EveryDollar vs. YNAB [2024]: Which Budgeting App Fits Your Finances?

If you’re looking for a budgeting tool, EveryDollar and You Need A Budget (YNAB) both have a lot to offer. You may want to think about how experienced you are as a budgeter when choosing between these two, but also how much effort you’re willing to put into managing your budget.

One key differentiator between the two is that EveryDollar is a part of Dave Ramsey’s suite of financial tools, and as such, it doesn’t facilitate recording credit card transactions (and actively discourages using them at all). It’s a fairly simple budgeting app and also offers a free version, while YNAB only offers paid plans.

However, if you’re already somewhat familiar with budgeting strategies and you’re ready to dive into more comprehensive features, you may want to explore YNAB. Both are solid options, but let’s talk about how you can select the best option to manage your budget.

Compare EveryDollar vs YNAB

	EveryDollar	YNAB
Features	Budgeting Insights Bank account linking Savings goals Expense categories Single budget	Budgeting Reports Bank account linking Savings goals Expense categories Multiple budgets
Free Version	Yes	No
Pricing	$17.99 a month or $79.99 a year for EveryDollar Premium	$14.99 a month or $109 a year if paid annually
Free trial	Yes — 14 days	Yes — 34 days
Platform availability	Browser, iOS app, Android app	Browser, iOS app, Android app
Best for	Dave Ramsey enthusiasts and those newer to budgeting	Experienced budgeters and those ready to learn more advanced budgeting
	Visit EveryDollar	Visit YNAB or read our review

Which budgeting app should you choose?

Here’s a quick rundown of ways to decide between EveryDollar and YNAB.

When you should choose EveryDollar

• You’re a Dave Ramsey fan
• You want to use a free budgeting app
• You want a simple budgeting app for tracking your spending and savings
• You only need to track one budget
• You’re going to take Ramsey’s Financial Peace University

When you should choose YNAB

• You’re familiar with basic budgeting strategies
• You don’t mind paying a $14.99 monthly fee or a $109 annual fee
• You’re willing to learn more complicated budgeting techniques
• You want an advanced budgeting app for tracking your spending and savings
• You need to track multiple budgets from the same app

Our verdict

If you want a free budgeting app or you’re new to budgeting, I’d go with EveryDollar because of its easy-to-use interface. But if you’re familiar with budgeting or are motivated to learn advanced budgeting techniques, I recommend YNAB.

One caveat with EveryDollar… I don’t love how connected the app is to Dave Ramsey's financial opinions, including a hatred of credit cards and a grudge against American Express (though I agree that you shouldn’t use credit cards haphazardly). But EveryDollar can bring a lot of value if you’re new to budgeting and need a tool to focus your efforts.

6 important differences between YNAB and EveryDollar

1. Pricing

The cost difference between EveryDollar Premium and YNAB isn’t enormous, but there is a difference. EveryDollar Premium costs $17.99 per month or $79.99 per year, which is about $6.67 per month. You can also get EveryDollar Premium through a Ramsey+ subscription, which costs:

• $59.99 for three months ($19.99 per month)
• $99.99 for six months ($16.66 per month)
• $129.99 for 12 months ($10.83 per month)

YNAB costs $14.99 per month or $109 per year, which is about $9.08 per month.

If I had to pick based on cost, I’d probably try the free plan with EveryDollar first, and if that wasn’t sufficient, consider trying either YNAB or EveryDollar Premium.

EveryDollar is cheaper if you choose an annual plan, and if you’re interested in the Ramsey+ membership and taking his Financial Peace University course, that’s probably your best value. But if you prefer a monthly plan and don’t need Ramsey+, YNAB has the better month-to-month price.

2. Free plans

This category is pretty simple: EveryDollar offers a free plan with basic features, including a customizable budget and savings funds, while YNAB has no free plan. (However, if you’re in college, you can try out YNAB for 365 days for free.)

So if you’re not in college and just want to get your feet wet as a budgeter, EveryDollar is probably your best option. But if you’re in college, you can use the extended trial plan with YNAB.

3. Free trials

With EveryDollar, you can take advantage of a 14-day free trial of EveryDollar Premium. This plan has more features than the free plan, including bank connectivity, paycheck planning, and goal setting.

With YNAB, you can take advantage of a 34-day free trial with access to all available features. Plus, if you’re a college student, as I just noted, you get a free 365-day trial of YNAB. College is such a pivotal time in your life, and with a full year to build your budgeting skills with YNAB, you could set yourself on a really solid path for your financial future.

YNAB wins in terms of the free trial, since it gives everyone more than a full month to test out its features (and a full year for college students).

