KeaBudget

Budget like a kea.

The free budget app built for Kiwi life.

Categories that match how Aotearoa actually spends — KiwiSaver, rego, WOF, school donations. Free forever, Australasia-hosted, with auto-sync to ASB, BNZ, Westpac, ANZ, and Kiwibank coming. Built by a Kiwi for Kiwis.

Waitlist members get a short build-log email every couple of weeks — what shipped, what's next. No spam.

  • Free forever
  • Built for NZ banks
  • No surprise paywalls
Or try a free tool first →Why we're building this
KeaBudgetAprilSPENT THIS MONTH$2,342of $3,200Groceries$420 / $500Rent$2,100 / $2,100Transport$180 / $300Fun$95 / $200✨INSIGHTOn track fora $540 surplus 🦜
Live preview

Behind the scenes

Why this exists

KeaBudget started as a hobby project. An honest experiment in how far modern AI can take a single developer with a real product idea.

The bet: if AI-paired engineering is as capable as people claim, a free, well-built budget tracker for Kiwis should be shippable in a few weekends rather than a few quarters. So we're building it in the open and finding out for ourselves. Every feature, every fix, every false start documented in the updates log.

If that sounds like something you'd want in your pocket, and you're curious to see what AI-assisted engineering actually looks like up close, jump on the waitlist. Early users get access first, and feedback shapes what's built next.

The why

Budgeting apps in Aotearoa are a mess.

We've used them all. Here's the stuff that keeps grinding Kiwis down — and exactly what KeaBudget is being built to fix.

  1. Forced into American templates

    Most apps assume USD, quarterly taxes, 401(k)s, and Costco trips. Our rates, our week, our life are never the shape.

    Localisation

  2. Categories that don’t fit Kiwi life

    Where’s “Flat bills split”, “Warehouse run”, “Dog rego”, “Council rates”? We shouldn’t have to bend our spending to match someone else’s categories.

    Categories

  3. No love for NZ banks

    ASB, BNZ, Westpac NZ, ANZ NZ, Kiwibank, Co-operative Bank. Overseas apps either don’t support them at all or route through flaky third-party connectors.

    Connectivity

  4. Paywalls in the way of the basics

    $10 to $15 a month just to split transactions properly or see a useful chart. Budgeting shouldn’t come with a subscription tax on top of the one you’re trying to reduce.

    Pricing

  5. Your data sitting on overseas servers

    Your transactions, your balances, your salary — held in a data centre you’ll never see, subject to laws from somewhere you don’t live. That’s not fine. It’s just normalised.

    Privacy

None of these are unfixable — they're just ignored, because the NZ market is too small to bother for the big players. So we're doing it ourselves.

What you get

A budget app that finally feels like home.

Built for Kiwi banks, in Kiwi dollars.

Auto-sync with the major NZ banks lands in Phase 6. Until then, simple statement import. NZD throughout, no FX ambiguity, no implied tax assumptions imported from somewhere else.

Banks supported

  • ASB
  • BNZ
  • Westpac NZ
  • ANZ NZ
  • Kiwibank
  • Co-operative

Free forever

The core app stays free. Track transactions, set categories, see where it all goes. No trial that expires, no upsell halfway through your month.

Genuinely smart

AI insights that explain themselves and surface things worth acting on. None of the gimmicks. Just answers to questions you were already asking.

Data stays close to home

Encrypted at rest and in transit, hosted in Australasia (Sydney). Never sold, never analysed for advertising, never routed through US or EU data brokers.

Categories that fit

Out of the box: rent, rates, flat bills, council fees, dog rego. Add your own (Coffee, Pak’nSave Friday, anything) without paying for it.

The honest comparison

Stack us up against the alternatives

Three honest options. Overseas apps shipped polish but never speak Kiwi (and most don't connect to NZ banks at all). Pen and paper is free and private but punishing. KeaBudget tries to land in the middle: free, NZ-built, with the manual- entry pain taken off you.

Overseas apps

The polished ones from US, UK, AU

  • Cost

    $10–25/month

  • NZ bank support

    Patchy or US/AU only

  • Where your data lives

    US/EU servers

  • Categories

    American defaults (Gas, 401k, healthcare co-pay)

  • Setup time

    30–60 minutes

  • Multi-account + transfers

    Built in

  • Budgets + progress

    Often paywalled

Pen & paper / spreadsheet

The classic

  • Cost

    Free

  • NZ bank support

    Manual entry

  • Where your data lives

    On your fridge door

  • Categories

    Yours to define

  • Setup time

    5 minutes

  • Multi-account + transfers

    Painful

  • Budgets + progress

    By spreadsheet

KeaBudget

Built here, for here

  • Cost

    Free forever (core)

  • NZ bank support

    CSV today, auto-sync coming

  • Where your data lives

    Hosted in Australasia (Sydney)

  • Categories

    Kiwi out of the box (rego, WOF, KiwiSaver, Plunket)

  • Setup time

    Under 5 minutes

  • Multi-account + transfers

    Built in

  • Budgets + progress

    Per category, on the dashboard

Matrix reflects current build + Phase 1–6 plan. Auto-sync to NZ banks (via Akahu) lands in Phase 6.

Free · No login · Built for Kiwis

Something to use while you wait

KeaBudget proper is still rolling out in phases. These tools are live today. Free, no account, and genuinely useful.

NZ Take-home Pay Calculator

Gross to net in seconds. PAYE, ACC, KiwiSaver, and student loan, all in one clean breakdown.

Calculate my take-home

Savings Goal Planner

Tell us your goal and timeline. We'll tell you exactly how much to put aside each week.

