Budgeting and Spending Monitoring Apps: What Each One Does
Budgeting apps change often: plans, prices and features shift from year to year. Each entry below is based on the company's own website as of November 2026, with a link so you can see the current details yourself. Nine apps are listed alphabetically in separate boxes. The order is not a ranking, and we do not recommend one over another. The links are plain links to each company's site. We do not earn anything if you click them.
This is general information, not financial advice. Whether an app suits you depends on your own situation.
Jump to an app
| App | Approach | Cost, in words |
|---|---|---|
| Empower | Net worth and retirement planning tools | Free tools; paid advisory services sold separately |
| EveryDollar | Zero-based budget | Free version; paid upgrade |
| Goodbudget | Envelope budgeting | Free plan with limits; paid upgrade |
| Honeydue | Shared budgeting for couples | Free to download |
| Monarch | Budget, net worth and goals | Paid, with a short free trial |
| PocketGuard | Shows what you have left to spend | Free trial, then paid |
| Quicken Simplifi | Spending plan and cash flow | Paid, no free trial |
| Rocket Money | Subscriptions and bills | Free tier; paid tiers |
| YNAB | Zero-based budget | Paid, with a free trial |
Empower
Net worth and retirement planning- What it is: a free personal dashboard with financial tools, offered alongside fee-based advisory services. It was formerly called Personal Capital.
- Tools: a budgeting and cash flow tool that shows spending by category, a net worth view, a retirement planner, and portfolio analysis, debt paydown and savings planning tools.
- Cost: the dashboard and tools are free. The company also sells advisory services (with minimum investable assets) and financial products, and its site says it earns referral fees, so read its disclosures.
- Linking your bank: account linking is part of signing up.
- Works on: a web dashboard and a mobile app. Sign-up asks for a U.S. mobile phone number.
- Worth knowing: it is built more around investments and retirement planning than day-to-day expense tracking.
EveryDollar
Visit ramseysolutions.com/money/everydollar →
Zero-based budget- What it is: Ramsey Solutions' budgeting app, built on the zero-based method, where your income minus your planned spending equals zero.
- Cost: a free version plus a paid Premium subscription (annual or monthly) with a free trial for new users. The app is also included in some Ramsey memberships.
- Free version: monthly budgets, unlimited categories, manual entry of transactions, sinking funds and split transactions.
- Premium adds: automatic bank connection, custom reports, a debt payoff tracker and other planning tools.
- Linking your bank: automatic connection is a Premium feature. The free version is manual.
- Works on: computer, phone and tablet.
Goodbudget
Envelope budgeting- What it is: a budgeting app built on the envelope system, where you divide your money into categories, called envelopes, and share the budget with family and friends. The company writes its name "Goodbudget".
- Cost: a free plan with limits (on envelopes, accounts, history and devices), plus a paid Premium plan that removes the limits and adds automatic bank sync.
- Linking your bank: automatic bank sync is Premium only and works with U.S. banks only. On the free plan you enter transactions by hand or import a file.
- Also tracks: debt accounts and debt payoff.
- Works on: the web, iPhone and Android.
Honeydue
For couples- What it is: a finance app that the company describes as the simplest way for couples to manage money together.
- What it does: shows balances, bills, budgets and spending, splits expenses, sends bill reminders, and lets each partner choose what to share. It includes a chat feature.
- Cost: free to download, with optional in-app purchases according to its App Store listing.
- Linking your bank: it connects to accounts through Plaid, and the App Store listing says most U.S. banks are supported.
- Works on: iPhone and Android. We did not find a web version.
- Worth knowing: we could not confirm its current plans on the company's own site. Check the app store listing for the date of the latest update before you rely on it.
Monarch
Budget, net worth and goals- What it is: a personal finance app that brings your accounts together to track spending, budget, plan and share with a partner or advisor. The company was previously known as Monarch Money.
- What it does: budgeting by category or group, a net worth view that combines accounts, loans, real estate and investments, savings goals, cash flow and reports. Deeper investment tools and forecasting are in its higher tier.
- Cost: a paid subscription (annual or monthly) in more than one tier, with a short free trial for new members and a money-back guarantee. There is no free version.
- Linking your bank: included in the subscription.
- Works on: the web, iPhone and Android.
- Where: the United States and Canada. Some features, such as home and vehicle valuations and credit score tracking, are U.S. only.
- Worth knowing: the company says the app has no ads and that it does not sell your financial data.
