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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I haven’t tried it (I’m on YNAB4 still), but several of my friends who had switched to subscription YNAB have now switched to Budget Friendly Budget and they really like it. Apparently, the developer is also very responsive to requests for features.
Thank you for mentioning BFB!
I’m importing my YNAB info over right now; they made it so easy!
While the original post was from 2021, YNAB’s AI integration is the final straw for me and I will be requesting a pro-rated refund from them as I did pay the annual fee sometime last month.
From YNAB’s “Updates to our Privacy Policy & Terms of Service” email yesterday:
AI clarifications: We’ve added more details on how we use AI to clean up payee names and power our support chatbot, including when we ask permission to access your account data.
YNAB budget import was very smooth, and I only have 2 complaints so far:
The text is quite small and I’d prefer to have settings to change that rather than just zooming in on my web browser, and there’s no mobile app (but they do have a webpage-pinned-to-home-screen workaround).
From what I’ve heard from friends, the developer is very open to feedback and feature requests, so I’d ask him about those. So far, everyone who’s switched is finding it comparable to YNAB and a lot cheaper. I hope you like it.
