Updates are safe to take. Arca backs up its database before the first start on every new version and keeps the last five copies in /data/backups. The database is brought up to date by itself; a breaking change only ever comes with a new major version and says so in the release notes.
📸 Screenshots
Screenshots use the built-in demo data.
✨ Features
See where you stand
- Home: what's safe to spend today, what's coming up, money in versus out, your net worth, and all your accounts at a glance.
- Insights: an overview of any period, trends per category and group, net worth over time, a financial health score, and a cash-flow forecast that warns before you run short.
Keep track without the busywork
- CSV import for ING, Rabobank, ABN AMRO, bunq, Knab and Revolut out of the box, plus a column mapper for any other bank (remembered for next time).
- Needs a category: sort uncategorised transactions one by one, and turn each answer into a rule so the list stays short.
- Activity: search, filters, bulk edits, split transactions, receipts, shared costs and transfers between your own accounts.
- Merchants with logos, friendly names and category groups (Housing, Transport, …).
Plan ahead
- Budget: an overall or per-category budget with a needs / wants / savings strategy.
- Recurring: bills, subscriptions, income and savings, matched to transactions automatically (also under a payee's old and new name), suggested from your history for you to accept, with an Upcoming calendar and an archive for paused and ended ones.
- Notifications: a bill due or overdue, the forecast running low, the payday check-in, bank consent and sync trouble, new transactions and new versions, in the app and as push to your phone or computer, each kind with its own switch.
- Payment plans: pay one cost in parts (the dentist in three instalments); each part counts in the month it's due.
- Debts: what you owe and what you're owed, with a payoff simulator.
- Goals: savings goals with contributions and suggestions.
- Overdraft limits per bank account; you choose whether the overdraft counts as money you can spend.
Optional AI (Gemini or your own server)
- Category suggestions in Needs a category, and a short written summary of any period on Insights.
- Off until you add your own Gemini API key, or point it at your own AI server (Ollama, LM Studio or anything OpenAI-compatible) so nothing leaves your network. Only merchant names, amounts, dates and category names are sent, never account numbers.
Yours
- Self-hosted: one SQLite file in
/data, no cloud account. Settings › About lists every connection Arca can make (bank, AI, receipts, map) with its state and shows the release notes offline; there is no telemetry, and the update check is a switch that is off until you turn it on.
- Backups: a copy of the database before every update, plus manual backups you can download, all in Settings › Data health.
- Several users, two-factor sign-in, an app lock (PIN or passkey) and a privacy mode that hides amounts.
- Light and dark theme, English and Dutch, works on desktop and phone, installable as an app (PWA).
🚀 Getting started
Docker
docker run -d \
--name arca \
-p 3000:3000 \
-v /path/to/arca-data:/data \
--restart unless-stopped \
damianeickhoff/arca:latest
Open http://localhost:3000. The first start creates the database and opens the onboarding.
Docker Compose
services:
arca:
image: damianeickhoff/arca:latest
container_name: arca
ports:
- "3000:3000"
volumes:
- ./data:/data
environment:
# Set to "true" only behind a reverse proxy that serves HTTPS.
- COOKIE_SECURE=false
restart: unless-stopped
Unraid
Use the template in unraid/arca.xml: copy it to
/boot/config/plugins/dockerMan/templates-user/, then Docker → Add Container → Template → User templates → Arca.
Map /data to /mnt/user/appdata/arca.
Your data
Everything lives in /data: the SQLite database (finance.db), uploaded logos, avatars and receipts, and the backups/ folder with the copies Arca makes before updates. Back up that folder; nothing else needs to persist.
🔄 Updating
Images are published to Docker Hub (and mirrored to ghcr.io/damianeickhoff/arca):
| Tag | What it is |
|---|
latest | The current release (the master branch) |
v1.3.0, … | A specific release |
<branch> | A test build of a branch, never latest |
docker pull damianeickhoff/arca:latest
Then recreate the container, keeping /data. On the first start of a new version Arca copies the database to /data/backups/, then adds any new tables and columns by itself. On Unraid, Check for updates in the Docker tab picks up a new latest. What changed is in Settings › About and in CHANGELOG.md.
🆘 Support
Start with the user guide: it covers installing and updating, every page of the app, and common questions. See the roadmap for what's coming.
Issues and feature requests: https://github.com/damianeickhoff/Arca/issues
📄 License
Arca is free software under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0. You may run it, study it, change it and share it. If you distribute a changed version, or run one as a service for others, you must share your changes under the same licence. Running it at home for yourself and your household carries no obligation at all.
