Best Budgeting Apps To Take Control Of Your Finances

If you’re looking for a free Best Budgeting Apps option, Personal Capital might be the right fit. Best app for over-spenders: PocketGuard Or, if you want all the bells and whistles, go for an app like Empower or YNAB.

The most basic, best budgeting apps typically connect with your financial accounts. Track spending and categorize expenses so you can see where your money is going. But many apps do much more than that.

The best budgeting apps below are crowd-pleasers because of their features. At the time of this writing, each has at least 4.5 stars (out of 5) in the iOS App Store or on Google Play, as well as at least 1,000 reviews.

If you’ve had difficulty budgeting your money in the past, you may just need a little bit of help.

10 Best Budgeting Apps To Monitor Your Finances

1. Albert: Best Budgeting Apps To Take Control Of Your Finances

We chose Albert as the best option for saving money. Because it is a banking app that is good at both facilitating the budgeting process and automating savings.

The Budgeting apps:

Identifies spare dollars, and
Monitors your spending habits,
Moves the money to a digital wallet.

You’ll earn cash back on purchases with your Albert debit card, can withdraw savings at any time, and can qualify for annual cash bonuses

Albert creates an automatic budget for you. Helping you to identify where your money is going at all times.

You can instantly see your income, bills, and the money left over. You’ll also have many reporting options including reviewing past months’ budgets or seeing your transactions as a pie chart.

2. Mint, For Just About Everything

Let’s start with Mint’s very high ratings in both the App Store and Google Play. (It also has, by far, more reviews than any other app we reviewed.)

It’s free and syncs many kinds of accounts:

Bills,
Loans,
Credit cards,
Investments and
Checking and savings.

As far as the actual budgeting, Mint automatically puts your spending into budget categories.

You can personalize these categories, which are unlimited. You set limits for these categories, and Mint lets you know if you’re approaching those limits.

Besides those budgeting features, Mint may help users pay down debt, save more money and track goals.

3. Personal Capital: The Best Budgeting Apps To Save Money

The basic premise of Personal Capital is pretty straightforward: link up your bank account, and the app tracks your spending. Your results are displayed in easy-to-read charts.

But what I like about Personal Capital is the fee analyzer. It can be easy for lender fees to eat into anything you earn.

This is especially true if you invest. Personal Capital lets me see all that at a glance so that I can constantly look for ways to reduce what I’m paying.

4. Goodbudget, For Hands-on Envelope Best Budgeting Apps For Couples

Goodbudget is more about planning for your finances than tracking previous transactions.

This app is based on the envelope budgeting system, in which you portion out your monthly income toward specific spending categories (called envelopes).

This app doesn’t connect your bank accounts.

You manually add account balances (that you can pull from your bank’s website), as well as cash amounts, debts and income.

Then you assign money toward envelopes.

You can access the app from your phone and the web. You’ll also find many helpful articles and videos that help you use the app.

Goodbudget offers a free version that allows one account, two devices and limited envelopes.

Its paid version, Goodbudget Plus, allows unlimited envelopes and accounts, up to five devices and other perks.

5. You Need a Budget (YNAB)

Living from paycheck to paycheck poses a very important challenge. What happens if an unexpected emergency drains your checking account?

That’s where You Need a Budget (YNAB) comes in. More than a budgeting app, this tool helps you set a budget in a way that actually teaches you about money management.

When you sign up for YNAB, you’ll answer some questions about your monthly expenses and financial goals.

You’ll also link to a bank account.

This part is optional, but I like to have my spending automatically tracked. I just don’t have time to manually input everything I spend each day.

Once it’s all set up, you can track your spending in each category to see how well you’re staying on target. As well as pull reports for a more specialized view.

6. EveryDollar, For Simpler Zero-Based Best Budgeting Apps For Young Adults

This apps offers a zero-based budgeting framework that’s simpler (and perhaps easier to manage) than YNAB.

First, an explanation of the names: EveryDollar is a free budgeting app. But, to get the app’s extra features, you must become a Ramsey+ member.

In addition to a beefed-up version of EveryDollar, a Ramsey+ membership includes other, off-app features, such as audiobooks and courses.

The free version is simple, in part because you don’t sync accounts.

You manually enter incoming and outgoing money throughout the month. You also categorize line items in your budget and set reminders for bill payments.

7. Money Patrol

Money Patrol has similar features to other budgeting apps:

Set and manage budgets,
Keep an eye on your investments, and
Link to your bank account to track transactions,

You’ll be able to monitor your progress on your dashboard to gain insight into your spending habits.

BUT, MoneyPatrol doesn’t just monitor your spending and help you stay on budget.

The app is also backed by technology that automatically looks for ways you can improve your finances. These insights can be a great way to learn better financial habits that stay with you for a lifetime.

The feature that I, personally, really appreciate about Money Patrol is the alerts.

You can set things up so that you’re notified if there are suspicious charges or large transactions coming through.

8. Personal Capital, For Tracking Wealth and Spending

Personal Capital is primarily an investment tool, but its free app includes features helpful for budgeters looking to track their spending.

You can connect and monitor checking, savings and credit card accounts, as well as IRAs, 401(k)s, mortgages and loans.

