup. Choose the interval and whether it ends on a date, after a number of occurrences or never.
A limit for groceries or a whole trip
Open Profile, then Budgets, and choose New budget. Set a positive limit, a unique name and the categories to include; leaving categories empty counts all spending. Weekly, monthly and yearly budgets can renew automatically. Turn renewal off for a single trip, or use a custom date range.
Budgets count expenses across every account, including pending expenses. Income and transfers do not use the limit. A grocery purchase can belong to both a food budget and an overall spending budget, so Flow does not add overlapping budgets into a grand total. Missing currency rates cause the affected amount to be skipped with a notice.
Choose the right backup file
Profile, then Backup, offers several formats. A ZIP backup includes attachments; JSON holds the records without them. Both can be restored through Profile, Import and Select a file, but restoration replaces the current data. CSV and PDF are for viewing or working with records elsewhere and cannot be restored into Flow. Optional iCloud backups provide another route on Apple devices.
Strengths
- No account, subscription or advertisements are required for core tracking.
- Opening the app generates recurring entries due through today plus one future occurrence.
Watch out for
- Restoring a backup replaces current records rather than merging them.
- CSV and PDF exports cannot be imported back as backups.
- Multi-currency totals can omit amounts when an exchange rate is missing.
Best for
- People who want free manual budgeting without creating an account
- Users comfortable keeping their own restorable backups
Sources
- Flow offline expense tracker and exchange-rate exception (Oct 27, 2026)
- GitHub - flow-mn/flow: A personal finance tracker app built with love, and Flutter · GitHub (Oct 25, 2026)
- Flow initial account and transaction setup (Oct 27, 2026)
- Flow recurrence intervals and occurrence generation (Oct 27, 2026)
- Flow budget scope, renewal and pending spending (Oct 27, 2026)
- Flow export formats and replacement restoration (Oct 27, 2026)
- Flow GPL version 3 licence text (Oct 27, 2026)