Kasandro vs YNAB: 2026 comparison (banks, envelopes, price)

Key facts

YNAB (You Need A Budget) is an American method and app for envelope budgeting: every złoty gets a job before you spend it. Direct import works for "select US, Canadian, UK, and EU Banks", and other banks go through file import; a plan can be shared with up to six people. Kasandro is not an envelope budget: it reads your Polish banks through PSD2 and shows where the money actually goes, joins a couple under two consents, draws a map and habits over years, and talks back as "You in 30 years". Prices and dated sources are below.

• YNAB: 14.99 USD a month or 109 USD a year (9.08 USD a month), 34 days free, up to six people (ynab.com/pricing, 10 Oct 2026).
• Kasandro: 4.99 zł per connected account per month (1.19 EUR on EUR markets), a year for the price of 10 months, everything in the price, AI prepaid (5 zł to start).
• YNAB's pricing page does not mention Poland or Polish banks (10 Oct 2026).

What YNAB does well

YNAB (ynab.com) has the most coherent method on the market: four rules, envelopes for every category, "age of money", reports, goals, and around it courses, a podcast and a community that sticks with the method for years. Mobile and web apps, sharing with a partner or family of up to six people, a 34-day trial. For someone who wants to plan every złoty ahead and has the discipline to assign spending every few days, YNAB is the benchmark.

YNAB's pricing (as of 10 October 2026)

Annual plan: 109 USD a year, which is 9.08 USD a month; monthly plan: 14.99 USD a month; "plus tax where applicable"; 34 days free. You share the plan "with partners, families, and other close-knit groups of up to six people". Source: ynab.com/pricing.

Where Kasandro is different

Polish banks through PSD2, no file

YNAB's pricing page says: "Direct import currently supports select US, Canadian, UK, and EU Banks", and points to file-based import for other banks (10 Oct 2026). Kasandro reads Polish banks through Enable Banking (listed in the EBA register) with the list for Poland you see before consent; transactions come in automatically, with place, time and merchant, and the consent is read-only, renewed every 90 or 180 days depending on the bank. Every selected account is 4.99 zł a month, 3 accounts = 14.97 zł.

Observation instead of envelopes

YNAB asks you to plan up front and to assign money regularly. Kasandro looks back and says what happened: "Żabka: 52 visits, half after 18:00", "Disney+: paying since March", "fuel +38 % vs August". These are observations from your transactions, not tasks to complete; what you do with them is up to you. Both approaches make sense; they differ in how much work it takes to keep them going.

Couples: two consents and transfer matching

In YNAB you share one plan with up to six people. In Kasandro each of you has your own login and your own consent in your own bank, transfers between your accounts are matched on both sides as own transfers (not income, not spending, for either of you), a business account can stay private and still count in the total, "who paid" is a filter on the list, and there is one bill.

A map, hours and years

Card payments and ATM withdrawals carry a place and a time. Kasandro draws them on a real map, on a weekday-by-hour grid and as a year-on-year comparison ("in 2022: 31 shop visits a month, in 2026: 52"). YNAB shows spending reports by category and over time.

Wealth and a voice

Kasandro adds wealth with imports (XTB from a file, treasury bonds, PPK, crypto exchanges from a read-only key, property, loans, and the limits for IKE, IKZE and PPK, the Polish tax-advantaged retirement accounts) and an assistant in text and voice (ElevenLabs): "You now" and "You in 30 years", a letter from 2056 every month. YNAB has no AI assistant; it has rules-based auto-assign. Conversation in Kasandro is prepaid, the meter is visible, 5 zł to start; questions, the letter and voice are processed with vendors on EU endpoints (Subprocessors). Prices: pricing. How we count: Honest counting.

Kasandro vs YNAB: comparison table

Which one is for you

YNAB is for you if

• you want the envelope method and to plan every złoty ahead,
• you have the time to assign spending every few days,
• your bank is on YNAB's import list or a file does not bother you,
• you value the courses, the podcast and the community of the method.

Kasandro is for you if

• you want to see what happened without planning envelopes,
• your banks are in Poland and you want PSD2 with a per-account price in złoty,
• you and your partner have several accounts and each wants their own consent,
• you want a map, hours and habits across years, wealth with imports and a voice.

FAQ

Is YNAB more expensive than Kasandro?

YNAB is 109 USD a year or 14.99 USD a month per plan, plus tax. Kasandro is 4.99 zł per account per month (3 accounts = 14.97 zł), a year for the price of 10 months. The slider on the pricing page gives the total for your accounts.

Does YNAB import from Polish banks?

YNAB's pricing page of 10 Oct 2026 refers to select banks in the US, Canada, the UK and the EU and does not mention Poland; for other banks it points to file import. Kasandro's list is the Enable Banking list for Poland, visible before consent.

Does Kasandro have envelope budgeting?

No. Kasandro shows what happened and counts habits; it does not ask you to plan ahead. If the envelope method works for you, YNAB does it best.

Can I move my data from YNAB?

YNAB exports CSV. Kasandro accepts a CSV file as an account without sync, or you connect the same banks through PSD2 and get the history your bank exposes (usually up to 24 months).

Is this financial advice?

No. Kasandro shows what happened on your accounts and computes on assumptions you set yourself. The comparison describes what both sides publish on the stated dates; we re-check them monthly.