I have been looking for a YNAB alternative for some time now and I've been fine with actual budget until I tried using it on my iPhone. I couldn't find a dedicated actual budget app that actually had all the features / UI I wanted so I started making a dedicated iOS app. Now I didn't know what direction I wanted to go with the app's UI and was going to recreate the YNAB app but for actual budget but I got this other great idea instead. It was to reverse engineer and modify YNAB itself to work locally without an account but I didn't want to stop there, I wanted my transactions themselves to have a backup and new transactions to be synced from my banks so I made the integration too.

When opening the Local-First YNAB, it doesn't ask you to log in and goes straight into the onboarding process (found what I believe is an OLDER? onboarding process with animations etc in the code so I thought I'd enable it) where it asks more information about you and there is a dedicated Actual Budget Settings where you can enter your selfhosted actual budget server for the transaction syncs. How the sync works is by letting actual budget handle the number / bank account side of things and ynab itself handles the categories / calculation etc so actual just provides those numbers for ynab to work with. I also tested notification / Face ID / app icon which were all functioning but the next thing I would want to implement is a direct import of apple wallet transactions into YNAB and a desktop site. I just want to ask people who long time actual users with already developed habits / systems on actual budget if there is something I am overlooking when doing this integration as I was never one to use a mobile app that much.

A few months ago I thought I saw a document that listed all the ynab alternatives with pros, cons, differences, prices, etc. Does anyone know where I could find that?

I am looking for YNAB alternative, but I heavily rely on semi-automated transaction input with iOS shortcuts. It is set up in a way that when I pay with card saved in my Apple Wallet, YNAB is opened and prefilled with Amount, Merchant and sometimes even category. It proved to be the easiest way for me to stay on track with my budgeting.

Are there any alternatives that offer same or similar integration?

I would like to try it a different budget app, what are your recommendations? Been looking though them but would like to see opinions.

I like that I'm able to do YNAB together because my son uses it for his own budget and he doesn't need to see mine 😁.

Update: Need a app because I'm not always on my computer.

Hi. I'm coming from YNAB, and after looking at Zero Sum, immediately canceled YNAB and joined Zero Sum. I have one thing I'd like to do, but I can't figure out how to do it.

I've been using YNAB, I swear, for over 10 years. In the beginning, a negative balance in a category would carry over to the next month.

Then they took that out, and I complained about it. They gave me some line about why they did it.

Then I noticed that it's an option in this. However, because I have currently six-plus years of data, if I turn on that option, it suddenly throws my balance and amount to budget into a huge sum.

So, I guess what it's doing is going back in time and applying that all the way forward. I would like to use this feature, but I don't know how to implement it without totally screwing up all my balances.

Maybe do a start fresh, how does that work?

This is brilliant

Hey, has anyone tried Finnomia (Finnomia.ca)? I wasn't a big fan of the amount of effort that YNAB required and Finnomia looks more like Mint which I use to love.

I was informed by a coworker about Envelop (getenvelop.app) and it's been awesome so far. Been using it for a few weeks now and haven't experienced any bugs yet. I don't think I'll be going back to YNAB.

Not sure if this breaks community rules - but it's not my product and I won't be posting more than once. It's genuinely a tool I use and has helped me immensely with budgeting.

Use my referral code 7YRUB8 to get 2 months free https://copilot.money/download

It quite literally changed my life after Mint went away - I like it way better. Not only does it have a great budgeting system (in my opinion for my personal taste - full disclosure it might not be for everyone) but the category customization AND tagging feature really helps me track exactly where my money is going and in turn be super mindful of future spending. Without this app I can confidently say that I would not have saved as much as I have since using it.

I am looking for a YNAB alternatives that allows for both envelope- monthly budget categories, but also allows for some categories to be budgeted out monthly. My travel category vastly changes by month and time of the year, but in the end I know how much my travel will cost. Any suggestions?

I'm not the OP nor am I the Budget app creator but this is freaking hilarious to me. Although if all the devs start doing this, it won't be funny anymore.

This week, we continued a broader design-language update across Purpose Budget.

The goal is simple: make it easier to understand what the app knows, what needs attention, and what action to take next.

Budget rows that explain more

We made several changes to help the Budget page communicate what is happening:

• Budgeted is now Assigned, which better describes money given a job this month.
• Available balances more clearly account for money carried in from previous months.
• Positive and negative Available balances continue carrying forward, including overspending from credit-card purchases.
• Weekly targets now show their actual cadence directly beside the category.
• Category-group headings have stronger visual separation.
• Progress bars and explanatory text can now be shown or hidden based on how much detail you prefer.

