Whether you’re on a tight budget or not, there are plenty of apps that will help you save money. Here’s how the top 12 free and paid Android applications used to cost before they were made free in 2018.
The “best budgeting apps 2021” is a list of the best budgeting apps for people who are looking to save money.
If you want to start budgeting — or improve your current budgeting strategy — there are a number of applications that can take care of the majority of the work for you. Organizing and tracking your expenditures with any of these applications will surely help you remain on top of your finances. There’s no excuse not to use one of today’s most popular budgeting applications, especially since many of them are free.
Given the abundance of budgeting applications available, we selected 11 of the most popular and put them to the test. We examined our personal financial data to discover which applications were the most helpful in keeping our budget in check. Despite the fact that all of these applications have something to offer, we selected three winners that can keep your money — and budget — under control completely.
Overall, the best budget app
PocketGuard is without a doubt our favorite budgeting software. It’s simple to create an account and utilize after you’ve done so. The software is available on the App Store and Google Play, and there’s even a desktop version if you’re tired of your phone’s little screen.
Couples’ budgeting app of choice
Honeydue is the app for you and your significant other if you’re seeking for a straightforward budgeting tool. This completely free tool is as straightforward as they come, and it can guarantee that you and your spouse are on the same page when it comes to budgeting.
The best budgeting software is one that allows you to keep track of your finances.
Mint is one of the most well-known personal finance applications, and it’s simple to understand why. This fully free program has the most functionality of any app, and it neatly organizes all of your financial data.
PocketGuard can connect all of your credit card and bank accounts, as well as other forms of financial accounts, to assist you in creating a solid budget. You may also manually enter any extra revenue, such as cash or cheques that do not clear your bank account.
The program tells you what you’ve spent in previous months as a baseline, which you may alter as needed to generate an initial budget. PocketGuard gives you a lot of options when it comes to budgeting, including the ability to build your own categories, which is a feature that not many applications have.
The program categorizes your transactions automatically, but you may change the category for any transaction if the algorithm makes a mistake. In our tests, however, PocketGuard’s categorizations were rather accurate.
After you’ve completed your first setup, you’ll be able to view how much money you have left over for the month, which the app refers to as “In My Pocket.” This can help you figure out how much money you have to save or spend on other things.
Then, when transactions occur during the month, your budget is updated in real time, allowing you to see how much you are over or under budget in each area. Budgeting charts from PocketGuard are also a wonderful way to see how much money you spend month to month.
You may now set up push notifications to get updates about your money, such as when a payment due date is approaching, income has been received, you’ve over your budget, and more.
PocketGuard may possibly be able to assist you in lowering some of your expenditures. For example, the app observed that my monthly Verizon payment was $218.97, and it calculated that it might save me $12.48 per month. While this is a free service, PocketGuard gets a 40% share of the savings if it is effective in saving you money.
Many sorts of expenses, including phone, internet, and cable, are eligible for this money-saving service. Of course, there’s no guarantee that PocketGuard will save you money, but it never hurts to have someone else attempt to save you money on your behalf, particularly if you don’t want to deal with your service providers yourself.
The app’s one drawback is that, although the basic version is free, we suggest upgrading to PocketGuard Plus, which costs $4.99 per month, $34.99 per year, or $74.99 for a lifetime membership. The subscription version’s biggest advantage is that you may create limitless budgets and monitor your cash expenditure. While the costs might add up rapidly, the potential savings soon exceed them. One important tip: join up for the online version rather than the app since the app’s plans are more costly (the prices mentioned here are the website prices).
There’s also a referral scheme that allows you to get the premium PocketGuard Plus service for free if you’re a genuine hustler. You may earn free months of premium service by referring enough friends and family members – which equates to points.
Overall, PocketGuard is the way to go if you want an easy-to-use program with superb aesthetics and functionality. To get the most out of this software, you’ll probably want to update to the enhanced version.
