Penge vs YNAB
Co-founder of Penge · Published 1 September 2026 · 5 min read
These apps start from different jobs. YNAB centers on planning what your available money should do. Penge centers on bringing European accounts, transactions, category suggestions, budgets and subscriptions into one view. This head-to-head compares the features and the work each approach asks of you.
Key takeaways
- YNAB costs 14.99 dollars a month or 109 dollars a year, billed in US dollars. Penge is free and carries no ads.
- YNAB's automatic import covers select European banks. Penge reaches more than 2300 banks in over 30 countries through Open Banking.
- Penge suggests categories from your own history. YNAB remembers the latest category used for a payee after you categorize it once.
- YNAB focuses on giving every dollar a job, with saving goals and household subscription sharing. Penge offers weekly, monthly or yearly budgets and scans for recurring charges.
- YNAB runs on iOS, Android and web in English. Penge runs on iPhone in English, Norwegian, Swedish and Danish.
The short version
Choose YNAB if you want to give every dollar a job, use saving targets and keep an active spending plan. Choose Penge if you want free bank aggregation across Europe, category suggestions from your history and automatic subscription scanning. YNAB also runs on Android and the web; Penge is on iPhone only.
| Penge | YNAB | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, no ads | 14.99 USD monthly or 109 USD yearly, billed in US dollars |
| Bank connections | 2300+ banks in 30+ countries via Open Banking | Select European banks, plus US, Canada and UK[2] |
| Categorization | Suggested from your history; confirm, or turn on automatic categorization | First use is manual; then it reuses the latest category for that payee[3] |
| Budgeting | Category budgets by week, month or year | Give every dollar a job, with saving targets[1] |
| Currencies | Multiple account currencies, converted to one primary currency | One currency per spending plan[1] |
| Languages | English, Norwegian, Swedish and Danish | English[5] |
| Platforms | iPhone | iOS, Android and web[4] |
| Recurring charges | Scans history and suggests subscriptions | Scheduled repeating transactions you create[6] |
| Sharing | No account or budget sharing between users | One subscription for up to six people[1] |
Where Penge is better
- European bank coverage. Penge connects to more than 2300 banks across over 30 countries, including small local savings banks.
- Every transaction arrives with a category suggested from your own history, and you confirm it with one tap. Turn on automatic categorization in settings and Penge applies the most confident ones by itself, never overwriting a category you set.
- Subscription scanning. Penge shows the monthly cost, next expected charge, last charge date and matched payments for each subscription it finds.
- Penge is free, and accounts in different currencies are converted to your chosen primary currency.
- The interface is available in English, Norwegian, Swedish and Danish.
Where YNAB is genuinely better
- The planning workflow. YNAB is built around giving every dollar a job, with saving targets and an integrated loan calculator.[1]
- Android and web. YNAB runs on Android and in the browser; Penge is iPhone-only.[4]
- Household access. A YNAB subscription can be shared with up to six people.[1]
- North American bank import. YNAB supports select banks in the US and Canada as well as the UK and Europe.[1]
Who should pick which
- You want the give-every-dollar-a-job workflow, saving targets or integrated debt tools: YNAB.
- You budget on Android or in a browser, need North American bank import or subscription access for up to six people: YNAB.
- Your European bank is listed by Penge but not YNAB: Penge.
- You want a free multi-bank overview, local languages, category suggestions and automatic subscription scanning: Penge.
Switching from YNAB: what moves and what doesn't
Your transactions move; your plan does not. A new bank connection fetches the current month automatically, and older history can come in through YNAB's CSV export, which Penge imports. Budgets, saving targets and payee rules stay behind, so you rebuild category budgets in Penge.
Check that your bank is on Penge's list before you decide: See supported banks
Can you use both?
Yes, but it means keeping the YNAB subscription: YNAB stays the plan, Penge becomes the free view of your European accounts and subscriptions, converted to one primary currency. If price is why you are comparing, adapt a zero-based approach with Penge's category budgets instead.
We wrote up how in zero-based budgeting, and the wider field in YNAB alternatives that work with Nordic banks.
Get a full overview with Penge
Connect your bank and let the app categorize and budget automatically.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Penge a YNAB clone?
- No. YNAB is built around giving available money a job in a spending plan. Penge is built around gathering accounts and transactions, suggesting categories from your history, scanning for subscriptions and tracking category budgets.
- Can I import my YNAB data into Penge?
- Not as a one-click YNAB migration. A new bank connection fetches the current month, and the previous one too when you connect in the first half of a month. YNAB exports transactions as CSV, and Penge can import transactions from CSV or xlsx files.
- Can I use YNAB's method in Penge?
- You can adapt a zero-based approach with Penge's categories and weekly, monthly or yearly category budgets. Penge does not reproduce YNAB's named workflow, saving targets or teaching material, so it is not the same experience.
- What's the catch when Penge is free?
- There is no catch in the app: no ads, no data selling, and bank access is read-only with your credentials never stored. You can export your data or delete your account from settings at any time.