Why Buckets?

Buckets is a good budgeting app, but it’s not the only app. There are probably hundreds of apps for managing your money. I don’t like to pick on other apps, because honestly, if it works for you that’s great! I’m happy when people are financially successful.

However, Buckets is unique in a few ways that I’d like to highlight. And most of these have very little to do with budgeting.

Buckets can’t shut down¶

Since starting Buckets, I’ve watched many budgeting apps come and go. Just recently, Mint informed users that they’re shutting down. Understandably, Mint users don’t like this. (Hi, Mint users! 👋) Mint was great! And now it’s not.

Buckets, on the other hand, will continue to work even if we were to shutdown (we’re not, btw). No short notice to vacate. No sudden risk of losing all your data. If it’s installed on your computer, you have it. And all your data is stored in a standard, widely-used format.

One time price¶

I have a friend that continues to use an old version of QuickBooks he bought when he got married several decades ago. I love that! He keeps an old computer around that will run the app (or “program” as it was called when he bought it). He paid for it once and he owns it. Buckets is the same. You pay for it once—and often for a total price less than a yearly subscription for other apps.

I look forward to hearing several decades from now about people who keep Buckets running on an old machine :)

Untimed trial¶

Buckets lets you try the app for as long as you need to decide if it works for you—the full app (with some reminders to buy included) Before creating Buckets, I tried a few other apps but was never given enough time to truly kick the tires before the trial ran out.

I didn’t invent this payment model. I actually encountered it when I started using some programming software years ago. The casual, trusting way the software asked for payment shocked me. It pleased me so much, I bought a license with delight. Buckets users deserve the same calm, trusting treatment.

Buckets lets you take your time while you save up for a license.

Upgrade or not¶

Have you ever visited a website you frequent only to find that it has been “updated” and “improved?” And you wished it hadn’t been “improved?” Buckets lets you determine when or if you’ll upgrade. If you upgrade and don’t like the changes, let us know, but while we work on a fix, feel free to install a prior version and keep on going at your own pace.

A caveat here is that when the iOS app leaves Beta, I’m not sure how much control you’ll have over that version. I wish there was a way to maintain access to all prior versions, but Apple doesn’t make how to do that obvious or perhaps even possible.

Privacy is built in¶

Buckets is as private as the hard drive in your computer. We don’t have access (or want access) to any of your financial data. It’s yours.

Globally fair pricing¶

For most people around the world, paying U.S.A. prices for anything is laughable. Doubly so for something claiming to help you manage money. Because we strive to keep our costs low, we’re able to serve everyone around the world with fair, affordable pricing through our Buckets by the Loaf program. To date, we’ve sent licenses to people in Argentina, Bangladesh, Brasil, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Ghana, Greece, Hungary, India, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Malaysia, Moldova, North Macedonia, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Taiwan, Togo, Turkey, Ukraine and Vietnam.

Thank you all for your support!

And intentionally so…¶

All of these unique properties are intentional, not accidental. We’ve tried to design the app we want.

Whatever you use to manage your money, we hope it works for you! If you’re interested in seeing if Buckets meets your needs, give it a try!

— Matt

P.S. I’m close to finishing budget merging which is the biggest chunk of work needed to support editing budgets on mobile. Stay tuned!