It is if you want to give every dollar a job before you spend it, which is YNAB's method. It imports from banks in 18 European countries including Finland and Sweden, but it cancels nothing for you.
| Stage | YNAB | Mind My Money |
|---|---|---|
| Before | You connect your accounts through MX or Plaid, or import a file, and set up a plan: every dollar you have gets a job before you spend it.1 | You install it on your computer and sign in to your bank yourself, in a browser window it opens. It helps you download the transactions. |
| During | New transactions arrive, typically within 24–72 hours. The first time a payee appears you choose its category, and after that it remembers. You move money between categories as the month changes.2 | It names every payment, including the shop behind a payment your bank only calls Klarna or PayPal, and sorts them. Then it goes through the recurring ones with you and asks whether to keep each. It cancels the ones you say no to in a browser on your computer, and checks the account page afterwards to see that each one took.3 |
| After | You can see what is left in each category against your plan, on the web, your phone or your watch. | A report of the month, what changed since the month before, and a running total of what it has saved you, checked against your own statements. |
1 Their method now turns on one question: "Every time you get money, ask yourself 'What's it for?'" 2 "The first time a payee enters or imports into your plan, you'll be prompted to assign a category." 3 There is no plan to keep up. It reads what was spent.
The checkable parts. Numbers point to the fine print under each table.
| Fact | YNAB | Mind My Money | Our reading |
|---|---|---|---|
| Banks it imports from | Select banks in the US, Canada, the UK and 18 European countries, Finland and Sweden among them; a file import anywhere else4 | Any bank you can sign in to in a browser | |
| How it reaches your bank | A connection through MX or Plaid, or a file you import5 | You sign in yourself, in a browser on your computer | |
| Runs on | The web, iPhone, iPad, Android and Apple Watch | Your Mac | YNAB |
4 The European direct import runs through Plaid. Priced in US dollars, one currency per plan. 5 "YNAB does not view or store your bank credentials."
| Fact | YNAB | Mind My Money | Our reading |
|---|---|---|---|
| The method | You plan where every dollar goes before you spend it | You plan nothing; it shows you what was spent | |
| Sorts your spending | You choose a category the first time a payee appears, then it remembers | Automatically, and it asks when it is unsure | |
| A payment called PayPal or Klarna | Not something it claims to look up6 | Named from your own receipts, messages and photos | Mind My Money |
| What was in the shopping | Not something it claims | Line by line, from your receipts | Mind My Money |
| Cancels subscriptions | No7 | Yes, once you say yes, and it checks afterwards that it took | Mind My Money |
6 On iPhone it links out to your order pages at Amazon, Apple, Target and other large shops. 7 Not among the features on their pricing, features or apps pages.
| Fact | YNAB | Mind My Money | Our reading |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $14.99 a month or $109 a year8 | Pay what you decide, including nothing | |
| AI subscription | Not needed | Your own Claude, about €18 a month |
8 A 34-day trial with no card needed. One subscription can be shared by up to six people.
| Fact | YNAB | Mind My Money | Our reading |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your transactions | On their servers9 | On your computer10 | Mind My Money |
9 "Our entire infrastructure is built on Heroku, which in turn is built on the technology of Amazon Web Services (AWS)." 10 The step that reasons about your spending goes to a model, under your own account with the provider.
Every cell above is quoted from YNAB's own material and dated. The reading column is ours: our judgement of those cells, not a fact about them. Where a row has no reading, the two are not answering the same question.
Runs on your own computer. Pay what you decide, including nothing.