A YNAB alternative for high earners (2026)
YNAB gives every dollar you have a job. If your income is high and the questions are about the bonus, the RSU vest and where you’ll be in December, this is what each app does today.
Checked on against YNAB’s own pricing and help pages, and reviews where those didn’t say, linked under each answer. Prices and features change; follow the links before you decide. We make RichDue, so weigh our column accordingly.
YNAB and RichDue, side by side
| YNAB | RichDue | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $109 a year or $14.99 a month, one plan that up to five more people can share. A 34-day free trial with no card; no free plan. | Free to start, no card. Pro is $89.99 a year or $12.99 a month; your first statement import adds 14 days of Pro. |
| Bank sync | Direct Import connects accounts through Plaid or MX in the US and Canada. Any account can be linked or left unlinked. | No bank sync today. You add screenshots or bank alerts on iPhone, statements (CSV, Excel, OFX/QFX, QIF, PDF) or a quick log; RichDue reads them, flags rows it already has and asks before saving. |
| Platforms | Web, iPhone, iPad, Android and Apple Watch. | Web today. The iPhone app is in testing and uses the same account. |
| Budgets | Zero-based: you assign dollars you already have to categories, each with an optional target for how much to set aside and by when. | A monthly limit per spending category, paced against an even month and suggested from your last three months. No envelopes. |
| Planning ahead | YNAB doesn’t forecast income; its irregular-income guide says so. You can assign money you already have to future months, and Edit Plan previews next month from your targets. | A 12-month cash-flow projection with low, base and high cases, built from salary, bonus, RSU, commission and client income, with the dates each one lands. |
| Investments | Investment accounts are tracking accounts: balances you update, kept outside the budget and shown in the Net Worth report. | Stocks and funds, crypto, gold, property, savings and loans: allocation and value over time. You log a buy or a sale or import your brokerage’s positions. No benchmarks or advice. |
| Privacy | Its policy says YNAB doesn’t sell your financial data or anything you enter, and that it runs targeted advertising, which some state laws count as a sale or share. It honors Global Privacy Control. | No bank credentials. iPhone screenshots are read on your device, statement files are deleted 7 days after upload, and RichDue doesn’t sell your data or share it for advertising. |
What YNAB says about pay that varies
For irregular income, YNAB suggests budgeting your average month (or a lean-month figure), funding the coming months from each payment and working toward being a month ahead.
A Variable Income template sets targets for expenses that change from month to month.
File import takes CSV, OFX, QFX and QIF, in the web app and on iPad.
When the question is the year, not the month
At a high income most months cover themselves. The questions that move the year come in lumps: what the bonus adds after the 22% federal withholding, what a vest is worth after sell-to-cover, what to set aside for the quarterly tax bill, and where your net worth lands by December.
RichDue starts from those: your net worth today, a 12-month projection with low, base and high cases, and a plan for the next bonus or vest before it arrives. Budgets are there too, as a monthly limit per category rather than a job for every dollar.
RichDue doesn’t connect to banks today. Money gets in through statements, iPhone screenshots, bank alerts or a quick log, and RichDue asks before saving anything.
Who should stay with YNAB
Stay with YNAB if giving every dollar a job each month is what keeps you on track, if you share one plan with up to five people, or if you want linked accounts with apps on Android and Apple Watch today. Its method works at any income.
Bringing your history across
YNAB exports your whole plan, transactions included, from the web app, and Reflect’s reports export as CSV or TSV. An exported plan can’t be imported back into YNAB.
In RichDue, add that file on the web: it reads the columns, flags rows it already has and shows you everything before saving. Your bank’s own export works the same way; the export guides show where each bank keeps it.