Best Budgeting Apps of 2025

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It’s important to make a budget, but it can also be overwhelming to do alone. Budgeting apps can help you build a budget without having to do everything by hand.

Check out our picks for the best budgeting apps, and read more about how we chose the winners.

Best Budgeting Apps for January 2025

Budgeting looks different for everyone, so we selected four picks for our top budgeting apps. We selected a well-rounded budgeting app, one designed for couples, another that’s appealing for setting goals, and, lastly, one with more detailed budgeting features.

We have a mix of free budgeting apps and ones that have premium plans with subscription fees, so you can choose an option based on your financial needs and priorities.

Rocket Money

Rocket Money (previously known as TrueBill) is our best budgeting app overall because it has a variety of tools to help you save and limit spending.

Rocket Money has both a free plan and a premium plan. With the free plan, you’ll be able to link bank accounts, credit cards, and investment accounts to track spending and you’ll also be able to create a budget.

The premium plan includes concierge services, which review your bills and subscriptions to help you cancel or get refunds for these services on your behalf. It also includes premium customer chat, unlimited budgets, customizable budget categories, a savings account — although not a high-yield savings account — real-time updated syncing, and a credit score report.

The app’s standout feature is Bill Negotiation. You’ll upload a copy of your bill, and Rocket Money will determine whether you can get the same service with the company for a lower price. Rocket Money may also help you get refunds if you’re charged bank overdraft fees or late fees.

When Rocket Money negotiates a bill, you’ll have to pay a percentage (you may choose any amount from 30% to 60%) of whatever it will save you for the year. If you plan to change your internet, cable, phone, or wireless provider in the next year, you could end up losing money, though.

Pricing: You may choose how much to pay each month through a sliding scale. Rocket Money has a free plan that’s $0. The Premium plan has a 7-day free trial; after the free trial, you’ll have to pay around $6 to $12 per month (the lower-price plans are billed annually instead of monthly).

Rocket Money Review

Honeydue App

Honeydue is a budgeting app designed specifically for couples and it’s also a free budgeting app. The sign-up process is short and simple — you’ll create an account by setting up your email, then invite your partner to Honeydue.

Honeydue allows you to see both your individual and shared finances in one place. You also have to option of setting limits to how much your partner can see. When you connect a bank account to the app, you may choose to share both balance and transaction information, share information only, or share no information.

With Honeydue, you can organize your finances by creating monthly bill reminders or discussing personal financial information through the app’s chat feature.

If you would like an additional place to store money for a common goal, like a holiday budget or a couple’s vacation.

You won’t be able to access Honeydue through your computer; it’s only available through a mobile app. Some of our other top picks have both online and mobile platforms for more convenience. If you want a shared budgeting plan on both computer and mobile, some joint bank accounts come with budgeting features.

Regular Pricing: Free

Monarch Money

Monarch Money may be worthwhile if you are looking for a budgeting app that helps you save for financial goals and create a budget. It’s also become one of the most hyped-up Mint alternatives among Redditor users since Mint shut down.

Through Monarch Money, you’ll be able to make unlimited personalized savings goals. You can customize goals, organize them by order of importance, and link them to bank accounts. The app also helps you create a zero-based budget, track your net worth, and analyze your cash flow.

Monarch Money doesn’t have a free plan. You can try out a 7-day free trial. However, after that, you’ll need to pay a subscription fee. If you do not want to pay a subscription fee for a budgeting app, you’ll want to consider one of our other picks.

Regular Pricing: Premium Plan with a 7-day free-trial, then $14.99 per month or $99.99 annually

Monarch Money Review

Quicken Simplifi

Quicken Simplifi might be a good choice if you want a budgeting app that provides a detailed breakdown of your spending and savings.

In addition to letting you create budgets with customizable categories and make individual savings goals, Quicken Simplifi analyzes your spending and savings through charts and data.

You can receive monthly reports for spending, general income, income after expenses, savings, and net worth. You can also now check your credit score through the web application if you have early access (This feature is currently only available to U.S. residents). Checking your credit score through Simplifi won’t affect it.

The one major downside to this app is that it doesn’t have a free plan. You’ll have to pay a subscription fee, although you can try the app for 30 days with a money-back guarantee.

There’s also a special promotion available right now — Free 30-day trial.

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Regular Pricing: $5.99 monthly subscription or $71.88 annual subscription

Quicken Simplfi Review

Top Budgeting Apps of 2025

• Rocket Money: Best overall for reducing spending and creating a budget
• Honeydue App: Best for couples
• Monarch Money: Best for saving toward financial goals
• Quicken Simplifi: Best for robust budgeting features

Budgeting App Trustworthiness and BBB Ratings

We review the ethics of each company so you can see if a specific financial institution aligns with your values.

We also include the settlement history of the last 3 years so you’re aware of any recent public controversies involving the bank.

