The short version
Tiller wins on flexibility and ownership of your data; YNAB wins on structure and speed to set up. Tiller assumes you will build the model yourself, which most people abandon within a few months.
Why people compare them
Spreadsheet-minded people compare YNAB's opinionated app against Tiller's raw data feed into Sheets or Excel.
Price and fit, side by side
| Feature | YNAB | Tiller |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest paid plan | YNAB$109 per year | Tiller$99 per year |
| Free tier | YNABNo | TillerNo |
| Billed in pounds | YNABNo | TillerNo |
| Best for | YNABPeople who want to change their spending habits and will do the weekly work | TillerUS-based spreadsheet people who want their transactions fed in automatically and total control over the model |
Where YNAB wins
- The zero-based method genuinely changes behaviour for people who stick with it
- Excellent teaching material and an unusually loyal community
- One subscription covers up to six people
Where Tiller wins
- You own the spreadsheet, so there is no ceiling on what you can model and no lock-in
- AutoCat categorisation removes most of the drudgery that makes DIY spreadsheets collapse after two months
- One flat price with no tiers, and a full refund offered on request
Where both fall short
- Neither models UK pensions or answers the retirement question directly.
- Neither handles ISA allowances or the tax wrapper decisions around them.
- Neither applies UK tax rules to what it shows you.
- Both are built US-first, so UK users pay in dollars and work around US assumptions.
If neither is quite right
If what you actually want is the retirement answer rather than a better dashboard, that is the gap Delphina was built for: UK pensions, ISAs and tax, projected to the age you want to stop. It does not do the job YNAB does for people who want to change their spending habits and will do the weekly work, so if that is the real problem, YNAB is still the better buy. Free plan is £0, no card.
YNAB vs Tiller: common questions
YNAB is $109 per year and Tiller is $99 per year. Compare the billing period before the number: an annual price and a monthly price are not the same thing.
You can, and some people do, because they solve different halves of the problem. It does mean paying for both, so add the two annual figures together before deciding.
Judge it on billing currency, Open Banking coverage and whether ISAs and pensions are handled. Check each one against those three points, because a tool that scores well elsewhere can still be a poor fit in the UK.
YNAB suits people who want to change their spending habits and will do the weekly work. Tiller suits us-based spreadsheet people who want their transactions fed in automatically and total control over the model. The one that matches how you already think about money will take less setting up.
Delphina covers the gap both leave, which is UK pensions, ISAs and tax projected forward to retirement. The trade-off is that it does not do the job YNAB does for people who want to change their spending habits and will do the weekly work, so if that is the real need, pick one of these two.