The app provides a spending snapshot by listing recent transactions by category.

You can customize those categories and see the percentage of total monthly spending each category represents.

Personal Capital also serves up a net worth tracker and portfolio breakdown. The app can be accessed through both phone and desktop.

Why you may want to think twice: If your goal is to plan out your spending and saving, you may want to go another route.

This app’s budgeting features helped it make the list, but its investment tools are what make it unique. Other apps have more in-the-weeds budgeting capabilities.

9. Digit: Best Budgeting Apps For Beginners

If saving for the future is your goal, Digit is a budgeting app you’ll want to consider.

This app takes automatic savings beyond what you typically see, using technology to help you set some money aside.

With Digit, all I had to do was put in my goals and link to my bank account, and then start spending as I normally would.

The app moves small amounts of money to your savings when you’re least likely to notice it which I can really appreciate.

Over time, the algorithms learn more about you, making this process even more accurate.

Instead of budgeting your expenses each month, as you would with other apps, you’re inputting the amount you need to save for each of your wish list items.

You can set separate goals and have Digit gradually chip away at them by moving money over.

Digit can also help with those debts you need to pay off. Simply move money into a fund that you use to pay off your credit cards or student loans.

10. PocketGuard, For a Simplified Budgeting Snapshot

PocketGuard’s catalogue of features isn’t the most robust on our list, but that’s part of why we like it. The app is big on simplifying.

You can:

Track bills,
Credit cards,
Loans and investments and
Connect your bank accounts,

With that intel, the app shows how much you have left to spend after setting aside funds for necessities, bills and goals.

PocketGuard also tracks your net worth and gives you the option to not link your accounts and instead track your finances manually.

11. Empower: Best Budgeting Apps For Students

Sometimes, no matter how well you budget, you need a little extra money to get to payday.

Empower steps in to help with that, issuing you a $250 advance with no interest. The money is just taken out of your next paycheck.

What sets Empower apart for me is that you get a debit card with your account.

When you make qualifying purchases, you’ll earn 10% cash back at qualifying retailers (yes, 10%!). The offers are customized to your spending habits so, over time, you’ll save even more.

Empower’s budgeting feature comes in the form of reports you can pull each month that show where you’re spending.

You’ll be able to see your income, expenses, and savings across all the accounts you have linked. You can also set monthly spending limits to keep yourself in check.

To help you set money aside, Empower has an autosave feature that’s based on your spending habits. Each week, Empower makes up to four transfers to your savings in small amounts as it looks like you can afford them.

Over time, your savings will grow without you having to make any extra efforts to get it there.

12. Honeydue, For Budgeting With a Partner

Honeydue is designed so you and your partner can view both your financial pictures in one app.

Both partners can sync bank accounts, credit cards, loans and investments. (Although you can choose how much you share with your significant other.)

The free budget app automatically categorizes expenses, but you’re also able to create custom categories. Together, you can set up monthly limits on each of these categories, and Honeydue will alert you when you or your partner is nearing them.

Honeydue also sends reminders for upcoming bills and lets you chat and send emojis.

Why you may want to think twice: Like a few other apps on our list, Honeydue leans more toward reflecting and learning about past transactions, rather than planning ahead for expenses.

13. PocketSmith

How you spend your money today affects your financial future. But it can be tough to see that on a day-to-day basis.

That’s where PocketSmith comes in with their built-in financial forecasting. I liked testing a few different strategies and watching how the graph changed.

You can even test out scenarios. For example, if you skip your morning coffee and either invest or save that money. To see how that will pay off 6 months, 1 year, or 10 years down the line.

In addition to forecasting, PocketSmith also gives you a calendar view of your upcoming bills. I’ve found this type of layout makes it easy to see what I have coming up.

Like some of the other budgeting apps on this list. You can connect multiple accounts and monitor everything in one place.

This includes your:

Savings,
Checking,
Credit cards, and
Loan accounts.

As you pull those accounts in, your transactions are automatically slipped into categories to help you better see where your money is going.

14. Fudget, For Budgeting Without Syncing Accounts

Consider Fudget if you’d rather not sync financial accounts and would prefer a straightforward, calculator-esque interface over fancy features.

In Fudget’s ultra-simple design, you make lists of incoming and outgoing money and track your balances. There aren’t even any budget categories. The Pro account allows you to also export your budget, along with other extras.

Fudget, is new to our best budget apps list.

Has a Google Play rating that’s higher than any of the other apps we reviewed. Has an App Store rating that ties for the highest score with a few other picks.

Why you may want to think twice: This app is likely too simple for you if you’d prefer categorization of expenses, insights or just about anything else besides the basics.

And if you don’t have it in you to log every expense, it’s likely best to look elsewhere. We also didn’t find much in the way of user guides.

Cost: Free for Fudget; $3.99 one-time purchase to upgrade to Fudget Pro.

15. Charlie

Charlie is a free budgeting app. With tools like a spending tracker that can help you limit how much you spend in any expense category.

It’s like having a financial planner on your favorite electronic device.

Charlie monitors your spending and lets you know where you can save. Including telling you which debts to pay off first and suggesting some fees you can wipe out.

