Best Budget Apps of January 2024

Our experts choose the best products and services to help make smart decisions with your money (here's how). In some cases, we receive a commission from our partners; however, our opinions are our own. Terms apply to offers listed on this page.

Budgeting can already feel difficult, but with the right budget app, you should be able to track your spending habits, find ways to spend less and save more, or budget effectively as a couple.

Featured Budgeting Apps from Our Partners

Quicken Simplifi

Limited Time Offer: New customers get a full year free when you import your Mint data within 3 months of sign-up date

Fees

$3.99 monthly subscription or $47.88 annual subscription

Annual Percentage Yield (APY)

N/A

Minimum Deposit Amount

N/A

one year free

• Check mark icon A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction. Connect all your bank accounts, investments accounts, and credit cards
• Check mark icon A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction. Help you save for individual savings goals
• Check mark icon A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction. Create a budget
• Check mark icon A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction. Track expenses
• Check mark icon A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction. 30-day money-back guarantee

• con icon Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. Must buy a subscription (no free option)

• New customers get a full year free when you import your Mint data within 3 months of sign-up date
• Stay on top of your finances in under 5 minutes per week.
• Check your custom budgeting plan — anytime, anywhere!
• Track your spending
• See where your money is going and discover places to save.
• Keep your bills in check
• Find subscriptions you don't use and start saving from day one.

Monarch Money

Coming from Mint? Import your history and get 50% OFF with MINT50.

Fees

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

• Check mark icon A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction. Link bank accounts
• Check mark icon A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction. Create unlimited budgets and make customizable categories
• Check mark icon A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction. Track individual savings goals
• Check mark icon A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction. Graphs and charts that track your spending and savings

• con icon Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. No free plan

Monarch Money is an overall solid option if you prioritize creating monthly budgets and saving for individual savings goals. The main downside of the app is that it doesn't offer a free plan. You'll have to a monthly or annual subscription fee.

Rocket Money

Fees

Free to create a budget. Subscription fee applies to premium services.

• Check mark icon A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction. Connect all your bank accounts, credit cards, and investment accounts to track spending
• Check mark icon A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction. Create a budget
• Check mark icon A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction. Bill negotiation feature
• Check mark icon A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction. Free plan available

• con icon Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. Limited features available with free plan
• con icon Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. Limited customer support availability

Complete Editorial Review of the Top Budgeting Apps for 2024

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

Best Budgeting Apps for 2024

• Rocket Money: Best overall  
• Honeydue App: Best for couples
• Monarch Money: Best for saving toward financial goals
• Quicken Simplifi: Best for robust budgeting features

Best Overall: 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, 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 $4 to $12 per month (the lower-price plans are billed annually instead of monthly).

Rocket Money Review

Best for Couples: Honeydue App

Honeydue is a budgeting app designed specifically for couples. 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.

Regular Pricing: Free

Best for Saving for Financial Goals: 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 is set to shut down in 2024.

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. However, it does have a special offer for new customers. To get a 30-day free trial and 50% off your first year, sign up through the Monarch Money website and use the promo code "MINT50." The last day to get the offer is January 31, 2024. Monarch Money could choose to extend the offer, though.

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

Best for Robust Budgeting Features: 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. The app also has a watchlist tool that allows you to track areas in your spending, and it has another tool that can monitor bills to make sure you pay them on time.

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.

Regular Pricing: $3.99 monthly subscription or $47.88 annual subscription

Quicken Simplfi Review

The Best Budgeting Apps FAQs

Yes, numerous financial apps are available on the Google Play and Apple store. There are apps that help you categorize your spending, save for individual financial goals, or implement strategies like the 52-week money challenge.

In most cases, the best budgeting app for beginners will be one that makes budgeting easy — this means it has an easy-to-use interface and links to your accounts, so you don't have to enter every transaction manually. It can also be good to have an app that teaches you about money. 

Rocket Money is our best budgeting app overall, and it has a free plan. If you're in a couple, our top pick is Honeydue which is also free to download.

Budgeting App Trustworthiness and BBB Ratings

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

Rocket Money has a B rating due to a high volume of customer complaints.

Honeydue has an F rating because it hasn't responded to three customer complaints and it hasn't been in operation for a long time.

Quicken has an F rating because it has received a high volume of customer complaints filed, and failed to respond to 13 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.

Intuit does have some public issues surrounding its tax-filing software, TurboTax. 

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, certified educator in personal finance, banking reporter, Personal Finance 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, CEPF:

"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?

Personal Finance Insider's mission is to help smart people make the best decisions with their money. We understand that "best" is often subjective, so in addition to highlighting the clear benefits of a financial product, we outline the limitations, too. 

Research is an important part of choosing a budgeting app that fits your needs. First, we 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.

Banking Reporter

Compliance Associate

Evelyn He is a compliance associate at Business Insider who supports the Personal Finance Insider team. Personal Finance Insider is Business Insider's personal finance section that incorporates affiliate and commerce partnerships into the news, insights, and advice about money that Business Insider readers already know and love.The compliance team's mission is to provide readers with stories that are fact-checked and current, so they can make informed financial decisions. The team also works to minimize risk for partners by making sure language is clear, precise, and fully compliant with regulatory and partner marketing guidelines that align with the editorial team.Before joining Business Insider, she served in various legal and compliance roles in different industries, including the legal and pharmaceutical industries.   Evelyn obtained her M.S. degree in Marketing at Boston University in 2022. Prior to combining and consolidating her knowledge of law and business, she spent one year finishing 1L courses at Suffolk University Law School to further her legal knowledge. She has also completed MBA business law courses while working on her Bachelor of Business Administration in Management at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with her 14-year-old Shih Tzu named Money, and her 5-year-old Bichon named Tibber.

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