We include ratings from the Better Business Bureau to evaluate how companies address customer issues and handle transparency.

Honeydue has an F rating because it’s received a few customer complaints, hasn’t responded to those complaints, and hasn’t been in operation for a long time.

Monarch Money doesn’t have a BBB page, and therefore doesn’t have a rating.

Quicken has an F rating because it has received a high volume of customer complaints filed, and failed to respond to several customer complaints.

A good BBB rating won’t guarantee you’ll have a good relationship with a company. You also might want to read customer reviews or talk to current customers before making your decision.

Introduction to Budgeting Apps

Why Use a Budgeting App?

A budgeting app can help you understand where you spend your money. It’s also useful for building and maintaining an effective budget.

The top budgeting apps let you create a monthly budget using customizable categories.

Many also help you save money effectively. For example, budgeting apps use your transaction history to make charts and graphs. You can use this information to analyze your spending patterns and figure out where to make adjustments in your budget.

Key Benefits of Budgeting Apps

The primary benefit of using a budgeting app is that it gives you a big-picture view of your financial situation.

Many budgeting apps let you link different types of bank accounts, investment accounts, credit cards, and loans. You’ll be able to see all your accounts in one place and see how you’re spending versus saving.

Budgeting apps also help you build better money habits. If you’ve struggled to maintain a budget in the past, it might be easier to track your spending on an app than completely on your own. Budgeting apps do the work for you by syncing all your accounts — you just need to make sure everything is synced correctly and make small adjustments when they aren’t.

Features to Look for in a Budgeting App

User-Friendly Interface on Budgeting Apps

A good budgeting app has a design format that’s easy to use. The app should load quickly and make it easy to get started. You should be able to create a budget on your own without much help. If you encounter technical difficulties, you should also easily be able to contact a customer representative through the app.

Syncing with Bank Accounts on Budgeting Apps

Many easy-to-use budgeting apps for beginners allow you to sync savings accounts, checking accounts, investment accounts, or credit cards.

Apps often use Plaid to link bank accounts. Plaid can connect more than 11,000 U.S. banks and credit unions, including the best banks.

Many banks also let you add investment accounts the same way, although investment tracking tools might be limited compared to tools for budgeting with bank accounts.

Expense Tracking on Budgeting Apps

Once bank accounts are linked, your spending will be updated on the app so you have up-to-date information. A strong budgeting app will provide updates frequently, and during the same day so you can stay on top of your budget.

Customizable Budgeting Categories on Budgeting Apps

Many budgeting apps allow you to create a zero-balance budget. With a zero-balance budget, also called a zero-sum budget or a traditional budget, you’re figuring out where every dollar of your income is going. You can create budget categories for every expense. You can also create savings goals if you’re setting aside money for a specific purpose, like a down payment on a home or a future vacation.

A good budgeting app allows you to make customizable budgeting categories rather than pre-set categories. That way, you can make a budget that’s tailored to your life and make categories as broad or specific as you want.

Charts and Visual Analysis Features on Budgeting Apps

A top budgeting app analyzes your habits so you can see how you manage your money over time. Some apps provide charts of your monthly budget so you can see how your categories compare to one another. Others might have visuals to indicate how much money you have left to spend in a certain category for that month.

Several budgeting apps also provide reports for broader areas of your finances. For example, you might be able to view your cash flow balance over several months or how your money in your retirement plans has grown over time.

Fee Structure on Budgeting Apps

Typically, free budgeting apps can quickly be distinguished from ones that charge monthly or annual fees.

Free budgeting apps that do not require a subscription, and may not even have a sign-up process when you first get it. These budgeting apps have limited budgeting features, though. For example, you might be able to make a monthly budget, but you might not have tools that analyze your cash flow or help you save for individual goals.

Subscription budgeting apps will often require you to create an account, and many will have you input credit card information upon getting started. These apps also often offer a short free trial or free plan to help users test out features and decide if they’re worth it. However, the app’s more robust features require a subscription fee.

How to Choose the Best Budgeting App

To find the right budgeting app, you need to know what features you’re looking for. Are you looking for ways to cut back on spending? Do you want a free plan or a subscription plan for your budgeting app? Do you want a detailed breakdown of your finances or more of a general overview? Do you want an app that helps you manage both your investment accounts and your bank accounts? Knowing the answers to these questions can help narrow down your options.

If you have your eye on a few budgeting apps, you can try out the free trials or free versions of each before settling on the right one. That way, you can see if the interface is also user-friendly and manageable for the long-term.

Account Linking vs. Manual Transaction Entry

The apps we chose as our best picks all offer bank account linking so that your direct deposits and transactions are automatically added to your budget. Some apps don’t offer that feature, instead asking you to use manual transaction entry every time you add or subtract money from your account. Even with apps that let you link your bank account, you might find that your bank account isn’t able to link to your budgeting app.

