Best Budgeting Apps to Get Your Finances Together in 2024

Unless you’re an accountant, budgeting is nerve-wracking. Images of spreadsheets, endless numbers and paper receipts likely come to mind. Choosing the right budgeting tool can make the scary task of managing a budget a breeze.

Whether you want a better overview of your income and spending, the ability to trim the fat from your expenses or a strict budget, there are apps out there for your lifestyle. Not all apps cost money; many offer financial tools for free.

To help with your search for the best budgeting app for you, we’ve tested and reviewed the top budgeting apps in 2024, free and paid, for Android smartphones and iPhones. As you dive into this guide on budgeting apps, just remember, the best budgeting tool is the one you will actually use.

What Is the Best Budgeting App for You?

There are several things to consider when you’re looking for a good budgeting app.

• Flexibility: You may want the flexibility to customize your budget based on various factors, such as different types of income (i.e., cash tips, side hustle) and the kind of budget you like to use.

• Bank Account syncing: Budgeting apps can do a little or a lot. You may prefer to track transactions manually. Or maybe you want real-time tracking on transactions for some or all of your accounts.

• User experience: How an app functions can vary. Are you OK with ads? Credit card offers? Categories that can’t be personalized?

• Cost: Some budget apps are free. Some are paid. Some are “freemium” — basic features for free, premium features for a price. Do you want to budget for free? Are you cool with paying for extra features?

We’ve reviewed a range of budgeting apps that cover all the bases: paid, free, nice-to-have extras, super basic, no syncing, all the syncing (including tracking your net worth), automatically adding transactions, manually logging transactions, just for you or shared with someone else. Whatever your needs, there’s a budget app that’s right for you.

Full Reviews of The Top Budgeting Apps in 2024

Cleo: Best for Fun Engagement

The AI-powered financial assistant that was founded in 2016 makes budgeting less boring. Get your recommendations in a light-hearted manner or go for the “roast mode” that humorously calls out overspending. 

The app can help you track your spending, set budgeting goals and ultimately save money in an engaging way. Cleo connects to your bank accounts and provides real-time insights into your financial habits.

It can also help you build credit with its Credit Builder card. There’s no interest and no credit checks so you can feel confident in your ability to, as Cleo says, un*expletive* your credit.

Make your financial future a little more fun by downloading Cleo.

EarnIn: Best for Paycheck Advance

Earnin’s goal is to help people make any day payday. Instead of waiting two weeks for your paycheck, you can access up to $100 a day or $750 per pay period. 

The steps to get started are simple. Sign up and link your bank account, access your hard-earned money, then automatically repay Earnin when your check hits. Plus, you won’t have to worry about interest, mandatory fees or credit checks.  

We love it for people who are struggling to pay bills on time, because you get your money as you earn it. And avoiding late fees means more money in your pocket. 

Paycheck advances are not the only way Earnin improves your financial stability. It provides resources on financial goals, budgeting and paying off debt, as well as a credit monitoring tool.

Monarch: Best for Organization

Usher your money management into the modern era with an all-in-one personal finance app. Monarch lets you track your account balances, transactions and investments in one place, giving you a more complete view of your finances. 

Having trouble monitoring your spending? You can track it by merchant or by category. Saving for a big purchase? Get automatically notified when your savings get off track. And if better budgeting is a family effort, Monarch also allows you to collaborate with your household. All with no ads, no data selling to third parties and a simple, intuitive design.

You can always try it for free for seven days before starting a paid subscription. But right now, you can get 30% off your first year with the code WELCOME.

Rocket Money: The Best Budgeting App

Known for trimming bills, Rocket Money, formerly Truebill, isn’t a stranger to The Penny Hoarder community as we’ve recommended the app before — and with good reason. Rocket Money offers tools for budgeting, managing subscriptions and negotiating bills.

Rocket Money is an excellent all-in-one app for those looking to get their financial world in better shape.

