Latest reviews

Reddit · r/ynab · yesterday

A decade-long devoted user who still does not understand some of the odd behaviours such as stealing from the future.

Reddit · r/CreditCards · 2 days ago

Has done a weekly reconcile-and-pay routine in YNAB since 2022 for peace of mind after past card debt, but is now dropping it for a cheaper alternative and dislikes its renamed menus.

Reddit · r/CreditCards · 2 days ago

Used it for several years before moving to a different budgeting app, feeling YNAB had kept making things harder rather than easier.

Reddit · r/CreditCards · 2 days ago

Uses YNAB with linked accounts and finds it much easier than manual tracking. Calls it pricey but worth the reduced mental effort.

Reddit · r/ynab · 2 days ago

Set the iPhone action button to add a YNAB transaction and now logs purchases right after paying, before the receipt prints.

Reddit · r/ynab · 5 days ago

Uses YNAB because it keeps money set aside for credit cards so they are paid in full each month, and updates and reconciles often.

Reddit · r/ynab · 5 days ago

Enters every transaction by hand at the time of purchase in YNAB, reconciles twice a week and says the routine takes about five minutes a day.

Reddit · r/ynab · 5 days ago

Prefers YNAB's web app and distrusts the mobile app, whose constantly changing functionality they find confusing and fiddly.

Reddit · r/everydollar · 8 days ago

After a decade as a paying member, the budget-locking update made it unworkable overnight, so they built a custom Excel spreadsheet with AI help and cancelled the subscription.

MoneyRecs · Ben · 10 days ago

I mostly open this to clear the transactions waiting for review and see where the spending is going. That's enough for me. Having the upcoming bills on the same screen is handy, especially when the current balance looks more generous than it really is. I still check the categories instead of accepting everything in one go. Takes a little attention, but I prefer that to opening a spreadsheet and deciding I'll deal with it later.

MoneyRecs · Priya S · 11 days ago

Two years in, my husband and I finally know where the money goes. Worth the $109.

Reddit · r/MonarchMoney · 11 days ago

Likes the interface but the endless bugs, Amazon issues and rules that do not work became truly exhausting, so they migrated to Monarch.

Reddit · r/ynab · 11 days ago

Tried Monarch for a while but the lack of zero-based budgeting was the killer, being hardwired to zero-based budgeting.

Reddit · r/ynab · 11 days ago

After seven years on YNAB, was pushed toward Monarch by YNAB's home screen advertisements, finding ads on top of a paid subscription so offensive.

Reddit · r/everydollar · 12 days ago

After years of use, a recent update locks closed monthly budgets completely so you can't go back to log refunds or delayed charges from two months ago.

Reddit · r/ynab · 12 days ago

Tried Monarch for a few months but found the inability to reconcile unsettling and never knew if they could trust their budget.

Reddit · r/ynab · 12 days ago

A long-time YNAB user who tried Monarch for several months, found a beautiful UI but could not warm up to the budget feature, and is now trying Copilot.

Reddit · r/ynab · 12 days ago

A long-time YNAB user trying Copilot after Monarch, calling it a gorgeous app while still finding its budgeting lacking.

Reddit · r/personalfinance · 12 days ago

Likes Monarch after tracking finances for years, making a yearly budget and checking in about halfway through, with the detailed tracking available but the higher-level view working well.

Reddit · r/personalfinance · 12 days ago

Has used Monarch since before it had AI categorization, and says categorization did not seem to get any better.

Reddit · r/personalfinance · 12 days ago

Moved to Monarch but thinks they should have kept YNAB, as they enjoy manual categorizing and kept up with it better by entering transactions as they happened.

Reddit · r/personalfinance · 12 days ago

Finds with Monarch they must wait for transactions to show up before accepting and categorizing them, and cannot enter them manually without creating duplicates.

Reddit · r/ynab · 13 days ago

Switched to Monarch this month after YNAB struggled to connect some accounts, and is very pleased so far.

Reddit · r/ynab · 13 days ago

Says YNAB has not delivered enough value for its price, with silly UI updates, imports that still work only half the time, and the same underwhelming reports for years.

Reddit · r/ynab · 13 days ago

Tried Monarch for a few days and ran straight back to YNAB, which they consider the best budgeting app currently.