Manual transaction entry could be your best bet if you don’t want to add your bank account info into your budgeting app or if you want to manually review each transaction you make for added financial awareness. But it’s easy to accidentally leave things out of your budget with manual transaction entry, and it can be frustrating and time-consuming to enter all of that information into your app each month.

Budgeting Apps with Educational Resources

If you want to learn more about finances, you might consider a budgeting app with financial tools. These tools can include things like articles and videos that teach you about financial literacy. For example, the budgeting app YNAB hosts free workshops that simultaneously teach you how to use the YNAB app and teach you some budgeting strategies.

If you’re primarily interested in educational resources, some debit cards for teens come with apps that have financial literacy tools as well.

Budgeting Strategies with Apps

Not every app will be well-suited for every budgeting strategy.

For example, you could use the popular savings method of the 50/30/20 rule. This rule breaks down your budgeting so that 50% goes to needs, 30% goes to wants, and 20% goes to debt or savings. If you choose this method, you probably won’t want to use an app designed for a zero-balance budget, like Monarch Money.

Similar to the 50/30/20 rule is the 70/20/10 rule, which allocates 70% of your income to both your wants and needs, 20% to your savings and investments, and 10% for donations and repaying debt. Both rules work better with a more lightweight budgeting app. Compare this to a traditional budget, where you account for every dollar that goes into and out of your account. This is a very granular approach that doesn’t mesh well with more big-picture apps like Rocket Money.

There’s also the pay-yourself-first strategy, which focuses on savings — you’ll automatically transfer money from your paycheck to some of your savings and then distribute what’s left over to your expenses. This is also a simpler approach that you probably don’t need an intensive budgeting app for, but you might prefer to combine this budgeting strategy with other approaches.

Setting Up and Using a Budgeting App

Step-by-Step Guide to Setting Up Your Budgeting App

To use a budgeting app, you’ll have to download it through the Android or Apple store. To set up most budgeting apps, you’ll enter your name and email address. If the app charges a subscription fee, it will prompt you to sign up for a plan or free trial.

The best budgeting apps will walk you through the app’s different features and help you get started. You’ll typically be prompted to link accounts. Then, you can create a budget or set savings goals.

Tips for Effective Budgeting with the Apps

If you’re new to budgeting apps, it may be helpful to start off with some structure by choosing a budgeting strategy. Whatever strategy you choose, you’ll want to make sure the budgeting app you get works with that strategy.

Another tip for effective budgeting is to look at your expenses to see if they reflect your financial goals and values. If you have certain goals that are of higher priority than others, find ways to reduce spending in categories that aren’t a priority for you. That might mean waiting before making a purchase, creating a meal plan or grocery list to limit spending on food, or auditing your subscriptions to see if there are any you can cancel.

If you’re someone who’s new to budgeting, it could be worthwhile to read some of the best personal finance books, so you can learn about different people’s approaches and tips to spending and saving. 

Common Mistakes to Avoid on Budgeting Apps

Experts recommend trying out a budgeting app’s free plan or free trial before committing to an annual plan.

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There are many budgeting apps out there, so you want to try to find the one that best aligns with your financial needs. Testing a few apps can help you decide the best one, and it also keeps you from paying too much for a budgeting app that you won’t end up using.

You’ll also want to make sure that the budgeting app you’re interested works on the platforms you want to budget on. Not every budgeting app is available on desktop, so if you prefer to budget on the computer, check ahead of time that the app you’re planning on using has a browser or desktop app equivalent.

Pros and Cons of Budgeting Apps

Pros of Budgeting Apps

• Gives you a big picture of how you’re spending and saving money
• Allows you to create a budget that’s synced with bank accounts
• Some apps have additional perks to help with goal-setting or bill-negotiating

Cons of Budgeting Apps

• Most budgeting apps with comprehensive features charge a subscription fee
• Budgeting apps with sync may require trial and error to ensure information is recorded correctly
• Budgeting apps without syncing can take time and effort to set up and maintain, so whether it’s worthwhile could depend on whether you like having budgeting information straight on your phone versus a spreadsheet or DIY method

Alternatives to Budgeting Apps

Budgeting Apps vs. Spreadsheet or DIY Budgeting Methods

You may prefer building a spreadsheet budget if you don’t want to link all of your bank accounts or credit cards in a mobile app. However, setting up and maintaining your budget will primarily hinge on how much work you’re willing to put into it.

A budgeting app does the tracking for you. With a spreadsheet, you’ll have to either start from scratch or use a template. Either way, a budgeting app still offers more comprehensive features.

Budgeting Apps vs. Envelope Budgeting

Envelope budgeting is a strategy that relies on physical envelopes, though you can recreate it partially in budgeting apps. With envelope budgeting, also sometimes called envelope stuffing, you put a certain amount of cash into envelopes with different categories — such as rent, clothing, or food — each month. That’s the money you get to spend on these categories each month; if you put $800 in the food category, for example, you’re limited to that $800 for the entire month.

