YNAB

Download was free but did not talk about subscription fee after free trial period.

YNAB is a great way to track your money if you want to actively track it (not passively/automatically) and if you never carry unsecured debt. It handles mortgages fine but it’s simply not built for people who sometimes float large purchases on credit cards as I sometimes do. The old desktop version was superior to the more expensive subscription service they run now. I consider it a niche product, definitely not for everybody, or even most people.

I don’t recommend this app for anyone that is trying to budget and or track their expenses. The app is very confusing and convoluted. Please note I am an accounting major, so finances budgeting those type things are not complex to me. This app just made it way more complicated than it should to understand how my expenses were for the previous month.

Genuinely one of the most impactful apps you could ever use

Great app but it takes too long to sync with accounts. What appears in my bank account is not reflected in YNAB until the next day. I have used other apps that sync in real time and prefer that.

Overall this is one of my most used apps on my phone and it has done a lot to give me confidence that I have sustainable spending habits in uncertain times. The app overall is incredibly friendly and easy to use both on the phone and computer. Where it looses a star has been some of the recent updates. They tend to be hit or miss, and it is clear that they are starting to tailor the app for people who are living more month to month than I am. Sadly that shift in feature now means that I am having to calculate that amount of money I need for whatever future month I am working on instead of having that a simple click away. If this shift keeps happening, I suspect that I am have out grown this resource.

I really can’t recommend YNAB anymore. I have been a user for six years and will likely continue using because it is so integrated into my financial management, but if you can find an alternative that works I recommend using one. YNAB has raised their price over the past few years and has a bad habit of rolling out “features” that break your workflow or only make sense for users new to YNAB. The trend has been toward less customization or care for established users. So, yes YNAB will probably help you to start, but after a few price increases and loss of features you fall in love with, you will probably be as fed up with them as I am. For YNAB reading this: know that the change taking away the net Budget number and forcing our accounts into Cash/Credit was the latest change that prompted this review. The only bright side is that I’m sure you will eventually make another change that will finally be my last straw and I can finally stop handing over $100/year for this.

My linked account unlinked often and was inaccurate. I had other various issues with the app simply not working correctly. Should probably be a free app until it works. Update: Re-downloaded the app and started all over hoping it would fix the issues and now the linked accounts aren’t even working. Contacted customer support and they said they may get back to me in a day or two. Buyer beware don’t pay for this app, it would even be frustrating if it were free.

There are several areas where this app lacks. Easily matching new transactions (like moves from one account to another) don't show the selected transaction cumulative totals when viewing just new transactions (both Android and the web do this). This makes it more cumbersome when matching back withdrawals to the credit card payments as you can't do a bunch at once and you have to read and re read the numbers to make sure they really match. Also other things like deleting category targets don't seem to sync (a day later, the web still shows the target still exists). It makes me question what other things I do that aren't syncing.

We’ve only been using YNAB since February and cannot believe the difference it’s already made in our lives. We’re not living paycheck to paycheck anymore *and* no more sleepless nights worrying about bills hitting the account before our paychecks do. We really like the latest update, called Spotlight. It’s incredibly handy to see everything in one spot instead of having to hunt for the info in various screens. We cannot wait to see where our finances are after a year of using YNAB. The future is looking bright.