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Central to You Need a Budget (YNAB) is the concept of a “living budget,” or one that changes as your financial needs evolve. The entire YNAB system revolves around four simple rules: give every.

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Are you tired of living paycheck-to-paycheck? Maybe you don't see any way around it. That's what the founders of YNAB, You Need a Budget, think too. They are here to help you change that way of thinking by showing you how to live on last month's money.

1. Dec 28, 2015 r/ynab4: This is a place for Classic YNAB (YNAB4) discussion, the You Need a Budget desktop client. Press J to jump to the feed. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts.
2. You Need a Budget (2.5.1) Let me just go on the record here and say YNAB’s iPhone app is gorgeous. It’s obvious from the start a lot of care went into designing YNAB (and how you use it). You’ll type in the same things as you would in EveryDollar.
3. Bank2OFX is an useful utility to convert QIF, OFX, QFX, QBO, OFC files to the OFX format. Open your bank file in format you have and convert to OFX format.

Pros and Cons

• Teach you how to budget
• Create and fund goals
• Large help center

• Expensive annual fee
• Poor investment and retirement tracking
• No auto sync

Bottom Line

Excellent budgeting app without extra bells and whistles

YNAB is strictly budgeting software. You won't be able to view your net worth, track your investments, or get investment advice. What this app does is help you think ahead. They want you to plan for upcoming bills so that when they happen, you aren't in a mad dash to find money to cover it.

The founders of YNAB feel that the longer you can live off the money you made in the past, the more financial freedom you will have. Even if you aren't to the point that you can live off of 'old money,' the program aims to help you learn how to put an end to living paycheck-to-paycheck. If that means you can get out of debt or realize a small amount of financial freedom, then their mission is accomplished.

With YNAB, every dollar has a job. In other words, no money sits without a category. Don't worry—you won't do this alone. YNAB offers several types of support to get you on your way.

Keep reading to see if YNAB is something you might want to consider to get your budget on track.

How Does It Work?

YNAB works similar to many other budgeting programs. You create the categories, import or enter your transactions, and see how you fare. Where YNAB differs, though, is in its principles. Their basic rules are as follows:

• Every dollar needs a job. In other words, you must assign a category for every dollar you make. This might sound strange, but it helps you avoid unnecessary spending. It also helps you stop living paycheck-to-paycheck. The goal is to get ahead so that you live on last month's money.
• Embrace your true expenses. YNAB wants you to put money aside for large expenses a little bit at a time. Think of the bills you owe once a year or every six months. Do you panic when they roll around because you don't have the cash? YNAB helps you allocate funds for these bills on a monthly basis. This is in an effort to give you more control over your budget.
• Roll with the punches. In other words, give yourself a break. If you go over budget in one category, make adjustments. Don't just throw in the towel and give up on budgeting. Deal with the issue and keep moving forward by learning from the issue.
• Age your money. In other words, stop timing your bill payment to paydays. Live on 'old money.' At a minimum, YNAB wants you to live on last month's income. You'll see the age of your money right on the dashboard. The higher that number, the better you are doing.

What Are the Fees?

YNAB charges a monthly subscription fee of $6.99 per month. They bill you annually, though, at $83.99 per year. They do offer a no-risk, 100% money back guarantee if you are unhappy with the program. This requires you to email them and explain your reasons, though. If you do cancel mid-subscription, they do offer a pro-rated refund for the unused months in your subscription.

Students may receive one year of free service by emailing student@ynab.com and providing proof of your enrollment. Your student ID, tuition bill, or transcripts usually suffice.

Reasons We Like YNAB

• YNAB helps you plan for the future. If living paycheck-to-paycheck makes you lose sleep at night, you may enjoy the YNAB way of living. While you won't transform your budget overnight, you will have support getting to the point that you can live on 'old money.' If you stick to the principles of YNAB, you may find yourself planning for the future rather than scrambling to pay this month's bills.
• You can access your finances on-the-go. YNAB has a mobile app that mimics what you see on your PC. This makes it easier to enter transactions as they happen. You can even share your finances with your spouse. This may help keep both of you on the same page rather than arguing about spending.
• YNAB is web-based, which means automatic syncing across all devices. The changes you make on your PC will automatically sync to your mobile app. In other words, when you look at your YNAB program, you are looking at real-time data.
• You can set goals. The goals are pre-set, which some may see as a downside. But you can choose to set a generic savings category or set a savings category with a specific deadline. Either way, the program shows you how close you are to your goal with graphic representation. It also provides a blurb of advice on how to get back on track to meet your goals.
• You can automatically import bank transactions from your bank account. If you link your bank account to your YNAB platform, you can import transactions that are at least 24 hours old with the click of a button. You may also use file import if your bank isn't listed in YNAB for automatic import. You may also choose this option if you aren't comfortable sharing your login credentials.
• You don't have to automatically import your transactions. You can still use the 'old fashioned' method of manually inputting your transactions. In fact, YNAB recommends that you input transactions immediately on your mobile app. If you use the import function, the program will automatically match up with the entered transactions, assuming they are identical. If not, then you know you have reconciling to do.
• You get visual reminders when you spend more than you budgeted in a category. If you overspend cash in a category, the category turns red. YNAB hopes that this will help you adjust other categories and make up for the overspending. In other words, it's a warning that you are about to overdraft your checking account if you aren't careful. Those visible reminders can be helpful.
• You can tell when you overspend on a credit card. If you link your credit cards and you overspend, your category will turn orange. This doesn't mean you are about to overdraft your checking account. But it is a reminder that you just increased your credit card debt and have to adjust your cash budget accordingly.
• YNAB offers a lot of opportunities for education on their website. If you like to read blogs, watch podcasts, or have access to weekly videos, you'll love the support section offered by YNAB.
• You can get support from others on the YNAB forum. Sometimes it helps to hear from others in a similar situation. In the YNAB forum, you can get support for the platform itself, ask budgeting questions, or read about other users' success stories using YNAB.

