10 Best YNAB Alternatives (Paid & Free Budgeting Apps)
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Have you ever heard of You Need a Budget (YNAB)? YNAB is a budgeting tool created to help you have better control over your finances. It’s one of the most popular budgeting apps, but are there better YNAB alternatives?
Depending on your budgeting style, YNAB might not be a good fit. We’ll show you some similar software programs to help you decide which budgeting program is best for you.
There are many reasons why budgeting is essential, and these tools will help you to do it better.
Why You Might Want A YNAB Alternative
You Need A Budget is a very popular budgeting app. However, it does have some drawbacks. First, it costs $14.99 per month, which can be pricey since there are free and lower-cost budgeting apps.
Second, it does not offer much in terms of investment tracking or analysis. This is why Empower is our top pick: It is free and has robust investment tools.
Top You Need a Budget Alternatives
There are a few different options you may want to check out if you’re looking for an alternative to YNAB. Each helps you reach your financial goals better, but they all work differently.
Here are some details on the alternatives for You Need a Budget.
1. Empower
Empower will help you manage your money. However, it does so in a much more comprehensive way than YNAB, as you can see the long-term financial results.
It also has a budgeting tool that will automatically categorize your expenses. When you sign up with Empower, you start by linking your financial accounts. You’ll include checking, savings, credit card, loan, retirement, and investment accounts.
Now you have a complete picture of your financial situation in one place. The free financial tracking tools help you monitor your overall financial situation. It’s nice because you don’t have to check each account manually online.
Instead, you can pull up your Empower account and see a complete picture of your net worth and financial picture.
2. Tiller
Tiller Money is an awesome alternative to YNAB. It’s great for budgeting, expense tracking, and debt payoff.
The main difference between Tiller and the other options on this list is that it uses Excel and Google spreadsheets.
When you sign up with Tiller Money, you link up your accounts, just as you do with You Need A Budget. Next, you’ll create customized spreadsheets to help you manage your money.
Here are some examples:
- Monthly budget spreadsheet
- Debt snowball spreadsheet (yes, it’ll help you get debt-free using the debt snowball method)
- Net worth tracker
- Weekly expense tracker
The worksheets are attractively designed and super easy to view and use. In fact, I signed up for Tiller a while back and am loving it. It’s thorough but easy enough for tech novices like me to use.
And it’s affordable. Tiller Money costs $79 a year. That averages out to $6.58 per month.
3. Qube Money
Qube Money was founded by financial health coach Ryan Clark, who is passionate about helping people overcome spending and budgeting problems.
He calls Qube Money “envelope budgeting for the 21st century.” Using the Qube app, you can set up Qubes for all your budget categories.
When you need to make a purchase, go to your Qube app and see how much money is left in the Qube for the coordinating category.
Enter the purchase amount, and Qube automatically transfers the money from your bank account, provided you have available money in that Qube.
With Qube, you can always see how much money you’ve left in each spending category. This helps ensure you stay on budget.
ⓘ Learn More: Qube Money Review
4. Mint
*Mint is now Credit Karma
Mint.com was founded in 2006 and offers a way to budget and track your money in one place, and it’s one of the most popular YNAB alternatives.
Like the other services listed here, Mint gives you easy access to your bank, credit card, investment, and loan accounts all in one place.
It’ll also send you alerts if your bank account runs low or you have loans or credit card payments due. This is a nice feature because it helps ensure you won’t accidentally forget to pay.
Late payments often result in late fees and raised interest rates. So, in that way, Mint can help you save money.
In addition, Mint will let you know how much you’re paying in ATM and other fees. And it’ll alert you if there are any large or unusual transactions on your accounts.
Lastly, Mint helps you keep track of your net worth. It’s displayed at the top of your account every time you sign in.
Related: YNAB Versus Mint: Which is Better?
5. CountAbout
CountAbout was founded to be a step up from Quicken. In fact, you can seamlessly migrate from Quicken to CountAbout.
The site will automatically sync your Quicken data into the CountAbout system. One nice feature of CountAbout is the ability to rename spending categories.
CountAbout’s prices are also very reasonable. The basic budgeting plan costs $9.99 per year.
If you upgrade to the premium plan, you’ll get an added benefit: automatic transaction download. The premium plan is only $39.99 per year, which equates to a bit over $3 a month.
Along with budgeting tools, CountAbout also provides:
- Graphs to help you assess income and spending
- Ways to incorporate recurring transactions and split transactions
- Apps for Android and iOS
It’s a fairly thorough system that should meet the needs of most basic budgeters.
