Promi vs. YNAB
A budget that starts with numbers in it.
YNAB hands you empty categories and a method for filling them. Promi fills them from public spending data for your income and your metro, then keeps going into investments and retirement.
Where they overlap
Both connect to your accounts and import transactions automatically, both keep a running net worth, and both are built for a household. YNAB shares one subscription with up to six people. Promi is built around a two-person household, with per-person attribution on every account and transaction.
YNAB's method is the reason people use it. Zero-based budgeting, where every dollar has a job before the month starts, is a real discipline with a real following, and for the people it suits there is not much to improve on.
Feature by feature
| Promi | YNAB | |
|---|---|---|
| Only in Promi | ||
| Monte Carlo retirement sims (1,000+ runs) | ||
| Historical recession backtest | ||
| Multi-source income projection (SS + pension + other) | ||
| Side-by-side scenario comparison | ||
| 5 FIRE variants (Lean/Coast/Barista/Fat/Trad) | ||
| Tax-aware drawdown, Roth ladder, 72(t) | ||
| FIRE auto-tracking on dashboard | ||
| Peer cohort benchmarking | ||
| Local Census comparison | ||
| Pre-filled local-cost-of-living budgets | ||
| Interactive demo (no sign-up) | ||
| Shared features | ||
| Bank connections (Plaid) | ||
| AI transaction categorization | rules-based | |
| Budgeting + cash flow | ||
| Per-holding investment tracking | balance only | |
| In-context education on every page | partial | |
| Household / couples support | ||
| No advisor upsell, no affiliate kickbacks |
Comparison based on publicly available information as of September 7, 2026. Product features may have changed. Check each provider's website for current capabilities.
What Promi adds
Promi's budget arrives pre-filled. Every category opens with a suggested amount built from Bureau of Labor Statistics spending surveys for your income tier, scaled to your metro's cost of living, so the first screen carries numbers and a source rather than blank fields.
Past the budget, Promi tracks investments per holding, projects retirement with 1,000-run Monte Carlo simulation and a historical recession backtest, models tax-aware drawdown and Roth conversion ladders, and tracks five FIRE variants against live balances. Peer cohort benchmarks come from Federal Reserve and Census sources.
What it costs
Promi is $13.99 a month, or $139.99 a year, which works out to $11.67 a month. That covers the budgeting, the per-holding investment tracking and the retirement modeling in one subscription.
See a filled-in budget
No sign-up required. Explore the full app with realistic demo data.
Launch Interactive Demo