Last updated: 29 September 2026
Fern is a manual-entry budget tracker for Android and iOS. It is built so that the budgets and financial records you enter stay on your device.
Fern has no account system, no sign-up, and no ads. We do not collect the transactions, balances, accounts, or budgets you enter. Optional public market price lookups are described under Investment prices. App Store and Google Play purchases of Fern Plus are processed as described under Fern Plus purchases.
Every transaction, account, budget, category, recurring bill, savings goal, and investment you enter is stored only on your own device. There are no Fern servers holding your budget data, and nothing you enter is uploaded. Budgeting works offline. Looking up investment prices and buying or restoring Fern Plus require an internet connection.
Apple processes payments for Fern Plus on iOS, and Google Play processes them on Android. We use RevenueCat to validate and report purchases and refunds from both stores, and to notify us of Fern Plus sales. Apple and Google send purchase records to RevenueCat, including the purchased product, transaction identifiers, purchase date, price, currency, storefront, and purchase or refund status. RevenueCat associates these records with an anonymous customer identifier. We do not send your name, email address, or advertising identifier.
This connection concerns the purchase of Fern Plus. Your spending records, including expenses logged from Apple Pay, stay on your device and are not sent to RevenueCat. Neither Fern nor RevenueCat receives your card number or bank login. Purchase records are not used for advertising or tracking you across apps. See RevenueCat's privacy policy. For questions or requests about purchase records, contact us below.
If you track investments, Fern can look up current prices so what you own
stays up to date. When it does, the only thing sent is the public code of what you own
— for example JFC, AAPL, BTC, or
USD. Your amounts, how much you own, your balances, your identity,
and everything else you have entered stay on your device and are never sent.
These lookups go to public market-data services: CoinGecko for crypto, the European Central Bank rates published by Frankfurter for currencies, phisix for Philippine Stock Exchange listings, and Yahoo Finance for United States listings. No account is used and no key identifies you, so these services receive an anonymous request for a public price. When you search for a stock or coin by name, the words you type are sent in the same way so results can be returned.
This is optional. Every investment account has a Live prices switch, and turning it off stops all price lookups; your investments then show what you paid. If you do not track investments, Fern makes no price requests at all.
Fern can create CSV exports and JSON backups, and can restore from a JSON backup. These actions happen entirely on your device, and a file is only ever shared or saved when you explicitly choose to do so through your device's own share options. Once a file leaves Fern, it is governed by wherever you send it (your file storage, email, messaging, etc.) — not by Fern.
If you enable the optional app lock, Fern uses your device's built-in authentication (such as fingerprint or face unlock) to unlock the app. Biometric data is handled entirely by your device's operating system; Fern never sees, receives, or stores it.
Fern does not collect the budget records entered by anyone, including children. App Store and Google Play purchases are processed as described above.
If this policy changes, the updated version will be posted on this page.
Questions about privacy: edanuele@gmail.com