Best way to become smart with your money is to actively manage your money.
Make a plan for your money. Some may call it a budget.
At Money Bliss, we like to call it a Cents Plan. This enables you to find financial freedom. Find that place Where Cents Parallel Vision. Today, there are many budgeting apps on the market.
To kick off the new year, I was determined to find the best budgeting app on the market. Guess what?
My list grew each week!! And still growing! There are so many choices.
There are money management apps. Personal finance apps. Budgeting apps. So many apps to choose from! Seriously.
Some are free budgeting apps. Others have a monthly fee. Some have one-time cost.
Everyone has their personal favorites. As well as, what will and won’t work for them. I still plan to dig into each of these budgeting apps, but it has taken some time and I wanted to share the list of budget apps I have found.
The key with any budgeting app (free or paid) is learn to manage your money.
Wait, First – You Must
Before we dig in to the list of budgeting apps, we must discuss key points first.
In order to be successful, with any type of budget app, you must understand three key areas.
1. Uncover your Money Situation
You can’t hide under the sheets or with your head in the sand and expect changes.
To be successful with money, you must be active with your personal finance situation.
Take time to understand your vision. Figure out where you stand in building a foundation to the Money Bliss Steps to Financial Freedom. Understand where the pits of money are spent every month.
Not sure, where to start? Check out our FREE Jumpstart your Money Mindset course.
Must Read Help:
- Powerful Millionaire Habits that will Change Your Life
- How to Budget Money and Still Enjoy Life
- How to Stop Living Paycheck to Paycheck
2. Budgeting Apps Won’t Change Habits
While personal finance or money management apps keep you on track, they are incapable of changing habits.
You have to make changes.
Just because the budget app tracks your usage on the credit card doesn’t mean that you should have spent that money. So, be willing to make changes in your spending habits and those emotional purchases to achieve financial freedom.
You must learn to manage your money.
Related Readings:
- How to Overcome When Ends Don’t Meet
- The Vicious Cycle- Learn How to Stop Spending Money Now
- With the Right Money Mindset, Go from Broke to Rich
3. Still Need Paper & Pen
First thought is “Wait, I wanted to get away from paper and pen.” Yes, that is the goal for most individuals.
However, it is key to know your net worth over time. For a full understanding, read What is the Purpose to Track Net Worth – Even if Negative? .
Also, you never know when your favorite budget app will go away. (Ugh!) Personally, I don’t like to be pessimistic, but technology is rapidly changing and being able to adapt is key.
Keep tracking your personal finance numbers towards financial freedom in a separate place.
Okay without further ado, the full list of budgeting apps on the market.
Full List of Budgeting Apps – Free
1. Personal Capital – This is one of my favorite ways to analyze investment accounts. See all of your accounts in one place, which helps to see spending. Free budgeting app to use.
2. PocketSmith – Manage your budget and forecast your finances.
3. Empower Finance – Set budgets for every aspect of your life and get real-time alerts on paychecks, bills, and purchases.
4. ClarityMoney – Cancel unwanted subscriptions, track spending, set savings goals, and more. Try it free.
5. GoodBudget – Envelope budgeting for the modern world.
6. Fudget – The budget planner you can actually use.
7. Wally – Personal Finance – It helps you compare your income to your expenses, understand where your money goes, and set and achieve goals.
8. Mint: Personal Finance & Money – Mint is the free money management and financial tracker app that helps you get ahead and stay ahead.
9. CountAbout – CountAbout is an online personal finance solution that surpasses the security and ease of use of the other popular commercial solutions on the market while offering complete privacy, zero advertising, and no selling of your personal data.
10. Daily Budget Original – Daily Budget calculation, planning & saving for big spending, basic categories for expenses, backup.
Budgeting Resources:
- 9 Surprising Advantages of Budgeting your Money
- How to Make a Budget in 7 Simple Steps
- Why You Need a Cash Flow Budget + How To Start
11. Spending Tracker – The simple fact is, by tracking your spending you will be able to stick to a budget and therefore SAVE MONEY.
12. Money Monitor – You can track and organize all your transactions, accounts, budgets, bills, cash flow and payees in Money Monitor by easy operation but with powerful functions.
13. Money Box – Set your money goals and track your personal savings with this app. Take control of your saving goals and spend cash wisely.
