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Building long-term wealth starts with knowing where your dollars are going on a daily basis and how they’re helping you move closer toward your long-term goals. One way to do that: creating and maintaining a budget.
Luckily, there are various platforms out there that are designed to help you do just that. But if you’re not sure which app to use for your budgeting needs, we checked out a few of the most popular apps on the market to help you decide. The Fortune RecommendsTM editorial team reviewed 16 budgeting apps and weighed minimum annual costs, mobile app ratings, security features, account integration capabilities, and more. (Read our full methodology here.)
Our 10 top picks
The 10 best budgeting apps of 2023
There are several types of budgeting strategies and tools you can use to help get your financial house in order. Creating a budget and using an app to keep you accountable to your spending and saving goals is key to hitting all of your long-term financial goals.
(Note: Fees and account features in this list are up to date as of April 19, 2023, but are subject to change.)
1. Zeta
About: Zeta is a budgeting app that caters specifically to couples and families hoping to track their expenses together.
- Annual cost: $0
- Average app rating: 4.4
- Account syncing capabilities: Yes
Our verdict
Good for couples and families who want to merge their finances. Zeta offers a number of features that make it an ideal app for budgeting with others in your household. The app offers both personal and joint accounts that allow you to pay bills, save for goals, and track shared expenses, and even offers in-app messaging to communicate with your partner or other members of your family about your budget. Zeta has an average mobile app rating of 4.4 and also offers two-factor authentication and data encryption to keep your data extra safe.
2. Rocket Money
About: Formerly known as Truebill, Rocket Money is a budgeting app that serves more than 3.4 million members worldwide and offers budgeting tools, bill negotiation services, and more.
- Cost: $0; or $3–$12 per month for premium version
- Average app rating: 4.4
- Account syncing capabilities: Yes
Our verdict
Good for those who are looking to cut down on their monthly costs. Rocket Money allows users to create a budget that automatically monitors spending, separates transactions into spending categories, sends notifications about upcoming charges or a low balance, and more. The app also offers bank-level security with 256-bit encryption to keep your personal data safe. Rocket Money is free to use, although there are optional services, like bill negotiation, that you can opt in to for an extra cost ranging from $3 to $12 monthly. The good news: Using the negotiation service to cut down on your monthly spending could help you cover the cost of a premium membership. And if your mortgage is serviced by Rocket Mortgage, you get full access to Rocket Money Premium for free.
3. Mint
About: Mint is a budgeting app that provides budgeting and bill negotiation services to more than 30 million users.
- Cost: $0 for free version or $4.99 monthly for Mint Premium
- Average app rating: 4.5
- Account syncing capabilities: Yes
Our verdict
Good for those who want to sync all of their financial accounts. Mint ranked highly on our list for its stellar mobile app rating and account integration capabilities. Users who budget with Mint can link their bank accounts, credit cards, loans, and investment accounts to better understand their entire financial picture and net worth. The app even offers users personalized insights on how to adjust their budgets to boost savings, pay down debt, and more. The app automatically categorizes your transactions and also gives you the opportunity to create your own categories based on your spending habits. Mint also offers bill negotiation services for users who are looking to trim their monthly costs.
4. PocketGuard
About: PocketGuard is a budgeting app that offers bill organizing and budget planning services to over 500,000 users.
- Cost: $0 for free version or $7.99 monthly, $34.99 annually, or $79.99 lifetime fee
- Average app rating: 4.2
- Account syncing capabilities: Yes
Our verdict
Good for users who are working on paying off debt. PocketGuard scored a spot on our list for its debt payoff tools. With PocketGuard, users can set bill reminders, set fee alerts, create savings goals, and more. What’s more—with PocketGuard’s personalized debt payoff plan, users can add all of their debt balances and interest rates to the app, and the platform will determine the most effective debt payoff strategy for you and create a repayment schedule. PocketGuard also offers a desktop version for users who prefer to budget on their computers, as well as Touch ID for extra security.
5. EveryDollar
About: EveryDollar is a budgeting app founded by Ramsey Solutions that helps users create a fully customizable budget and set financial goals, with additional perks for premium users.
