4 ms·

While YNAB is great, it's a shame they moved to a subscription based service.

iambateman 8y ago
I mostly agree, except that bank connection is a moving target and they pay a vendor to supply the connection logic. Is it ridiculous that I have to pay money every month just to get my transactions in a useful format? Yes. But that isn't their fault, in my opinion. They charge $7/mo and Netflix charges $11, while I personally get way more value from my $7 going to YNAB. :)
- acct1771 8y ago
  Who are they paying, out of curiosity?
  - opencl 8y ago
    Plaid[1] is only company I know of offering this sort of API. Maybe there are others, I wasn't able to find any from a quick google search. You can actually get a dev account (free with up to 100 bank accounts) and pull your own transaction data with it. I've been meaning to write a little tool to import from them into GnuCash. [1] https://plaid.com/ https://plaid.com/
    - anamexis 8y ago
      I believe Yodlee also offers this type of API. https://www.yodlee.com/products/ https://www.yodlee.com/products/
    - dustinmr 8y ago
      I happen to have been looking around at this earlier today. I found an open source project named Firefly III[1], that uses an API called Spectre[2]. Same deal, free for a certain number of bank accounts, but looks like you need to contact them to set up your API access. Incidentally, I recently saw an iOS app that had been using the Spectre API as well. [1] https://firefly-iii.org/ https://firefly-iii.org/ [2] https://www.saltedge.com/products/spectre https://www.saltedge.com/products/spectre
- theDoug 8y ago
  +1 Bank connections are absolutely a moving target. They are also human beings who have ongoing needs to survive and feed their own families, while dealing with customers who expect ongoing additional bug fixes and features to keep appearing in the product.
- dorian-graph 8y ago
  I can't even use the bank connections, so they aren't important to me. I'm sticking with the classic version. The x costs $y, and a costs $b, argument doesn't scale at all.
- DavideNL 8y ago
  In Europe there will soon be a law called PSD2 which results in banks being obligated to provide an Api to access your bank account from external apps etc. So no more paying for access to your own data... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payment_Services_Directive https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payment_Services_Directive
  - mdrzn 8y ago
    Very interesting! The PSD2 directive has come into force on 13 January 2018, and Italy should have already passed a law last year, but I still know nothing about API possibilities.
    - DavideNL 8y ago
      Yea, in the Netherlands it was delayed to spring 2018 (which would be now.) But it's not active here yet either. I read somewhere that they suspect banks are deliberately delaying this because payment data is worth a LOT of money. And banks will loose the "monopoly" on this data. There have already been raids here to investigate whether they are deliberately delaying. Also, for example, PSD2 means external apps can make payments (if you permit), so basically your bank software can become 100% superfluous. So banks are afraid customers might "loose touch" with their brand.
  - ksec 8y ago
    Is it only Banks and not Payment processors? I mean knowing my banks money incoming and outgoing is kind of not much use. Since they don't ( or do they in EU ?) have any record of my Visa Credit / Debit Card spending data. It is one reason I wish tools like Apple Pay should allow / had the option to retain those data for me personally only. And have the financials will work out all on my Phone and no where else. How much did I brought these and that, per month.
- mcintyre1994 8y ago
  Of course they still charge the subscription in the uk where they don’t have automatic import with any bank I’ve tried, which is pretty crap. I really need to switch back to ynab4 or something else I guess.
probst 8y ago
I understand why they did it, but I am not at all a fan of it either. Still using YNAB4 (classic), and will continue using it until it stops working. Personally I don't transaction import capabilities (nor could I have used it to be honest as they don't have support for German banks). Tracking my expenses as I make them is half the benefit of YNAB for me. Makes me acutely aware of how much I am spending and how much money I have left.
- dorian-graph 8y ago
  I can't use the import capabilities, as they don't support the banks I use (I'm not American). I'm using YNAB4 too, and will never go to the subscription. Same with TextExpander and other apps, I'll give up on them once they stop working—or even before that happens.
czechdeveloper 8y ago
I've seen alternative that tries to stay free (https://www.everypocket.com/ https://www.everypocket.com/), but as I have no personal experience with YNAB, I can't tell how different it is or how many functions are missing. I still use Excel sheet

