Tell HN: YNAB will partly remove direct bank imports

[SeriousM]

It was a bummer to me that the famous budget app YNAB announced in a private in-app message that the direct bank data import will be removed. The reason is that they use TrueLayer as an immediate platform as data provider. TrueLayer implements bank interfaces with the status of "private beta", "public beta" and "GA". YNAB now stops supporting "private beta" banks yet charging the full price for a reduced product feature portfolio.

I was talking to the Manager of Direct Import at YNAB, asking her about compensation or whitelist working "private beta" banks.

Here's her statement: > I am genuinely sorry this change impacts you. We don't have a way to make an exception. And we don't offer discounts on our subscription price. We will support your bank again when TrueLayer moves it to the public beta phase. I'm hopeful that the success you experienced with your bank means they are close to making that change but we don't have a timeline. In the meantime, there's nothing more I can do.

It's really sad to see such a great doing company making that bad decision, removing vital features and still charge the full price.

Are there any good ynab alternatives?

[matt_s]

TrueLayer is an EU banking platform so what you have reported does not affect any people using US banks. I believe YNAB uses Plaid in the US.

Some thoughts:

* YNAB moved to SaaS and is now beholden to banking API platforms. Kind of like the business idea of building a plugin for an existing platform (shopify, wordpress, etc.) you take on risk of that platform shifting.

* SaaS is totally unnecessary for a budgeting tool. They were probably forced to a SaaS model because integrating partners are SaaS and its more profitable. If you rank business models with the best margins, web based SaaS is probably in the #1 spot.

* I believe this area (banking APIs) has been discussed in startup/entrepreneur circles (Paul Graham essay possibly, don't remember) as ripe for disruption.

[sircastor]

I use Actual budget. It’s open source, free, but you’ll have to figure out hosting. Bank sync is currently provided in North America by SimpleFin ($15/year) And in Europe by GoCardless

I host mine in a Docker container on my NAS.

[1] https://actualbudget.com/ [2] https://github.com/actualbudget/actual

[SeriousM → sircastor]

Oh yes, I can remember they opensourced lately! They even have a (archived) ynab4 and ynab5 (nYnab) importer: https://github.com/actualbudget/import-ynab5 Thank you!

[sircastor → SeriousM]

There's a pretty active (if not small) user group too, on Discord.

[al_borland]

I use Every Dollar. To do stuff manually is free. I pay $80/year to connect to my bank.

The setup for bank imports can vary. Some ask for your user name / password of your bank and the use a 3rd party to login and get the data. This was a no-go for me. Maybe it would be fine, but the idea of handing over my banking data to anyone wasn’t going to happen. I was in the market for a new bank, so I spend a fair amount of time looking for a bank, and checking it against how login worked for Every Dollar, to find one they would login through the actual bank site, so I’m not handing over my creds and I can revoke access from the bank side of things.

[navjack27]

I use the old old old Excel ynab sheet still. Never used the app.

[hsjsbeebue → navjack27]

YNAB 4 was decent enough. Encloudification then happened.

[tra3]

I’m curious to hear if there any good alternatives. Automatic sync is the killer feature.

Unfortunately if there are no alternatives, manual uploads will have to do.

[cpach]

* Are there any good ynab alternatives?*

Maybe. When you’re looking for alternatives, is automatic sync a hard requirement?

[SeriousM → cpach]

I'm a dev, I wrote the damn import already twice and would do it a third time yet won't pay 90€ just to hold my data. My requirements are web/mobile/api access plus monthly budgeting.

Does such service exist in the FOSS world?

[4d66ba06]

Not really a direct alternative as it requires you to use their bank but I've used Qube money for years and love never having to import transactions.

Qube Money is a fintech startup where your debit card is controlled by an envelope based budgeting app. It's still early days so no check deposit but they have thriving Facebook group of users and it helps me be much more intentional about spending.

They even have some neat features similar to privacy.com where you can spin up virtual ACH/debit card numbers via "Bill Qubes". Not to hide your identity but make sure free trials stay that way.