14. Dollarbird– Track and forecast your money as easily as adding events to a calendar! Dollarbird helps you make sense of your financial situation, plan ahead and manage your money together with those who matter.
15. NerdWallet – Whether you want to maximize credit card rewards, earn extra cash back, track your credit score or make budgeting easier, it’s all here.
16. Olivia– Whether you identify as someone who is living paycheck to paycheck, or you’d just like to get smarter with your money in general, you’ve come to the right place! I am here to help YOU become the MASTER of your money.
17. Banktivity – Banktivity puts you in the driver seat of your finances so you can do both.
18. Truebill Expense– Truebill is your automated financial assistant and budget tracker designed to put you back in control of your money. Truebill lets you easily track bills, cancel unwanted subscriptions, and proactively requests refunds on your behalf, putting real money back in your pocket!
19. Budget Saved – Personal Finance – Budget Saved helps you save money by grouping expenses based on need or want. You input an expense, save it as a need or want and then you can look back to see which purchases were really necessary. With this information you can see exactly how much you can save.
20. Spendee– Understand your finances better with Spendee, the FREE budgeting app that tracks your spending, optimizes your budget and helps you save money.
21. Albert – Money Management – Combining human guidance with cutting-edge technology, Albert is the intuitive app that automates your financial life — so you can be free to enjoy it. Build savings, meet bills, end the overspending cycle and develop your financial IQ, right from the palm of your hand.
22. Your Money Wallet – YourMoneyWallet lets you see all your accounts in one place, understand your spending, monitor your everyday spending, and see all your money transactions in a beautiful well crafted design.
Guilty of Overspending??
- The Vicious Cycle- Learn How to Stop Spending Money Now
- Complete Guide to Sinking Funds; Why They are So Important?
- 12 Things I Quit Buying to Save Money
23. Credit Karma – Start by digging into your credit profile and finding out what goes into your credit scores. Then get important updates with credit monitoring, keep an eye on your info with ID monitoring, check out personalized recommendations and more.
24. Expense IQ – Expense IQ (formerly EasyMoney) is your ultimate money manager app that combines an expense tracker, a budget planner, a checkbook register, integrated bills reminder and more rolled into one powerful personal finance app!
25. Prism– Never miss a bill or pay late fees again! We automatically track your bills & send due date reminders, for free. See your income, account balances, & monthly expenses at a glance.
26. Coin Keeper– Download CoinKeeper — the handiest way to plan and manage your finances, created especially for smartphones and tablets.
27. Joy – Money App– Joy is the brand new money app that will change the way you spend and save money to help you find more happiness in your life.
28. Mobills– Mobills is a budget planning app that allows you to create a custom monthly budget that will help you take control of your money. You are able to manage your money, track your spending, and achieve your financial goals all in one place.
29. iSpending – iSpending helps you to track your income and spendings. You can add transactions under different categories, such as income, food, entertainment.
30. Advent – Budgeting Made Simple – Advent makes budgeting and tracking expenses super easy! With a very minimalistic design, you can easily maneuver around quickly.
31. Receipt Box – The Receipt Box is a quick app which conducive to develop good habit of tracking spending.It indeed perform well on this one.
32. PocketGuard – With all of your financial accounts in one place, PocketGuard helps you stay on top of your finance and make better financial decisions.
Full List of Budgeting Apps – Free Trial
1. Digit – Digit analyzes your spending and automatically saves the perfect amount every day, so you don’t have to think about it. Start your 30 day trial.
2. HoneyMoney– Great way to use cash flow budgeting. Plus uses “envelopes” to budget.
3. Qapital – Free, easy way to save money. Get $5 for your first Goal if you sign up here.
4. YNAB (You Need a Budget) – Proven method that has helped hundreds of thousands of people break the paycheck to paycheck cycle, get out of debt, and live the life they want to live.
5. Honeyfi: Couples Finances – First app to help couples team up on everyday and long-term finances.
6. Wallet– Wallet is designed to help you get your finances under control from day one, giving you ongoing insight into your financial situation, and helping you stay in control for the long term.
7. Every Dollar– EveryDollar follows the zero-based budget approach recommended by Dave Ramsey, a top personal money-management expert. Create daily and monthly budgets and track your expenses to manage and save money.