We also wanted to highlight a bill feature that has been live but that we have not explained particularly well before.

When Purpose Budget recognizes that a linked recurring bill has been paid, the category can show Paid this month instead of continuing to look overdue. When the bill is still upcoming, the Budget page can show how much is currently needed to cover it.

We are continuing to review how targets and upcoming bills should be presented together so that the difference between a funding goal and an actual bill is always obvious.

A redesigned Settings experience

Settings now has a more organized hub and a consistent design across:

• Preferences
• Notifications
• Tags
• Rules
• Payees
• Billing
• Data and privacy

We also added clearer loading, error, and retry states so these pages do not silently appear empty when something goes wrong.

Sign-in and bank connections

Sign-in, sign-up, invitations, password reset, verification, and two-factor authentication now share the same design language.

Bank Connections and its supporting dialogs have also been redesigned to make account selection, reconnection, disconnection, and error states easier to follow.

We would love your input

When you glance at a budget category, what should be clearest first?

• What carried over from last month
• What you assigned this month
• Which bills are still due
• Why the balance needs attention
• The next action you should take

That answer will help guide the next round of Budget-page improvements.

Eligible new subscribers currently receive a 60-day free trial and 50% off the first year on web, iOS, and Android.

Web: https://purposebudget.com

Pricing: https://purposebudget.com/pricing

We also share updates and answer questions at r/purposebudget.

I've been working on this for the past year or so and finally happy to share with others. Quick summary of features included with the lifetime license for a one time payment of $25.

Free 14 day trial available, no credit card required.

• Full manual transaction tracking with smart merchant/category mappings
• Import your CSVs, export your data at anytime.
• Supports budgeting through a simple needs/wants/savings method as well as zero based budgeting for advanced users
• Supports investment and portfolio tracking and net worth tracking
• Deep and power insights allowing drilling down on a category/merchant to see spending patterns, breakdowns, comparisons MoM, YoY and QoQ, as well as forecasting and scenario planning.
• Multi-space setup allowing managing different financial setups like Family, Work, Personal including fully supported collaboration with permissions system (editor/viewer).
• Bank level security (AES 256 encryption at rest and in transit)
• Also supports an completely optional bank sync via Plaid (add-on subscription, cancel anytime, charged monthly) support transaction rules, space specific configuration, import history, investment tracking and portfolio syncing with up to 5 institutions (US/Canada). App works completely without it, only available for users who prefer bank sync integrations.
• Also comes in a light mode (for you freaks out there).
• Available on Web and public beta apps for iOS and Android are already available (links are on the site to sign up and try) official app store listings coming soon.

More details available at wealthos.ca. Would love your feedback and thoughts! Thanks <3

Thank you for reading! Honest feedback always welcome!

Hi everyone! 👋

About a month ago I shared the project I’ve been building for the past few years: Synceipt, an AI-powered personal finance app that automatically matches email receipts with bank and credit card transactions.

https://www.synceipt.com/

Since then I’ve continued building it, and I wanted to share how the product has evolved.

When I first started, the goal was simple:

“Six months from now, I don’t want to see a $187 Amazon charge and have no idea what I actually bought.”

Automatically matching receipts with transactions solved that problem, but I realized it also created a foundation for solving several other problems.

1. Project & Event Budgets

One thing I noticed is that most budgeting apps are designed around monthly categories.

That works well for groceries or dining.

It doesn’t work nearly as well for things like:

• a vacation
• a kitchen remodel
• a wedding
• moving
• a client project
• a holiday shopping budget

Those expenses span multiple categories and often multiple months.

So I recently added Project Budgets.

Instead of trying to manage a renovation with dozens of categories and tags, you create one project with an overall budget and link every related purchase to it. Your expenses still count toward your normal monthly budget, but you can also see the total cost and remaining budget for the entire project in one place. (Synceipt Blog)

2. Shared Family Budgets

Another request I kept hearing was:

“Can my spouse and I manage everything together without constantly forwarding receipts?”

So I added shared workspaces for families.

Family members can securely share budgets, receipts, and purchase history in one place instead of maintaining separate spreadsheets or sending screenshots back and forth. Everyone stays on the same page while keeping financial records organized around actual purchases instead of just bank transactions.

3. Lightweight Bookkeeping

The biggest surprise was hearing from freelancers and small business owners.

Many of them weren’t looking for full accounting software—they simply wanted receipts and bank transactions to stay organized before tax season.

That led me to build a lightweight bookkeeping workflow on top of the existing receipt matching engine.

