Now more than ever, it's vital that people utilize a budget. With the ease of online shopping, it can get difficult to track your money. This makes it very easy to spend your money without knowing what you're getting. If you want to set yourself up to have the best shot at a bright, debt-free financial future, then you should create a personal finance plan. To be successful in budgeting, you need to be able to track every penny you spend. This will give you an idea of where you're spending the most money and where you can start saving.

We’ve taken a close look at EveryDollar vs. YNAB, two programs that promise to help you make navigating the personal budgeting waters easier. We want to help make your decision easier by giving you all the facts you need to decide which one will work better for your personal needs. Below, we've outlined the highs and lows of each.

EveryDollar

Best-selling author and radio host Dave Ramsey developed EveryDollar as a companion to his financial philosophies and budgeting advice. The fundamental principle he conveys is that debt is terrible, and every measure should be taken to get out of it. Ramsey created a series of seven “Baby Steps” to walk you through achieving true financial freedom and living debt free. He created the term “debt snowball” to describe getting rid of debt by paying off your lowest debt first and then rolling the money you saved monthly from paying that debt to pay off the next smallest debt. You continue rolling that freed-up money into your debts until they're gone.

To help do this, Ramsey advocates the creation of a monthly budget where every dollar you make is accounted for well in advance. Once you do this, you then start finding places in your budget to save money and turn that money towards your debt. EveryDollar is the tool he designed to help you achieve financial freedom by tracking every penny you have.

YouNeedABudget

YNAB is based on the same theory as EveryDollar: putting your money to work for you. It advocates creating a realistic monthly budget by category based on your actual salary. Then throughout the month, you track your spending, and when one of your categories is out of money, you stop spending. For example, if you set a budget of $100 for eating out, when you hit that amount, you don't eat out.

There are “Four Rules” of budgeting the service advocates you to adopt in order to achieve financial freedom. The core of the program is that you reach financial independence by budgeting, getting out of debt and spending money that is more than 30 days old, meaning you've done such a great job budgeting, you have money left over.

EveryDollarYou Need A Budget

Who is most suitable to use this App?

EveryDollar

Anyone who wants to set long-term goals and achieve them using short-term budgeting strategies would be able to use this app. You do not need to be a follower or even familiar with Dave Ramsey to be able to use this app.

YouNeedABudget

If you want to be able to get a better handle on your money and stop living paycheck to paycheck, then YNAB will work for you. This app is suitable for anyone. It teaches you the Four Rules within the program itself.

Signing up

EveryDollar

To begin your budgeting journey with EveryDollar, all you need to do is sign up, which is free. You will be prompted to try a 14-day trial of EveryDollar Plus which allows the program to download financial information directly from your bank account and credit cards.

Once you sign up and log in, the program guides you through setting up your first budget. There are nine broad categories: Income, Giving, Savings, Housing, Transportation, Food, Lifestyle, Insurance & Tax and Debt. Inside these broad categories, you can enter your information for each one of your paychecks and debts. If you come to a group you don't use, you can delete it. If you want to rename a category, go for it. There is a pie chart that generates on the right side that tells you where your money goes based on what you enter. It is effortless to use and very easy to see if you are in the negative or positive cash flow.

If you sign up for EveryDollar Plus, the right side is where you will see your current account balances, and you can drag transactions to their proper categories. No entering required. You can reset your budget amounts at the bottom of the document.

YouNeedABudget

Signing up for YNAB requires an email address and a password. Initial sign up is for a 34-day free trial. Pricing is discussed below.

Upon sign up, you are prompted to start your budget, which is broken down into five categories: Immediate Obligations, True Expenses, Debt Payments, Quality of Life Goals, and Just for Fun. You can edit category names and delete the ones you don't need. You can also edit and add/ remove the automatically generated items that fall under the categories. These are meant as a guide to demonstrate what type of information you should have.

The interface is simple, and the bar on the right tells you how much you've budgeted and what your activity is. It also gives you a “quick” budget, which informs you how much you're underfunded, what you spent last night, etc. You can also easily reset your entire budgeted amounts here.

The program interfaces directly with whatever accounts you choose to add, such as your bank account, credit cards, etc. You do this by navigating to the left side of the screen to the “Add Account” button. Entering your username and password for each account will log you in. Once you're logged in, you can see your transactions.

EveryDollarYou Need A Budget

Status updates

EveryDollar

EveryDollar is not a bill-pay service and does not offer any bill-pay option. It notifies you when a category is out of balance by highlighting the number in red. It will send you email updates and reminders to create your next budget. You can enable push-notifications.

YouNeedABudget

YNAB is a personal budgeting tool, not a financial management tool; therefore, it does not pay bills. It does notify you by email, and you can set up push notifications to let you know when you have new transactions from your bank account or credit card accounts that need addressing.

How do you budget?

EveryDollar

Budgeting is simple in EveryDollar. Once you enter the income, you allocate money per your personalized needs. Once you fill out one budget, EveryDollar automatically bases the next month's budget on it by importing it. You can then make changes. If you follow Dave Ramsey, you know that the Baby Steps include setting up an emergency fund. This is the savings category. He also includes a “Giving” category, because he advocates that giving is also important, even when you are dealing with money issues yourself. You give based on your budget.

YouNeedABudget

Once you personalize the line items to your needs, you begin allocating your budget. The amount you automatically start with is your current bank account balance at the time since it interfaces with your bank account. When you start working with the budget itself, pop-ups are generated to help you remember things you may have missed.

EveryDollarYou Need A Budget

Pricing

EveryDollar

EveryDollar is free to sign up for and use. You can use it across platforms for free. If you want to upgrade to EveryDollar Plus, it costs $99 a year, billed annually.

YouNeedABudget

YNAB is $83 a year.

Trial Period

EveryDollar

You can access a two-week trial period of EveryDollar Plus once you sign up for EveryDollar. No credit card is required to access this.

YouNeedABudget

You get an initial 34-day trial period upon signup. No credit card information is required.

EveryDollarYou Need A Budget

Software

EveryDollar

No special software is needed.

YouNeedABudget

No special software is needed.

App

EveryDollar

EveryDollar offers an app across iOS and Android. It is easy to use and interfaces nicely with the online version.

YouNeedABudget

YNAB is offered across iOS and Android. It is easy to use and interfaces well with the online version.

EveryDollarYou Need A Budget

New Budget Creation

EveryDollar

Once you create your first budget, it uses it to generate the next one.

YouNeedABudget

This is the same as EveryDollar.

App features

EveryDollarYou Need A Budget

EveryDollar

EveryDollar

The EveryDollar app offers all the features of the online version.

  • Full tracking of spending on the go
  • You can create and edit your budget
  • Interfaces with accounts if you have EveryDollar Plus

YouNeedABudget

YouNeedABudget

The YNAB app offers the same features as the online version.

  • Full tracking of spending on the go
  • Create and edit budgets
  • Interfaces with accounts

Wrap Up

After spending some time using the two apps, we feel like they are both helpful and useful with budgeting. They both interface well with bank accounts and credit cards. We also like how easy they are to use. We thought EveryDollar was less confusing to navigate, and we loved that you could use the basic version for free. When it comes to EveryDollar vs. YNAB, using either one will make you a winner at taking charge of your finances.