Non-subscription alternative to YNAB?

October 26, 2018 7:21 PM

I've been happily using YNAB 4 on a Mac for many years, but Mojave will be the last macOS version that can run the app. So now I am looking for non-subscription alternatives. Bonus if I can easily import my YNAB data. I especially want to hear about your personal experiences with the software you are recommending.
posted by research monkey to Work & Money (5 answers total)

I’ve been digging the google sheets based Tiller.

There is a $5/mo subscription fee to access the yodlee account update service. I think you can run it with manual entries if you wanted (like OG YNAB). Super helpful and responsive customer service if you have specific needs, like pulling in YNAB data.
posted by notyou at 9:24 PM on October 26, 2018

I use the Mint app, and have for years. It’s free. I used YNAB years ago, and I don’t recall it much, but when I started using Mint, I didn’t feel like it was a downgrade, so it was probably pretty similar.

I don’t know about importing data from YNAB, but it’s going to sync with your bank accounts so it will have that data.
posted by greermahoney at 11:09 PM on October 26, 2018

Response by poster: To clarify, I am interested in non-cloud-based software for macOS, that I purchase once, and data is stored on my computer. It doesn't have to be free. Has anybody had experience using Moneydance or Banktivity, for example?
posted by research monkey at 8:02 AM on October 27, 2018

Unfortunately, I have not experience with Moneydance or Banktivity. Two options I do have experience with are Moneywell and Budget. Both are offline, non-subscription, and use the same envelope budgeting paradigm as YNAB.

I used Moneywell for two or three years around 2012 and was pretty happy with it at the time. It’s a decent mac app and it did a good job of helping me plan my spending and track my longer-term financial goals. The big downsides were transaction importing and syncing between mobile and desktop. As I recall, Moneywell supports transaction importing through the quicken connect format, which is great if your bank/credit card supports it, but at least back then, not all of mine did. I was stuck doing manual transaction imports for some of my accounts which was kind of a pain. Additionally, at least at that time, the syncing with the iPhone app was over a shared Dropbox file and was error prone and buggy -- I ended up just basically not using the mobile app at all. I know there was a big update to Moneywell version 3, but I have not used that version, so maybe things have gotten better.

I used Budget for six or seven years in the mid 2000s before transitioning to Moneywell. It was clearly a windows app that was written in the late 90s and then ported to the mac (and so it has kind of a janky aesthetic) but it had a simple interface that did envelope-budgeting well. (Again, like Moneywell, automated transaction importing was limited to certain banks, and at least back then there was no mobile app or built in syncing.) I just looked it up again and the aesthetic looks even more dated now, but it appears to still be getting updates for recent versions of Mac OS.
posted by dyslexictraveler at 9:00 AM on October 27, 2018

I've used Moneydance for many years and I like it. It's a little clunky - it's obviously a cross-platform app rather than one that's designed specially for Mac - but is powerful. However I've never used YNAB, and don't use Moneydance's budgeting features - I use it to keep track of my incomings/outgoings and the current values of my bank accounts and investments. If you have any specific Moneydance questions I'm happy to try and answer them (here or Memail).
posted by fabius at 2:36 AM on October 28, 2018