Editor's Overview:
- The Winner: WalletHub
- WalletHub and Actual Budget offer free accounts that allow users to make a budget, track expenses, and get reports that provide insight into their spending. YNAB does not offer a free plan.
- WalletHub and YNAB offer personalized debt payoff plans, which can help users find the quickest and cheapest way out of debt. Actual Budget does not have debt payoff plans.
- While users can access the WalletHub and YNAB apps on a web browser and on Apple or Android devices, people can only access Actual Budget on a web browser or use it as a desktop tool.
- WalletHub gives users multiple ways to make a budget, while Actual Budget and YNAB base their budget templates on one budgeting strategy.
- WalletHub is the only app that provides a subscription manager feature, which can automatically detect recurring bills and place them in one list to help users keep track.
- WalletHub offers identity theft restoration services and identity theft insurance, unlike Actual Budget and YNAB.
- WalletHub offers more non-budgeting features than Actual Budget and YNAB, including access to your credit score and report, identity theft protection, and credit monitoring.
Actual Budget vs. YNAB vs. WalletHub: Key Characteristics
| Features | Actual Budget | YNAB | WalletHub |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average App Rating | N/A | 4.7 | 4.8 |
| Free Plan Available | Yes | No | Yes |
| Premium Plan Cost | N/A | $9.08/month (billed annually) | $7.99 per month, billed annually (SAVE 50.0%) |
| Number of Authorized Users | No limit listed | 5 | 5 |
| Credit Builder | No | No | Yes |
| Daily Updates to Scores & Reports | No | No | Yes |
| Credit Monitoring | No | No | Yes |
| Overall Financial Health Score (e.g. WalletScore) | No | No | Yes |
| Budgeting | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Spending Tracker | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Debt Payoff Plan | No | Yes | Yes |
| Dark Web Monitoring | No | No | Yes |
| Identity Theft Restoration/Insurance | No | No | Yes |
| Net Worth | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Investment Tracker | No | No | Yes |
| Compatible Devices | Desktop | Web, Apple, and Android | Web, Apple, and Android |
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: Budgeting Tools
Winner: WalletHub
| Features | Actual Budget | YNAB | WalletHub |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spending Tracker | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Budgeting | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Customizable Transaction Alerts | No | No | Yes |
| Financial Reports | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Share Transactions | Yes | No | Yes |
| Number of Budgeting Methods Supported | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| Subscription Manager | No | No | Yes |
| Savings Goals | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Spending Trimmer | No | No | Yes |
| Transaction Validator | No | No | Yes |
| AI-enhanced Transactions | No | No | Yes |
You can make a budget, track your expenses, set savings goals, and get financial reports that give you insight into your spending with any of these three apps. WalletHub and YNAB also give you the ability to create a debt payoff plan that can help you find the quickest and cheapest way to become debt-free. Actual Budget does not offer debt payoff plans.
WalletHub has the lead in this category since you can access some of the budgeting features without paying for a subscription. You need to pay to use any features on YNAB. Actual Budget is free, but it does not offer basic budgeting tools, such as transaction alerts that let you know if you are nearing your spending limit or automatic account sync. WalletHub offers customizable transaction alerts and lets you sync your financial accounts, such as credit cards and bank accounts, to track your expenses automatically.
Actual Budget vs. YNAB vs. WalletHub: Budgeting Methods
Winner: WalletHub
| Features | Actual Budget | YNAB | WalletHub |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50/30/20 budgeting | No | No | Yes |
| Envelope budgeting | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Micro envelope budgeting | No | No | Yes |
| Simple budgeting (income/expenses only) | No | No | Yes |
| Pay yourself first budgeting | No | No | Yes |
| Zero-based budgeting | No | Yes | Yes |
| Rollover Capability | Yes | Yes | No |
Both YNAB and Actual Budget make users budget a certain way. YNAB follows the zero-based budgeting method, while Actual Budget the uses envelope budgeting method.
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. Users can even do a zero-based budget by referencing the “Summary” section in their WalletHub budget.
