TAIGA FINANCE$90 / yr or $12 / mo. $60 / yr for founding members, held at renewal
YNAB$109 / yr or $14.99 / mo
Taiga Finance vs YNAB
YNAB is a method first and an app second: give every dollar you already have a job, move money between envelopes when life changes, and check in most days. It is built for paying down debt or getting control of variable income, and it takes daily attention to work.
Taiga Finance is for the bigger picture. It plans the month from expected income and then leaves you alone, and it holds everything YNAB leaves out: investments, stock grants with the cost of exercising, home equity, crypto. It projects retirement, college, mortgage and debt payoff from your real balances, and lets you build your own reports. Those numbers each come with a chart, a scenario and the math behind them. Two people share one plan, and either can keep an account separate. Everything is in one price. It is built by a small independent team with no investors. The trade-offs: YNAB has native phone apps, teaches its method, works outside the US, and budgets only the cash in the bank, which Taiga Finance does not.
Price
Trial
TAIGA FINANCE14 days free, card required
YNAB34 days; students one year
Business model
TAIGA FINANCESubscription only. No investors, ads or referral fees
YNABSubscription. Independent, no ads
Couples
TAIGA FINANCEPartner included. Each account is Separate, Balance only or Joint
YNABUp to six people. A plan is shared whole
Bank connections
TAIGA FINANCEPlaid; US only
YNABUS, Canada, UK and EU banks
Mobile
TAIGA FINANCEBrowser, on any device; phone apps planned
YNABFull iOS and Android apps, offline too
Where Taiga Finance is different.
Taiga FinanceYNAB
The job
Plan the month before it starts
Both incomes at the top; investments and savings funded first, then spending by category, with rollovers.
Manage this month's cash, daily
Every dollar in the bank gets a job. Approve transactions, move money between envelopes, check in often.
Scope
Every account in one net worth
Investments and allocation, stock grants with the cost of exercising, home equity over time, crypto, points.
The budget
An investment account holds a balance and nothing else, by design.
Long-range planning
Five planners on your real balances
Retirement with a simulated range, college, mortgage payoff, debt payoff and home purchase savings.
A loan payoff planner
Extra payments against interest and time. Nothing else projects past the budget.
Reports
Build your own reports
Seven topics, grouped by date, merchant, category, account, recurrence or person, against the previous period. Save the ones you reuse.
Fixed reports
Spending, income vs expense, net worth.
Couples
Share some accounts, keep others separate
A Separate account reaches your partner only as a hidden rollup, so the household totals still add up. Balance only shows the balance and not the transactions.
A plan is shared whole
Everyone on a plan sees every envelope. Anything private needs a separate plan, outside the shared total.
Ask your data
In-app assistant
Answers questions from your own numbers. Describes, doesn't advise.
None
A support chatbot for help articles, not for your numbers.
Both categorize with rules, handle rollovers, connect to banks and import CSV. YNAB details from its public pages and pricing, checked September 2026.
Where YNAB is stronger.
Taiga FinanceYNAB
Envelope budgeting
Plans from expected income
Planned amounts per line, with rollovers, funded from the plan rather than the bank balance. Not zero-based.
Strict envelopes on money you have
Never plans a dollar that isn't in the bank. Built for variable income and paying down debt.
Mobile
Browser only, for now
Taiga Finance runs in the browser, on a phone too, and every page carries its data, reports and planners. Native phone apps are planned, Android first.
Full native apps
iOS and Android, offline too, built around the daily check-in.
Teaching
A help center
Guides and email support.
Workshops, courses, a community
Live classes and a podcast for learning the method.
Other countries
US only
US banks, US dollars.
US, Canada, UK and EU
One currency per plan; many supported.
Choose YNAB if…
You're paying down debt or living close to the edge, and daily discipline is the point.
You want strict envelope or zero-based budgeting.
You want to learn a method, with classes and a community behind it.
Your bank is outside the US.
Choose Taiga Finance if…
You want a plan you check monthly, not a budget you manage daily.
You have a brokerage, RSUs, a house or crypto and want them in one net worth.
You want a date on retirement, college or the debt.
You share money with a partner and want some accounts kept separate.
You want to build your own reports.
Sound like you? Early access opens this autumn.
Switching from YNAB.
One export, two files.01
Connect
Link your banks and cards first so the YNAB files have accounts to land in.
02
Export
In YNAB, choose Export Plan. You get two files: the register and the plan.
03
Import
Import the register. Taiga Finance keeps your category groups, matches accounts and asks you to confirm each category once. The plan file seeds a budget line per category, each with a rollover you confirm.
04
Plan
History in place, duplicates skipped. Set up this month, then add the accounts YNAB never held.
Asked often.
Not YNAB's kind. Taiga Finance plans the month from expected income: investments and savings first, then spending by category, with rollovers. A line can carry its unspent amount into next month, but it is funded from the plan, not from the cash in the bank. If strict envelopes or the four rules are the point, YNAB is the better fit.
You do, by subscription. Taiga Finance has no investors, runs no ads and takes no referral fees. It reads your accounts and never moves money.
Yes. One plan. Planners, reports, equity comp, real estate and a partner login are all in it. There is no premium tier.
Transactions, yes, with their category groups. Export your plan from YNAB and import the register file. The plan file seeds your budget lines. Targets, envelope balances, flags and memos don't transfer. Investment holdings come from your brokerage connection or a holdings file.
There isn't one yet. Taiga Finance runs in the browser, on a phone too, and every page carries its data, reports and planners. Opt-in alerts for a first charge at a new merchant, a missing paycheck, RSU vesting dates, bill increases, card fees and connection problems arrive as browser notifications. Native phone apps are planned, Android first. If you live in an app on your phone, YNAB is stronger today.
Your own numbers, when you ask it a question. It reads your data, writes nothing, and describes rather than advises. Your partner's Separate accounts and private rows are never sent to it. It's on by default; one switch turns every AI feature off.
Everything exports: any table as CSV, the whole account as an archive or JSON, or a Google Sheet kept in sync.
See the plan. Check it monthly.