Reddit · r/ynab · 13 days ago

Tried Monarch on a promo, calling it slick and great looking, but within six months was back on YNAB and let Monarch lapse, preferring zero-based budgeting to being a passenger.

Reddit · r/ynab · 13 days ago

Uses Monarch for their parents and loves it for investments, better import features, customization, an agentic interface and a more modern feel, though it is not zero-based budgeting.

Reddit · r/ynab · 13 days ago

Tried Monarch and says support was unhelpful and would not even respond to their ticket.

Reddit · r/ynab · 13 days ago

Tried Monarch for a few days and disliked that accounts were not connected, so recording a credit card payment meant two independent transactions that do not update together, a reconciliation risk.

Reddit · r/ynab · 13 days ago

Switched away because YNAB struggled to connect to some accounts during a very active month and, when it synchronized, was completely out of whack, defeating the purpose of automation.

Reddit · r/ynab · 13 days ago

Switched to Monarch recently because YNAB was too much of a pain for logging transactions and linking certain accounts.

Reddit · r/ynab · 13 days ago

Wants zero-based budgeting but switched to Monarch because categorizing in YNAB was so painful they budgeted less, citing weak auto categorization rules and four clicks to split a transaction.

Reddit · r/ynab · 13 days ago

A long-time YNAB user who switched two months ago and finds Monarch more proactive in tracking and monitoring.

Reddit · r/ynab · 13 days ago

Switched to Monarch permanently to track net wealth and because flex budgeting lets them set aggregate lump sums while still tracking spending, unlike YNAB which encouraged amassing underused cash.

Reddit · r/ynab · 13 days ago

Jumped to Monarch and is never coming back, saying it does not feel like having a second job to keep things organized.

Reddit · r/ynab · 13 days ago

Just signed up for Monarch and is pretty impressed, finding it more streamlined than YNAB, with easy receipt scanning, automatic splits and a helpful AI assistant for budget setup.

Reddit · r/personalfinance · 13 days ago

Started using YNAB 16 years ago but has reached a stage where not every dollar needs a job, and still grinds reconciling every cent while wanting gross-level cash flow and aggregated investments.

Reddit · r/personalfinance · 13 days ago

Says with Monarch you just change the categories you disagree with, that it is very easy to use, and that they love it.

Reddit · r/personalfinance · 13 days ago

Uses Monarch and really likes it, noting a lot of great extensions.

Reddit · r/MonarchMoney · 15 days ago

Had a terrible problem with their bank breaking things via Plaid, and says Monarch help was great at restoring the mess others made.

Reddit · r/ynab · 15 days ago

Says YNAB altered their life for the better six years ago and helped them become debt-free, but the app and atmosphere have changed, and they feel the company is ending the relationship.

Reddit · r/CreditCards · 16 days ago

Uses Monarch for general financial planning; finds it hard to track card points with it, though its automation rules are robust.

Reddit · r/CreditCards · 17 days ago

Loves YNAB despite a steep learning curve; automatic categorisation works well and fixing a wrong category is easy.

Reddit · r/CreditCards · 17 days ago

Uses YNAB as the place every credit card transaction lands and keeps card rewards in a separate spreadsheet, tracking redeemed cash back as its own YNAB category.

Reddit · r/CreditCards · 17 days ago

Uses Monarch to record every transaction rather than for budgeting, and likes how far its categories can be customised.

Reddit · r/ynab · 18 days ago

Found YNAB through a book at a bookstore, says it transformed their financial life and left them ready for retirement with total command of expenses, using about 40% of its capacity because the philosophy is what works.

Reddit · r/ynab · 19 days ago

A ten-year customer and evangelist who got half a dozen friends to sign up but will not renew, saying changes over the past 18 months made YNAB increasingly frustrating to use.

Reddit · r/ynab · 19 days ago

Says YNAB has implemented several of their feature requests over the last year, including removing the busywork of approving matched transactions, and the new home tab they did not ask for has grown on them.

Reddit · r/ynab · 19 days ago

Finds mismatched transactions get auto-approved when buying the same item daily, so the cleared balance stops matching the bank and they must reconcile more often, which is now more work than the old manual approval.

