YNAB

I’ve been using YNAB since version 4. At first I was concerned with the subscription model cost, but the team has continued adding features that make it more useful. I’ve been watching my net worth rise over the years and this app has been a great help. It’s good knowing that I can go to the store and can definitely afford it because it’s budgeted, or that I can shift funds and still make it happen. YNAB makes money one less thing to worry about.

The idea behind it is quite promising. It aims to help users manage their finances and keep track of transactions more easily. One of the biggest drawbacks is the way transactions are displayed. Finding a specific transaction - especially a missing one or comparing an account with a card statement - becomes challenging. The app reorders transactions in a way that doesn't reflect the order they come in from the bank. This makes it difficult to match up with statements and can lead to confusion.

It allows me to handle reasonably well all complexities of personal finances, no other app I tried before did, like: pending transactions, faulty connections to financial institutions, different budgeting needs from one category to another, the way budgets carry over to the new month, updates due to reissued credit cards, reconciliation to account balances, it even gives me confidence to correct errors when they happen; overall it’s great. Unfortunately apps these days come with the curse of constant change, a few weeks ago I knew how to use the app, now I’m having to re-learn some key features, and every few months happens again and again :(

With the newest updates, the app now fails to load 50% of the time forcing me to shut it down and reload. This is very annoying and pushing me to desire to leave to the every dollar app.

I used YNAB for three months and found it to be legitimately useful, but for what is essentially an “envelope” style of budgeting (assign money to each category you need it for and that’s all you’re allowed to spend for the month), it’s far too expensive in my opinion. $15 a month is up there with the most expensive premium no-ads streaming services (of which I have none, but recognize they have a lot of value for folks) and this app just does not contribute that kind of value. It is mainly taking your account balance and putting a filter over it in the form of a usable app so that you can divide and sort money. There are a few other functions like seeing where you spend your money over time but the main core of the app is the budgeting feature. They do offer an annual plan but it’s $110 for a year (~$9 a month) but that’s still beyond what I think the app is worth. $7 for a monthly plan or $60 annually is more in line with its valuation, in my opinion, for what the app offers and for who it’s catering to (folks who need financial planning and stability). I did reach out to them for a discount, mentioning that I would cancel my subscription at the current pricing, and they said they don’t offer discounts but did give me a free month, which was kind. Still didn’t change my mind about the final valuation of the product though. They have competitors on the app store that offer more for less of a fee, and that have more intuitive systems than this one. The onboarding here is several back to back videos to explain the concepts to the new user, and while I think the overall tutorial is fine and the concepts/UI/UX are all easily grasped, I still feel like it’s a more obtuse system than necessary, seconded by some of the reviews here saying they ran into issues that messed up their whole budgeting plan. All in all, I would come back for $5-7 a month but they are asking over double and up to triple that depending on whether you go for the monthly or annual plan, so in my opinion, not at all worth it. Budget on paper for free rather than using this app for a slight amount more convenience that could cost you $180 a year if you pay monthly.

It’s an outstanding app that I highly reccommend! It is extremely easy to create a budget and track your spending. It also makes it easy to see spending patterns over time.

I started using YNAB at the beginning of 2025, and have really enjoyed the functionality and how it is making me look at my money in a different way. It’s forced me to really take accountability for everything go spend, which is something I’ve been bad at. There have been a flurry of updates lately. I do enjoy the new spotlight feature, but that’s about it. The latest updates have made the UI less usable on my phone, and there’s SO much wasted space. They’ve replaced colored indicators with text, which doesn’t really make sense to me since now I can’t just take a quick glance as I scroll to see whether transactions are cleared. For an app that’s supposed to let me perform quick actions, it seems like now I have to spend more time on the app to accomplish things. Maybe this makes sense for doing things on a computer, but for a smartphone, it feels really counterintuitive.

I appreciate the intention to make the app better. But…if there is a way to have a focus group test or review some of the proposed updates prior to actually making the changes… it might be a good idea. Because so many of the updates (which are a LOT lately), have been taking away things we LIKE about the app, and making it LESS streamlined and functional. A focus group would give some feedback to catch some of these things and possibly make suggestions that could avoid the rollercoaster of updates that have been frustrating many of us lately. Other notes while here- Thank you for listening and bringing back cleared/uncleared amounts at the top of the screen. Making the “working balance” as a pop up was a good compromise for anyone who prefers that. The old “C” for cleared is MUCH preferred over the “uncleared,” it was so much easier to see. The full note is a nice thought…but needs tweaking visually. The grey bar is distracting. It might help if the grey was lighter, and/or the background tan color was a couple shades darker so you could see the date separation better.

Bulk actions that take seconds on the website are unavailable on mobile, because YNAB deliberately blocks Safari from launching the web app.

I’m not alone, no I am not. I’m a budget nerd and have made life changes due to this one app. I love how it keeps getting better and more advance. Yes, the uncleared is not as good as the “c” we had in the past but I’m sure I will get use to it. Thanks for giving us such a wonderful tool to make daily life easier and more organized. And I would love to be interviewed on Budget Nerds. My wife thinks it’s weird that I listen to the podcast when we travel cross country and she cracks up with all things they do and compares it to all the things that I do. Hint, hint, split transactions at the store. LOL