I have to say, having a cartoon penguin advise me on my finances was a unique experience. But that’s what makes this app so unique. In reality, though, the advice is coming from sophisticated algorithms that analyze your finances and give you well-informed advice.

It gets even better, though. Charlie can actually negotiate your bills on your behalf to help you save money on your internet and cable bills.

And if there’s a different plan that can save you money on that costly monthly phone bill, Charlie will give you a heads-up so you can make the switch.

16. Mvelopes

Mvelopes offers more budgeting capabilities than any other app on this list.

And since they offer three different plans, you can choose the level of services you want. But one of the features that really stands out with this app is the abundance of live support.

Live chat support is available on all three plans. But you can also access a personal finance trainer on the Plus Complete plan. That’s pretty cool.

If you’re willing to pay extra for the Plus plan. Every quarter you can hop on a phone call with a financial coach and come up with a plan for the upcoming months.

No matter which plan you choose, you get both budgeting and tracking features. As soon as I signed up, I was prompted to connect my bank account and create a budget.

From there, Mvelopes tracked my spending to help me stay below my goal in each budget category. In addition to budgeting and coaching, your Mvelopes membership gives you access to an extensive knowledge base of articles.

You’ll also get access to a free video-based master class to learn more about managing your finances.

What Is Budgeting Apps – Software?

Budgeting App – software is software that helps you plan and allocate your personal spending.

Unlike accounting software, which focuses primarily on tracking what you’ve spent or are owed, budgeting software is forward-thinking and allows you to allocate your dollars prior to spending them.

Creating a household budget can take time, and it can be hard to know where to start. Budgeting software aims to streamline the process so you can make your money work for you instead of simply spending it as it comes in.

Why You Should Use Budgeting Apps?

You Have a Hard Time Remembering Due Dates and Account Balances

Some budgeting apps go beyond just helping you budget and track your purchases. Some can send you alerts when you’re nearing a category threshold, while others can alert you to upcoming bill due dates.

There are even some that will alert you to the fees you’re paying and negotiate certain bills on your behalf. All of those things can make budgeting apps appealing no matter what your situation.

You Need Motivation

No matter what your financial goals are, it can be tough to stay on track.

A budgeting app gives you an incentive to pay attention to your spending habits. If you’re the type who’s motivated by seeing results on a screen, it can really work for you.

You Want To Make Budgeting Easier

Budgeting Apps are convenient. That’s why you have your phone attached to you at all times.

Taking advantage of budgeting apps can make budgeting much easier. All you have to do is connect your bank account and most apps will take care of the rest.

Having an app automatically sort your transactions. Reminds you when bills are due is like having a personal assistant right in your pocket.

How Much Does Budgeting Apps – Software Cost?

Some budgeting software is completely free, while other programs charge a monthly or annual fee. You Need a Budget, for example, charges about $99 per year, while the paid version of EveryDollar costs $130 per year.

You can expect to budget between $5 and $15 per month for most of the best options. Budgeting software that you pay for often offers more robust features and more customer support than the free options.

And in many cases, free software is supported by advertising. So you can expect to receive financial offers while you use the software.

When you’re looking for a budgeting app, certain features make some better than others. Here are some I think are important to help you decide whether the above apps work for you.

Ease Of Use

It does little good to use a budgeting app if it’s too complicated. We’ve naturally favored those that are easier to use on this list.

Price

We’ve included apps ranging in price from free to as much as almost $600 per year. The free versions may provide all that you need for your own personal budgeting activities.

But you may want to pay for a service that offers special tools and features you specifically need or want.

Ratings By App Users

Each of the apps on this list has been included because it is generally considered to be user-friendly by actual users on the Google Play or App Store download pages, where available.

Budgeting Capabilities

This is the most basic feature provided by budgeting apps.

Each has a somewhat different way of going about the process. The apps included are designed specifically to accommodate the many personal preferences of our readers.

Synchronization

The best budgeting apps will synchronize your accounts automatically, making money management easy.

Make sure you’re comfortable with this, though. There are some apps that will give you the option to do it manually if that’s your preference.

Additional Features

Most budgeting apps go beyond basic budgeting.

Some will provide:

Advice on debt and investments,
Others will identify unnecessary expenses, and
Even renegotiate existing bills.

What Features Should I Look for in Budgeting Apps – Software?

When you are looking for budgeting software, key features to keep in mind include:

Reporting: The software you use should create charts and graphs showing your spending patterns.
Account Linking: Linking your accounts to your software means you don’t have to upload transactions to monitor your spending and see if you’re staying on budget. However, you must provide your financial credentials so the program can access your bank and credit card transactions and aggregate them.
Spending Categories: Budgeting software may automatically characterize your transactions or you may have to do it manually. Most software comes with some preset categories, but you should also be able to add your own.
Other Financial Resources: Some programs provide a free credit score, investment tracking, net worth tracking, and more.

These free budgeting tools won’t cost you a dime and can help you track your finances. Learn more on Best Budgeting Apps to reach financial independence quickly. Learn more on Credit Card Mistakes You Might Be Making

Any opinion? Comment below. Best budgeting apps for hands-on users