Budgeting apps can let you set up a similar system, but you won’t be physically cash-limited in the same way that physical envelopes limit you. That being said, it’s increasingly hard to use cash to pay for everything, so you might find an app-based envelope budget easier to handle overall.

Budgeting Apps vs. Personal Finance Software

Budgeting apps and personal finance software share the same features. The best option for you will depend on whether you have preferences on the tool’s accessibility.

A budgeting app is primarily designed for mobile experiences. Some apps also have an online dashboard that you can access through your computer, but it is always something that’s offered.

Meanwhile, personal finance software is designed for computer access. You’ll either download the software to a desktop or use an online platform. Some will also have apps, but some features might not be available.

Budgeting Apps vs. Savings Accounts with Goals Features

Some of the best online banks have added unique features to their savings accounts to help customers with goal-setting.

If you’re specifically looking for a way to save for goals, it may benefit you to get a savings account with buckets. Buckets are customizable tools that separate your savings so you can save for specific goals. Since they are an integrated bank account feature, they also might be easier to manage than a budgeting app.

If you would rather have more robust budgeting tools, a budgeting app will likely still stand out to you. Budgeting apps also connect investment accounts, credit cards, and loans, so you’ll be able to see everything in one place.

Also, if you are currently unbanked because you don’t have a U.S. ID, know that you have options. The top banks for immigrants and non-U.S. citizens allow you to provide a foreign passport or Matricula Consular to open a bank account. 

Budgeting App FAQs

Why You Should Trust Us: Experts’ Advice on the Best Budgeting Apps

We consulted banking and financial planning experts to inform these picks and provide their advice on finding the budgeting app for your needs.

Here’s what they had to say about budgeting apps. (Some text may be lightly edited for clarity.)

What should I look for in a budgeting app?

Mykail James, MBA, certified financial education instructor, BoujieBudgets.com:

“My best tip for people who are looking to start using a budgeting app is to figure out what you’re missing in your financial system. For example, if you are a person who knows that you want to stick to a zero-based budget, and you’ve been doing that manually, but you need maybe a little bit more help with the organization, then you can center your focus on searching for apps specifically solve your problem.”

Sophia Acevedo, banking editor, Business Insider:

“I would look for features that would help me with my goals. Like if I’m trying to curb spending, I would look for a budgeting app that helps me minimize payments in certain spending areas.”

How do I know if a budgeting app is right for me?

Mykail James, MBA, CFEI:

“Give it time. Every budgeting app is going to feel uncomfortable during the first month. Give it at least three months before deciding if it’s not something for you. Actively try and use it before considering a switch.”

Sophia Acevedo, Business Insider:

“I would first try out the free version and see how it works. Some budgeting apps are entirely free, while others have different plans or trials at a variety of price points.”

Methodology: How Did We Choose the Best Budgeting Apps?

Business Insider’s personal finance team compiled a list of 18 popular budgeting apps available in both the Google Play Store and Apple Store.

Then, we reviewed each budgeting app for a week. To determine our top picks, we reviewed the initial sign-up process, pricing, budgeting tools, and user experience. We also considered whether each app accomplished everything it advertised, and how regular users reviewed the product on the Apple and Google Play store.

See our editorial standards to learn more about how we cover and rate products.

Sophia Acevedo

Banking Editor

Sophia Acevedo is a banking editor at Business Insider. She has spent three years as a personal finance journalist and is an expert across numerous banking topics. ExperienceSophia leads Personal Finance Insider’s banking coverage, including reviews, guides, reference articles, and news. She edits and updates articles about banks, checking and savings accounts, CD rates, budgeting, and general saving. Sophia was also a part of Business Insider’s 2024 series “My Financial Life,” which focused on telling stories that could help people live and spend better.Before joining Business Insider, Sophia worked as a journalist at her college newspaper and was a freelance writer. She has spent seven years writing and editing as a journalist.Sophia was nominated for an Axel Springer Award for Change in 2023 for her coverage of ABLE Accounts, tax-free savings accounts for people with disabilities. She was also a winner of a 2018 California Journalism Awards Campus Contest for her photography.She loves helping people find the best solutions for their unique needs and hopes that more people will find the tools to solve their financial problems. She’s inspired by stories of everyday people adapting to their financial circumstances and overcoming their fears around money.ExpertiseSophia’s expertise includes:

• Bank accounts
• Savings and CD rate trends
• Budgeting
• Saving
• How banks operate

EducationSophia graduated from California State University Fullerton with a degree in journalism and a minor in political science.Sophia is a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.She is an avid reader across a variety of genres, and she started running in 2021. She ran in the 2024 Los Angeles Marathon.

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Evelyn He

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