YNAB

What reviewers actually said

Built only from these 120 real reviews (foreign ones translated). Superscripts jump to the quote here. Apple has no per-review links, so [ref] opens that app's reviews on the App Store.

1. [R1] 5/5 · US Changed our finances: I am a CPA. I am familiar with budgeting in general so I was looking for an app that would meet my high standards in what I think a budget should be. This exceeds expectations! Using this app has allowed us to save enough money to invest in a higher interest savings account. The monthly interest earned exceeds the monthly cost of this app. This app pays for itself!
2. [R2] 5/5 · US Fun, Practical, Helpful: I really like this budgeting app. It teaches you a thing or two about budgeting. I am putting into practice zero-cash dollar budgeting. I have found some difficulty connecting to cards using MX, when not supported by plaid (Sam’s Club Mastercard). I love the way I can reflect on the month as a whole and see where I overspent or did very well in. I would request a new fe
3. [R4] 5/5 · US Life Changing: The app is fairly simple to use and easy to navigate. It takes discipline as does every budgeting system, but it does its job well. I went from wondering how much disposable income I had at any given point and being stressed about bills, to having 6 months of bills covered, a travel fun, savings, plus disposable income for the random nights out and impulse buys. I finally tapped int
4. [R8] 5/5 · US YNAB: Unparalleled flexibility, conviviality and design. World’s #1 budgeting App. A useful tool for monitoring the progress of your assets.
5. [R11] 5/5 · US YNAB Saved My Financial Future: This is likely going to be a very long review, but for anyone considering a budgeting app change or even just adopting one altogether, this is for you. 6 months ago I woke up and my bank account was drained to 6 cents. Nothing more. My savings had been completely drained by auto-transfers from my checking account over and over until both were empty. I had already r
6. [R17] 5/5 · US I can breath easy on a fixed income: I have been using YNAB for about 6 years now. Once my husband and I retired, we really needed to have clarity on our spending plan. YNAB gives that to us. Getting a month ahead at the beginning has made a huge difference to our peace of mind. Highly recommend!
7. [R16] 5/5 · US A great tool: Once I learned the system and how the app works, I find it very helpful in maintaining my peace around money. The company has a lot of educational resources on their website and YouTube channel to help.
8. [R18] 5/5 · US Financial Clarity: I used to struggle with credit card balances, but after 2 years with YNAB, I don’t pay any interest and can reap all the rewards while my credit is rising. This is the best envelope budgeting system available without a doubt and the community videos are super helpful for customizing to your specific needs. - 3 year update! I both my first home!
9. [R22] 5/5 · US One of my favorite things: I’ve been using YNAB since 2015 and can honestly say it is one of my favorite things in life. As mentioned elsewhere it can be difficult to use in the beginning but the customer support is second to none. They are amazing and super willing to help. The videos and support materials are amazing as well.
10. [R26] 5/5 · US Hands-down the best budgeting app there is.: I’ve been using this app for over a year. It’s completely changed how I think about money and I feel better every time I have to spend it. The “Budget Nerds” podcast is also now one of my most listened podcasts. This app makes budgeting fun! I look forward to using it every time. Rather than feeling restricted by your categories and like you’re “destroy
11. [R5] 2/5 · US Used to be awesome: The idea behind this app was really wonderful and taught me to budget in a way that changed the way I look at my finances forever. Unfortunately, all of the app changes lately get in the way of functionality. Transactions have to get submitted multiple times, balances are somehow inaccurate, color coding is no longer accurate, and month-to-month logic is basically nonexistent.
12. [R36] 3/5 · US Great service, troubling implementation: I love YNAB’s budgeting approach. I love that it is a mobile friendly solution. I don’t love the software updates. It seems they don’t know what they want in an UI and they’re just guessing at where to put things. No matter how they change things, it still feels inconvenient and more difficult. The app also has maddening delays and DRAINS my phone battery.
13. [R59] 3/5 · US Method works. App is ok.: YNAB Method is still 5/5. The app however, continues to have updates that require more clicks for previously easy to use functions. I don’t think it’s one singular update, but rather the trajectory of the past few updates while of course raising the subscription price in the process. Find myself using the desktop more than the app.
14. [R64] 3/5 · US Progressively Worse: While I like YNAB, it has managed to get both worse and more expensive over the years. The UI changes too often and sadly in ways that make it more difficult to use. The “updates” sometimes introduce bugs. I’d rather they keep the application stable and usable than try to justify the price hikes by constantly tweaking the user experience.
15. [R19] 3/5 · US Please allow Fidelity connection: I have multiple accounts that i need to manually add transactions
16. [R40] 1/5 · US Will not sync: I’ve been without account info for two weeks and they can’t fix it because they are too dependent on third parties for bank connections. Upped fees are also an issue
17. [R186] 3/5 · US Best budget software ever: Been using for many years. I still like it but I get frustrated bc it quit importing automatically my credit card Transactions. They said mine wasn’t on the list anymore. Little frustrating. I have to do it manually which can’t do on my phone. Either get out laptop or iPad. Doing it on the iPad is cumbersome. Need to have an easier way to import transactions manually