PocketGuard
Shows what you have left to spend- What it is: a budgeting and expense tracking app that links to your accounts, sorts your spending and shows how much you have left after bills, debt payments, savings and goals (its "In My Pocket" feature).
- Also does: tracks subscriptions and helps cancel unwanted ones, plans debt payoff, and tracks savings goals and net worth.
- Cost: a free trial, then a paid subscription (monthly, yearly or a one-time lifetime payment). The company's help center mentions a limited Basic version after a subscription ends. Its pricing page says there are no ads.
- Linking your bank: connections are read-only and included in the paid plan. The pricing page lists banks in the U.S. and Canada.
- Works on: the web, iPhone, Apple Watch and Android.
Quicken Simplifi
Spending plan and cash flow- What it is: a personal finance app from Quicken for budgeting, spending tracking and cash flow projection.
- What it does: an automatic spending plan, spending categories, savings goals, bill and subscription tracking, projected cash flow with what-if scenarios, a retirement planner and investment tracking. You can share with one other person.
- Cost: a paid subscription billed annually, with no free trial. For purchases made directly from Quicken, there is a 30-day money-back guarantee.
- Linking your bank: it connects to thousands of financial institutions.
- Works on: the web, iPhone and Android. Some features are not available on mobile.
- Where: Quicken says its products are not designed to work outside the United States and Canada.
Rocket Money
Subscriptions and bills- What it is: a personal finance app for tracking spending, managing subscriptions, budgeting and saving.
- Cost: a free tier with limited features, a Premium tier on a "pay what you think is fair" sliding scale with a free trial for new members, and a higher Premium+ tier at a fixed price.
- What is free and what is not: subscription tracking, spending insights and balance alerts are on the free tier. Help canceling subscriptions, budgeting and net worth tracking are on the paid tiers. Bill negotiation is part of the top paid tier.
- Linking your bank: linking is available on the free tier. Real-time syncing is a paid feature.
- Works on: iPhone and Android on all tiers, and the web on paid tiers.
- Where: the company says it is available only to people in the United States with U.S. banks.
YNAB (You Need A Budget)
Zero-based budget- What it is: a money app built around deciding what your money is for before you spend it, rather than looking back at what you spent.
- What it does: tracks account balances and transactions, plans spending ahead, sets savings goals and manages debt. One subscription can be shared with up to five other people.
- Cost: a paid subscription (annual or monthly) with a free trial for new users. The company also offers a free extended trial for college students.
- Linking your bank: direct import works with select banks in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Europe. Otherwise you can import a file (CSV, OFX, QFX or QIF) or enter transactions by hand.
- Works on: the web, iPhone, Android and Apple Watch.
Before you link a bank account to any app
Most of these apps work by connecting to your bank through a data service, and some keep pulling your data until you turn that access off. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's guidance on sharing your financial data (an archived page) suggests checking:
- which accounts and information the app can see
- whether your data may be passed to other companies
- how often the app accesses your accounts, and what it stores and for how long
- whether it can make payments or move money between your accounts
The same guidance says that deleting an app from your phone does not necessarily stop your data from being shared. You may need to cancel the app's authorization to reach your accounts and ask the company to delete the data it collected. Some banks have a tool that shows which services are connected and lets you switch them off. Keep a list of what you have linked.
Questions to ask before you subscribe
- Is it free, free with a paid upgrade, or paid after a trial? Monarch and Simplifi have no free version. Several others have a free tier with limits.
- How is it billed? Some plans are monthly, some only annual, and some renew automatically. If you are on a fixed income, find out how to cancel and whether you can get a refund before you start.
- Do you want to link your accounts at all? EveryDollar and Goodbudget put automatic bank linking behind a paid plan, and YNAB, Goodbudget and EveryDollar can all be used by entering transactions by hand or importing a file. A spreadsheet or a paper budget also works and shares nothing with anyone.
- How does the company make money? Some apps charge a subscription, and others earn referral fees or sell advisory services. The company's privacy policy and disclosures say which.
- Does it work where you are? Several of these apps work only with banks in the United States, or the United States and Canada.
Looking for Mint?
Mint, the free budgeting app from Intuit, no longer exists as a separate app. Intuit announced in October 2023 that Mint was going away and invited its users to continue on Credit Karma, which offers some of Mint's features such as tracking spending and net worth. Check Credit Karma's own site for what is available now.
Sources
Company sites, checked in November 2026: