The best YNAB alternative for Europe
Brixa is a European YNAB alternative that connects to 2,700+ EU banks read-only and sorts every transaction with AI, so you see where your money goes without the manual entry or the learning curve.
YNAB is a great method, but in Europe its bank sync is limited and often unreliable, it costs around 109 USD a year, and its zero-based system takes real effort to learn. If you want your spending tracked automatically from your actual European bank, Brixa is the simpler answer.
Brixa and YNAB, side by side
EU bank coverage
Brixa2,700+ EU banksYNAB~83 select banks, often flakyAutomatic AI categorization
BrixaYesYNABNo, manual by designManual entry required
BrixaNoYNABYesRead-only bank access
BrixaYes, credentials never storedYNABYes, via PlaidEU data hosting
BrixaYesYNABUS companyMulti-currency
BrixaYesYNABLimitedSubscription detection
BrixaYesYNABNoSavings goals
BrixaYesYNABYesPartner / shared view
BrixaYes, read-onlyYNABYesFree trial
BrixaYesYNAB34 days
Why Europeans switch to Brixa
- Bank sync that actually works here: 2,700+ EU banks, not a short supported list
- Zero manual entry: AI categorizes every transaction, where YNAB expects you to assign them
- No learning curve: open it and see your spending, with no methodology to master
- Built for Europe: multi-currency for cross-border life, EU-hosted, GDPR-native, 19 languages
What that looks like
Sorted on arrival
Every transaction lands with a category already on it. Correct one and it sticks.
Where it actually went
The month split by category, so the number that hurts is the first one you see.
Point it at something
Set a target and a date, and Brixa works out what you need to put aside each month.
YNAB is a great way to budget, if you have the patience for it. The snag, if you live in Europe, is the plumbing. YNAB connects banks through Plaid, and outside the US that coverage gets thin fast. For a lot of German, Nordic, French, Polish or Central European banks you end up exporting CSVs and importing them by hand, which quietly kills the whole point of a live budget.
Brixa comes at it from the other side. It connects straight to more than 2,700 European banks through regulated open banking, pulls your transactions in on its own, and sorts each one into a clean category with AI. Fix a category once and it remembers. No spreadsheets, no manual entry.
YNAB asks you to give every euro a job before you spend it. Brixa asks for nothing: it reads your European accounts, sorts what arrives, and shows you where the money actually went. If what you want is to see your spending without running a system, that is the difference.
Your data stays yours
Read-only access
Brixa can see your transactions but can never move money. Your bank login is never stored.
Licensed open banking
Connections run through a regulated European open-banking (AISP) provider, the same rails your bank trusts.
Hosted in the EU
Your data lives in the EU and is handled the GDPR way. It is yours, and you can delete it anytime.
No ads, no data selling
Brixa is paid for by a simple subscription, so your financial data is never the product.
Questions people ask
YNAB runs about 109 USD a year. Brixa is one annual plan with the price shown in the App Store before you commit, and the trial is free.
Brixa connects to 2,700+ banks across Europe. Search for yours in the app during the free trial.
Yes. Connect your bank and Brixa pulls in your history and categorizes it automatically. There is nothing to export.
Access is read-only through a regulated European open-banking provider. Your login is never stored, and Brixa can never move money.
Brixa focuses on automatic tracking and clear spending insight rather than strict manual envelope budgeting. If hands-on zero-based budgeting is the whole point for you, YNAB does that better.
Not yet. Brixa is an iPhone app today. Android is on the roadmap, and your data is not locked in either way: you can export it whenever you want.
Try it with your own bank
Pick yours from the 2,700+ European banks Brixa supports, and your last few months arrive already sorted. Read-only, and free to try.