Last updated: 8 July 2026
Fern is a manual-entry budget tracker for Android and iOS. It is built so that your financial information never leaves your device.
Nothing. Fern has no account system, no sign-up, no ads, and no analytics or tracking. We do not collect, transmit, or have access to any of your data. The only requests Fern ever makes are anonymous look-ups of public market prices, described under Investment prices below.
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, and nothing you enter is ever uploaded. Fern works fully offline; the one exception is described next.
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 data from anyone, including children.
If this policy changes, the updated version will be posted on this page.
Questions about privacy: edanuele@gmail.com