YNAB also wins in my book because it doesn’t require payment information to sign up for the free trial. If there’s anything I hate, it’s having to provide my credit card details just to check out a product for a week or two. Then what if I forget to cancel before the trial period ends?

So I love that YNAB lets you try them out for 34 days and if you don’t like it — guess what? There’s no need to cancel because they won’t charge you a cent.

4. Bank connections

Both EveryDollar and YNAB let you connect bank accounts for automatic income and expense syncing. However, you can’t sync an American Express account with EveryDollar.

(If you’ve never tuned in to the Dave Ramsey Show and are unfamiliar with this anecdote, I’ll sum it up: Back when he was broke, an American Express employee insulted his wife over the phone. You can decide if that warrants blacklisting the entire company or not, when picking your budgeting app.)

YNAB doesn’t have any such restrictions on the types of bank accounts you can link, so it should be simpler to connect all your financial accounts there.

5. Multiple budgets

When looking at EveryDollar vs. YNAB, consider how many budgets you need. EveryDollar only lets you add one budget per account. To add another budget — including for a business or another person — you would need to create (and pay for) a second EveryDollar account.

YNAB lets you create multiple budgets using one account. This could be useful if:

• You and your spouse have separate budgets and bank accounts
• You’re in charge of a relative’s budget
• You need to manage business bank accounts and budgets along with personal accounts and budgets

If you only need to deal with one set of financial numbers, the two budgeting apps are pretty similar. But YNAB offers more in case your finances are a little more complex.

6. Payment options

Technically, you can use a debit card or credit card to pay for your EveryDollar or YNAB subscription.

EveryDollar officially only accepts debit cards, not credit cards, because Dave Ramsey believes credit cards are stupid and there’s no such thing as “responsible” credit card use. But part of the explanation reveals that you can use a credit card to pay for EveryDollar because it’s an honor system, and merchants aren’t technically allowed to only accept debit payments.

We’ve tested it out with a credit card number and it worked fine to start our EveryDollar trial.

And as mentioned before, no payment information is needed to try out YNAB. If you prefer to work with an app that acknowledges credit cards might not be the evil things Dave Ramsey says they are, you can go with YNAB.

What both budgeting apps excel at

• Track spending: A budgeting basic is knowing how much you’re spending. With both EveryDollar and YNAB, you can easily track all your expenses.
• Track savings: You can use either app to create savings goals so you have a plan for any extra money you might have.
• Categories: You have the option to add and adjust expense and savings categories how you want.
• Bank connections: It’s easy to connect financial accounts to either app, so you don’t have to manually enter income and expenses. YNAB uses Plaid, MX, and TrueLayer to make connections, while EveryDollar’s third-party provider is Finicity.
• Spending and income reporting: With EveryDollar, you can check the Insights page to see past income and spending. With YNAB, you can see your spending, net worth, and income versus expense amounts on the Reports page.
• Export transactions: If you prefer working with spreadsheets, you can export your data from EveryDollar and YNAB to a CSV file.
• Mobile apps: EveryDollar and YNAB are available on web browsers as well as for iOS devices via the App Store and Android devices via Google Play.

Aside from the features of each of these budgeting apps, think about the benefits you can enjoy if you learn how to budget seriously. You may already do this in a DIY manner (as my husband will tell you, a simple spreadsheet can do a lot of the same things as a budgeting app).

But not everyone is up for that, and paying a relatively small amount for an app like EveryDollar or YNAB may be worth it for the focus it can bring to your spending habits. Especially if you’ve never made a budget, you may find it helps you to save money. Here’s what each app says it can do:

• EveryDollar claims that in the first month, most new budgeters find an extra $400 to put towards debt and lower their monthly spending by nearly 10%.
• YNAB claims that the average YNAB user saves $600 in the first two months and $6,000 in the first year.

FAQ

Bottom line

YNAB is our overall recommendation because it’s a bit more of a robust budgeting app that allows for customization and unique budgeting needs. You can create multiple budgets, and once you learn how its zero-based budgeting system works, you could create lasting habits that lead to less spending and more saving.

EveryDollar has some similarities to YNAB, but you inevitably run into Dave Ramsey's opinions and beliefs that could sour the experience for some users. For example, you may, like me, believe that responsible credit card use is just fine, and that makes EveryDollar feel a bit unnecessarily judgmental.

However, since EveryDollar offers a free version of its budgeting app, it’s not a bad choice to try out the zero-based budgeting method.

If these apps don’t seem like the right fit for you, check out our list of the best budgeting apps.