EveryDollar Vs. Mint Vs. YNAB | Which Budget App Is Perfect For You?

Creating a budget stopped my out of control spending. I paid off $40,000 of debt just by being intentional with how I spend my money.

Before budgeting, I thought I spent a reasonable amount on groceries and other items. The first month I budgeted and tracked my spending, I was shocked. My grocery and shopping spending was out of control. 

This is why I love budgets and especially budgeting apps.

Budgeting apps can sync up to your bank accounts and credit cards and makes it easy to save money and create financial goals.

Let’s get started! We’re going to compare EveryDollar vs. Mint. Vs. YNAB 

Top 3 Budgeting Apps: 1) EveryDollar 2) Mint 3) YNAB

1. EveryDollar

EveryDollar is a budgeting software created by the Ramsey Solutions team. 

The method is simple – give every dollar you receive a job, also known as zero-based budgeting. 

Before each month starts, you can create a monthly budget so you can hit your money goals. 

Signing up is free, but features are limited.

Free features of EveryDollar:

• Create unlimited budgets
• Track transactions against your budget
• Email support

With the free version, you have to manually add in all your transactions. I opted for the paid version because I knew I’d forget about purchases here and there and then get frustrated with myself. 

Paid features of EveryDollar:

• Create unlimited budgets
• Track transactions against your budget
• Email support
• Connect to your bank for faster expense tracking
• View account balanced within EveryDollar
• Call-back support and coaching calls

Pros of EveryDollar:

• Great for beginner budgeters
• Minimalistic and simplistic visuals
• Organized, no ads, and user-friendly

Cons of EveryDollar:

• Limited features compared to other popular budgeting apps 

Cost:

EveryDollar has a free version or a $99/annual membership fee, which breaks down to $8.25/monthly.

How does EveryDollar work?

1) Upon completing your account process, you’ll come up to the budgeting page with your categories listed. EveryDollar has categories already there for you, including areas like income, charity, church, rent, and so on. 

2) Create categories personalized to you. For example, you may not donate to any charity or church. You can delete those categories and add new ones if you desire. 

3) Insert your planned income under slots Paycheck 1 and Paycheck 2. 

4) Insert a planned amount for each category.

5) Synch your bank account and credit cards (if you have the paid version). 

6) Every time you make a transaction, you will get a notification in the top right-hand corner, labeled transactions. Drag and drop those transactions into the appropriate category. 

7) Done! ☺️

There are many other features you can play around with, including seeing where you’re at on Dave Ramsey’s baby steps.

Dave Ramsey’s baby steps:

1. Save $1,000 for your starter emergency fund.
2. Pay off all debt (except the house) using the debt snowball.
3. Save 3-6 months of expenses in a fully funded emergency fund.
4. Invest 15% of your household income in retirement.
5. Save for your children’s college fund.
6. Pay off your home early.
7. Build wealth and give.

My experience:

EveryDollar’s design is sleek, simple, and visually appealing. I like that I can easily see what I planned, spent, and have left remaining at a click of a button. I can also see a price breakdown of how much money I use in each category in a graph. Again, I’m a visual person, so I love this! 

Out of all the budgeting apps I’ve tried, I enjoyed EveryDollar’s app the most. This could be because I love simplicity and minimalistic vibe their software has. 

2. Mint

Mint is a popular budgeting app that can track your bills, budget, investments, and a lot more. 

The budgeting app is free but comes at the cost of advertisements that can be distractive. 

A unique feature of Mint is seeing all of your bills in one place, so you never miss a bill.

Instead of logging into multiples sites, you can log onto Mint to see all of your bills. 

Mint is known for helping users effortlessly manage all of their finances in one place. 

Features of Mint:

• Track bills
• Easy budgeting
• Free credit score
• Alerts and advice
• Investment tracking

Cost:

Free

How does Mint work?

1) After completing your account set-up, link all of your accounts to Mint. You can link accounts like mortgages, Paypal, bank accounts, and more. 

2) After getting an overview of your finances, you’ll move on to creating a budget. 

3) You can play around with Mint’s other features, such as checking your credit score, setting up goals, as well as your investments. 

4) You may want to turn off email notifications in the settings > notifications tab as you will get a lot of them. 

My experience:

Mint is a bit outdated and cluttered, and as I mentioned earlier, I prefer simplicity, especially when it comes to budgeting. 

However, Mint has some cool options, such as creating financial goals in various areas of your life. 

If you want to maximize your savings, Mint could be an excellent option for you since it’s free and has so much to offer in terms of features. 

 

3. YNAB

YNAB (You Need A Budget) is another popular budgeting app. 

Aside from the budgeting app, there’s a support section with a weekly newsletter on budgeting and support from other YNAB users. 

You Need A Budget runs on two rules:

Rule 1: Give every dollar a job. Make money, give that money a job, and follow the plan. 

Rule 2: Embrace your real expenses. Large, less-frequent expenses should be broken down to monthly, manageable bills. 

Rule 3: Roll with the punches. Be flexible and address overspending as it happens. 

Rule 4: Age your money. Spend money that is at least 30 days old. 

Features of YNAB:

• Bank syncing
• Debt payoff tools
• Goal tracking
• Personal support
• Free live workshops 

Cost:

Free for 34 days, then $6.99 a month, billed annually at $83.99.

Students get YNAB for free for 12 months with proof of enrollment, after the free year, students get a 10% discount on the annual membership. 

How does YNAB work?

1) Connect your accounts.

2) You should see those dollars from the accounts ready to be budgeted.

3) Assign each dollar a job by dragging them to the appropriate categories.

4) Budget your dollars down to zero.

My experience:

I was an unlucky user with YNAB, unfortunately.

Any time I tried to budget my numbers in, all of my other numbers got messed up, and I couldn’t fix it.

The problem kept happening so I ditched budgeting altogether for a while because I was so frustrated. 

However, your experience could be different if you don’t have the same tech problems I faced. Overall, the features are great, and it’s visually appealing. 

 

Winners

Features winner:

Mint

Appearance winner:

YNAB/EveryDollar [tied]

Cost winner: 

Mint

Support winner:

EveryDollar

User-friendly winner:

EveryDollar

Overall: 

EveryDollar

If you’re a beginner or only want to budget:

EveryDollar is an excellent option for beginners who wish to use simple and minimalistic budgeting software.

If you’re looking for an overall financial overview:

YNAB or Mint are both known for their unique software capabilities. 

Tips to save more money each month:

1. Set money goals and create a plan to complete those goals.
2. Pick up a side hustle to pay off debt.
3. Save for an emergency fund to go toward unpredictable expenses.
4. Create a vision board of the financial goals you have.

In a nutshell:

I recommend playing around with one app or budgeting software at a time and seeing which works best for you. I have many friends and readers that love YNAB and Mint, while I prefer EveryDollar. 

➡️ What to read next: How I Spend $1,348 On A Six Figure Income

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Which budgeting app do you use?