A second currency.
YNAB’s own guide says a plan holds one currency and suggests a separate plan for each. Money in a second currency is either converted by hand or kept in a plan of its own.
cent4cent vs YNAB
YNAB gives every dollar a job. cent4cent does the work for you.
Envelope budgeting as a method: every dollar gets a job, the categories are the budget, and sticking to it changes how people spend. It has devoted users for good reason.
Claims about YNAB come from its own help centre and pricing page, as read in September 2026, paraphrased and rounded, with links below. Something wrong? support@cent4cent.com.
When YNAB is the better choice.
Someone who wants to change their spending habits, in one currency, and is happy to give every dollar a job each month. The method is the product, and it works for the people who work it.
Where YNAB runs out.
Money owed to you.
The help centre describes three ways to handle a reimbursement, all through categories. For a longer loan to family or friends, it suggests a tracking account whose balance you update by hand.
Everything that isn’t spending.
Investments and property are tracking accounts. To record a gain, you reconcile the account to its new balance, so what moved it isn’t recorded, and neither is what a currency did.
YNAB and cent4cent, side by side.
| YNAB | cent4cent | |
|---|---|---|
| Sorting your transactions | Remembers the last category for each payee | Done for you, and re-sorted back through your history as it learns |
| When it isn’t sure | Asks for a category the first time it sees a payee | Asks you in plain words, and keeps the answer as a rule |
| Money owed to you | A category, or a tracking account | Kept by person, and closed automatically when they pay you back |
| A private holding and its terms | A tracking account you update | Your figure, with its terms said in a sentence: a co-owner, a loan against it, tax to come |
| A second currency | No, one currency per plan | Each account in its own currency, with what the rate did on its own line |
| What moved your net worth | A snapshot at the end of each month | Every month split into saved, markets and currency, to the cent |
| Checks every account against your bank | Yes, against the balance you type in | Every account, every month, to the cent |
| Australian banks | By importing files | Any bank or fund, from its statements |
| Price | About US$110 a year | A$10 a month or A$100 a year |
The sample month, kept in cent4cent.
In cent4cent there’s no budget to assign. Every line is sorted for you, and you see what came in, what went out and what you kept, with the US-dollar accounts in US dollars and Sam’s A$412 as a figure.
See last month in cent4cent, next to YNAB.
Bring last month in and compare the two. 14 days free, no card needed.