YNAB Alternatives

Budgeting
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Continuing the discussion from YNAB:

I’m looking for/at YNAB alternatives.

  • bank account syncing not necessary for me, but very important for my partner
  • I need a good way to manage my credit card that I pay off at the end of every month and all money spent is already budgeted
  • goals and sinking funds are very important to me
  • need to be able to budget out five months at a time

I’ve signed up for Lotus to give that a go, and I’m looking at Actual Budget. I have until the end of May 2022 to find a new solution.

this thread is to share resources, alternatives, and experiences, I’ll continue to update my findings as I go.

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I’ve heard several people mention Buckets (budgetwithbuckets.com) and Spendwise (spendwise.io), but I haven’t tried either.

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I think Buckets is next on my list to try! I have heard some good things. big downside to both is that there is no mobile app. I do like the price point for both.

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Buckets apparently has a mobile app on the way, but no timeline for delivery. They do seem to be pretty transparent with their information though.

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Okay. I"m a boomer, admitted. What’s YNAB?

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YNAB is You Need a Budget; it’s a subscription budgeting app (which used to be downloadable software). They recently announced a price increase that particularly affects long-time users who were early adopters of the app when the company switched to the subscription model.

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There’s time stamps of the OMD reviews of all these budgeting apps here too, with reviews

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thank you! will check that out later this evening!

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Thanks!

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I really like YNAB but they just raised their price again. May start looking at alternatives. I mostly just use the webapp on my PC, but the mobile app is nice when traveling.

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I also mostly use the web app unless I need to check something in the budget. the major hike in price is definitely what has me searching for alternatives.

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Lotus Budget:

so far I’ve only filled in initial amounts.

organizing and naming categories is unnecessarily clunky - their pre-set categories only allow you to delete them if you assign a new category for the money to go into even when there is zero money and zero money history.

selecting a new category when the one you’re deleting has no money/money history does generate a little error bubble, but then the category is gone and you’re good to go.

the layout is simple, very similar to YNAB. it is also a zero-based budget like YNAB. you can budget many months in advance.

haven’t figured out their debt model yet, and no goal setting features seem available.

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FYI, a lot of people on the YNAB Reddit page are talking about Buckets as alternative. Going to take another look at it tonight!

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Debt model is simply an account with a negative balance, which is easy enough.

Updating my budget today. Lotus is very, very clunky. I’m irritated that I can’t simply add, subtract, or transfer amounts between budget line items. While I’m pleased with the zero-based budget, I might have to call it quits on this one.

Did you try importing your YNAB budget? I think that Buckets is next on my list. One concern I have is the sustainability of the service since it is only one person behind it, but it’s a small concern especially if the budgeting is good.

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On another forum I hang out on, someone mentioned Actual today as a good option comparable to YNAB. Haven’t tried it as I use YNAB4, but thought it might help someone who’s looking to change.

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Thanks for starting this thread. My YNAB subscription renews in January and I was grandfathered in at $50/year until now, so I’m also considering a move and it is helpful to see what others are considering as alternatives.

I may let my subscription renew for one more year just because my renewal date is so soon but I’m definitely going to start testing some other apps to check if I can get what I need cheaper or for free.

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