Frequently Asked Questions

Nemo is a free desktop personal finance app built with Tauri v2. Your financial records are stored locally on your machine by default, and optional cloud features are opt-in. You get budgeting, expense tracking, net worth monitoring, spending reports, subscription detection, and AI-powered planning without a monthly subscription.

Yes. Because Nemo runs locally on your desktop, we don't carry the cloud infrastructure, data storage, or server bandwidth costs that Monarch and YNAB do — the main reason those apps charge $10–15/month. Bank syncing, budgeting, transactions, reports, net worth, goals, subscriptions, and AI-powered tools are all included. For AI, bring your own API key (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google) or run a local model. No subscriptions, no trial periods, no feature gates.

Nemo covers what those apps offer, and adds more. YNAB ($14.99/mo) focuses on envelope budgeting. Monarch Premium ($14.99/mo) adds net worth and investment tracking. Mint was free but shut down in 2024 and was ad-supported with data selling. Nemo combines those core workflows and adds the Financial Plan, Ask Nemo chat, and the Can I Afford This? simulator — at no cost. Unlike all of them, your transactions stay in an encrypted vault on your device instead of on a vendor's cloud.

Download, install, and create a free account. The onboarding walks you through connecting your bank accounts. Within minutes, your transactions are synced, organized, and ready to budget.

Your transactions, budgets, goals, and reports are stored in a DPAPI-encrypted vault on your computer. Nemo does not maintain a centralized customer transaction database. If you enable optional multi-device features, only encrypted metadata needed for those features is synced.

DPAPI (Data Protection API) is a Windows system-level encryption mechanism that ties encrypted data to your specific Windows user account. Nemo uses DPAPI to encrypt sensitive credentials — like bank connection tokens and API keys — so that only your Windows login can decrypt them. Even if someone copies the encrypted files to another computer, they cannot be read. It's the same protection used by Chrome, Edge, and other trusted desktop applications.

Nemo connects to your bank through Teller, a bank-grade aggregation provider. Every connection uses mutual TLS (mTLS), which means both Nemo and the bank authenticate each other with cryptographic certificates before any data is exchanged. Your banking username and password are never stored by Nemo — you authenticate directly with your bank through Teller's secure enrollment flow. Teller is SOC 2 certified and used by major fintech companies.

No. Nemo does not sell customer financial data and does not run ad-network profiling. Your transaction history stays local by default, and optional cloud capabilities are clearly disclosed in our Privacy and Security docs.

Everything you need to manage your finances: automatic bank account syncing, transaction categorization, budget creation and tracking, spending reports and analytics, net worth monitoring, subscription detection, recurring expense tracking, bills calendar, and goal setting. No trial, no feature gates, no paywall.

You create budgets by category (groceries, dining, entertainment, etc.) for monthly or custom time periods. Nemo assigns incoming transactions to your budget categories as they sync from your bank, so you see how much you've spent vs. your limit. You get progress bars, overspending alerts, and historical comparisons. Unlike YNAB's strict envelope method, Nemo is flexible — you can use zero-based budgeting, category limits, or a hybrid approach.

Yes. Nemo handles irregular income streams, which makes it useful for freelancers, contractors, and gig workers. You can track income by source, separate business and personal spending with categorization rules, and monitor spending patterns across categories. The Financial Plan generates personalized budget recommendations based on your income and spending history.

Nemo's AI features include Ask Nemo (plain-English chat about your finances), Smart Insights (spending pattern analysis), the Financial Plan (budget and debt strategy recommendations), and the Can I Afford This? simulator (runs a purchase against your cash flow). Bring your own OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google API key, or run a local model via Ollama or LM Studio — Nemo charges nothing for the chat.

Yes. Since Nemo is a desktop app that stores data locally, all your existing data is available offline. You can view transactions, check budgets, review reports, and manage goals without an internet connection. The only features that require internet are syncing new transactions from your bank and using cloud-based AI models. If you run a local AI model through Ollama or LM Studio, even AI features work offline.

Bank syncing, budgets, transactions, reports, net worth, goals, subscriptions, Ask Nemo chat, Smart Insights, the Financial Plan, and the Can I Afford This? simulator are all included at no cost. Because Nemo runs locally on your desktop, there are no cloud infrastructure costs to pass on to users. For AI features, bring your own API key or run a local model. No subscriptions, no paywalls, no trial periods.

Nemo supports Bring Your Own Key for OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and any OpenAI-compatible endpoint (including local models via Ollama or LM Studio). You pay your AI provider directly — typically pennies per query. Your API key is stored in the DPAPI-encrypted vault and only ever sent to the provider you chose. If you run a local model, nothing leaves your machine.

Your data was always on your computer and stays on your computer. No data is ever deleted, locked, or held hostage. This is a fundamental advantage of a local-first app — your data can't disappear because it was never on someone else's server.

Nemo is available for Windows and macOS. It is built with Tauri v2 for a lightweight native-desktop experience. Mobile companion experiences are optional and may ship on a separate release cadence.

Very little. The Nemo installer is under 10 MB, and the app itself uses minimal storage. Your financial data footprint depends on how many accounts and transactions you have, but even years of transaction history typically takes only a few hundred megabytes. Nemo is dramatically lighter than Electron-based finance apps.

Nemo is not currently open source, but it is built on open-source foundations (Tauri, Angular, Rust). We believe in transparency about how your data is handled: everything stays local, encryption uses well-known system APIs (DPAPI), and bank connections go through Teller's audited infrastructure. We may open-source components in the future.

Yes. Your data is yours and you should always be able to take it with you. Nemo supports exporting transactions and reports in standard formats. Since everything is stored locally, you also have direct access to your data files at any time. There is no vendor lock-in — if you decide to switch apps, your data comes with you.