8. Expensify – Expensify is the perfect tool for anyone who needs to keep track of receipts and automate expense management.
9. Cost Track – Expense Tracker – Cost Track allows you to: use your money wisely, keep track of your personal and family budget, and quickly enter your income and expenses.
10. mvelopes – Everyone knows that cash will keep you on budget. Here is a digital option for your cash envelopes. Your first month free is check out the budgeting system.
11. Easy Spending – Its a simple and convenient finance tracker that provides the most powerful and convenient daily money management for iPhone and iPad, that neatly tracks all your cash flow between different accounts that you can budget.
Making Your Budget Work for You:
- How to Make Living on a Budget Painless
- 110+ Personal Budget Categories for a Fail-Proof Budget
- How to Stop Living Paycheck to Paycheck
Full List of Budgeting Apps – Paid
1. CheckBook Pro – An easy & quick way to manage your daily finances, Checkbook Pro keeps track of your credit card charges, cash expenditures…etc.
2. MoneyDance – Moneydance is easy to use personal finance software that is loaded with all the features you need: online banking and bill payment, account management, budgeting and investment tracking.
3. HomeBudget – HomeBudget is an integrated expense tracker designed to help you track your expenses, income, bills-due and account balances. It offers support for budgeting, and allows analysis of your expenses and income, including charts and graphs.
4. Moneyspire – The budget feature is very user friendly and has the ability to rollover amounts. All of the reports you need at your fingertips. Also, you can move your data from many of the top budgeting apps and Quicken.
5. BUDGT – BUDGT will help you keep track of your Expenses in a very simple way and tell you how much money you can spend each day, taking in account what you have already spent during the current month.
6. Rolling Budget– Rolling Budget is a personal finance tracker that keeps track of your day-to-day expenses, travel, and fuel costs. Track where your money goes, plan your expenses, and create a budget that works for you!
7. Pennies – Keep track of your spending and save money with Pennies, the award-winning budgeting app for iPhone, iPad and Watch.
8. Pocket Expense – Pocket Expense brings all your financial accounts together, categorizes your transactions, tracks all your bills, lets you set budgets and helps you achieve your savings goals. In just minutes, you’ll see where your money is going and where you could save money.
Related Post: The Best Methods of Budgeting You Need to Know
Budgeting Apps Off the Cloud:
1. Quicken– Personally, I have used Quicken – pretty much since it was developed. Way before budgeting apps was even a thing and the cloud didn’t exist. Quicken is great to track how your money is being spent. Their internal budget feature is not user friendly and has quirks. However, the cash flow reports are awesome to compare spending. The #1 reason I still recommend Quicken is because of their long history.
2. Moneyspire – For those frustrated with Quicken, Moneyspire is the choice for you. The budget feature is very user friendly and has the ability to rollover amounts. All of the reports you need at your fingertips. Also, you can move your data from many of the top budgeting apps and Quicken. Start a free trial here.
3. Tiller Money – Tiller is the only tool that automatically updates Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel with your spending, transactions, and balances each day.
4. Banktivity – Get full control of you personal finance situation with Banktivity. Has all the bells and whistles you would come to expect for a personal finance budgeting software. There is ability to connect to the cloud if you prefer. Only for Mac Users.
5. MoneyDance – Moneydance is easy to use personal finance software that is loaded with all the features you need: online banking and bill payment, account management, budgeting and investment tracking.
6. QuickBooks – QuickBooks is must like Quicken. It is the preferred software for most bookkeepers. The features are very helpful, but the price is significantly higher.
Apps to Help Save Extra Money:
1. Acorns: Invest Spare Change
2. Stash: Invest. Learn. Save.
3. Trim
4. BillShark
Plenty of options to find your favorite budget apps.
Each of this apps can improve money management.
However, you must be able to make the changes necessary to stay within your means. That is up to you. Don’t try it and give up after a money. Stick with it. Show perseverance. In the end, you will be happy you did.
This is your personal finance journey.
The ultimate goal with any budget app is to learn to manage your money. Not have your money manage you.
Which is your budgeting apps favorite?
Keep on Budgeting:
- 110+ Personal Budget Categories for a Fail-Proof Budget
- How to Improve Your Finances with a Bare Bones Budget
- How to Budget Money and Still Enjoy Life