Honeydue allows you and your spouse to make a household budget by combining all of your financial accounts into a single dashboard. You may connect accounts from practically any financial institution with the app, including credit cards, bank accounts, savings accounts, and more. This enables you and your spouse to view both individual and shared account activities by navigating around the system.
While Honeydue’s objective is for you and your spouse to be on the same financial page, you may adjust your partner’s permissions on what they can and can’t view. So you may choose whether your significant other should have access to both your balances and transactions, simply your balances, or none at all.
All of your transactions are also categorised in the app, allowing you to keep track of your household’s spending within each budget area. You may set a spending limit for each category, and the app will notify you and your partner when you’re about to exceed it. You’ll also be notified when money enters or exits your account.
Honeydue’s primary selling point is its communication capabilities. You may leave remarks on individual purchases or even communicate a specific transaction to your spouse using the chat tool. It even contains amusing emoticons to help you make budgeting less of a burden.
All of these features enable you and your spouse to talk openly about your money, as well as utilize the app to budget and store everything in one place so nothing is forgotten. It could even help you avoid some of those difficult dinner table discussions.
Another useful feature of Honeydue is the ability to add invoices and due dates to a calendar so that both you and your spouse are reminded. This might assist you in keeping track of your home spending and ensuring that you have enough money in your accounts to cover any impending debts.
Honeydue has just offered a fee-free joint bank account option with no monthly minimums. If you don’t already have a joint account, this is a convenient method to keep track of your finances. However, Honeydue Joint Banking is only accessible through a mobile app; there is no online browser alternative. You can’t deposit checks via the smartphone app, either.
While Honeydue doesn’t have all of the bells and whistles of some of the other apps on our list, it’s a terrific alternative for couples as a completely free app. Honeydue’s communication and alerting tools will assist you and your spouse in staying on track and avoiding spending more than your home can afford.
Mint’s setup procedure is simple, even for non-techies, since it imports all of your bank, credit card, and investment account information. You may check Mint at any moment to see how much money you have in all of your accounts.
You may classify your transactions across all of your accounts using the app to get a better understanding of your spending patterns. This functionality also lets you distinguish between the $50 you earned helping a buddy move and the $50 you were repaid after paying for lunch when categorizing Venmo transactions — which many applications don’t connect to.
Mint’s budgeting tool is one of the most helpful elements of the program, despite the fact that it delivers a wealth of information. Mint can recommend a monthly budget for you based on your spending patterns and average expenditure in each area, which may help you not only budget better, but also save money. Of course, you may tailor the budget to your own requirements and preferences, but having the system lead you can be quite beneficial, particularly if you are unsure where to begin.
Mint will track your progress and give you reminders if you go over your budget in any area after you’ve set it up. It’s also simple to log into Mint on a daily basis to check your progress and keep track of any objectives you’ve established.
Another standout feature of Mint is that all customers get a free credit score. While you can acquire your credit score for free from a variety of places, having it coupled with all of your spending is a wonderful plus. The app may help you remain on top of all the important parts of your credit score, such as your outstanding invoices and total available credit, by updating it every three months.
Finally, Mint is a terrific alternative if you want to view all of your financials in one spot and go beyond simply budgeting.
We downloaded each app and went through the whole process of entering our personal information into the app as if we were a real-life user, including attaching our bank accounts, credit cards, and any other financial data (for apps that allow this). After that, we explored with each app to see how well it worked. To completely appreciate each app’s potential, we began with the free edition of each app then, if accessible, upgraded to the premium version.
We began testing in 2020 and have been updating this guide with new applications and features on a yearly basis since then. We used the same criteria as before, as well as the same financial information.
The following were the primary factors we looked at:
- Usability: When assessing how simple each program was to use, we looked at a variety of factors. Overall usability, convenience of setting up an account, reporting features, the ability to transfer data from a range of financial institutions, and any other special characteristics were all considered.
- The amount of categories we could budget for, real-time monitoring updates, and the ability to create targets were all covered.
- Apps that were accessible for both Apple and Android users, as well as apps that have a desktop version, scored better in our tests.
