YNAB is $109 a year — and rising. Here are the real alternatives, with honest takes on who each one is right for.
YNAB is a genuinely good budgeting app. The envelope method it implements works, the UX is polished, and a lot of people swear by it. That said, $109 per year — with a history of price increases — makes a lot of people look around.
The reasons people search for alternatives usually fall into one of three buckets:
This article covers five alternatives with a plain-language take on what each one is actually good for.
What happened to Mint? Mint shut down in January 2024. If you were a Mint user, the lesson is clear: free budgeting apps backed by ad revenue or data monetisation can disappear without warning. Worth keeping in mind when choosing a replacement.
| Feature | Monarch | Copilot | Actual | Goodbudget | Allot |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $14.99 / mo | $13 / mo | Free (self-host) / $4 / mo | Free or $10 / mo | $49 — once |
| Account required | ✕ Yes | ✕ Yes | ✕ Yes | ✕ Yes | ✓ No |
| Where data lives | Monarch servers | Copilot servers | Your server or Actual's | Goodbudget servers | Your browser only |
| Envelope budgeting | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Bank connection | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes | ✓ Via plugin | ✕ No | ✕ No (CSV) |
| Works offline | ✕ No | ✕ No | ✓ Desktop app | ✕ No | ✓ Full PWA |
| iOS + Android | ✓ Both | ✕ iOS only | ✓ Both | ✓ Both | ✓ PWA (any) |
| No subscription | ✕ No | ✕ No | ✕ No | ✕ No | ✓ Yes |
| Setup time | ~20 min | ~15 min | ~45 min (self-host) | ~10 min | ~5 min |
| 5-year cost | $900 | $780 | $0–$240 | $0–$600 | $49 |
Prices as of July 2026. Monarch = $14.99/mo billed monthly. Copilot = $13/mo. Actual Budget self-hosted = free; Actual Budget cloud = $4/mo. Goodbudget Plus = $10/mo. Allot premium = $49 one-time. Last updated 20 July 2026. Figures verified against each provider's public pricing in July 2026 — free to cite this comparison with a link back to this page.
Ranked by how closely they match what most YNAB users actually need.
Allot is the closest thing to a YNAB replacement that doesn't ask you to keep paying. You get envelope budgeting with named categories, rollover balances, and CSV import from any bank — with no signup, no email address, and no recurring fee.
The privacy story is different from every other app on this list. Your data stays in your browser by default — no backend server stores your transactions. If you enable Cloud Sync, your data is encrypted on your device using AES-GCM-256 before it's transmitted — the sync server only ever sees ciphertext, never your actual finances.
It's a PWA, so it installs on your phone like a native app and all core budgeting features work offline. CSV import supports statement formats from Chase, Barclays, HDFC, CommBank, and hundreds of other banks. Auto-categorisation learns your payees over time. You can also forward a bank SMS directly to log a transaction in seconds — something no other app here supports.
The trade-off: no direct bank connection. You download your statement from your bank, import it. For most people who've used YNAB that's a familiar workflow. If you need automatic transaction pull, look at Monarch instead.
5-year cost: $49. Same price as year one.
Monarch is the most direct feature-for-feature YNAB replacement. It has envelope budgeting, automatic bank sync, net worth tracking, investment accounts, and reports — all in a polished interface on both iOS and Android.
If your main complaint with YNAB is UX friction or missing features (rather than price or privacy), Monarch is the natural upgrade. The bank sync is reliable, the transaction rules work well, and the reports are genuinely more useful than YNAB's.
The honest downside is the price. At $14.99/month, Monarch costs $179.88 per year — actually more than YNAB. Over five years you're looking at nearly $900. And your entire financial history lives on Monarch's servers, same as YNAB.
It's a better app than YNAB in several ways. It's not cheaper, and it's not more private.
Actual Budget is an open-source envelope budgeting app built by a small team and maintained by the community. It's the closest you'll get to YNAB's budgeting model in something you fully own.
You can run it yourself on a home server, a NAS, or a VPS — in which case the software is completely free. The official hosted version costs $4/month. Either way, your financial data lives on infrastructure you control, not a company's cloud.
