Review: Wesabe

site:  http://www.wesabe.com

Overview

Continuing on with my analogies between my previous cars and PFM tools, we now come upon Wesabe.  Now Wesabe is different than all the other PFM tools out there, much like my third car (car?)…the 1998 Volkswagen Jetta TDI!  If you look at my previous jeeps they all ran on gas whereas this shiny number ran on disel.  In comparison between previously reviewed PFM tools (Yodlee, Mint, Thrive – next up), they all utilize Yodlee for their back-ends, whereas Wesabe has with own methods for data aggregation.  What is crazy is how deep I can go with this analogy.  With my TDI, I could buy fuel, use pre-made biodisel, or make my own biodisel (stay with me now).  With Wesabe, for adding transactional data you can setup auto-downloads from banks, use their firefox toolbar for scripting uploads, or you can manually upload data to your account.

Now I have only used Wesabe now for the past month, so my review and real-life experience will be limited compared to the previous posts.  What I have seen in the past month, however, is potential for something truly great, both in the sense of helping users aggregate and analyze and tag their data, but also in the whole community aspect of Wesabe.  That is what really sets them apart from some of the other PFM tools and it is a key component to their offering.  Now for the meat!

Accounts

I found it cumbersome to add all of my accounts from Yodlee to Wesabe.  Some accounts worked, most did not.  Wesabe recommends using their firefox toolbar for uploading transactions and adding new accounts.  This is a one-time setup for each account, however for me has not been 100% effective.  Wesabe also produced a desktop application, however from my recent conversations with support, this is no longer supported by Wesabe?

Firefox Toolbar

Support

Wesabe’s support if posted within the community is solid!  It is part of their value add.  At times you are supported by both employees and users, providing that sense of community.

User Interface

Wesabe recently changed their entire UI and all I can say is I’m a big fan.  The UI makes sense to me.  Long-time users have had issues with the UI, given that some features have moved or have been removed, but to me the UI is easy to navigate and is very clean.

Reporting

Wesabe uses spending targets that you set based on your tags.  It is extremely easy to add new targets and since these targets are on the main dashboard, it is very easy to see where you are at with each goal that is set.  Wesabe also has a “Spending vs Earning” report that is produced on the dashboard.

Alerting

I could be wrong here, but I do not believe there are methods for alerting in Wesabe.  At least nothing similar to Yodlee.

Intangibles

Community

 

Wesabe’s communities are full of extremely useful tips and information.  Have a problem with Wesabe, you can post it there.  Want to make the product better, post it on the community and start collaborating.  Want to start an at home business and are looking for tips?  Post it!

Tagging

As boring as it might seem to some, Wesabe’s categorization by tagging is the one feature that I truly love!  Do not force me to use your categories, no sir.  Instead, let me create whatever I want, however I want and display it to me in a sweet tag cloud that is extremely easy to view and use.

iPhone App

For those of you with iPhones, Wesabe also has a sweet looking app that will display Accounts and Targets.

Conclusion

I really like where Wesabe is headed.  Their community model is perfect, tagging is great, all I really need from them is more account support, automatic downloading of transactions, and more alerting and reporting capabilities
and I am sold!

Ratings (1 to 5, 5 being highest)

Accounts	3
Support	5
User Interface	4
Reporting	3
Alerting	1
Intangibles	5