6. Simplifi
Simplifi by Quicken is a newer budgeting app that aims to be a step above the old Quicken budgeting system.
The New York Times Wirecutter voted Simplifi as the best budgeting app for two years in a row. Simplifi is similar to Empower in that it lets you view your financial accounts in one place.
Your Simplifi dashboard lets you view bank accounts, investments, 401(k)s, credit cards, loans, and more.
At just $5.99 per month (or $47.88 annually), Simplifi is also cheaper than YNAB.
Read our full Simplifi Review for more details.
ⓘ Learn More: Simplifi Vs Mint: Which is Better?
7. EveryDollar
EveryDollar is one of the most popular YNAB alternatives and is the budgeting brainchild of Dave Ramsey, the well-known personal finance expert.
The website says it’ll help you create your first budget in less than 10 minutes. It’s a simple program that’s fairly easy for people of almost any technical skill level.
EveryDollar is free and allows you to manually add income, spending, and budgeting information.
Consider upgrading to Ramsey+ if you want bank syncing, budget reports, and downloading transactions to a spreadsheet.
After a 14-day free trial, a Ramsey+ membership costs $9.99 for one month or $99.99 for one year.
ⓘ Learn More: EveryDollar Review
8. Goodbudget
Goodbudget is a budgeting app that helps you determine the “why” behind your expenditures. In other words, it enables you to create a value-based spending plan.
It’s based on the cash envelope system and gives you electronic envelopes to put your spending money in when you create your budget.
You can also sync your device with your partner to work on your budget together. The free version of Goodbudget includes ten digital envelopes and works with one account for up to two devices.
The Plus version ($7 per month/$60 annually) includes unlimited envelopes and accounts and lets you partner on five devices.
9. PocketSmith
PocketSmith has been helping people with their budgets since 2008. It touts itself as a budgeting app with unique features for every budget need, including those with multiple income streams.
With PocketSmith, you can import transactions from your bank using multiple bank accounts if they’re from the same bank. You can track your income, expenses, net worth, and more.
You can make a cash flow forecast and work in multiple currencies. PocketSmith has a free plan allowing you to manually budget and import transactions.
The PocketSmith Premium plan is $9.95 per month or $7.50 per month if paid annually. It is their most popular plan. It allows for automatic or manual transaction importation, a 10-year financial projection, and unlimited budgets.
Lastly, PocketSmith’s SuperPlan allows for a 30-year projection of your financial picture and costs $19.95 per month or $14.16 per month if paid annually.
10. PocketGuard
PocketGuard’s big push is that it allows you to always know how much money is in your pocket. You can use it to make a budget, monitor your spending, and remind you when bills are due.
Knowing what’s left in your “pocket” for the day, week, or month can help you make more fluid spending decisions.
PocketGuard has a free version that allows you to import data from your bank and organize it into preset categories.
PocketGuard Plus costs $4.99 per month or $34.99 per year when you pay annually. With PocketGuard Plus, you get added features like customized categories, unlimited goals, and more.
How Do These Alternatives To YNAB Compare?
| Company | Cost | Best Feature |
| YNAB | $98.99/yr. | Zero-based budgeting |
| Tiller Money | $79/yr. | Customizable spreadsheets |
| Empower | Free | Comprehensive financial summary |
| Qube Money | $0 to $11.50/mo. | Individual and family plans |
| Mint | Free | Payment due date alerts |
| CountAbout | $9.99/yr.-$39.99/yr. | Supports small business invoicing |
| Simplifi | $5.99/mo.-$47.88/yr. | Intuitive spending plan |
| EveryDollar | $9.99/mo.-$99.99/yr. | Split transaction capabilities |
| Goodbudget | Free-$7/mo. | Partner syncing capabilities |
| PocketSmith | $9.95-$19.95/mo. | Cashflow forecasting feature |
| PocketGuard | $4.99/mo.-$34.99/yr. | Cost-effective zero-based plan |
Methodology
When we researched the best alternatives to YNAB, we looked at the following:
Pricing – We only included budgeting apps and services that were similar in pricing. We included some free options with features similar to those of YNAB.
Functionality – We included apps and services with similar budgeting functionality. Some apps may work differently, but all have budgeting at their core.
Customer reviews – We reviewed countless customer reviews of these products to ensure that they are legit and that people enjoy using them.
Summary
Using a budgeting program like the one we’ve mentioned here is important. It helps you avoid common budgeting mistakes that can impact your finances long-term.
As you can see, there are several YNAB alternatives if you find YNAB isn’t working for you. Depending on your needs, one of the budgeting programs here will be a better solution.
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