- We examined the price of each app, as well as any costs for in-app feature upgrades.
While our top picks have remained the same, we added another budgeting software, Digit, to our testing lab in 2022.
If you want to figure out how much money you have, Personal Capital can assist you. If you’re just looking for a budgeting tool, though, this well-known investment option can offer you more than you bargained for, and it might be a little daunting.
Even though you can attach your credit cards and bank accounts to it, including investment accounts, we discovered that the strong suite of this software wasn’t its budgeting tools in our first testing. Previously, you couldn’t divide transactions over different categories, but thanks to a recent update, you can now do so. For example, if you make a significant buy at Target that contains both apparel and food, you may now categorize the transaction.
Despite the fact that you may create monthly spending goals and see your data in real time, other applications are more suited and easy when it comes to budgeting.
Mvelopes employs the “envelope” budgeting method, in which you divide your money into several digital envelopes. According to the principle, once your money is broken up, it remains in that category and may only be used for purchases in that area. This helps you keep track of your purchases and ensures you don’t go overboard in one area.
In Mvelopes, creating envelopes is quite simple, but it may also take a long time. Some of the tabs aren’t very obvious, but if you pay for the Premier or Plus edition of the software, you’ll get help getting started. We don’t believe this is something that should be required, since the price is pretty exorbitant – particularly when compared to some of the other applications on our list. Fortunately, the newly announced Premier plan comes with a 30-day free trial, so you can always give it a go before deciding whether or not this system (and app) is right for you.
Mvelopes is a nice software to try if you’re already acquainted with the envelope method but want to make it digital. It is, however, not free — not even the basic edition — unlike many other budgeting applications. Given the price, you may be able to discover alternative programs and solutions that are more suitable for your needs.
Another envelope budgeting program, Goodbudget, assists you in allocating and managing your monthly expenditures. For each envelope category, such as grocery, gas, entertainment, and so on, you input your budget. You can only produce 10 envelopes with the free version; but, with the premium GoodBudget Plus edition, you can generate an infinite number of envelopes.
Because this is a manual software, you won’t be able to input your credit card transactions. So, after your envelopes are set up, you’ll manually complete that envelope category with the amount you paid every time you make a transaction. To make your entry easier, you may set regular payments.
Goodbudget isn’t extremely user-friendly, but its graphic reports are fairly thorough, which might be useful if you’re a visual person. It also has a 30-day money-back guarantee, so if you want to test the Plus edition, you have a month to determine whether it’s right for you without putting your money at risk.
You Need a Budget (YNAB) is a zero-based budgeting program, which means that every dollar you make has a designated spending category or a savings target. This gives every dollar you earn a purpose or a “job,” helping you to budget more effectively.
You may connect your credit card and bank accounts to your YNAB account right away, so you don’t have to manually input your information. Then you make a budget for all of your costs (such rent and food) as well as your hobbies (such as vacations and dining out).
You can budget better for these activities and guarantee you aren’t spending more than what you have in your bank account if you know how much money you have left in the “quality of life objectives” and “just for fun” categories.
Although this is an excellent method, the app does take some time to get accustomed to. Fortunately, YNAB provides a 34-day free trial to enable you to test it out and see whether this sort of budgeting system is right for you. The app also offers a variety of courses and tutorials to help you learn more about the program and budgeting in general.
The Albert app calculates a “Albert Score,” which is a financial checkup score on a scale of 0 to 100, to show you how well you’re following your budgeting objectives. You can also organize your transactions into specific categories inside the app, which will help you manage a better budget and keep track of your expenditures.
Albert has many of the same features as other budget applications, but it stands out for its savings component. Albert Savings employs an algorithm to generate an amount to automatically transfer from your checking account to a savings account based on your whole financial picture. While the quantity of money taken out is minimal, it is intended to accumulate over time.