- Cost: $12.99 monthly or $79.99 annually
- Average app rating: 4.0
- Account syncing capabilities: Yes
Our verdict
Good for those who are creating a budget for the first time. EveryDollar is a straightforward, easy-to-use budgeting app that allows users to create a customizable budget and set savings goals. Users can opt to upgrade to a premium account (for an added cost) which comes with additional benefits like bank connectivity, paycheck planning, group financial coaching, custom budget reports, smart tracking recommendations, and more. One downside: This app offers mobile and desktop platforms; however, EveryDollar notes that users should budget from their computer for the best-quality experience.
6. Honeydue
About: Honeydue is a completely free budgeting app that allows couples to manage their personal and shared budgets all in one app.
- Cost: $0
- Average app rating: 4.0
- Account syncing capabilities: Yes
Our verdict
Good for couples who want to manage their personal finances and joint finances in one place. Honeydue made our list for its zero-dollar annual cost, account syncing capabilities, and for making it easy for couples to budget together and manage their individual finances as well. Honeydue supports over 20,000 financial institutions across five countries and even offers a Honeydue joint bank account that is FDIC-insured through Sutton Bank. Couples can chat within the app about their financial goals, transactions, and more, making it easy to flag any potential errors and get on the same page about their financial habits.
7. Wally
About: Wally is a budgeting app available to IOS users only that offers customizable budgets, progress trackers, spending insights, financial calendars, and more.
- Cost: $0 or $8.99 monthly, $39.99 annually for Wally Gold membership
- Average app rating: 3.9
- Account syncing capabilities: Yes
Our verdict
Good for those who like to keep an eye on their progress. Wally took a spot on our list for giving users the opportunity to create a free budget and have access to progress trackers as they work toward hitting their financial goals. Users can also sync their account with other members in their households to give everyone an overview of their spending habits and goals. Wally may also be an ideal app for those who spend time abroad. The app allows you to sync and manage foreign bank accounts across 70 countries.
8. Buddy
About: Buddy is a simple, mobile-only budgeting app that lets you track your spending, income, and savings as well as shared budgets with loved ones or friends.
- Cost: $4.99 monthly or $34.99 yearly renewing subscription to unlock Premium functionality
- Average app rating: 4.7
- Account syncing capabilities: Yes
Our verdict
Good for those who often split the bill with friends. Buddy made our list for making it easier to manage budgets and shared costs among loved ones or friends. Apart from personal expense tracking and customizable budgets, Buddy users can also split larger costs among friends and make sure everyone pays their fair share. The app does not offer a desktop version, but it does have one of the highest average mobile app ratings on our list at 4.7.
9. Simplifi
About: Simplifi is a budgeting app offered by money management platform Quicken. The app is ad-free and offers budgeting services to over 20 million members.
- Cost: $35.88 annually or $71.88 per year if you sign up for a monthly membership
- Average app rating: 3.3
- Account syncing capabilities: Yes
Our verdict
Good for those who want a comprehensive overview of their finances, not just their monthly spending. Simplifi offers a combined approach to managing your finances with a monthly budgeting system, as well as a look into your debt repayment, investments, tax planning, and organizing personal and business expenses. While it did have a lower app rating than some of the other budgeting apps on our list, it does offer a desktop version with a more optimized experience. Simplifi also prioritizes keeping your personal information safe with 256-bit encryption.
10. Goodbudget
About: Goodbudget first started in 2009 and was developed by a San Francisco-based web and mobile development firm. It originally started as a virtual envelope budgeting method but has expanded to become a comprehensive budgeting app, offering shared budgets, debt trackers, and even educational courses and podcasts.
- Cost: $0–$70 for annual membership, or $8 monthly
- Average app rating: 4.5
- Account syncing capabilities: No
Our verdict
Good for those who want to learn more about budgeting and how to better manage their money. Goodbudget took the final spot on our list for its high mobile app rating, sharing capabilities, and bonus educational resources for budgeters in the form of podcasts, articles, online courses, and more. For users who have never created a budget or want to learn more about how to be smarter with their money, they can pair Goodbudget’s software with the educational materials provided to go the extra mile. The free version of the app includes only one account, but if you want to add multiple users to your budget, you can add unlimited users to your budget for $8 per month or $70 annually.
