Mint vs. YNAB vs. EveryDollar - Pros and Cons
So, if you have seen any of my previous budgeting videos, you'll know that I am a long time Mint user, but that I have a fairly lengthy list of complaints about the software and its limitations. Because I am cheap, I haven't been super motivated to check out some of the other options that charge a monthly fee, but many of you asked for a comparison video, plus I volunteer as a financial mentor and I was interested in apps that would help some of my clients, so I checked a couple out. I'll admit that I was surprised by what I found and perhaps you will be too.
In this first video, I'm just going to give an overview of the Pros and Cons of each budgeting app and why someone might want to use each one. First off,
Mint
Pros - Mint's largest redeeming characteristic is that it is FREE! You have deal with some annoying advertising blocks while viewing your budget and transactions, but free is free. And for free, Mint allows you to link your bank and credit card accounts so that you can automatically import your transactions for easy budgeting. A couple of times a day, Mint syncs with all of your linked financial institutions and pulls in the most recent transactions, so you don't have to enter them in manually. That not only cuts down on the work that you have to do, but it also ensures that you have accurate information. Mint then allows you to budget and categorize your transactions, but this is not really it's strong point. That said, Mint will allow you to export transactions into a spreadsheet so that you can do your own calculations and run your own reports. It also will let you export a subset of transactions based on a search filter. Not bad for an app that is entirely FREE. Okay, let's talk about the
Cons - There are many unfortunately. The interface is confusing and requires a lot of practice before you can navigate around well. Budgeting is a major weakness of Mint's. You can add new budget categories, but the default categories can't be deleted, so you end up with a huge list to scroll through. Tagging transactions with budget categories is annoying. New transactions are mixed in with old transactions, so you have to sift through all of the old ones in order to tag new ones properly, plus it's hard to choose a category from the long list and many times the category won't stick for no apparent reason. Rollover from month to month is not a default and when you do turn it on for a category, the reporting becomes very confusing. And finally, the notifications are strange -- some notifications are just advertising, but the ones that let you know you've spent too much aren't enduring, so don't require any action on the user's part.
So, why use Mint? I think it's a solid app for tracking your finances and consolidating all of your transactions in one place for free, so that you can export them to do your own reporting. It isn't easy to use and it's not very helpful for actual behavior change, unless you are one of the rare people who is willing to change their behavior solely based on new info. You can certainly make it work, but it allows you to be pretty hands off, which is generally a bad recipe for successful budgeting. Okay -- now lets talk about
YNAB
Pros - YNAB is an acronym for You Need a Budget. It has a beautiful interface and is quite easy to use. For new transactions, YNAB defaults to the last budget category used for that vendor automatically, vendor names are auto filled, and when you need to balance a budget category, it doesn't require any calculations on your part. The phone notifications are fantastic. If you turn on notifications on your phone, you will get notified for all new transactions AND when you've exceeded your budget in a category. AND, the beautiful thing is, that notification doesn't go away until you take care of the problem -- this is key. It also makes the leftover amount for each budget category rollover to the next month by default -- but only for positive amounts. This promotes savings and helps you to see where you are starting to accumulate money for future purchases. And finally, YNAB budgeting is based on a different ideology that is based on budgeting only money you actually have, not what you are forecasting to bring in. This might seem like a slight change, but it is a different and more hands on way of budgeting. This is probably why there is a bit of a cult built up around YNAB and it's ideology and why I put this ideological change in both the pro and cons bucket. Speaking of
Cons - the first drawback is that YNAB charges a monthly fee of about $7/month, which isn't a ton, but it's certainly a consideration. The search function doesn't exist on the mobile app. You can export transactions, but you only have the option to export all of them -- not a filtered set. YNAB's different ideology takes a little getting used to if you are more familiar with standard methods of budgeting. And as a result, the start up process can be complicated. For example, you have to budget ALL of the money in your accounts -- not just the money you'll be bringing in for the month. There is a fair amount of complexity built into the app, which requires a bit of a learning curve. I'm a budget nerd, so I prefer complexity to simplicity most of the time, but all of the calculations, reports, and how YNAB deals with credit cards can be confusing and daunting if you are just starting out. So,
Why use YNAB? I found it to be the best app for behavior change. The persistent notifications force regular interaction with the software -- for example, you have to categorize new transactions, fix budget categories where you've overspent, and fund budget categories every time you get paid. It also forces a bit of realism, since you can't budget money that you don't have yet, so it is particularly good for those who are trying to break the paycheck to paycheck cycle. The automatic rollover promotes saving a little each month to accumulate for bigger future purchases. And it is easy to use, but the system can be a little complicated to understand particularly at the beginning. Okay -- finally, let's talk about
EveryDollar (Free and Plus)
Pros - EveryDollar is Dave Ramsey's budgeting app. He has a free version, which does not allow you to link your bank and credit card accounts, so you would need to put in every transaction manually. The paid version syncs with your accounts and gives you access to Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace website, which is really NOT BAD. His Financial Peace University gives you instruction and tools to get out of debt and start saving regularly and helps you step by baby step through this process. The app is very simple and easy to use. You can start budgeting easily and almost immediately. The search function is also great and is available on the mobile app as well. Okay -- now for the
Cons -- It's the most expensive of these apps -- at over $10 per month. That said, you do get access to all of his other resources for that price, so it may very well be worth it to you. Although EveryDollar also purports to subscribe to zero-based budgeting -- meaning that you are forced to allocate every dollar (thus the name), you are still doing some forecasting with regard to income. So, you forecast how much you'll get paid this month and use that forecasted amount to do your monthly budget. It's kind of a mid-step between Mint and YNAB in this way. But -- it doesn't hold you quite as accountable to your actual income as YNAB does and it doesn't require action when you exceed a budget category. You only get notified when you have new transactions and although you are supposed to ensure that all of your budget categories are at zero or swept into savings at the end of the month, as far as I can tell, the app doesn't force this or yell at you to get this done. It's simple, but that means there aren't as many features like reports or other calculations you might want to see. It's not super easy to use -- it doesn't try to guess category like YNAB does or help you autopopulate vendor and it's particularly hard to balance your budget at the end of the month since it doesn't do any calculations for you. And the deal-breaker for me -- there is no way to export data out of the app right now.
So, why use EveryDollar? The free version is much simpler and easier to use than Mint if you don't mind entering your transactions in manually. It doesn't represent as much of an ideology shift as YNAB -- as I said, it's somewhere between Mint and YNAB in terms of budgeting ideology. It is not as easy to use as YNAB, but it is much more simple and easier to understand. However, some may find it so simple that it lacks important functions such as transactions mapped back to bank accounts, basic reports, or an export feature. EveryDollar also has a debt pay down feature, which I didn't try out, but that might be helpful for some. If you are a budget nerd, it's probably not the app for you, but if you prefer simplicity, this may be just the thing.
So, that is my overview of the pros and cons of each of the three apps. And as a result of my research, I've switched over to using YNAB as my main budget app. I think the $7 per month is worth the ease of use and behavior change features since I save more than $7 per month using it. But as I've indicated, different apps are better for different folks, so you'll have to figure out which one fits your needs best.
I've already done a series on Mint, so I'll spend the next couple of videos elaborating on the features of YNAB and EveryDollar and how they compare to each other and Mint. Let me know what you think. Comments are always appreciated and thanks for watching!
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