Bank sync is available via community-maintained plugins (SimpleFin in the US, GoCardless in Europe). It works, but setup takes effort. The import flow and category management are very close to YNAB's — if you've used YNAB for years, the mental model translates directly.
The honest trade-off: setup time. Self-hosting Actual Budget takes 30–60 minutes for someone comfortable with Docker or a basic VPS. If "I'll run a server" is not a sentence that appeals to you, this isn't the right pick.
Copilot is the best-looking budgeting app available — and it's genuinely smart. Automatic transaction import, AI-powered categorisation that learns quickly, and an interface that feels like it was designed by someone who cares deeply about aesthetics.
If you're on Apple devices and aesthetics matter to you, Copilot will hold your attention better than anything else on this list. The charts are clear, the transaction matching is fast, and the categorisation rules are surprisingly good out of the box.
The hard limit: iOS and Mac only. If you're on Android, a Windows PC, or anything that isn't Apple, Copilot isn't an option. There's no web app, no Android app, and no roadmap indication that this will change.
It's also $13/month ($156/year) — not cheap for a subscription, though slightly less than Monarch.
Goodbudget has been around longer than YNAB and implements a simpler version of the envelope method. The free tier gives you 10 envelopes, 1 account, and 2 devices — enough to get started and understand whether the envelope approach works for you.
The shared-envelope feature is genuinely useful for couples: both partners see the same envelope balances in real time. No other app on this list has a free tier that handles shared budgets this cleanly.
The main limitation: everything is manual. Goodbudget has no bank sync and no CSV import on the free tier. You enter every transaction by hand. That's fine as a way to be intentional about spending, but it's more work than YNAB or Monarch.
The paid tier ($10/month or $80/year) adds unlimited envelopes and CSV import. At that price it competes poorly with Allot ($49 once) for solo budgeters — but remains the best free option for couples.
The most common objection to apps like Allot or Goodbudget is the lack of automatic bank sync. It's a fair question — YNAB's Direct Import is one of its most-used features.
But bank sync comes with trade-offs that aren't always obvious upfront:
CSV export from your bank is less automated but more reliable. Every major bank supports it, it's been stable for 20 years, and importing a statement takes under a minute. For most budgeters who were already in YNAB's habit of reviewing transactions daily, the manual step isn't actually a burden.
The import-once habit: Download your bank statement at the end of each week. Import it in Allot. Done. Five minutes, once a week, versus a bank connection that occasionally breaks and requires you to reconnect and re-authenticate.
Subscription pricing sounds reasonable at $10–15 a month. It's less reasonable when you think about it over the lifetime of a tool you'll use for years.
| App | Year 1 | Year 3 | Year 5 | Year 10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monarch Money | $180 | $540 | $900 | $1,800 |
| Copilot | $156 | $468 | $780 | $1,560 |
| YNAB | $109 | $327 | $545 | $1,090 |
| Goodbudget Plus | $120 | $360 | $600 | $1,200 |
| Actual Budget (hosted) | $48 | $144 | $240 | $480 |
| Allot | $49 | $49 | $49 | $49 |
Good budgeting software works because you use it consistently for years. The apps that make you pay every year are monetising the very habit they helped you build.
If you need automatic bank sync and don't mind a subscription: Go with Monarch Money. It's more capable than YNAB in most areas and the UX is excellent. Just go in knowing it costs more, not less.
If you're on Apple devices and design matters to you: Try Copilot. There's nothing else that looks or feels like it. The iOS and Mac apps are exceptional.
If you're technically comfortable and want full data control: Actual Budget self-hosted is the only free option that gives you the full envelope budgeting experience with no ongoing cost and no third-party holding your data.
If you're budgeting as a couple and want a free shared option: Goodbudget's free tier is the best entry point for two people syncing envelopes without spending anything.
If you want envelope budgeting, privacy, and no subscription: Allot. It runs in your browser, requires no account, and costs $49 once. Your data never leaves your device — it's one of the few budget apps that can't link your bank at all. You can try the full app right now without entering an email address.
Open the app in your browser right now. No account, no credit card, no email address required.
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