Saving and budgeting have become easier than ever before, thanks to the plethora of personal finance apps out there. I went through these budgeting and saving services, selecting the ten best finance apps.
Whether you are looking for something to help you create a realistic budget or simply lets you know when your bank account is running low, it’s probably on this list. Bonus: Many of these apps are free.
Mint
Price: Free
Perhaps the most well known, Mint is an intuitive financial tracking and budgeting app that helps you to take total control of your financial life, by bringing all of your funds, transactions, and account balances at one convenient place, and than using this information to calculate your total net worth.
This effective all-in-one resource gives you plenty of options for customization, including tools to craft a practical budget & set bill reminders, and even provides personalized tips on how to improve your credit score, reduce banking fees, and so forth — what’s even more amazing is that it provides all this for free (which also means you’ll have to deal with a lot of ads).
Quicken
Price: Starts at $34.99 per year
Availability: Web, Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android
Initially released in 1983, Quicken is the oldest app on this list, and it shares several similar features with Mint (that’s because Intuit once owned Quicken, then it purchased Mint in ’09).
Quicken provides you with a number of useful features including tools for organizing and tracking your expenses, creating a budget, managing and tracking your debt, viewing and paying your bills, simplifying your taxes and investments, planning for retirement, tracking the value of your home, and even taking care of transactions related to small business ownership.
Unlike Mint, Quicken is not free. With a starting price of $34.99/year, Quicken may seem to cost a lot for something that’s supposed to save you money, but trust me this personal finance app is worth it.
You Need a Budget (YNAB)
Price: Free 34-day trial, then $7/month (billed annually at $84)
Availability: Web, iOS, and Android
With a hefty price tag of $84/year or $7/month, YNAB is for the committed user only. If you can get past this one thing, you’ll find YNAB wonderfully supportive in ways that most personal finance apps aren’t.
It offers users helpful support and teaching tools for dealing with debt (among other financial woes) via instructional videos, podcasts, workshops, support forums and so forth. As you work your way through its training, it’ll track your debt-payoff progress in colorful graphs and charts.
On the technical side, a practical budgeting tool serves as the focal point of YNAB’s interface; it doesn’t let you create budgets around money that you don’t have, instead, it has you lay out your income and expenses in great detail to determine how much debt you can realistically pay off each month. If you get off track, YNAB helps you see what you need to do differently to balance your budget. If you’ve tried to budget in the past and failed, this could be the app that you need as with it failure is less of an option cause it comes with a built-in “accountability partner” that will always keep you on your toes.
Prism
Price: Free
If you are tired of missing your bills or paying late fees than download Prism on your Smartphone and say bye to your worries.
Prism allows users to see their account balances and bills on one platform, all of which are accessible anytime in the form of a calendar or list for the entire month, and they’re paid using the method of your choice (credit card, bank account, and so forth). Also, the personal finance app sends you impending due date notifications and gives you the option of scheduling bills anytime you’d like, whether that’s the day they’re due or weeks in advance.
Spendee
Price: Free 7-day trial and free for a basic plan; paid plans for multiple wallets (users) start at $1.99/month or $14.99/year
Availability: Web, iOS, and Android
Spendee is a top-rated app that is perfect for family members, partners, and roommates who are looking for a comprehensive household budget planner & manager.
Available at a number of different price points, Spendee’s upgraded plans allow more than one user to share wallets. Each user is given the option to track cash flows (both income and spending) in the currency of their choice, set and maintain budgets, and take a peek at where the money goes with attractive charts. All of this data can then be synced and backed up across devices (Smartphones and tablets included) for household-wide accountability and transparency.
Monefy
Price: Free
Availability: Windows, iOS, and Android
Want to easily record and track expenses, look no further than Monefy. All you have to do is fill in the expense amount, and tap the “Add” button and you’re all set. This data can then be safely synced across devices using your personal Google Drive or Dropbox account, and/or sorted using Monefy’s default categories for expert-level organization. If defaults do not work for you, you can always add your own categories, too.
What makes Monefy even better is it’s clean and easy to understand interface. It uses whimsical icons, vibrant colors, and fun typefaces in a fresh, clean way that enhances your use rather than distracts you from it.
Personal Capital
Price: Free
If you want something that gives you a comprehensive picture of your net worth and expenses while acting as an investment management service than Personal Capital would be the best choice for you.
Setup is pretty simple, as the application is integrated with over fourteen-thousand financial institutions. After linking to all of your accounts for a real-time view of your financial life, you’ll get access to a collection of great financial tools on its dashboard including a fee analyzer, retirement planner and Investment Checkup (which analyzes your risk and shows you how well your investments are doing (plus how it can do even better)).
Provided that you have a high net worth (100K+), you can also sign up for personalized investment and wealth management services of Personal Capital (for an additional account management fee of course).
Birch Finance
Price: Free
Want to maximize your rewards? Then download Birch Finance, a finance app that provides you with useful & practical insights on how to optimize the cards in your wallet.
Getting started is super easy: Just download the personal finance app and log in with your bank’s username and password to let the service see your spending history (the bank account itself will be left alone so you have nothing to worry about). Birch will then create a secure connection with all the banks you connect to so that your transactions are synced, and from there you’ll start getting advice on how to earn more hotel, shopping, travel, and cashback perks with the cards in your wallet. Once you’ve been using the service for sometime, you’ll get to see your spending trends broken down by different categories and merchants.
Acorns
Price: Free to download, College students with a valid .edu email address can enroll for free management; others pay $1, $2 or $3 per month depending on which level they choose.
Acorns, is more like a wise, protective parent than a finance app. It lets you set aside your spare change or round up on purchases made using linked credit or debit cards. So, for instance, if a transaction adds up to $2.60, Acorns rounds it up to $3 and sends that 40 cents into an investment portfolio for ultra-easy saving. You also get the option of signing up for Acorns’ Found Money program, which gives you cashback whenever you use a linked credit card to purchase something from Airbnb, Uber, Lyft and more.
As an extra bonus, every Acorns plan gives you access to easy-to-understand articles and videos from financial experts about budgeting, healthy money habits, and more.
Robinhood
Price: Free
Availability: Web, iOS, and Android
The personal finance app allows you to track & trade any cryptocurrency you prefer, without any cost anytime you want. Your funds will be available in your Robinhood Crypto account as soon as you deposit (or sell stocks in your Financial brokerage account) to buy cryptocurrencies so that you never miss out on a potential venture.
Currently supported in thirty states nationwide, Robinhood plans on expanding the Crypto feature to other states too. In the meantime, you can always build out your portfolio by investing in the stock market or ETFs, which are accessible in your Robinhood Financial brokerage account.