Two budgeting apps that agree a plan beats a balance, and disagree about nearly everything after that. YNAB reads your bank. CroSum never asks for it.
Read this knowing who wrote it. CroSum is our own app. We built it, we sell it, and this page is on our website — so treat the CroSum column as an interested party talking.
Everything in the YNAB column comes from ynab.com. Prices and features checked on 26 July 2026. Both apps change, and prices may have changed since — check their pricing page before you decide.
YNAB is built around a connection to your bank. Transactions arrive on their own, you assign every dollar a job, and the whole method rests on a live, complete picture of your accounts. It is a mature product with a deep methodology, a large community and more than a decade of teaching behind it.
CroSum is built around not having that connection at all. You type your income and spending in yourself, and the numbers stay on your phone. That is slower, and it is the entire point: no third party ever gets read access to your account.
So the honest framing is not "which is better". It is: how much is a bank connection worth to you, and how much is not having one worth to you. If automatic import is what you want, YNAB does it well and CroSum does not do it at all.
Because nothing arrives on its own, CroSum has to earn its keep on the maths. Safe to Spend takes the bills that have not landed yet, the budgets you set and the cash you actually hold, and gives you one number. Loans get a real amortisation schedule. The planner runs twelve months forward so you can test a decision before you make it.
The planner and the recommendations engine are Premium. Budgets and Safe to Spend are free.
Where CroSum simply does not do something, the cell says so with a dash rather than a hedge.
| CroSum | YNAB | |
|---|---|---|
| How transactions get in | You enter them yourself. There is no bank connection to switch on. | Automatic import from select US, Canadian, UK and EU banks. File import elsewhere. |
| Where your finance data sits | On your device. Optional backup to your own Google Drive or iCloud. Our billing server sees a subscription receipt and nothing else. | In your YNAB account, synced across your devices. |
| Core method | Budgets, a Safe to Spend figure and a twelve-month projection, all derived from what you entered. | Zero-based budgeting — give every dollar a job. |
| Free tier | Yes. Unlimited transactions, categories and budgets, Safe to Spend, widget, reminders, backup and CSV export, plus one loan and one savings goal. | No free tier — a trial, then paid. |
| Free trial | 14 days on both plans, one per store account. | 34 days, no credit card required. Enrolled students can apply for a free 365-day trial. |
| Price | €3.99 a month, or €35.99 a year. | US$14.99 a month, or US$109 a year. Priced in US dollars, so non-US customers also carry the exchange rate. |
| Shared or household budgets | — | One subscription covers up to six people. |
| Investments and net worth | — | Tracking accounts and net-worth reporting. |
| Loans | Annuity or linear amortisation schedule, real payoff date, and extra-payment what-ifs — on the phone. One loan free, unlimited on Premium. | A loan planner with monthly-compounded amortisation and a payoff simulator. YNAB notes the simulator is available on the web. |
| Twelve-month forward planner | Yes. Change a rent, a job or a loan and see twelve months of cash flow before you commit. Premium. | YNAB's site describes targets, goals and reports rather than a twelve-month cash-flow projection. |
| Platforms | Android, live on Google Play. An iPhone version is on the way. No web or desktop version. | Computer, phone and tablet, with offline use and sync across devices. |
| Works with no network | Yes — the app works fully in airplane mode. | YNAB states its apps work offline and sync when you reconnect. |
| Analytics, ad and crash SDKs | None of the three. | Not something we can verify from the outside, so we make no claim. |
Anything in the YNAB column we could not confirm on their own site, we have left as an explicit "we make no claim" rather than guessing. If you spot something out of date, tell us at support@crosum.app and we will correct it.
If two or more of those matter to you, install YNAB rather than us. We would genuinely rather you found the right tool.
This is the choice underneath the feature list. Both models are legitimate; they are just not the same model.
With CroSum, every transaction, budget, loan and goal is stored on the device you typed it into.
Backup is optional and goes to your Google Drive or iCloud. Your account, your file, your deletion.
A subscription receipt only. There is no endpoint that would accept a transaction.
To be fair to YNAB: a synced account is not a flaw. It is what makes automatic import, six-person sharing and cross-device budgeting possible in the first place. You cannot have those things and also have nothing on a server. Pick the trade you prefer.
Not automatically. CroSum has no YNAB importer. You would start fresh, or re-enter the history that matters to you. That is a real cost of switching and we would rather say so than let you find out afterwards.
It takes roughly thirty seconds a day, and there is a home-screen widget so most days it is a couple of taps. It is genuinely more effort than automatic import. Some people find the effort is the feature, because you notice what you spend when you have to write it down. Others find it a chore and stop. Try the free tier for a fortnight before you pay anyone anything.
At the list prices checked on 26 July 2026, yes: €3.99 a month or €35.99 a year against US$14.99 a month or US$109 a year. But they are not the same product, and price is a poor reason to pick a budgeting app you will not stick with.
No. CroSum is a tracking and budgeting tool, not a regulated financial adviser. Its recommendations are general suggestions derived from the numbers you entered yourself — not personalised financial advice. For decisions that matter, speak to someone qualified.
No card, no bank login, no ads. If it is not for you, your CSV export leaves with you.
Coming to iPhone