You Need A Budget
Contents7
| Basic information | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2004 |
| Legal Structure | LLC |
| Industry | Finance, Fintech, Financial Technology |
| Also known as | YNAB |
| Official website | https://www.ynab.com/ |
Founded in 2004 by Jesse Mecham, You Need A Budget (YNAB) is a financial software company that provides cloud-based personal budgeting software following the envelope methodology.
YNAB built its namesake software from an Excel spreadsheet for sale in 2004 into licensed releases, the last of which was "YNAB 4," for which support was discontinued in 2019.[1][2] With the release of "nYNAB" in December 2015, the company pivoted to a SaaS business model.[3]
Consumer impact summary
User Freedom
In order to use YNAB's service, users must agree to the YNAB Terms of Service[4], which, as of April 9th, 2026, includes agreeing to a mandatory binding arbitration with class-action and jury trial waiver for any users not based in the UK, Switzerland or European Economic areas. The terms outline a 30-day period available to such users after agreement to opt out of losing this right by emailing the company at their legal support email address.
Incidents
This is a list of all consumer-protection incidents this company is involved in. Any incidents not mentioned here can be found in the You Need A Budget category.
Forced arbitration clause update to ToS (April 2026)
On April 9th, 2026, YNAB made updates to their Terms of Service, which included a forced arbitration clause stipulating a 30-day window to opt out after accepting the terms by emailing YNAB's legal support email address.[4] An email outlining the new changes was sent to existing users on the 13th, prompting some users to post and discuss the included arbitration notice on the "r/ynab" community forum on Reddit. The notice read:
Dispute resolution: In our Terms of Service, we're moving to arbitration for dispute resolution. This means if we ever have a legal disagreement, it would be resolved by a neutral arbitrator instead of a court or jury, and we'd each bring claims individually rather than as part of a class action. If you prefer to keep your right to go to court, you can opt out by emailing legal@ynab.com within 30 days. Opting out won't affect your account or service in any way.[5][6]
A forced arbitration clause was not included in YNAB's Terms of Service exclusive to the United Kingdom, Switzerland, and EEA territories, also updated on April 9th.[7]
Products
- nYNAB App Lineup[8]
- YNAB for Web
- YNAB for iPhone
- YNAB for Android
- YNAB for Apple Watch
- YNAB API
- YNAB Zapier integration
- Pre-nYNAB Apps[1]
- YNAB Excel spreadsheet (Sep 2004)
- YNAB Pro (Nov 2006)
- YNAB 3 (Dec 2009)
- YNAB 4 (Jun 2012 - Oct 2019)[2]
See also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Timeline | YNAB". YNAB. Archived from the original on 16 Apr 2026. Retrieved 16 Apr 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "YNAB 4 Support Ends October 2019". YNAB. 11 Sep 2019. Archived from the original on 16 Apr 2026. Retrieved 16 Apr 2026.
- ↑ "The New YNAB Business Model". YNAB. Archived from the original on 16 Apr 2026. Retrieved 16 Apr 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 "YNAB Terms of Service". You Need A Budget. 2026-04-09. Archived from the original on 2026-04-15. Retrieved 2026-04-15.
- ↑ u/samebutanon (2026-04-13). "Gross, but typical changes to T's & C's". Reddit. Archived from the original on 2026-04-15. Retrieved 2026-04-15.
- ↑ u/discostu- (2026-04-13). "Opt out of binding arbitration within next 30 days". Reddit. Archived from the original on 2026-04-15. Retrieved 2026-04-15.
- ↑ "YNAB Terms of Service (UK, Switzerland, EEA)". You Need A Budget. 2026-04-09. Archived from the original on 2026-04-15. Retrieved 2026-04-15.
- ↑ "The YNAB Lineup". YNAB. Archived from the original on 16 Apr 2026. Retrieved 16 Apr 2026.