HoneyMoney
vs
YNAB / Mint / Quicken / Excel / others
HoneyMoney vs YNAB
You can be totally fine without a budget. There's no need to set a budget for each and every category.
With HoneyMoney:
- Plan all your recurring transactions in a calendar.
- Check out cashflow forecast based on your planned expenses and incomes.
- See how much money you should have reserved for your planned expenses.
- Reserve it.
- Use the rest for unplanned expenses/savings/investments.
You can set a strict limit for a certain category in HoneyMoney too, but it's not necessary if you don't want to.
HoneyMoney is an easier and more relaxed approach to money than YNAB.
HoneyMoney doesn't sync with your banking accounts. You track everything manually. (Because you regularly pay attention to your finances, you are in control of your money. Nobody can do it for you or better than you.)
YNAB has a lot of learning resources to explain the method. HoneyMoney is simpler and more flexible, so different people use it in different ways.
YNAB-method is much stricter, so if you have a really tight financial situation and no understanding of how to control your money, then YNAB might work better for you.
YNAB has a friendly gigantic community. HoneyMoney is just starting out.
Bees are stupid!
HoneyMoney doesn't have access to your banking accounts. So no worries about breaching your bank policies or losing your real money because of the bug/hack/rogue employee.
No problems with syncing transactions either. No syncing — no problems :)
HoneyMoney is easier to start. You don't have to setup everything before using it, you just go with the flow.
HoneyMoney is more flexible (accounts/envelopes separation, cashflow-based planning vs monthly budgets).
HoneyMoney is 2-3 times cheaper. $50/year or $5/mo for HoneyMoney. $99/year or $15/mo for YNAB.
Calendar view is almost as cool as bees. And bees are super cool!
HoneyMoney vs Mint
Mint is a retrospective tool to view all your transactions from different financial institutions.
The main focus of Mint is to display you how much money you have now, and what did you spend it on in the past.
Mint is a nice tool to show you those stats, but it's not meant to change how you deal with your money.
Yep, you can setup some goal (budgets) with Mint, but that functionality is limited.
Using Mint is like watching a long advertisement with some breaks for your money stats. It won't change your life on it's own if you stay passive.
Mint is Free. Mint can afford it by bombarding you with financial products which they get a commission from (most profitable for them). HoneyMoney is $5/mo or $50/year. You, the customer (not an advertiser!) is the only person HoneyMoney needs to please.
Sometimes Mint can warn you if it notices something suspicious on your account. HoneyMoney can't do it, it urges you to review your statements from time to time manually.
You can pay bills with Mint. HoneyMoney can't do it, and urges you to setup automatic bill payments from your credit card. You probably have better things to do than worry about missed bill payments.
Bees are childish!
HoneyMoney is completely ad-free.
HoneyMoney will never sell your private information to anybody.
HoneyMoney is not only tracking, but also planning your finances. Be proactive with your money, take control of your life.
HoneyMoney increases your awareness about money. Mint doesn't need you to pay a regular attention to it, it just... exists.
Mint doesn't support all the banks in the world. HoneyMoney works even with your childhood piggy-bank (as well as cash).
You can be completely anonymous with HoneyMoney. You can even track your illegal money laundering schemes with it :) But don't do weapons or drugs, because they're bad, mmkay?
Calendar view is almost as cool as bees. And bees are wonderful!
HoneyMoney vs Quicken
You probably heard about Quicken since you were young. It's ancient. It's also super powerful: a lot of features, options, menus.
HoneyMoney does only one thing: helps you save more money. You plan and track your incomes and expenses, which increases your awareness, and changes your money habits.
No business or rental properties tracking, no retirement scenarios, no tax projections in HoneyMoney.
Just one thing: get control over your money, spend less and save more with the same amount of happiness.
Who do you want to be? A happy bee or an accountant pro?!?
Quicken has books and online courses about it. You'll have plethora of learning resources. HoneyMoney has much less because it's simpler.
Quicken is super-powerful. It's power level IS OVER 9000! With great power comes great complexity though.
Bees are foolish!
HoneyMoney has a soul.
HoneyMoney is designed only for helping you with tracking and planning your expenses. This is the key to changing your money habits.
HoneyMoney is more affordable and easier to start. Just $5/mo and a free 30 day trial. Quicken has only annual subscriptions ($35-$75/year), no monthly option and no trial.
Calendar view is almost as cool as bees. And bees are super dope!
HoneyMoney vs Excel
Spreadsheets are a godsend! They can be tweaked to do anything, but that’s why they're too general.
HoneyMoney is flexible, but still not as flexible as any spreadsheet can ever be. You can do whatever you like. Want to track the correlation beetween steps walked each day with money spent or calories burned with savings rate? HoneyMoney is not meant for such things.
You probably already know how to use your spreadsheet application. HoneyMoney requires a little bit of training. Everything is explained though, don't worry.
Bees are dumb!
HoneyMoney is designed for tracking and planning finances. This is its one and only job.
HoneyMoney is easier to start. You don't start from the blank sheet, everything is prepared for you.
HoneyMoney is not only a software, but also a "worry-free philosophy", a relaxed approach to taking your finances under your control.
HoneyMoney gives you access to your data from any desktop or mobile device. Everything is synced. No worries about losing your data.
Calendar view is almost as cool as bees. And bees are awesome!