18. [R52] 3/5 · US Used to be the gold standard: The app and platform used to be the be all, end all for budgeting, but over the past few years has gotten progressively more expensive, and even more convoluted. If you are already in the YNAB environment, the app is well made, but if you are looking for a budgeting solution as a new user, I would implore you to look elsewhere, to a company that still cares.
19. [R71] 3/5 · US What is happening here?!: I’ve been a user since the YNAB 4 days and have struggled to watch the cost of the app tick higher and higher. It’s hard to recommend the app to folks I know who could really benefit from it because it’s so garsh darned expensive. There have been UI changes - some that I’ve loved, some that are just fine - but whatever recent one made entering transactions so hinder som
20. [R29] 2/5 · US these reviews have to be bots: You have to pay to use this app. I don’t know why the reviews don’t mention that. why would I want to pay for an app that’s meant to help me save money.
21. [R46] 1/5 · US Over 100 bucks: Wouldn’t buy unless you are ready to spend over 100 bucks to use… kind of counter intuitive to my goal downloading this app
22. [R6] 2/5 · US Not an easy app: This app has a good concept but is unnecessarily complicated to use. Be sure of what you want to achieve here because the concept of “zero based budgeting”, is really not for a basic budgeting app. There should be a class or tutorial on how to use it. Frustrating, and I’ve had it over a year.
23. [R13] 1/5 · US Beyond confusing.: Basic idea is good. But how the app actually manages your credits, income, transfers within your savings account is the biggest headache
24. [R60] 1/5 · US Too labor intensive: Had high hopes for this but it is way too labor intensive and requires you to go to Through every line item on your spending to assign it. The UX is very weak. I’m disappointed and will not renew.
25. [R140] 3/5 · US Confusing: I find this app hard to understand. Possibly because I use my credit card for most transactions. I don’t know. I just feel like it could use more hints or tutorials.
26. [R38] 1/5 · US Makes no sense: I have worked nearly 30 years in a government budget office and can’t make heads or tails of this budgeting app. Its user interface is pretty to look at but very unintuitive to use. Also, it has no ability to track and analyze past expenditures, which is kind of important to preparing and managing a budget! If for some reason you like this approach to budgeting, you would be better
27. [R79] 1/5 · US Not worth the money: App is going downhill. Lake of reporting and forecasting make this a no go. They are refusing to modernize to a modern formula with real world needs like alerts and credit card data like utilization of debt pay off options for multiple debts at the same time. Honestly I recommend investing in another app that staying with the times instead of putting lipstick on a pig.
28. [R491] 3/5 · GB Good app but not being to search let’s it down: I have been using YNAB for a few years now. I am trying to now use mainly the Ipad app and while the app is very good, the lack of transaction search forces me to go back to accessing via the website. This is a very important feature as I often like to compare a transaction quickly vs other similar ones.
29. [R514] 3/5 · CA Good but needs more data views: As a paid premium app, the amount of spending data available is very sad. Please introduce more data views so we can compare spending between months across categories. Also something as basic as showing my income each month… There are literally third party apps trying to take advantage of this gap.
30. [R21] 1/5 · US Initially great- but not functioning in a helpful way anymore: For two years I used YNAB daily with great success. For the last few months my working balance has been wildly inaccurate and I have been unable to edit my budget. An app refresh did not help. I cannot get human support and the AI support doesn’t care.
31. [R50] 2/5 · US Buggy Issues: When deleting old targets and creating new targets the “money needed by…” doesn’t reset. Also, no inflow transaction is showing in any categories even when clearing it.
32. [R80] 1/5 · US The app is no longer worth it! Pop up ads in paid sub? Nope!!!: What happened to YNAB? It’s not the same app anymore! UI changes that makes things more difficult, increasing subscription prices, and now POP UP ads in a $130 subscription. Nope - not having it. I’m going to zero out my YNAB subscription category and find something that will work for my Actual Budget!
33. [R81] 1/5 · US Gone downhill & showing now ads: Been a YNAB subscriber for nearly a decade. A simple app that performed exactly what you wanted has become bloated and laggy, not to mention a massive pain to use & navigate. The UI, and therefore the UX, has changed drastically for the worse. Just get back to your roots. And don’t ever show another cross-sell notification advertising the CEO’s new “book”. I pay fo
34. [R10] 5/5 · US Best budgeting app!: I honestly love this app. It does take awhile to get a hang of it but once you link your account and understand how it works, it’s amazing. You just have to pick which category you’re spending from and it tells you how much you have left or how much you’re saving. It doesn’t keep track of subscriptions but I just make a category for it to know that I have money on the side.
35. [R77] 1/5 · US Price hike HORRIBLE updates: They doubled the price - shady shady shady - move to something else. Constant updates that make the Product worse. You have to click a separate screen to CLEAR a transaction. HORRIBLE RUN AWAY CHOOSE SOMETHING ELSE