Rocket Money takes top billing for allowing you to calculate and create an allowance, so you know exactly how much money you have to spend each month. You can also set up goals for categories you want to watch, such as eating out at restaurants or shopping in general.

If you’re new to budgeting, Rocket Money is a solid option that walks you through the process. The app offers additional features — such as spending insights — that can help you build better budgets. You can see where your money is going each month and receive alerts if you are headed toward overspending.

We love Rocket Money’s subscription management feature, too, that checks your bank account for any recurring charges. It’s a great way to discover subscriptions you may have forgotten about or no longer require.

If you have a high cell phone or cable bill, Rocket Money can even negotiate it down to a lower rate. Rocket Money does take a cut of that savings for the first year if your bill is reduced.

While Rocket Money is free, you’ll pay $3 to $12 each month for premium features. How much you pay is up to you.

Empower: Build and Manage Wealth

We’d be remiss not to include at least one budgeting tool that offers investment management services. Empower, formerly known as Personal Capital, is one of the most popular budgeting apps that allows you to add investment management services and financial planning tools alongside basic budgeting.

Empower lets you link bank accounts such as checking and savings accounts, credit card accounts, 401(k)s and IRAs and any mortgages and or loans. You can also create financial reports that track net worth and portfolio performance on your mobile device and desktop.

While Empower does support customizable spending categories, it doesn’t get into the weeds of expense tracking that many budgeting apps provide. Still, if you’re looking for a free budgeting app that also manages your personal capital, Empower fits the bill.

YNAB (You Need a Budget): A More Detailed Budgeting App

YNAB — also known as You Need a Budget — is a comprehensive, zero-based budgeting app that breaks down your spending and earnings into granular details. We love the features in YNAB, but the interface can be more intimidating than those of other budgeting apps that hold your hand throughout the process.

If you want to dive into the nitty gritty of your personal finances, YNAB is one of the best apps you can download — seriously, it could be life changing. YNAB connects to your bank accounts to automatically import your transactions and syncs in real time across multiple devices. You can start budgeting on your phone, then pick up where you left off on a tablet or computer.

The YNAB app offers the same features as our other recommendations, including the ability to set up and track goals or keep a close eye on your net worth.

We also love the built-in loan calculator that looks at interest rates and shows how much money you’ll save by paying down your debt faster.

Other YNAB features include smart categorization that learns how you sort purchases and adjusts to future spending, as well as an ad-free experience. It’s nice to skip the temptation ads can offer when you’re trying to get your financial house in order.

YNAB is free for 34 days to give you a solid month of budgeting plus a few days for analysis. You don’t have to put in a credit card to sign up, so you won’t end up with a forgotten subscription if you decide YNAB isn’t for you. YNAB also offers a yearlong free trial for college students.

YNAB costs $14.99 a month or $99 a year.

Simplifi: The Budgeting Runner-Up

The Simplifi app isn’t nearly as popular as it should be. The simple layout and design of the app — one of our favorite features — makes budgeting feel approachable and less intimidating. But a simple design doesn’t mean a lack of features, as Simplifi packs in effective tools to help you establish a budget and stay on track.

With Simplifi, you can connect all of your financial data, including bank, credit card, loan and 401(k) accounts, so you can see everything all together. From there, you can set financial goals and budgets while keeping track of your spending. Your overall spending plan even gives you an overview of planned spending versus what you’re actually spending.

If you want to save for a big purchase, such as a car or a down payment on a home, Simplifi can calculate how much money you’ll need to set aside each month to meet your goal. If you update the goal or alter the time frame, Simplifi will recalculate everything for you — without you lifting a finger.

One of the reasons we like Simplifi is that the budgeting app is backed by Quicken, a finance giant with millions of customers. Simplifi builds on Quicken’s wealth of knowledge in the financial space.

Simplifi is easily worth the $2.00 a month to use!

PocketGuard: Budgeting at a Glance

PocketGuard is one of those finance apps that does the work so you don’t have to. The simple interface will sync bank accounts, calculate upcoming bills and manage your cash flow so you’ll always know how much you have to spend.