I mostly agree, except that bank connection is a moving target and they pay a vendor to supply the connection logic. Is it ridiculous that I have to pay money every month just to get my transactions in a useful format? Yes. But that isn't their fault, in my opinion. They charge $7/mo and Netflix charges $11, while I personally get way more value from my $7 going to YNAB. :)

acct1771 8y ago
Who are they paying, out of curiosity?
- opencl 8y ago
  Plaid[1] is only company I know of offering this sort of API. Maybe there are others, I wasn't able to find any from a quick google search. You can actually get a dev account (free with up to 100 bank accounts) and pull your own transaction data with it. I've been meaning to write a little tool to import from them into GnuCash. [1] https://plaid.com/ https://plaid.com/
  - anamexis 8y ago
    I believe Yodlee also offers this type of API. https://www.yodlee.com/products/ https://www.yodlee.com/products/
  - dustinmr 8y ago
    I happen to have been looking around at this earlier today. I found an open source project named Firefly III[1], that uses an API called Spectre[2]. Same deal, free for a certain number of bank accounts, but looks like you need to contact them to set up your API access. Incidentally, I recently saw an iOS app that had been using the Spectre API as well. [1] https://firefly-iii.org/ https://firefly-iii.org/ [2] https://www.saltedge.com/products/spectre https://www.saltedge.com/products/spectre
theDoug 8y ago
+1 Bank connections are absolutely a moving target. They are also human beings who have ongoing needs to survive and feed their own families, while dealing with customers who expect ongoing additional bug fixes and features to keep appearing in the product.
dorian-graph 8y ago
I can't even use the bank connections, so they aren't important to me. I'm sticking with the classic version. The x costs $y, and a costs $b, argument doesn't scale at all.
DavideNL 8y ago
In Europe there will soon be a law called PSD2 which results in banks being obligated to provide an Api to access your bank account from external apps etc. So no more paying for access to your own data... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payment_Services_Directive https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payment_Services_Directive
- mdrzn 8y ago
  Very interesting! The PSD2 directive has come into force on 13 January 2018, and Italy should have already passed a law last year, but I still know nothing about API possibilities.
  - DavideNL 8y ago
    Yea, in the Netherlands it was delayed to spring 2018 (which would be now.) But it's not active here yet either. I read somewhere that they suspect banks are deliberately delaying this because payment data is worth a LOT of money. And banks will loose the "monopoly" on this data. There have already been raids here to investigate whether they are deliberately delaying. Also, for example, PSD2 means external apps can make payments (if you permit), so basically your bank software can become 100% superfluous. So banks are afraid customers might "loose touch" with their brand.
- ksec 8y ago
  Is it only Banks and not Payment processors? I mean knowing my banks money incoming and outgoing is kind of not much use. Since they don't ( or do they in EU ?) have any record of my Visa Credit / Debit Card spending data. It is one reason I wish tools like Apple Pay should allow / had the option to retain those data for me personally only. And have the financials will work out all on my Phone and no where else. How much did I brought these and that, per month.
mcintyre1994 8y ago
Of course they still charge the subscription in the uk where they don’t have automatic import with any bank I’ve tried, which is pretty crap. I really need to switch back to ynab4 or something else I guess.

probst 8y ago

I understand why they did it, but I am not at all a fan of it either. Still using YNAB4 (classic), and will continue using it until it stops working. Personally I don't transaction import capabilities (nor could I have used it to be honest as they don't have support for German banks). Tracking my expenses as I make them is half the benefit of YNAB for me. Makes me acutely aware of how much I am spending and how much money I have left.

dorian-graph 8y ago
I can't use the import capabilities, as they don't support the banks I use (I'm not American). I'm using YNAB4 too, and will never go to the subscription. Same with TextExpander and other apps, I'll give up on them once they stop working—or even before that happens.

czechdeveloper 8y ago

I've seen alternative that tries to stay free (https://www.everypocket.com/ https://www.everypocket.com/), but as I have no personal experience with YNAB, I can't tell how different it is or how many functions are missing. I still use Excel sheet