Reasons You May Want to Look Elsewhere

• You can't track your investments. YNAB is strictly budgeting software. Other programs offer both budgeting and investment tracking, helping you track your net worth better. YNAB only tracks checking, savings, cash, credit cards, and lines of credit.
• You can't call customer service. If you have a question, you have to resort to sending a message via YNAB online. They claim to respond to your question within 24 hours. That's not exactly quick customer service, especially if your question is urgent.
• Your data isn't erased for three years after canceling. If you decide YNAB isn't for you, your data remains in their database for three years after cancelation. If this bothers you, there is an option to email them and ask for immediate deletion of your account.

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How Does It Compare?

Mint: Mint offers its budgeting services free of charge. With online synchronization, visual graphics of your accounts, and a mobile app, it offers features similar to YNAB. Mint does offer investment tracking and credit score tracking as well. Their customer service options are as limited as YNAB, though.

Quicken: Quicken is the household name for personal financial software. Its yearly subscription fees are on par with YNAB, but the similarities end there. Quicken offers online bill pay services, investment tracking, and even retirement planning. They offer 24/7 customer service as well. A downside, though, is the complicated nature of the program, making it overwhelming for new users.

EveryDollar: If you want a free budgeting software tool, EveryDollar might be a better option. If you don't mind manually entering your transactions, you can use EveryDollar free of charge. If you want automation, you'll pay an annual subscription fee. EveryDollar is a fairly barebones program, as it doesn't offer bill payment, investment tracking, or even bill management. It's a back-to-basics program to get you started on a budget.

Bottom Line

If you want to automate your budget and stop living paycheck-to-paycheck, YNAB could be the answer you need. Because its main focus is on budgeting, you get a few more bells and whistles that help keep you on track.

Their tutorials and educational material are hard to surpass, which makes it a good program for users who never truly had a budget. If you are looking for a fresh start, YNAB may be just the program for you. If you are a seasoned budgeter and have investments you want to track, you may want to look elsewhere.

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If you're looking for an alternative to You Need a Budget (YNAB), you're in the right place. I’ve been closely following YNAB as it’s evolved over the last few years. I remember YNAB4 when it was a software application you purchased. I remember when it transitions to a monthly service. I remember how upset people were but I felt from a business perspective, it made them better suited to invest in the business to make it even better.

There are several reasons why you might be looking to replace YNAB. The best alternative for you will depend on why you're replacing it. Whether it was the recent price increase, outgrew the product, or you feel like you could do it on your own?

With plenty of options we breakdown the top 5 YNAB alternatives below.

Why Do You Want to Switch?

The YNAB Price Increase – YNAB used to be $50 a year, billed annually. It will now be $6.99 a month, still billed annually so $83.88. It's a sizable percentage increase but not a significant dollar increase, just under $3 a month.
I think it's worth $3 a month for YNAB but long-time users have had to navigate two pricing changes the last few years – first, when the software went from a flat fee to a monthly fee; now, to a slightly higher monthly fee.
To put it into perspective, EveryDollar is a budgeting app that has a free component but costs $129.99 a year for their Ramsey Plus (they rebranded it and added features to what was previously EveryDollar Plus).
It follows Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover approach, has a similar “give every dollar a name” philosophy, and is on a freemium model. That means the app is free but if you want to connect financial accounts, download data automatically, that'll run you $129 a year. It's still cheaper than one of their most similar alternatives (which we don't list below because it's more expensive).
You've Graduated – Congratulations! YNAB has put many people on the path to sound budgeting with its “Every Dollar Needs a Job” mentality. If you're ready to graduate to a free tool without as much guidance, then there are several options below.
If you need less guidance and you want more support in the area of investing and retirement planning, my best recommendation is Personal Capital. It offers a personal finance dashboard that lets you plan for your investments and retirement better than any of the alternatives.
If you need less guidance and just want to track your budget, my best recommendation is Mint. Track your budget automatically, completely free, but you don't get the same philosophy and guidance as YNAB. We compare YNAB vs. Mint in a head to head comparison that you can use to decide if mint is the one for you.