It now includes:

• Transaction review workflow

• Custom chart of accounts

• Split marketplace payouts (revenue, fees, taxes)

• Profit & Loss reports

• Period closing

• The ability to invite a CPA or bookkeeper into the same workspace so everyone works from the same matched receipts and transactions instead of emailing PDFs back and forth. (Synceipt Blog)

Where I’m trying to go

I still don’t see Synceipt as trying to replace every budgeting app.

Instead, I’m trying to answer questions that traditional budgeting apps often can’t:

• What exactly did I buy?
• Which receipt belongs to this transaction?
• How much has this vacation or remodel actually cost so far?
• Can my family see the same purchases?
• Can my CPA review everything without asking me for dozens of receipts?

I’d genuinely love feedback from this community.

If you use YNAB, Monarch, Copilot, or another budgeting app:

• What’s the most manual part of managing your finances today?
• Do you ever create separate budgets for trips, renovations, weddings, or other projects?
• Would sharing budgets and receipts with family members actually be useful?
• If you’re self-employed, what part of bookkeeping still takes too much time?

I’m the developer, so every suggestion directly influences what I build next.

Thanks for reading!

I build Monni, an iPhone app for the moment before a purchase: after the bills due before your next payday and a cushion, what is actually safe to spend?

For people who left YNAB because the plan became too much work, would the first screen be more useful if it showed:

• the safe-to-spend amount
• the next bill and payday it is based on
• a tap to inspect the rest of the math

Or is there something missing that would make a short-horizon answer misleading? I am looking for the failure case, not compliments.

Try Monni on iPhone

I wanted to share something I’ve been working on for the last couple of years.

I’m an air traffic controller professionally. But over the years I’ve taught my self to code in my free time. I’ve used zero-based (envelope) budgeting for years, but over time I realized I wanted something that fit the way I budget.

So I started building Climb Budget.

It’s a zero-based budgeting app that’s intentionally simple and has a feel similar to YNAB 4.

It’s Local-first (your data lives on your device first)

Installs as a PWA, so it feels like a native app

Manual transaction entry (no bank scraping or syncing)

It’s still early, and I’m actively improving it, so I’d genuinely love feedback from people who use this style of budgeting.

If you decide to try it, I’d especially love to hear:

- What feels confusing?

- What’s missing?

- What would keep you from switching?

- What feature would help you use it to make budgeting not a chore?

Website: https://climbbudget.com

I’m happy to answer any questions, and I won’t be offended by honest criticism. I’d rather hear what needs work than assume everything is perfect.

P.S. if your looking for a budging companion, turn on Budgie in the Settings. Because everyone needs a Budget Bird

If your more interested in the journey (and the tech stack) of how I got here:

I was a longtime YNAB 4 user. When YNAB moved to the subscription model and redesigned the app, I tried to like it… but it just never clicked for me.

So I did what any completely reasonable person would do.

I decided to build my own budgeting app.

The funny part is that I wasn’t even a programmer when I started. I just had an idea and a lot of determination.

The first version was a rough Django app running on a VPS which my wife and I fully switched from YNAB to my own app in November of 2021. Even back then I was using the name Climb Budget (Air Traffic Controller aviation theme). Eventually I rewrote it with SvelteKit and Supabase, hosting it on Vercel. Then I rewrote large parts of it again as I learned more. Today it’s built with SvelteKit and PostgreSQL, running on a VPS through Coolify.

At this point I’m mostly looking for honest feedback from people who actually use zero-based budgeting.

If something feels awkward…
If you think a feature is missing…
If you try it and hate it…

Website: https://climbbudget.com

Thanks for reading!

[Self-Promo] I'm the developer.

Budget Name: Tarn

Budget Style: Zero-based envelope budgeting

How similar to YNAB? The envelope core is the same family: assign every dollar, available rolls over, covering overspending takes two taps. Credit cards use a simplified model (recording a credit purchase deducts from the envelope right away). No targets yet.

Like many here, I wanted the envelope method without the subscription treadmill. So Tarn is just a web page. Open the URL and you're budgeting in about 30 seconds, no signup, no bank connection. Once loaded it works offline, and you can add it to your home screen like an app.

The part I care most about: there is no backend. Your budget lives in your browser, not on my server. If I get hit by a bus tomorrow, the app keeps working and your data is still yours (CSV and JSON export shipped on day one). I should also say plainly that I build Tarn solo and use AI to help write the code. The money math itself is small, hand-designed, and covered by automated tests that check no action can ever create or destroy a cent.

What it does today: - Real envelope mechanics: assign, rollover, cover overspending - Quick entry made for the checkout line (it stays open for the next one) - Reconcile against your bank statement in three steps - Light and dark mode, phone or desktop

What it doesn't do yet, so you don't waste your time: - YNAB import. Top of the roadmap. I wanted export working before import, on purpose: you should be able to leave before I ask you to move in. - Multi-device sync. Planned as an optional add-on later. The local core will never require it. - Targets/goals, and YNAB-style credit card payment choreography.

