Let's be honest: nobody wants another subscription. You already pay for streaming, cloud storage, maybe a news site you read once a month. And now you're supposed to pay just to look at your own spending?
YNAB is $14.99/month ($109/year as of July 2026). Monarch Money is $99/year. Copilot is $95/year. These are good apps — genuinely — but if the whole point of budgeting is to spend less, paying $100+ to do it feels like a cruel joke.
The average American already spends over $200/month on subscriptions they barely use. Adding one more subscription — just to track the other subscriptions — feels like a punchline, not a solution.
So here's the question: what do you actually need, and how much of it can you get without paying?
| App | Free tier | Cheapest paid | Bank sync | Canada support |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sable | Yes — 2 accounts, all features | $5/mo ($55/yr) | Plaid (US + CA) | Yes (native CAD) |
| YNAB | 34-day trial only | $14.99/mo ($109/yr) | Plaid (US) | Limited |
| Monarch Money | 7-day trial only | $9.99/mo ($99/yr) | Plaid (US + CA) | Limited (no multi-currency) |
| Copilot | No | $95/yr | Plaid (US) | No |
| Rocket Money | Partial (no budgets) | $6–12/mo | Plaid (US) | No |
| Goodbudget | Yes — limited envelopes | $10/mo ($80/yr) | No (manual) | N/A |
Prices verified July 2026. Sable's Solo plan is free forever — no credit card, no trial countdown.
A lot of apps wave the word "free" around but lock the basics behind a paywall the moment you try to do anything useful. Here's what Sable's free Solo plan includes — no asterisks:
The $5/month Special plan ($55/year if you pay annually) adds 10 bank accounts, an AI assistant, spending insights, and budget recommendations. The $9/month Ultra plan ($99/year) adds household sharing for couples (2 members) and 20 accounts. But if you just need solid budgeting for one or two accounts? Free handles that completely.
And yes — all of this works in both the US and Canada, with multi-currency support (USD + CAD) and live FX conversion built in. Most free budgeting apps are US-only. Sable isn't.
We're not going to pretend every budgeting app is the same. Here's when paying more makes sense:
And here's when Sable is probably the better fit:
Sable is a newer company — founded by a married couple, built from a spare bedroom. We don't have an Android app yet (it's coming — the web app at app.sablespend.com works on any device in the meantime). We don't have investment tracking like Monarch. We don't have YNAB's decade of educational content. If any of those are dealbreakers for you, no hard feelings.
We also won't pretend to be everything to everyone. If you need sophisticated portfolio analysis, paycheck-splitting across 15 different goals, or a CFP certification attached to your app, we're not that. We're a straightforward, well-built budgeting app that does the core job excellently — and doesn't charge you $109/year for the privilege.
But if you want a budgeting app that costs nothing, syncs your banks, covers both US and Canadian accounts, and doesn't exist to upsell you financial products? That's us. Oh, and 20% of our profits go to charity. Because that felt right.
No trial. No credit card. Just connect your bank and start seeing where your money actually goes.
Start budgeting free with Sable →
Already use one of these apps? See our detailed head-to-head breakdowns:
Sable is free for up to 2 bank accounts with full budgeting features (unlimited budgets, goals, reports, auto-categorization). Its paid plans start at $5/month — compared to YNAB at $14.99/month or Monarch at $9.99/month.
Yes. Sable's Solo plan is permanently free with 2 connected bank accounts, unlimited budgets and goals, all reports, and auto-categorization. No trial, no credit card needed.
YNAB charges $14.99/month ($109/year as of July 2026) because it bundles an educational methodology with the app. If you want the zero-based budgeting philosophy, YNAB is excellent. If you just need a budgeting app that works, there are cheaper options.
It depends on what you need. YNAB excels at zero-based budgeting with a decade of educational content. Sable is better if you want free bank syncing, Canadian bank support, or simply don't want to pay $109/year. See our full YNAB comparison for details.
No. Sable never sells your financial data. The Plaid connection is read-only (we can never move money), and 20% of profits go to charity. The business model is paid subscriptions, not ads or data brokering.
Free forever on Solo. Paid plans from $5/mo.