The app offers users three common budgeting techniques:

• Envelope: Create customized categories and allocate a certain amount of money to each one based on anticipated monthly spending
• Zero-based: Ensure that your income minus expenses equals zero
• 50/30/20 budgeting: Allocate 50% of your income to needs, 30% to wants, and 20% to savings

“In My Pocket” is another app feature that allows you to analyze your monthly income and expenses, showing the amount you have available to spend. With this feature, you can understand your spending capacity, and PocketGuard will notify you if your spending exceeds 50% or 75% of your budget.

If you decide to lean into the premium version, PocketGuard’s paid subscription comes with a personalized spending plan that can help pay off debt, save money and more closely track spending.

As budgeting tools go, there is a downside to PocketGuard’s place as one of the most popular budgeting apps. While it’s nice to have intuitive tools that manage how you’re spending money, that can mean less awareness about specific budgeting concerns.

Fortunately, most of PocketGuard’s functionality is wrapped up in a basic version that’s free to download in both the Apple and Google Play stores, so you can give it a whirl and see how it stacks up to other apps. You can also try it for free for seven days.

Buddy: Budgeting in Manual Mode

Buddy introduces itself as your new financial companion — aka the joyful budgeting app — and we couldn’t agree more. A little on the basic side, Buddy still helps you create budgets and track your expenses. You can even share your budgets with someone else, such as your partner or roommate. Buddy is our favorite option for people looking to handle their finances together.

While Buddy is a great budgeting app, you can’t link a bank account or card, which means you have to manually input each transaction. To some, this is a deal breaker. For others, it’s the power of a budgeting app but with more privacy because your bank account isn’t involved.

If you are OK with adding transactions, you’ll find a plethora of wonderful features within the Buddy app. In addition to creating simple budgets and tracking expenses, you can break down spending into custom categories and view insights into your current plan and spending history.

Buddy even allows you to personalize the app to put some fun in budgeting with custom colors and themes.

Buddy is free, but if you want everything the app has to offer, you’ll need a subscription. Select features require a premium subscription, which is $9.99 a month. Annual subscriptions are $49.99.

Honeydue: Budgeting With a Partner

Divide and conquer recurring bills with Honeydue, one of the best budget apps for couples. If you’re both trying to get a handle on finances and budget together, this might be the right budget app for you. Rather than having to get a joint bank account to manage money together, Honeydue allows couples to have separate views of their finances combined in one app.

One of the real advantages of Honeydue is it enables accountability if you and your partner are committed to better financial planning. Set up alerts when one of you is overspending in certain categories, and you can have a money chat and course correct to stay on track.

A clear disadvantage of Honeydue is that as much as it gives you a better handle on your current financial picture, the app doesn’t offer many proactive budgeting tools. Still, if you’d rather not plunk down money for a paid version of a budgeting app you may not use long term, Honeydue is worth a try.

Goodbudget: Best Virtual Envelope System

If shopping sprees and overspending are the culprits that cause your budget to crash and burn, Goodbudget might be just the ticket. Similar to the cash envelope system, Goodbudget is a way to promote a zero-based budgeting system with virtual envelopes.

You can get unlimited envelopes with the paid version of Goodbudget, but this budgeting app does have a downside. There’s no automatic syncing of bank accounts, so you’ll have to enter amounts to be assigned to each virtual envelope manually.

Goodbudget also has some features that allow you to sync and share your budget with someone else. This functionality makes working on a shared savings goal like an emergency fund or affording that dream vacation easy.

Other Budgeting Tools to Consider

For those who find touch ID mobile access and multi-factor authentication a little off-putting, there are traditional budgeting methods you should check out. Several old-school pen-and-paper methods, such as Kakeibo or calendar budgeting, might be more your style.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Kaz Weida is a staff writer at The Penny Hoarder covering saving money and budgeting. As a journalist, she has written about a wide array of topics including finance, health, politics, education and technology for the last decade. Michael Archambault is a former senior writer for The Penny Hoarder specializing in technology.

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