You Need a Budget
Shares rank 8 of 10 budgeting apps by recommenders
Recommended for changing how people think about money, with automatic expense import praised for families. One critic asks what it offers beyond free tools like GnuCash.
Recommended for changing how people think about money, with automatic expense import praised for families. One critic asks what it offers beyond free tools like GnuCash.
6 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 83%
Recommended in 2 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 2 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Helps change money habits
“their approach to budgeting has changed the entire way of how I look at money”
Comment from 2 Jan 2026 in “One Number I Trust: Plain-Text Accounting for a Multi-Currency Household” “it was instrumental in giving me control over my finances”
Comment from 21 Nov 2025 in “Show HN: Wealthfolio 2.0- Open source investment tracker. Now Mobile and Docker” Enthusiastic daily users
“I'm a huge fan of YNAB. It's a morning routine to log in”
Comment from 2 Jan 2026 in “One Number I Trust: Plain-Text Accounting for a Multi-Currency Household” “I am a huge fan of YNAB too”
Comment from 22 Nov 2025 in “Show HN: Wealthfolio 2.0- Open source investment tracker. Now Mobile and Docker”
Other budgeting apps people recommend
The four most recommended other budgeting apps, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Actual Budget | 29 | 0 | 100% | 12 | 3 yrs4 owners | Approved |
| Monarch Money | 17 | 4 | 81% | 9 | — | Approved |
| YNAB | 17 | 13 | 57% | 4 | 10 yrs3 owners | — |
| Quicken | 10 | 10 | 50% | 4 | — | — |
| You Need a BudgetThis page | 5 | 1 | 83% | 2 | — | — |
What people said
All 6 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“What does Ynab do that I would get for free with gnu cash?”
“I'm a huge fan of YNAB. It's a morning routine to log in”
“their approach to budgeting has changed the entire way of how I look at money”
“The automatic import of expenses is so valuable for my family”
“I am a huge fan of YNAB too”
“it was instrumental in giving me control over my finances”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.