Reddit · r/ynab · 19 days ago

Has used YNAB since 2016 and has basically never had any issues.

Reddit · r/ynab · 19 days ago

Remembers YNAB before it became a web app, but says the main web interface still works better for them than anything else, while the iPhone app does not suit them at all.

Reddit · r/ynab · 19 days ago

Almost ten years with YNAB, then downloaded Zerosum to run both until renewal and within ten minutes deleted the YNAB app, then deleted the account and got a refund.

Reddit · r/ynab · 19 days ago

Cancelled at renewal after using YNAB since 2011, now using AI for monthly analysis, saying YNAB has made no real improvement to its offering to justify the cost.

Reddit · r/ynab · 19 days ago

Says YNAB's bank sync works fine across their credit union and bank accounts and they'd keep using it even at the higher price.

Reddit · r/ynab · 21 days ago

Says YNAB is definitely worth the money for showing where money goes, planning ahead, letting every family member have a spending plan at no extra cost, and flexible tracking.

Reddit · r/ynab · 21 days ago

Used Claude Code to build a YNAB clone that may not have everything but is good enough and even connects to their bank accounts through SimpleFin.

Reddit · r/MonarchMoney · 22 days ago

Tried the Monarch MCP for the first time, asked it to find critical concerns in three months of data, and it found 12 items, half of which needed clarifying notes; pleased and would recommend.

Reddit · r/MonarchMoney · 22 days ago

Finds Monarch's own AI assistant getting better, now answering previously wrong prompts correctly and returning responses much faster than before.

Reddit · r/MonarchMoney · 22 days ago

Joined Monarch a week ago after years at YNAB for clear reports and all accounts in one place, and has been using Claude through MCP to bulk categorize transactions and clean up rules.

Reddit · r/MonarchMoney · 22 days ago

Left Plaid because syncs were flaky and force syncing did nothing, and says Finicity is not much better for Capital One, whose sync never updates; MX also does not pull holdings.

Reddit · r/MonarchMoney · 22 days ago

Feels Monarch has finally become stable at connecting to their accounts and syncing reliably, including their largest Schwab account via Finicity, so they are hesitant to change providers.

Reddit · r/ynab · 22 days ago

Built a local app that uses the YNAB API to connect to their data and shows far more than the Toolkit extension, which they found eye opening.

Reddit · r/MonarchMoney · 23 days ago

An account dropped via Plaid and reconnecting made a duplicate; contacting Monarch is painful, with a reply after 24 hours and no response to the follow-up after 48 hours, and they want the user to fix the merge.

Reddit · r/MonarchMoney · 23 days ago

Says their institution keeps not showing transactions despite being re-added, with no solution offered beyond a resync, and will likely not renew.

Reddit · r/ynab · 23 days ago

Says YNAB has a pretty steep learning curve but is the best of the best and worth taking the time to learn, with a huge online community and strong YouTube resources.

Reddit · r/ynab · 23 days ago

Did not like YNAB, finding it way too complicated and disliking linking bank information, and uses Pocket Clear instead; they love the concept but it did not work for their brain.

Reddit · r/ynab · 23 days ago

Says YNAB has saved them stress since retiring, and credits it with helping them plan and afford several trips abroad.

Reddit · r/MonarchMoney · 23 days ago

Says they and their wife love Monarch, which keeps adding every small feature other apps lacked for accurate bookkeeping, and they tell every couple they meet to have it.

Reddit · r/copilotmoney · 29 days ago

Finds Copilot's web version awful because it does not match the app's capabilities, and is probably moving to Monarch.

Reddit · r/MonarchMoney · 29 days ago

Has more issues per week with Monarch than during the whole time on Mint and Simplifi, always has multiple support tickets open, finds the AI chatbot customer service irritating, and would not recommend it now.

Reddit · r/copilotmoney · 30 days ago

Began tracking with Copilot but found it glitchy and saw other apps progressing faster, so moved to Origin.

Reddit · r/copilotmoney · 30 days ago

Finds Copilot releasing features at a snail's pace and has resorted to downloading transactions to analyze elsewhere.

Reddit · r/ynab · 30 days ago

Loathes the automatic payee cleaning because it strips gas station locations they need to assign charges for work travel.