Plan my savings

KiwiSaver Max-Out Calculator

See how much more to contribute before 30 June to claim the full government contribution. Don't leave free money behind.

Claim my free money

What's shipped, what's next

Built in the open. Six core surfaces are live; the rest is in queue.

  1. Shipped

    Transactions + categories

    Drop in transactions, set Kiwi categories, see where it all goes.

  2. Shipped

    Multi-account + transfers

    Cash, savings, credit card. Move money between them with paired entries — totals stay accurate, income & expense don't double-count.

  3. Shipped

    Per-category budgets

    Set a monthly target on any outflow. Live progress bars on the dashboard.

  4. Shipped

    Recurring transactions

    Rent, salary, subs. Weekly, fortnightly, or monthly. Posts automatically next time you visit.

  5. Shipped

    CSV import + export

    Bring in bank statements with no logins required. Export filtered transactions for tax or your accountant.

  6. Shipped

    Dashboard with filters

    Date range, search, type, account. Year-on-year comparison built in.

  7. 🛠 Building now

    Bill reminders

    Get a heads-up before a recurring transaction lands so a tight week doesn't catch you out.

  8. Up next

    Savings goals + streaks

    Set a target and a date. The dashboard shows progress and what you'd need each week to hit it.

  9. Up next

    NZ bank auto-sync (Akahu)

    Connect ASB, BNZ, Westpac, ANZ, Kiwibank, or Co-op. Transactions land automatically — no more CSV downloads. Free for casual use; paid upgrade for heavier users. The big NZ-only differentiator.

  10. Later

    AI Money Story

    A monthly readable narrative: what you spent, what surprised you, what you crushed. Plain-English insights, not a chat bot.

  11. Later

    Share with your partner or flat

    Budget together, not against each other. Read-only or full edit per person.

  12. Later

    Contractor tier

    GST set-aside, provisional tax reminders, and a read-only accountant share-link. Paid tier; the personal app stays free.

Built in the open. Each phase ships with a build-log post on /updates.

What we're building next

A sharper tool for contractors & freelancers.

If you've ever spent end-of-year evenings hunting through shoeboxes for receipts, chasing invoices, and assembling a spreadsheet for your accountant, we're building the tool for you. Same KeaBudget foundation, much sharper for tax-time admin.

  • Receipts, invoices, expenses, all in one place.
  • One read-only link to your accountant at tax year end.
  • Built on KeaBudget — same auth, same data, more powerful tools.
  • Aotearoa first, Australia next.

Pricing: paid tier, pricing TBC. No commitment, cancel any time. The personal KeaBudget app stays free forever.

Early access

Join the contractor waitlist

We'll let you know when it lands. Same email, no card required, separate signup so we know you're in for the contractor tier specifically.

By joining you're telling us you'd pay for a tool that handles receipts, invoices, and accountant sharing properly. No commitment. We'll share the brand name and pricing in the next devlog.

Questions

Frequently asked questions

Not seeing yours? Email hello@keabudget.co.nz. We reply to every note.

Is KeaBudget really free?
Yes. The personal app (tracking transactions, setting categories, seeing where your money goes, savings goals, insights) stays free forever. We're separately building a paid tier for contractors and freelancers who need receipts, invoices, and accountant share-links. That's a distinct product with its own pricing — the personal app is never going behind a paywall.
What's the contractor tier and how much will it cost?
It's a separate product built on the same KeaBudget foundation, designed for contractors and freelancers who currently shoebox receipts and email spreadsheets to their accountant at year-end. Receipts in one place, invoices tracked, and a single read-only link you send to your accountant when tax time arrives. Pricing is still being finalised — we're keeping it well below incumbents (Hnry, Xero) on a volume model. Join the contractor waitlist on this page to be told first.
Which NZ banks will be supported?
Auto-sync via Akahu lands in Phase 6 — that covers ASB, BNZ, Westpac, ANZ, Kiwibank, and Co-operative Bank. Akahu is FMA-regulated and read-only by design. Until then, every NZ bank lets you download statements as CSV and KeaBudget imports those in seconds — so you're not stuck typing transactions manually while you wait.
How do I get transactions in right now?
Three ways. CSV import — every major NZ bank lets you download statements as CSV (ASB, BNZ, Westpac, ANZ, Kiwibank, Co-op all do) and the import flow handles them in seconds. Recurring transactions — set up rent, salary, subscriptions once and they auto-post next time you visit. Manual entry — for day-to-day cash spend or anything that doesn't fit the other two.
Is my financial data safe?
Yes. Your data is stored in Australasia (currently Sydney), encrypted at rest and in transit, and is never sold, shared with advertisers, or routed through US or EU data brokers. We only collect what's needed to run the app. When AWS Auckland is generally available we'll evaluate moving to a NZ-based region.
How is this different from other budget apps?
Three things. First, it's built for Kiwi bank accounts, Kiwi categories (rates, rego, KiwiSaver, school donations) and Kiwi dollars — not forced into American defaults. Second, the core is free forever — no trial wall after 30 days, no surprise paywalls. Third, the roadmap is shaped by waitlist feedback, not a boardroom, so the features Kiwis actually need get built first.
Who's building this?
An Auckland-based developer building in the open as a hobby project, exploring just how far modern AI can take a single person shipping a real product. Every phase ships with a build-log post on /updates, and every waitlist email gets a reply if you want to share feedback or ideas.
Can I help test it?
Absolutely. Waitlist members get invited to alpha and beta rounds ahead of each phase launch. If you want in early, reply to any update email or drop a line to hello@keabudget.co.nz and say so. We'll bump you up the list.