Keep Above
Keep Above vs YNAB
Keep Above and YNAB can both be used with no bank connection, but they ask for different things. YNAB's scheduled transactions arrive in the register unapproved and are approved automatically only when a matching import comes in, so otherwise you approve each one by hand, and imported transactions wait for your approval too. Keep Above projects from bills you entered once, and asks only for a balance update now and then.
Written and maintained by Manandai Ltd, the company that makes Keep Above. This is our comparison, not an independent review, and no winner is named on this page. How we compare.
Every YNAB fact below is taken from YNAB's own published pages, linked beside it. Features and prices change. Check each provider before deciding.
Spotted something out of date? Email support@keepabove.com and we correct or remove it within five business days.
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Last verified 21 September 2026What are Keep Above and YNAB?
YNAB
An envelope-style budgeting app built on assigning every dollar a job. You record what you spend, either by entering it or by importing it, and the app shows what is left in each category. Its pricing page describes direct import as supporting select US, Canadian, UK and EU banks.
Keep Above
A forward-looking budgeting app with no bank connection and no spending record. You enter each bill and your income once and keep your balance current, and it works out the balance you would need to cover everything coming and projects that and your reserved funds ahead day by day.
| Keep Above | YNAB | Source | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bank connection | None, by design | Optional; direct import names select US, Canadian, UK and EU banks | pricing |
| Manual entry | The whole model | Yes, first-class | features |
| What you keep entering | Your balance, now and then | Each transaction, and approval of each scheduled one unless an import matches it | help centre |
| Imported transactions | No import | Wait for you to approve them | help centre |
| Recurring bills | Entered once, projected forward | Scheduled transactions enter unapproved; approved automatically only if an import matches | help centre |
| Future balance projection | Daily, up to 30 years ahead, free plan and Premium alike | Not documented | features |
| Money set aside for later bills | Reserved funds, projected with the balance | Targets | features |
| Spending history | None shown | Yes, categorised, with reports | features |
| Reconnecting a bank | Nothing to reconnect | An "Authorization Required" status; "Some banks require this more frequently than others" | help centre |
| Free tier | A budget you're paid into plus one more of any kind, full projections | None; a 34-day trial | pricing |
| Price | Premium US$9.99/yr or US$2.49/mo in the US; local pricing set by the stores | US$109/yr or US$14.99/mo | pricing |
What is the real difference, once both are set up?
Both apps can be run without a bank feed, so the connection is not what separates them. What separates them is where the truth lives.
In YNAB the truth is the transaction list. The balance is what the transactions add up to, which is why the app asks you to enter or import each one and to approve scheduled transactions as they fall due. That record is also the point: it is what makes the category balances and the reports work.
In Keep Above the truth is the balance you type. There is no transaction list to keep, because the app keeps no spending record at all. Your day-to-day spending shows up on its own the next time you update the balance, and the bills and income you entered once are what the projection runs on.
Neither of those is a lighter or heavier version of the other. They are different jobs. One tells you where the money went, the other tells you what is still coming.
Can YNAB plan a trip, split bills or track a home loan?
YNAB's pages describe category templates for travel, a wedding and a new car, a guide to costs shared with a roommate or partner that uses a separate bill-splitting app to work out who owes whom, and loan accounts that hold a mortgage.
Each kind in the table is a budget of its own in Keep Above, with its own screen in the app. The free plan holds a budget you're paid into plus one more of any kind; Premium holds more.
