YNAB vs NerdWallet

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. [R2] YNAB 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. [R5] YNAB 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. [R11] YNAB 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. [R20] YNAB 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
5. [R1] YNAB 1/5 · US Stop breaking things: Why do you guys consistently take a good app and make is significantly worse. I have been a user for 10 years and you guys made a great application and now you are ruining it with the changes you make. Why on earth do I have to now select the “show more” option to clear a transaction. Please do a better job of testing these new “features” with users before forcing them on us.
6. [R4] YNAB 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.
7. [R6] YNAB 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.
8. [R7] YNAB 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.
9. [R3] YNAB 3/5 · US Please allow Fidelity connection: I have multiple accounts that i need to manually add transactions
10. [R19] YNAB 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.
11. [R9] YNAB 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.
12. [R13] YNAB 1/5 · US Disappointed: As soon as I created an account, it automatically signed me up for a free trial WITHOUT MY PERMISSION. Now I have to spend time figuring out how much they charge afterwards how to cancel it. I didn’t even have a chance to see if I like the app and what it has to offer. They literally TRAPPED me into this free trial. They not how a good financial app has to work.
13. [R18] YNAB 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
14. [R32] YNAB 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.
15. [R44] YNAB 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.
16. [R49] YNAB 1/5 · US June 2026 update: You now have to do multiple clicks to clear a transaction. The interface was good, now it’s clunky looking. I wish they would keep it simple. It wasn’t broke before, it didn’t need to be changed. Update: 6/15/26 well their customer service is run by AI and doing a poor job. I emailed asking a question about wanting to cancel but I wanted to make certain I would avoid a refund ba
17. [R17] YNAB 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.
18. [R36] YNAB 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.
19. [R61] NerdWallet 1/5 · US Terrible update: Removed the only reason I downloaded this app. For a budgeting option. And then put in some garbage news stories and investment tab nobody asked for. Edit: nice they added it back, too bad I moved on to rocket money
20. [R67] NerdWallet 2/5 · US New budget layout is bad: I hate the new budget layout - so much so that I am going to look for another app or go back to manual tracking. I need to be able to zoom out across multiple months and years and see how my earning and spending trends across multiple periods with different granularity. Now I can only see spend for each month or YTD and it completely removed the income view.
21. [R72] NerdWallet 3/5 · US Bring back 50/30/20: I’ve used several competitors before but what kept me with NW was the 50/30/20 rule and their simple UI - everything I needed in one neat spot. The 50/30/20 budgeting feature single-handedly kept me as a customer. I saw GREAT improvements using this. I’ve given these new versions some time but nothing compares to the old Nerd Wallet. Very disappointed and looking for alternati
22. [R78] NerdWallet 3/5 · US Less useful: It’s never had a lot of functionality in terms of budgeting but it’s become even less useful over time. Like they actively took out the more granular budgeting features and replaced with over broad charts not good for much. mostly good for passively tracking your accounts for issues. Looking for a new way to handle my budgeting
23. [R51] YNAB 3/5 · GB Expensive subscription, good concept: Expensive subscription, which is ironic considering its a budgeting app designed to help get your spending under control. Remember though this isn't a “banking app”, it's a budgeting system - you check the app before you spend, then input it into the app not the other way round
24. [R52] YNAB 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
25. [R75] NerdWallet 3/5 · US Okay: It’s OK for a free app, but missing some key features no one has yet to come up with a decent replacement for Mint
26. [R84] NerdWallet 3/5 · US Great free app: For a free app this gives me what I need for the most part. Recently I’ve been changing big orders I make with roommates into smaller categories (unfortunately this app doesn’t let you split things up, which would make things so much easier) and then I’ll come back and it resets its self. Or I’ll change the category and it will reset later. It’s frustrating because I’ll have to dou
27. [R93] NerdWallet 3/5 · US Doesn’t do what it’s supposed to..: Don’t get me wrong, I love this app, but the functionality with linking loan and credit accounts needs work. The workaround is to manually enter balances every time they change. Which I’ll admit, keeps you more on top of your finances but seems to defeat the purpose of the app, which is supposed to be an all in one finance app that keeps track so you don’t have
28. [R99] NerdWallet 5/5 · US Thank you NW!: Love that the app is free, taught me so much & helped me start a real savings with some weight to it😭. Thank you NerdWallet for being such an educational and inspirational staple in today’s day & age✝️💚