Actual Budget vs. YNAB vs. WalletHub

Actual Budget vs. YNAB vs. WalletHub: Key Characteristics

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Below, you can learn more about these three apps and find out which app performs the best in key categories.

Actual Budget vs. YNAB vs. WalletHub: Cost

Winner: WalletHub

Both WalletHub and Actual Budget offer a free plan, unlike YNAB. With a free WalletHub account, you can do things like make a budget in multiple different ways, create debt payoff plans, import transactions, track your net worth, receive reports about your spending, and view a timeline of important financial alerts.

With a free Actual Budget account, you can create a budget, split transactions into multiple categories, get reports about your spending, import transactions, and track your net worth. Actual Budget is an open-source app, so you can also modify the app any way you like.

If you are looking for more advanced budgeting features, WalletHub’s premium plan costs less than a YNAB account. WalletHub’s premium plan allows you to sync your financial accounts for automatic expense tracking, manage your subscriptions, track your investments, and share your account with up to five other people.

WalletHub wins this category due to the numerous features included in its free account and the inexpensive cost of its premium plan.

Actual Budget vs. YNAB vs. WalletHub: Automatic Bank Sync

Winner: WalletHub

WalletHub and YNAB allow you to sync your bank and credit card accounts to have your expenses automatically tracked. But, unlike YNAB, WalletHub also lets you sync your loans and investments so you can track the activity on those types of accounts. Plus, WalletHub will automatically load details about accounts listed on your credit report, so you don’t have to spend too much time manually inputting the details yourself.

WalletHub leads in this category since it allows users to sync more types of accounts. Actual Budget does not automatically sync bank data, so you will have to use a third-party program if you want to sync your financial accounts.

Actual Budget vs. YNAB vs. WalletHub: Debt Payoff Plans

Winner: WalletHub

WalletHub and YNAB both offer some sort of debt payoff plan, unlike Actual Budget. WalletHub’s and YNAB’s tools allow you to adjust your plan to find the fastest way to become debt-free at the lowest cost. They also allow you to track your progress while paying off your debt. WalletHub wins in this category since its debt payoff tool is offered for free, unlike YNAB’s.

Actual Budget vs. YNAB vs. WalletHub: Account Sharing

Winner: Actual Budget

All three apps let you share your account with others, which can help you budget more effectively with people in your household. While WalletHub and YNAB let you share your account with up to five other people, Actual Budget does not list a limit on the number of people you can add to your account. That is why Actual Budget leads in this category.

Actual Budget vs. YNAB vs. WalletHub: Compatible Devices

Winner: YNAB

Actual Budget only works as a desktop app or with a web browser. Both WalletHub and YNAB are available on various Apple and Android devices, making them accessible to more people. However, YNAB has a slight edge here, since users can also access the app on an Apple Watch.

Actual Budget vs. YNAB vs. WalletHub: Budgeting Templates

Winner: WalletHub

Both YNAB and Actual Budget make users budget a certain way. YNAB follows the zero-based budgeting method, while Actual Budget uses envelope budgeting.

WalletHub gives users several different budget strategies to choose from. WalletHub users can do simple budgeting with their total income and expenses only or create a budget using the 50/30/20 rule, the pay-yourself-first strategy, envelope budgeting, or micro-envelope budgeting. You can even do a zero-based budget by referencing the “Remaining” field in your WalletHub budget summary.

The multiple budget options allow WalletHub users to pick the strategy that works best for their situation. That’s why WalletHub wins this category.

Actual Budget vs. YNAB vs. WalletHub: Customer Support

Winner: YNAB

WalletHub and YNAB both have customer support by email. However, YNAB has a slight lead in this category since it also offers chat support. Plus, YNAB users get access to streamed workshops where they can ask experts questions about using the YNAB app.

WalletHub comes in second since the app offers premium users priority support, giving them quick and personalized assistance for any problems they have. Actual Budget does not have an official customer service department that users can turn to if they run into any issues.

Actual Budget vs. YNAB vs. WalletHub: Non-Budgeting Features

Winner: WalletHub

WalletHub has the most non-budgeting features among these apps, giving users the ability to view their credit score and report, along with access to services like credit monitoring, identity monitoring, net-worth tracking, and customized credit analysis – all for free, since these are included with a basic account. With a premium account, users can automatically track their investments, sync their other financial accounts, customize their dashboards any way they’d like, lock and unlock their TransUnion credit report, and get access to identity theft restoration services, identity theft insurance and more.

Actual Budget and YNAB do have a few non-budgeting features like net-worth tracking and the ability to customize your dashboard, but nowhere near the amount WalletHub has. That is why WalletHub takes the top spot here.