| Keep Above | YNAB | Source | |
|---|---|---|---|
| A trip, with its places and the people going | The dates and places, each cost split between the people going, and a settle-up at the end | A travel category template listing trip costs such as flights and lodging | templates |
| One big dated day, such as a wedding or a move | An estimate for each cost, its deposit and payment dates, and the costs split between people | A wedding category template listing costs such as the venue and catering | templates |
| Bills split with the people you live with | Each person's share of each bill, which anyone on Keep Above can take into a budget of their own. No money moves | A guide to costs shared with a roommate or partner, with a separate bill-splitting app working out who owes whom | help centre |
| Birthdays and other days you buy for | What each day would cost, with a share set aside from a budget you're paid into on each payday before it | Yearly category targets, with gifts and birthdays as examples, ask for a monthly amount; its help centre says biweekly targets cannot be set | help centre |
| What you buy regularly | A cupboard showing how much of each thing is left, and a list for each shop of what would run out before the next | A downloadable grocery planner PDF with a pantry inventory and space for a restocking list | blog |
| What owning each thing costs a year | What each thing costs a year, from what you paid, its running costs and what it would sell for | A new-car category template listing purchase and running costs such as insurance and maintenance | templates |
| A home loan | Each portion's balance and rate, when a fixed rate ends, what you pay, and the interest it would cost from here | A mortgage kept in a loan account, which shows how much the loan costs in interest | help centre |
| Loans and buy-now-pay-later plans | Side by side, with what is still to pay and what goes out in each pay cycle | Loans in loan accounts; buy-now-pay-later purchases in their own categories, with the details in category notes | help centre |
What does YNAB do that Keep Above does not?
- Keeps a full categorised record of what you spent, with reports across it.
- Assigns every dollar a job, and shows what is left in each category as you spend against it.
- Imports transactions directly in the countries its pricing page names.
- Publishes a large body of teaching material around its method.
- Reconciles against your real account, so the app's balance and the bank's can be brought into agreement.
Keep Above has none of these. It shows no spending history, has no category balances to spend against, and cannot reconcile against anything because it never sees your account.
What does Keep Above do that YNAB's pages do not document?
- Projects a daily balance forward, up to 30 years ahead, on the free plan and on Premium alike.
- Works out the balance you would need today to cover every bill that is coming, and shows how far your balance sits from it.
- Projects the money set aside for later bills alongside the balance rather than as a separate target to fill.
- Works the same in any country, because there is no connection to support.
- Plans a trip with its dates, places and the people going, and one big dated day with a deposit and payment schedule for each cost, splitting the costs of either between people; YNAB's pages state nothing about these.
- Keeps a list of the days you buy for with what each would cost, and shows how long each thing in a regular shop lasts, what each thing you own costs a year, and each portion of a home loan with when its fixed rate ends; YNAB's pages state nothing about these.
Where YNAB's own pages state nothing about a future-balance projection, the table above leaves the cell blank rather than calling it absent.
Our comparison, not a review. Every YNAB fact here is taken from YNAB's own published pages and linked beside it, those in the first table on 21 September 2026 and those about other kinds of budget on 28 September 2026. Projections described here are conditional on the figures a person enters and on nothing changing. This page takes no account of your circumstances. Nothing here is financial advice.
Keep Above
Enter each bill and your income once, and keep your balance current now and then. Keep Above works out the balance you would need to cover everything coming, and projects your balance and your sinking funds — which it calls reserved funds — forward. No bank connection.
Common questions
Can YNAB be used without connecting a bank?
Yes. YNAB documents manual entry as a first-class way to use it, and its direct import is described as supporting select US, Canadian, UK and EU banks, so users elsewhere work that way by default. What it asks for is each transaction, and approval of each scheduled transaction unless a matching import comes in.
What does Keep Above ask for that YNAB does not?
Your balance. Keep Above never sees your bank, so the balance is the one number you keep current, and the accuracy of everything it projects rests on it. YNAB's balance comes from the transactions you have entered or imported and reconciled.
Does YNAB forecast a future balance?
YNAB's own documentation states no future-balance projection, which is a blank cell rather than a claim of absence. Keep Above projects a daily balance and the money set aside for later bills, up to 30 years ahead on the free plan and on Premium alike.
What does YNAB do that Keep Above does not?
It keeps a full record of what you spent, categorised, with reports across it. It assigns every dollar to a job and shows what is left in each category as you spend. It has a direct import in the countries it names, and a large body of teaching material. Keep Above shows no spending history at all and has no category balances.
Can YNAB plan a trip or split bills with other people?
Its pages describe a travel category template, and a guide to costs shared with a roommate or partner that uses a separate bill-splitting app to work out who owes whom. In Keep Above a trip and bills split with the people you live with are each a budget of their own, and the split is worked out in the app.