The fact that you have to connect your bank account — and even submit your social security number — during the setup process to utilize any element of Albert is a major turnoff. This means you won’t be able to go at the app’s features first, or even utilize parts of it that don’t need you to provide personal information. Furthermore, there is no online version, so if you don’t want to link an account but still want to work on your budget on a computer, this isn’t the program for you.
Credit card information is gathered in real time and suitably classified with Wally, allowing individuals on a tight budget to know precisely how much money they have left over for the remaining days of the month. In fact, the first thing you see when you login in to Wally is the amount of money you have left over for the month. This prominent reminder keeps you informed about your financial situation at all times so you don’t go over budget.
Wally also enables you to snap images of receipts and keep them in the app to aid with budgeting. This is a great way to keep track of your costs without having to keep track of every single paper receipt. It may also assist you with minor cash purchases, which can be very useful when traveling.
Wally is also fantastic for digital nomads since it accepts practically all international currencies, which is a nice feature for folks who spend most of their time traveling (or living) overseas. The fact that this software is only accessible via the Apple Store is a major drawback; if you have an Android phone, you’re out of luck.
Wally previously only had a premium version, but they’ve now released a simple — and free — version as well. You’ll gain additional capabilities with the premium Wally Gold membership option, including the ability to budget by category, share accounts, examine your whole financial history, and more. Wally is also providing a free year of Gold membership till January 31, 2022. This is a wonderful tool to try out if you have an iOS device and want to see whether it works for your financial requirements.
If you like personal finance expert Dave Ramsey’s radio show “The Dave Ramsey Show,” you’ll enjoy the EveryDollar app, which allows you to budget quickly and easily without having to look at your full financial picture. It’s based on zero-based budgeting, which divides your money into spending and saving categories until you have nothing left.
EveryDollar comes in two flavors: free and paid. You must manually set up your account in the free version, however the subscription version enables you to import your bank transactions. Custom reports are available in the premium edition, which may help you view your whole financial picture. Unfortunately, the software is extremely expensive, and similar functions are available for free on other budgeting applications.
Budgeting, on the other hand, is a key feature of EveryDollar, since it enables you to prioritize where you’ll save money up front rather than spending it all at the end of the month. So, if budgeting is your primary priority right now, the high cost could be justified.
If you have certain savings objectives in mind, the Digit app may effortlessly assist you in achieving them – one step at a time. You may create numerous savings goals inside the app, such as the amount you want to save and the time frame in which you want to attain your goal. These savings objectives might range from a rainy day fund to an emergency fund, retirement, vacation, and many other things.
The software will evaluate your income and savings history after you connect your bank account to Digit, which is required to utilize the budgeting feature. The app will then transfer a little amount of money from your connected checking account into your Digit account every few days (depending on its algorithm).
Although you may withdraw the funds at any moment, the purpose is to assist you save for your specific goals without having to “miss” a few dollars a day from your main bank account. Your Digit funds are transferred to a partner savings account, which is FDIC insured and pays 0.10 percent APY at the time of writing. While this interest rate is incredibly low, in the present low-interest market, it is better than nothing.
You may also invest your money using the app, and it will recommend the best portfolio selections for you depending on your risk tolerance. You may establish objectives for your investing accounts and fund them directly from your checking account once again.
While the app is expensive at $9.99 per month, it comes with a 30-day free trial to try it out. The app also has a refer-a-friend feature that might assist defray the cost. Normally, you may earn $5 for each friend who joins up, but if you sign up for a new account and refer three friends during the first week, you can get a $100 bonus (as long as those friends each complete an autosave).
Although the Digit app lacks certain bells and whistles, if actual savings is your primary aim, the software is easy to use and enables you to concentrate on saving money.
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The “mint budget app” is a great application for those who are on a tight budget. It offers features such as tracking your spending and saving money.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best free budget app?
A: The best free budget app is probably the Paradox Budgeting Calculator, which can be found on Google Play.
What is the easiest budget app?
A: I dont know what youre talking about.
What is the best budgeting program?
A: The best budgeting program is a personal finance tracking software that would help you save money.
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