How to choose a budgeting app
When choosing a budgeting app, you’ll want to think about the features that are most important to you and will serve you long-term. The best budgeting app and strategy will be the ones you can stick to and use consistently to keep yourself accountable to your goals. To help narrow down your options, consider the following:
- Costs: There are many free budgeting apps available, as well as free versions of apps with premium subscriptions. When you’re comparing different budgeting apps, pay close attention to the pricing to determine whether the features offered by the app align with what you’re looking for and if these extra perks justify the cost of a monthly or yearly membership.
- Syncing: Many budgeting apps allow you to sync your financial accounts so that you don’t have to manually enter transactions and account balances. This saves you time and ensures that the information in your budget is as accurate and up-to-date as possible.
- App/desktop experience: If you plan to budget solely from your smartphone, take some time to comb through app reviews to see if other users have reported any glitches or potential issues while using the app. You want to aim to have the most seamless experience possible.
- Personalization and sharing: Budgets are not one-size-fits-all. Your spending habits are unique, and having the flexibility to create your own categories and then give other members within your household a birds’-eye view of your budget can help you and your loved ones pinpoint where you need to rein in your spending and how much progress you’re making in other areas.
Alternatives to budgeting apps
If budgeting apps aren’t your thing, you might consider more traditional approaches like the envelope method or a budgeting spreadsheet. The caveat is that budgeting spreadsheets take time to build out, must be updated manually, and may be harder to access on the go. Still, if you’re diligent about keeping your information updated and don’t necessarily need to peek at your budget daily, this could be a viable option.
Another option is to go the envelope route, which requires that you designate one envelope for all of your spending categories and add a certain amount of cash into each envelope based on how much you want to allow yourself to spend within that category for the month. This can be incredibly effective, but it does require that you carry around cash (which may not be ideal for online shopping or shopping at stores that don’t accept cash. However, you may be able to alter this method to make it more digital-friendly by creating separate sub-accounts for your spending categories.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a free budgeting app?
There are countless free budgeting apps available for download on the App Store and GooglePlay. However, account features vary from platform to platform, and some basic or free versions of budgeting apps have limited capabilities.
Are budgeting apps safe?
Budgeting apps all take different approaches to protecting your data and privacy. To properly vet whether your information is safe, take some time to read the app’s privacy and security terms and determine whether or not the app offers any kind of multi-factor authentication or data encryption.
What information do I need to create a budget?
This will depend on how detailed you want your budget to be, but start by having all of your most recent bank statements on hand, access to your credit card statements, loan statements, pay stubs, and regular household bills.
Our methodology
The Fortune RecommendsTM team compared 16 budgeting apps to help you find the best platform for your needs. To come up with our final list, we ranked the best apps and exchanges on the following categories and weighted each category as set forth in the percentages below:
- Annual cost (25%): Apps that were free or had a lower membership cost ranked higher on our list.
- Free version (5%): We rewarded budgeting apps that offered a free version of their app with one point.
- Mobile app rating (5%): We calculated the average mobile application rating for each budgeting app using ratings from the App Store and Google Play. We rewarded apps that had a higher average mobile application rating.
- Security or privacy features (15%): Budgeting apps that offered multi-factor identification, have an encrypted network, or offered other security features were awarded one point.
- Desktop version (5%): Budgeting apps that offered desktop versions of their software (in addition to the mobile platform) for users who prefer the option to budget from their computers received an extra point.
- Account integration capabilities (25%): Budgeting apps that allow users to link bank accounts, credit cards, or other financial accounts within the app received an additional point.
- Categorized expenses (15%): We favored apps that categorized users’ expenses into different spending categories within the app and allowed for users to personalize their spending categories.
- Sharing capabilities (5%): Budgeting apps that allowed users to add multiple users to the same budget earned an additional point.
We think that the best apps are free or low-cost, have higher app ratings, allow users to budget from various devices, link their financial accounts, and securely share their budget with others. The features, costs, and fees associated with these apps are subject to change.
