YNAB alternatives for your Mac
YNAB alternatives for Mac: Koi, Actual Budget, Copilot Money, Banktivity, Monarch and MoneyMoney, with prices, bank sync and who should stay on YNAB.
Start here
What Monarch is now, and what it costs
Monarch Money now goes by just Monarch: the site is monarch.com, and monarchmoney.com sends you there. The company is still Monarch Money, Inc. It links your bank, card, loan and investment accounts, 13,000+ institutions by its own count, and puts budgets, net worth, goals and recurring bills in one place, on the web, iPhone and Android.
On Monarch's pricing page, it's $14.99 a month or $99.99 a year, and the home page offers a 7-day free trial. There's no free plan.
We make Koi, one of the apps below, so read this with that in mind. Every fact about another app comes from its own site or App Store page, checked October 21, 2026. We didn't run tests.
Why switch
Why people look for a Monarch alternative
- No free plan. After 7 days it's $99.99 a year at the least.
- No Mac app. Monarch lists the web, iPhone and Android, so on a Mac it's a browser tab.
- Linking every account. Monarch works by reading your transactions, which means giving it access to your banks.
- It does more than you need. If you only want to know what your bills and subscriptions add up to each month, a full money platform is a lot.
- You want a budget with a stricter method, like YNAB's zero-based one.
Stay on Monarch if
- You share money with a partner and want both of you in the same place.
- You want transactions, net worth and investments to update by themselves from your accounts.
- You use it on your phone as much as on your computer, including Android.
- You want budgets and goals, not just a list of bills. Koi has neither.
The picks
6 Monarch alternatives worth a look
1. Koi
Best for: Your recurring bills and income on your Mac, no bank login
Koi is a Mac app for dictation, recorded calls, documents and an AI you talk to, and one of its tools is an expense tracker. It does one part of what Monarch's Recurring page does: rent, utilities, a loan, insurance and subscriptions, each with its amount and how often, and what you earn, with what you spend a month, what comes in and what's left. Pick the day one is paid on and the next payment shows on its row.
The difference is where it comes from. Koi doesn't read your bank, the App Store or your email: you add each one, by typing a name and picking it from a list with the services' icons, by tapping Fn + ⌘ and saying “add Netflix to my tracker”, or by picking a bill with Add an expense in Tools. Those last two send the words to Koi's AI. The list itself is kept on your Mac and never sent anywhere.
Pro is $20 a month, or $192 a year, after a 3-day free trial that needs a card, and covers the whole app, including unlimited dictation and call recording. Lifetime is paid once, from $59.
Weakness: it's no Monarch. No bank sync, no transactions, no budgets, net worth or goals, no sharing with a partner, no iPhone app, and one currency for everything with nothing converted.
2. Copilot Money
Best for: The closest thing to Monarch with a real Mac app
Copilot Money links your accounts and tracks spending and investments, like Monarch, but runs on iPhone, iPad, Mac and the web. Its site lists $95 a year ($7.92 a month), with a one-month free trial, which is cheaper than Monarch and a longer trial.
Weakness: no Android, so it's a poor fit for a mixed household.
3. YNAB
Best for: A budget with a method you stick to
YNAB is zero-based budgeting: every dollar gets a job. It's $14.99 a month or $109 a year, after a 34-day free trial with no card needed on its site, and college students get 365 days free. Direct import works with select banks in the US, Canada, the UK and the EU.
Weakness: no Mac app either, and the method takes a few minutes most days. Our YNAB alternatives page goes deeper.
4. Rocket Money
Best for: Finding subscriptions and getting them cancelled for you
Rocket Money finds your subscriptions and bills in your linked accounts, and its free plan works in the phone app. Premium is pay what you think is fair, typically $7 to $14 a month by Rocket Money's own pricing article, and adds the web app, unlimited budgets and a team that cancels subscriptions for you.
Weakness: on the free plan you're limited to the phone app, and bill negotiation takes a cut of what it saves you. See our Rocket Money alternatives.
5. Actual Budget
Best for: Free, open source budgeting kept on your computer
Actual is envelope budgeting that calls itself “a local app, plain and simple”, open source under the MIT license, with a desktop app for Mac, Windows and Linux. Bank sync is built in through GoCardless (EU and UK) and SimpleFIN (US and Canada).