Reddit · r/ynab · 30 days ago

Says YNAB's automatic payee cleaning turned a Splitit purchase into an unrelated made-up business name, leaving them baffled until they looked it up.

Reddit · r/ynab · 30 days ago

Says the payee renaming has gotten really bad, turning a food-delivery order into an unrelated name and sending them to check whether their card had been stolen.

Reddit · r/ynab · 30 days ago

Explains that payee rules run on the name YNAB invents rather than the statement name, so merchants with similar prefixes get merged and cannot be told apart.

Reddit · r/ynab · 30 days ago

Long-time user who imports bank files and says the new payee cleaning ruined their workflow with no way to opt out.

Reddit · r/ynab · 30 days ago

Finds automatic payee cleaning helpful most of the time, since bank imports show only store numbers, but admits it can trip them up.

Reddit · r/MonarchMoney · 30 days ago

Has vibe-coded a few apps and finds maintaining them a pain, so is happy to pay 99 dollars a year if Monarch deals with that headache.

Reddit · r/MonarchMoney · 30 days ago

Tried a ChatGPT-based alternative and found it not nearly as good, saying Monarch is relatively cheaper with many well-maintained features.

Reddit · r/MonarchMoney · 30 days ago

Says they have been incredibly disappointed in the rate of innovation at Monarch, which should innovate faster than a DIY build.

Reddit · r/copilotmoney · 31 days ago

After almost four years on Copilot, left for Monarch, saying Copilot stagnated as a nice-looking month-to-month spending tracker.

Reddit · r/MonarchMoney · 31 days ago

Has found Monarch works well, with customer service replying in under 12 hours, and is extremely satisfied.

Reddit · r/MonarchMoney · 32 days ago

Left Empower about 18 months ago over connection issues and settled on Monarch, with no connection issues across Fidelity, Wells, Schwab and a regional bank.

Reddit · r/MonarchMoney · 32 days ago

Says they still love Monarch and use it for everything else, though they are building their own retirement planner to avoid paying for the premium tier.

Reddit · r/MonarchMoney · 32 days ago

Has reverse split income in Monarch for years, which made a huge difference, giving an accurate savings rate toward retirement and HSA, helping with taxes, and syncing to ProjectionLab for forecasting.

Reddit · r/MonarchMoney · 33 days ago

Has seven institutions connected and uses Monarch daily with no issues.

Reddit · r/MonarchMoney · 33 days ago

Has struggled with transactions not syncing and disconnections for so long, finds Monarch support pretty bad with slow, unclear replies and no updates, and will cancel within a week.

Reddit · r/MonarchMoney · 33 days ago

Has 34 accounts in Monarch with only 5 having sync issues, the same five that failed on other platforms, and attributes them to the aggregators and institutions rather than Monarch.

Reddit · r/MonarchMoney · 33 days ago

Used Mint until it shut down and says it had connection issues about as often as Monarch does for their accounts.

Reddit · r/ynab · 34 days ago

Calls YNAB still a wonderful app and has used it since 2019, saying it has helped in both comfortable and difficult periods.

Reddit · r/MonarchMoney · 34 days ago

Says nearly half their Monarch connections do not update, manual refreshes do not fix balances, and the refresh error has persisted three months, throwing off their reporting and consolidations.

Reddit · r/MonarchMoney · 34 days ago

Runs Monarch alongside Empower and finds Empower's connections for their accounts much better; Monarch has the features they want but is a pain to keep connected.

Reddit · r/MonarchMoney · 34 days ago

Has the same institutions connected on Robinhood, M1 Finance and Monarch, and says Monarch is the only one that keeps dropping off, often the Bank of America checking account, so they think it is a Monarch problem.

Reddit · r/MonarchMoney · 34 days ago

Refreshes accounts on Monarch every week even though other Plaid-connected accounts work fine, and likely will not renew, since the service does not work when connections drop consistently.

Reddit · r/MonarchMoney · 34 days ago

Uses a couple of other platforms and says none drop connections like Monarch.

Reddit · r/MonarchMoney · 34 days ago

Says about 80% of their account connections are great, with pending charges taking a couple of days to reconcile, and the other 20% having problems across platforms; likes being able to switch aggregators.