What We Looked For

You chose You Need a Budget for a specific reason and it's not just to “track your budget.” There are a ton of budgeting apps out there and most of them are free.
You chose YNAB because of the philosophy and how the tools married with those philosophies. You wanted more than a simple tracker tool.
We also didn't include alternatives like EveryDollar (until the end) because they were more expensive. We recognize YNAB is pretty solid on features so you're probably looking for a cheaper replacement rather than a more expensive one. (if we're wrong, let us know!)

1. Tiller

What is Tiller?Tiller is an automation tool that integrates with Google Sheets so you can build your own budgeting spreadsheet while pulling in data automatically from your accounts.

Why is Tiller a good YNAB alternative? First and foremost, they have a way to import your YNAB budget into a Google Sheet. So if you wanted to make the transition, it's super easy.

Second, and this is more about spreadsheets than about Tiller specifically, but you get complete control and customization with Tiller powering your spreadsheet. You tailor the spreadsheet to exactly what you want and they pull in the data so you avoid the manual data entry. I use a spreadsheet for this very reason.

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Tiller is just $79/year after a 30 day trial, which makes it slightly cheaper than YNAB. If you start using it and are able to save more money in your budget, those savings could easily pay for Tiller. Read our Tiller review for a deep look at what makes this tool so great.

2. Personal Capital

What is Personal Capital? Personal Capital is a personal finance dashboard that will aggregate all of your accounts in one place. They have a premium financial advisory service as well as wealth management, but those are optional (I don't use them). There are also powerful planning tools, like planning future income in retirement based on your expenses, that really make it a 30,000 foot view other tools don't even try to do.

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Why is it a good YNAB alternative? It's not a good budgeting tool replacement for YNAB but if you want to graduate from just budgeting to higher-level financial management, Personal Capital can be a helpful tool. I don't mean “higher level” as in “better” or “superior,” I mean 30,000-foot view vs. 10,000-foot view.

Budgeting is crucial but it has a short-term view. You may budget your paycheck, which may be weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly. You may budget annually too – but you won't be budgeting from now until your retirement. That's why a tool like Personal Capital can be valuable – giving you visibility on the long term view.

Personal Capital is free.

3. Mint

What is Mint? Mint is one of the oldest budget tracking packages out there and they are owned my Mint, who were the former owners of Quicken. Mint has everything you need in a budgeting app and is completely free. Many of the budgeting tools may sound familiar to YNAB but they will take getting used to it. You have bill pay functionality as well plus additional features like credit monitoring and some investing tracking (but no recommendations or advice).

Why is it a good YNAB alternative? If you need a budget but don't want to pay for You Need a Budget, this one gets you all the budgeting functionality at absolutely no cost.

Mint.com is free.

4. CountAbout

CountAbout was designed specifically to be an alternative to Quicken, which is one of the oldest and most popular budgeting packages out there. CountAbout was founded in 2012 and offers a very rich feature-set at a very modest price. It costs just $9.99 for the Basic and $39.99 for Premium (which includes automatic transaction download).

Here are some of the other key features, making it a solid budgeting tool without the monthly fee:

• Imports data from Quicken and Mint
• 12,500+ financial institutions
• Multi-factor login protection
• Android and iOS apps
• Category customization (add, delete, rename)
• Tags (add, delete, rename)
• Reporting for Account balances
• Reporting for Category activity
• Reporting for Tag activity
• Report exporting

• Individual Account QIF importing
• Budgeting
• Running register balances
• Account reconciliation
• Graphs for Income & Spending
• Recurring transactions
• Investment balances by Institution
• Memorized transactions
• Split transactions
• Description renaming

5. EveryDollar

EveryDollar is a very basic budgeting tool created by the team behind Dave Ramsey, using his principles for managing money. We reviewed EveryDollar and found that it's claim of being able to set up a budget in 10 minutes to be accurate – it's super simple, very easy to navigate, and follows the overall structure of Dave Ramsey's Baby Steps.

It is a freemium product with the free version letting you do everything the budgeting tool offers. There is an EveryDollar Plus (now part of Ramsey Plus) that's $129.99 per year which adds in automatic transaction downloads and a few other features. With the Free version, you have to manually enter all of your transactions.

Conclusion

If You Need a Budget has served you well, my recommendation is to find a few bucks each month to continue paying for it. No tool offers what it does at a cheaper price and there's a reason why it's one of the most popular personal finance tools out there – it works.

One of the nice things about many of the recommendations on this list is that they have trials or are completely free. Keep with YNAB, try one of the alternatives we listed, and if it wins – switch. If it doesn't, you won't have lost a step with your existing budget.

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