Thendoo vs YNAB: a dedicated budget app or money inside your day
YNAB is a dedicated budgeting app with bank linking and its own method; Thendoo puts simple budgets and bills inside a day planner. See where each fits.
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The short answer
YNAB is a dedicated budgeting app built around its own method of giving every dollar a job, with bank linking, file import, goals, reports and sharing for up to six people. Thendoo is a day planner with a money module: CSV import, monthly category budgets and bills that appear on Today. If budgeting is the job, YNAB goes much deeper. If you want bills in your daily plan, Thendoo keeps them in view.
Side by side
Budgeting approach
- YNAB
- The YNAB Method: give every dollar a jobsource
- Thendoo
- A monthly limit per category; sub-categories roll up; no rollover between months
Bank connection
- YNAB
- Link accounts and import transactions automaticallysource
- Thendoo
- No bank sync. CSV and Excel statement import.
Countries covered by bank linking
- YNAB
- Select US, Canadian, UK and EU banks; elsewhere, file importsource
- Thendoo
- Not applicable (CSV from any bank)
File import
- YNAB
- CSV (preferred), OFX, QFX and QIF, on the web app or iPadsource
- Thendoo
- CSV or Excel (.xlsx, and web-page .xls) up to 5 MB and 20,000 rows; header row, columns, dates and encodings auto-detected; re-importing adds no duplicates
Bills and subscriptions
- YNAB
- Scheduled transactions for repeating bills, plus targetssource
- Thendoo
- Find repeating charges from your history; bills due within 7 days show on Today; reminder the day before
Goals and reports
- YNAB
- Spending and savings targets, loan calculator, spending and net worth reportssource
- Thendoo
- Overview with money in, spent, left over, where it went and net worth; no savings goals
Sharing
- YNAB
- Share one subscription with up to six peoplesource
- Thendoo
- Single-user only
Apps and offline
- YNAB
- Computer, phone and tablet, including offlinesource
- Thendoo
- Web app; add it to a phone's home screen. Today, Inbox and Tasks open offline after a sync
Tasks, calendar and Today view
- YNAB
- No; YNAB is a budgeting appsource
- Thendoo
- Yes: money sits next to tasks, habits and calendar on Today
Plans and prices
YNAB
| Plan | Price |
|---|---|
| Monthly | $14.99 USD per month (plus tax)source |
| Annual | $109 USD per year, about $9.08 per month (plus tax)source |
| Free trial | 34 days, no credit card required when signing up directly; college students get a year freesource |
Thendoo
| Plan | Price |
|---|---|
| Early access | Free while Thendoo is in early access; paid plans come later |
Our take
Choose YNAB if…
- You want a complete budgeting method with teaching and support around it.
- You want transactions to arrive from your bank without downloading files.
- You budget together with a partner or family.
Choose Thendoo if…
- You want bills, renewals and a simple monthly budget in the same place as your daily plan.
- Your bank isn't supported by automatic linking, but it gives you a CSV or Excel statement.
- You hold money in several currencies and are fine entering exchange rates yourself.
A budgeting app, or a planner that knows about money
YNAB is a budgeting product through and through. Its method asks you to give every dollar a job before you spend it, and the app, guides and reports are all built around that habit. It links to banks, imports files, sets savings targets, and lets up to six people share one subscription.
Thendoo is a day planner first. Its Money area exists so the money things you’d otherwise forget, like rent due Thursday or a yearly insurance renewal, show up where you already look each morning: Today.
How the money side compares
Getting transactions in. YNAB can import from linked accounts. Thendoo imports CSV and Excel statement files. Its importer finds the header row, reads headers in several languages, guesses dates, decimal marks and encodings, and shows how many lines are new, already here or unreadable before you commit, and merges lines with entries you added by hand. You can undo any import from Past imports.
Budgets. YNAB’s method is a full system. Thendoo’s budgets are simpler: a monthly limit per category, with progress shown as, for example, “$240 of $400” and “$160 left”. Going past the limit shows a soft orange Over by, never red. There is no rollover and no goals.
Bills. Thendoo’s Find repeating charges looks back 400 days for the same payee with similar amounts and suggests bills to confirm. Marking one Paid, or a matching charge arriving, moves the due date forward.
Currencies. Thendoo handles several currencies per person and stores amounts exactly, but exchange rates are typed in by you.
Reach. YNAB has phone apps and works offline. Thendoo is a web app for one person.
When to choose which
If your goal is a better relationship with money and you want a proven method with bank linking, YNAB is the specialist tool. If you mostly want bills and spending visible next to your tasks, and a file import every few weeks is fine, Thendoo’s money module may be enough on its own. Plenty of people will use both.
Moving from YNAB to Thendoo
- 1Decide whether to move at all. Many people keep YNAB for budgeting and use Thendoo only for bills on Today. Thendoo has no YNAB importer.
- 2In Thendoo's Money, open Accounts and add each account with its currency and opening balance.
- 3Download a CSV or Excel statement from each bank and use Import, Import a statement. Check the column mapping in the preview, then save the settings so the next import matches automatically.
- 4Set up Rules (for example, payee contains 'Netflix' sets Subscriptions), then press Run on uncategorized.
- 5On the Bills tab, press Find repeating charges and confirm the real bills, so they show on Today before they're due.
Questions
Does Thendoo connect to my bank like YNAB?
No. Thendoo has no bank sync of any kind. You import CSV or Excel statements, and importing the same file twice is safe because duplicates are skipped.
Is Thendoo's budget the same as the YNAB Method?
No. Thendoo sets a monthly spending limit per category and shows how much is left. Unused money does not roll over to next month. If you want YNAB's method, use YNAB.
Can Thendoo give me financial advice?
No. Thendoo shows your own numbers. For decisions about debt, tax or investments, talk to a qualified accountant or financial adviser.