YNAB
A weekend of work, and real gaps remain.
Zero-based budgeting: every unit of money gets assigned a job before it is spent, with accounts reconciled against the bank and overspending resolved by moving money rather than ignoring it.
Build me a zero-based budget over statement imports. Bank connections are out of scope and that is the trade. STACK - Astro with a Node adapter, SQLite via better-sqlite3, installable as a progressive web app - CSV and OFX import; no aggregator, no credentials stored anywhere THE METHOD, ENFORCED BY THE DATA MODEL - Money exists in accounts; budget categories hold assignments, not money - Available in a category equals assigned minus spent, carried forward monthly - To-be-budgeted must reach zero; the interface shows it constantly and never hides it - Overspending is resolved by moving money between categories, and every move is a recorded transaction IMPORT - Map columns per institution, saved as a profile per account - Match on date, amount and a normalised description to avoid duplicates on re-import - Anything unmatched goes to a review queue rather than being guessed RECONCILIATION - Enter the statement balance; the app finds the set of uncleared transactions that reconciles it, or says it cannot - A reconciliation locks the transactions before it, and unlocking is recorded TRANSACTIONS - Split across categories, transfers between accounts as one linked pair, never two independent rows - Append-only: a correction is a new row referencing the original REPORTS - Spending by category by month, and net worth over time from account balances Include a README on the import mapping, the duplicate rule and the reconciliation algorithm.
What you lose
- Bank connections across thousands of institutions, which is the entire recurring cost
- A budgeting method taught well enough that people change their behaviour
- Apps on every platform with fast entry at the till
- Reconciliation that catches the transaction you forgot
- Support and education, which is a surprising amount of what is being bought
If you would rather not build
- Copilot Money — paid, US only, strong automatic categorisation
The escape hatch
open source · no votes, no paid placement
Actual Budget
$0Local-first zero-based budgeting with optional sync you host yourself.
actualbudget/actualfree · open source
Firefly III
$0Self-hosted personal finance manager with rules, budgets and reports.
firefly-iii/firefly-iiifree · open source
Why this verdict
our own opinion · changed only by a person
56/100
Verdict kinda at 56: the budgeting model is a data model and a weekend gets it right, which is more than most personal finance builds manage. Bank connections cost real money every month, and the discipline the method teaches is not something a build hands you.
History
tracked since 9 Aug 2026 · nothing is ever overwritten
Nothing recorded yet. This chart fills in once the page has visitors, votes or prompt copies — it will not draw a flat line to look busy.
Questions about YNAB
answered from the record above
Is YNAB free?
No — the plan we track is $14.99 a month. Subscription at $14.99/month or $109/year; there is no free tier beyond a trial.
Can you replace YNAB by building your own?
ALMOST. A weekend of work, and real gaps remain. Replacement score 56 out of 100, build time a weekend. Read what you lose before you decide.
How much does YNAB cost?
$14.99 a month on Subscription — $179.88 a year. Recorded 9 Aug 2026.
What do you lose by replacing YNAB?
Bank connections across thousands of institutions, which is the entire recurring cost; A budgeting method taught well enough that people change their behaviour; Apps on every platform with fast entry at the till; Reconciliation that catches the transaction you forgot; Support and education, which is a surprising amount of what is being bought. If any of those carry weight for you, keep paying.
Is there an open-source alternative to YNAB?
Yes: Actual Budget, Firefly III. The prompt on this page is for when you want it your way instead.
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