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Looking for an EveryDollar alternative

By , who built Keep the Diff

EveryDollar is Ramsey Solutions' budgeting app, and it does exactly what its name says. Before the month starts you give every dollar of your income a job, down to zero, and then you track what you spend against that plan. For a lot of people, especially anyone paying down debt with a clear target, that structure is the whole point.

People who go looking for something else tend to have one of three reasons, and each one points somewhere different.

Reason one: a zero based budget is a monthly job

Planning every dollar is not something you do once. Income changes, a month has an odd bill in it, and the plan needs building again before the first paycheck lands. Then every purchase has to be put against a line so the plan stays true.

If this is you, the method is not wrong, it is just asking for more time than you want to give money each month. Reverse budgeting flips the order: save first, then spend what is left without tracking it.

Reason two: typing in every transaction, or connecting your bank

The free version of EveryDollar has you enter transactions yourself. The paid version connects to your bank so they arrive on their own. Either way the budget only works if every purchase ends up in it, which means either a lot of typing or a company holding ongoing access to your accounts.

If this is you, and it is the connection you would rather avoid, the options that never ask for it are in budget apps that don't connect to your bank, along with what each one gives up.

Reason three: you wanted to save, not to budget

A budget is a spending plan. Some people come to one because what they actually want is to feel like they are keeping more, and a month of categories and line items is a long way round to that feeling.

If this is you, a smaller tool that records the saving itself, rather than the spending around it, will likely get used for longer.

What Keep the Diff is, and what it is not

It is not a budget, and it is not an EveryDollar replacement. It does one much narrower job, and it is only the right answer if reason three sounds familiar.

EveryDollar plans what you will spend and tracks what you did. Keep the Diff records what you decided not to spend: at the moment you choose the cheaper option or skip the purchase, you log what you were ready to spend and what you actually spent. The difference is money you kept, and it adds up by week, by month and toward a goal.

There is no plan to build at the start of the month and nothing to reconcile at the end of it. There is no bank integration, no account and no sign in, and sync between your own devices is end to end encrypted, so nobody but you can read what you logged.

The honest comparison

  • EveryDollar tells you where every dollar is going. Keep the Diff tells you how much you kept, and it cannot tell you whether the rent is covered.
  • EveryDollar wants every transaction. Keep the Diff only wants the decisions you are proud of, which is usually a handful a week.
  • EveryDollar's bank connection is a paid feature. Keep the Diff never sees a single transaction, on any plan.
  • EveryDollar is built around a debt payoff plan. Keep the Diff has no plan to follow. Logging is free forever, with no ads and no limit, and Premium adds history, export, categories and goals.

If building the budget became the part you dreaded, that trade is probably worth making. You can try it in your browser without installing anything, or read how to save money without a budget for the method on its own.

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