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: Credit Tools
Winner: WalletHub
| Features | Actual Budget | YNAB | WalletHub |
|---|---|---|---|
| Credit Scores | No | No | Yes |
| Full Credit Reports | No | No | Yes |
| Daily Updates to Scores & Reports | No | No | Yes |
| Credit Builder | No | No | Yes |
| Credit Analysis | No | No | Yes |
| Enhanced Credit Report Insights | No | No | Yes |
| Why My Credit Score Changed | No | No | Yes |
| Credit-Improvement Plan | No | No | Yes |
| Credit Score Goals | No | No | Yes |
| Credit Score Simulator | No | No | Yes |
| Debt Payoff Plan | No | Yes | Yes |
| Debt Payoff Goals | No | Yes | Yes |
WalletHub gives you access to your credit score and report, offers a personalized assessment of the factors hurting your credit score, and provides a credit score simulator. Additionally, with a premium WalletHub account, you can lock and unlock your TransUnion credit report directly from your account and get access to a credit builder feature that allows you to report your on-time rent and utility bill payments to TransUnion to build your credit history.
YNAB and Actual Budget don’t offer any credit management features.
Actual Budget vs. YNAB vs. WalletHub: Identity Theft Protection
Winner: WalletHub
| Features | Actual Budget | YNAB | WalletHub |
|---|---|---|---|
| Credit Report Monitoring | No | No | Yes |
| Real-Time Credit Inquiry Alerts | No | No | Yes |
| Change of Address Alerts | No | No | Yes |
| Password Monitoring | No | No | Yes |
| Social Security Number Trace Alerts | No | No | Yes |
| Credit Lock (with alerts and scheduling) | No | No | Yes |
| Identity Theft Restoration | No | No | Yes |
| Dark Web Monitoring | No | No | Yes |
| $1,000,000 Identity Theft Insurance | No | No | Yes |
| Enhanced Loan Monitoring | No | No | Yes |
| Lost Wallet Assistance | No | No | Yes |
| USPS Address Monitoring | No | No | Yes |
| Bank Account Takeover Monitoring | No | No | Yes |
| Checking & Savings Account Application Alerts | No | No | Yes |
| Criminal Activity Monitoring | No | No | Yes |
| OFAC Sanctions List Monitoring | No | No | Yes |
| SMS for Urgent Alerts | No | No | Yes |
WalletHub is the only app among these three that provides credit monitoring and identity monitoring to watch for suspicious activity on your credit report and to monitor whether your personal information has been compromised. WalletHub also provides identity theft restoration services and up to $1,000,000 in identity theft insurance in case your identity is stolen.
WalletHub wins this category because it offers multiple identity theft protection tools. Neither Actual Budget nor YNAB provides any identity theft protection features.
Actual Budget vs. YNAB vs. WalletHub: Investing & Retirement
Winner: WalletHub
| Features | Actual Budget | YNAB | WalletHub |
|---|---|---|---|
| Net Worth | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Investment Tracker | No | No | Yes |
| Investing News | No | No | Yes |
| Sync Real Estate Values | No | No | Yes |
| Sync Vehicle Values | No | No | Yes |
You can manually track your investments and monitor your net worth with any of these three apps. However, WalletHub is the only app here that allows you to sync your investment accounts to automatically track your balances and performance over time, giving it the edge in this category.
WalletHub also provides a detailed breakdown of your investment activities and lets you see investment news within your account. Actual Budget and YNAB don’t provide investment news and don’t give a breakdown of your investment activities, such as purchases and sales.
Actual Budget vs. YNAB vs. WalletHub: Additional Features
Winner: WalletHub
| Features | Actual Budget | YNAB | WalletHub |
|---|---|---|---|
| Interactive Alerts | No | No | Yes |
| Custom Dashboards | Yes | No | Yes |
| Auto Insurance Score | No | No | Yes |
| Financial Timeline | No | No | Yes |
| App Store Rating | N/A | 4.8 | 4.8 |
| Google Play Rating | N/A | 4.5 | 4.7 |
| Details Loaded From Credit Report | No | No | Yes |
| Customer Support (like email/live chat/etc) | N/A | Email & Chat Support |
WalletHub provides many specialized features, such as a customizable dashboard, a financial timeline that summarizes important alerts, and access to your auto insurance score and WalletScore, giving it the top spot in this category. WalletHub is also easily available through either the App Store or Google Play, just like YNAB, but YNAB doesn’t provide a customizable dashboard, a financial timeline, or access to your WalletScore or auto insurance score.
Actual Budget is an open-source tool that is not available through the App Store or Google Play, so users must install the tool as a desktop application. Users can customize the tool, but it does not have as many features as WalletHub.
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