Weakness: syncing between devices means running its server yourself, or paying a host like PikaPods. More setup than Monarch.
6. Banktivity
Best for: A native Mac app with investments and real estate
Banktivity runs natively on Mac, iPhone and iPad on one subscription. Bronze is $6.99 a month billed yearly and connects your bank and card accounts; Silver ($8.99) adds investments and real estate; Gold ($10.99) handles international currencies. Every plan has a 30-day free trial for new customers.
Weakness: no Android or web app, and more to learn than Monarch.
Side by side
Monarch alternatives compared
| App | Price | Free trial | Mac app | Bank sync | Android |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Koi | Pro $20/month or $192/year; Lifetime from $59 | 3 days, card needed | Yes, native | No, you type them in | No |
| Monarch | $14.99/month or $99.99/year | 7 days | No, web | Yes | Yes |
| Copilot Money | $95/year | 1 month | Yes | Yes | No |
| YNAB | $14.99/month or $109/year | 34 days | No, web | Yes | Yes |
| Rocket Money | Free; Premium about $7 to $14/month | Not stated | No, web on Premium | Yes | Yes |
| Actual Budget | Free, open source | Not needed | Yes | Yes | Not stated |
| Banktivity | From $6.99/month, billed yearly | 30 days | Yes, native | Yes | No |
Prices from each app's own pages, checked October 21, 2026. They change, so check before you pay.
Privacy
Where your money data lives
Monarch, Copilot Money and Rocket Money work by connecting to your accounts, and YNAB can too, so a company holds your transactions to show them to you on every device. That's the point of them, and it's why they can find charges you forgot.
Koi's tracker works the other way. Your expenses and income are kept in Koi's own database on your Mac. Adding one by voice or from a bill sends those words to Koi's AI to fill the row in, and nothing else of the list leaves your Mac. Settings, General, Clear history deletes it with everything else. The trade is that it only knows what you tell it.
Try it
How to move your recurring bills from Monarch to Koi
There's no import, so this is by hand, and it takes a few minutes for most people. Monarch's Recurring page already has the list you need.
- Open Recurring in Monarch and keep it next to Koi.
- On Koi's dock, click Tools, then Expense tracker.
- For each line, click Add, type the name and pick it, then the amount and Weekly, Monthly or Yearly.
- Add the day it's paid on, if you want Koi to show the next payment.
- Add your income the same way, picking Income instead of Expense.
A yearly bill counts as a twelfth of it each month, so the total is what the month really costs. More in the tracker's help.
Who should pick what
Which Monarch alternative is right for you?
- You want Monarch, but with a Mac app and a lower price: Copilot Money, if nobody in the house uses Android.
- You want a stricter budget: YNAB, or Actual Budget for free.
- Subscriptions are the problem and you want someone to cancel them: Rocket Money Premium.
- You want a native Mac finance app with investments: Banktivity.
- You just want your bills, subscriptions and income on your Mac, with no bank access, and you'd also use dictation and an AI that sees your screen: Koi.
For receipts rather than bills, see our Expensify alternatives, and Koi's plans for what each one includes.
Keep exploring
Rocket Money alternatives for tracking subscriptions
Rocket Money alternatives for tracking subscriptions: Koi, Apple's own list, Bobby, Chronicle, Monarch and Copilot Money, with prices and which need your bank.
Know where the month goes
Track rent, bills and subscriptions on your Mac, add what you earn, and see what you spend and have left each month. Kept on your Mac, no bank login.
Expensify alternatives for your own receipts
Expensify alternatives for people who just want receipts turned into expenses: Koi, Receipts Space, Zoho Expense, Wave, Shoeboxed and Dext, with prices.
Support
Frequently asked questions
Yes. The app and site say Monarch, at monarch.com, and monarchmoney.com redirects there. The company is still Monarch Money, Inc.
$14.99 a month or $99.99 a year, with a 7-day free trial and no free plan (checked October 21, 2026).
Monarch lists the web, iPhone and Android. On a Mac you use it in the browser. Copilot Money and Banktivity have Mac apps.
Copilot Money is $95 a year, Banktivity Bronze is $6.99 a month billed yearly, and Actual Budget is free and open source.
Yes. Koi's expense tracker has you type each bill, subscription and income in, and keeps the list on your Mac. Pro is $20 a month after a 3-day trial.