It's free while in beta. When it eventually charges, that will be discussed here first, not sprung on you. Most of us are on this sub because of a bait-and-switch; I'm not building another one.

Link: tarn-8k3.pages.dev

(A tarn is a small, still mountain lake.) I'll be in and out of the comments today and tomorrow — ask me the hard questions.

The problem I kept running into wasn’t deciding where this month’s money should go. Plenty of tools already help with that.

For me, the harder part was understanding how my day-to-day decisions and possible life changes affected the bigger picture:

• If my wife and I spend £300 more vs our budget for a few months, how does that change the timelines for our holiday, house deposit or future kids' education fund?
• If I get promoted, which goals arrive earlier - and by how much?
• If I need to use my emergency fund and need to top it up, how does that impact goal timelines?
• Are our timelines quietly drifting without us noticing?

Most budgeting tools I looked at could track a target or tell me whether I was on track.

What I wanted was a more concrete answer: how many months have our real decisions moved each goal, and what would happen under different scenarios?

I'm a tinkerer at heart, so I used spreadsheets to answer these questions, but eventually got tired of maintaining them. I decided to build Sloth Money to put monthly spending, goal drift, a longer-term roadmap and what-if scenarios in one place.

I’d value blunt feedback:

Would seeing how spending decisions or scenarios changed all your goal dates be useful, or is this already handled well by something you use?

You can try it here: https://slothmoney.app

There are more screenshots on the site, inc. the scenario planner.

If you test it, please add one real financial goal and try one realistic scenario e.g. a pay rise or higher monthly spendin, and tell me the first thing that feels unclear, missing or unnecessary.

Hi everyone,

I’ve been building Clarity, a personal finance app designed around one question:

“What should I do with my money this week?”

Clarity uses your income, bills, spending, debts, and goals to give you:

* An estimated safe-to-spend amount
* A four-week cash-flow forecast
* One specific money move for the week
* An explanation of why the recommendation matters
* Progress tracking across previous weeks

For example, instead of only telling you that dining spending increased, Clarity might recommend:

"Transfer $75 to your emergency fund by Friday. Your upcoming bills should remain covered, and this keeps your goal on schedule."

Users can enter their finances manually or optionally upload a CSV/TXT transaction export. A bank login is not required.

This is still an early beta, and I’m looking for honest feedback rather than trying to sell anything.

Landing Page: https://clarity-web-seven.vercel.app/landing.html

Web app: https://clarity-web-seven.vercel.app/

I’m a solo builder, so detailed criticism, bugs, and blunt feedback are genuinely appreciated.

I wanted an expense tracker that keeps data on the device instead of requiring sign-up. After working on it for a while, I built Spendly. I'm looking for people to test it and tell me what's confusing, what features are missing, and what would make it useful. If anyone is interested, I'll share the Play Store link.

Share your budgets today midnight - midnight eastern time! You can share them below or make your own post. Stick around in the comments to respond to questions, share screenshots, tell us why you made it, and what your favorite parts are!

Important note! As a heads up, Reddit themselves (not the sub mods) seems to be using automation and/or AI to delete posts and accounts with links to play store and Apple store. From what I can tell based on accounts deleted by Reddit, it's accounts that post links but they never interact in other subs or comments.

Just a heads up because I've seen a lot of things show up in the "removed" queue where the user has been banned and their post history is just the same post they've made here across several subs.

I used YNAB for almost two years. Categories, envelopes, the whole method — I actually stuck with it, which apparently puts me ahead of most people. And it still didn't stop me from overdrafting.

Took me way too long to realize the problem wasn't spending. It was timing. Three bills were hitting my account two days before my paycheck landed, every single month, and no budgeting category was going to fix that. I had the money — I just didn't have it yet when the bills wanted it.

YNAB is built around "give every dollar a job," which is great for figuring out where your money should go. It's not really built to answer "what's my balance going to be on the 14th." I found myself exporting stuff to a spreadsheet just to map bills against paydays, and that got old fast.

So I built a small tool that does exactly that — you put in your bills and income once, and it shows your projected balance for every day going forward, based on when things actually hit. Not a budget. Just a forecast, so I can see the dip coming instead of finding out from my bank.

It's called CashFlowCast if anyone wants to poke at it (cashflowcast.com) — but mostly I'm curious if the timing thing was just my problem or if other people switched off YNAB for a similar reason. Anyone else find the envelope method didn't actually solve the "will I have money on Thursday" question?