Reddit · r/MonarchMoney · 34 days ago

Switched from Rocket Money because it would not connect reliably to many cards and banks; Monarch has been much better on connections, though the TSP account still will not sync.

Reddit · r/MonarchMoney · 34 days ago

Prefers most things about Rocket Money, including how it shows budgets, its UI and spending tracking, but switched to Monarch because Rocket Money would not connect reliably to many credit cards and banks.

Reddit · r/MonarchMoney · 34 days ago

Uses Monarch to categorize expenses and see monthly and quarterly profit and loss, has never had issues and still really likes it.

Reddit · r/MonarchMoney · 34 days ago

Had sync issues until they switched connectors, with Amex security changes breaking Plaid, and Finicity has had no issues since; no other sync issues, and they do not blame Monarch.

Reddit · r/MonarchMoney · 34 days ago

Has used Monarch for over 1.5 years with about 20 to 25 linked accounts and has never had any connections dropped.

Reddit · r/MonarchMoney · 34 days ago

Misses functional budgeting and a straightforward interface, calling Monarch really just a net worth tracker that requires manual account updates, and plans to dump it at the next renewal.

Reddit · r/MonarchMoney · 34 days ago

Has many connected institutions with only occasional issues solved by switching connections, and has found no other platform that comes close to Monarch for functionality and ease of use after Quicken desktop.

Reddit · r/MonarchMoney · 34 days ago

Gave up last month after being on Monarch since Mint shut down, deleting the app and cancelling because the connection problems were not worth the time and effort, and it is expensive.

Reddit · r/personalfinance · 35 days ago

Attempting to cancel old unused subscriptions through the app simply resulted in instructions to log into each service directly, with no customer support or efficient cancellation path.

Reddit · r/ynab · 35 days ago

Got back on YNAB after a few years and found seeing registration, insurance, maintenance and gas together eye opening as monthly spending rose with a new car, also finding many subscriptions to cut.

Reddit · r/ynab · 35 days ago

Before YNAB they were not tracking transactions; once they started it became clear they were spending 15 percent or more on flexible expenses such as dining out.

Reddit · r/ynab · 35 days ago

Used to count only travel and lodging as a trip's cost, but YNAB shows dining, activities and shopping often double the true cost, helping them be more honest about what trips cost.

Reddit · r/ynab · 35 days ago

Finds it humbling to set a YNAB target and realize they spend far more than they thought, especially on car ownership.

Reddit · r/ynab · 36 days ago

Says YNAB helped them reach the point of paying their card off in full each month, so they no longer benefit from the new interest category but welcome it.

Reddit · r/ynab · 36 days ago

Used YNAB to get out of credit card debt and says the built-in interest category would have made that simpler.

Reddit · r/MonarchMoney · 36 days ago

Bought Monarch Core but passed on Plus because after two days all their LPL investment accounts failed to connect via Plaid, and Finicity and MX do not import holdings, making investment analysis worthless.

Reddit · r/personalfinance · 42 days ago

Syncing a local credit union Visa into aggregators like Tiller and SimpleFin has meant almost continuous connection and transaction-pull problems, with slow progress from the bank or the services.

Reddit · r/MonarchMoney · 42 days ago

Has Monarch connected into Claude and says it works great, using it to compare Amazon and Costco purchases and find potential savings of nearly 1,000 dollars a year.

Reddit · r/copilotmoney · 43 days ago

Three months in, loves the clean iOS app and easy expense tracking, but finds looking back at previous months' budgets takes many clicks.

Reddit · r/personalfinance · 46 days ago

Paid version is much simpler and easier to stay consistent with than more complicated zero-based competitors, and the mobile app works great.

Reddit · r/ynab · 46 days ago

Sticks with the desktop version, which is easy, and makes YNAB their first stop of every day, taking from a few seconds to ten minutes, thinking the app would drive them crazy.

Reddit · r/copilotmoney · 47 days ago

Calls Copilot the easiest app they have used, though they would like a few new features and think the price is fine.

Reddit · r/ynab · 47 days ago

A ten-year user who thinks YNAB's credit card logic around overspending in a category is either new or a bug, since it did not used to behave this way.