2021 has proven to be a year of uncertainty. For many of us, we don’t know if, when and where our income will be coming from in the coming months. This is why I cannot stress enough, the importance of having a good budget.
Budgets give you a picture of your current financial situation and help you plan for the future. They also help you make informed decisions when it comes to your financials.
Whether you’re new to budgeting, need help organizing your expenses or want a full picture of your current financial situation there a lot of budget apps that can help right from your phone.
The best budget apps
We tested a bunch of free budget apps and summarized our favourites below. To help you decide what one is best for you, we’ve highlighted the key features of each app below!
- The best budget apps
- Greatest Budget App Overall: Mint
- Best For Envelope Method Budgeting: Goodbudget
- Greatest For Managing Subscriptions: Clarity Money
- Great For The Personal Investor: Betterment
- Best For Zero-Based Budgetors: YNAB
- Good For Free Advice: Albert
- Best For Controlling Overspend: Pocket Guard
- Good For Group Travel: SplitWise
- Final Thoughts
Greatest Budget App Overall: Mint
To kick off the best budget apps, we have to start with Mint. Mint is an app created by Intuit, the same company that created TurboTax and Quickbooks (great accounting tools!)
Who Is It For:
Someone looking for a comprehensive financial overview.
Best Feature:
Budgeting, tracking expenses and two- factor authentication for security.
Cost:
Free!
Mint’s main purpose is to help you create a proper budget to get your expenses under control. It does not, however, pay any of your bills. Once you sign up for the app, you can download all your transactions. They will automatically populate for you within the app. You can then add subcategories to make your budget more personalized.
Mint also encourages you to set goals, which is another unique feature. This is great if you have a savings or debt repayment plan in mind. Additionally, Mint also has features that allow you to track your credit score. This will give you a clear understanding of your current financial situation. One last thing worth mentioning, Mint’s security is extremely strong, with two-factor authentication in addition to password protection.
Google Play Android: Download Mint Here
Best For Envelope Method Budgeting: Goodbudget
Want to try envelope budgeting? If you’re not sure what that is, check out my related article here: 4 Budgeting Hacks You Need!
Envelope budgeting separates your money into different “expense” envelopes. Once you’ve spent what you’ve allocated to a certain envelope, you can’t replenish until the following month. Nowadays, no one carries around all their savings in envelops so it’s easier to have an app to do it for you!
Who Is It For:
A budgeter who wants to be strict on how much they spend on their monthly expenses.
Best Feature:
Goodbudget allows you to allocate a certain amount of money into “expense envelopes” which helps you track your spending.
Cost:
Free (paid options are also available)!
I highly recommend Goodbudget if you want to try an envelope budget system. Goodbudget allows you to divide your income into digital envelopes that are used to pay off monthly expenses. When you pay a bill, it will remove the money from the respective digital envelope.
I like Goodbudget because it can help you stay organized and on top of your bills! You can easily see what you’ve spent money on and how much you have leftover. As time goes on, you can reallocate money to different envelopes depending on how our spending evolves.
App Store: Download Goodbudget Here
Google Play Android: Download Goodbudget here
Greatest For Managing Subscriptions: Clarity Money
Are you someone that has too many subscriptions to keep track of? If so, Clarity Money is for you!
Who Is It For:
Subscription hoarder/ occurring expenses.
Best Feature:
Lists all of your subscriptions in one place with easy cancellation access.
Cost:
Free!
Have you lost track of your subscriptions? You might be surprised by how many you’ve signed up for! Many of these services have automatic monthly payments, making them extremely easy to forget about. Subscriptions can easily become a money drain, especially if you aren’t maximizing the benefits you’re paying for!
By downloading Clarity Money, you can manage all of your subscriptions in one place, with easy access to cancellation. It’s a great app to get you organized so you can assess what you really need.
Clarity Money Features
- Your Accounts & Balances
- How much you’ve been spending
- Your Transactions
- How much of your monthly income you’ve spent
- Spending per category
- Recurring expenses
- Free Credit score
App Store: Download Clarity Money Here
Google Play Android: Download Clarity Money
Great For The Personal Investor: Betterment
We couldn’t list the best budget apps without including a Robo-advisor! There are a lot of Robo-advisor apps on the market, but one of the current leaders is Betterment. Why? Because it offers two different levels of service. You don’t need to invest a large sum of money into the app to get the rewards.
Betterment Digital:
Charges 0.25% of assets under management annually, no minimum investment needed.
Betterment Premium:
Charges 0.40% off assets under management annually, provides unlimited calls to financial advisors and needs $100,000 account minimum.
The App currently has $15 billion in assets under management making it one of the leading Robo-advisors currently available. Betterment invests based on the modern portfolio theory which utilizes diversification. Betterment also automatically re-balances investor accounts if money flows in (e.g through dividends) and out (eg withdrawals). The app’s algorithm checks for rebalances daily.
Betterment also offers financial planning packages to help you meet life events, goal-based savings tools, high yield savings and a retirement-guide. If you’re looking for a hands-free way to manage your investments check out Betterment!
App Store: Download Betterment Here
Google Play Android: Download Betterment Here
Best For Zero-Based Budgetors: YNAB
Another great budget app for the zero-based budgeters out there is “You Need A Budget” or YNAB for short. Not sure what Zero-Based budgeting is? Find out here by reading my related article:
4 Budget Hacks That Help You Save
Who Is It For:
Zero-Based Budgeter
Best Feature:
Only focuses on budgeting
Cost:
$5/month
YNAB focuses solely on Zero-Based budgeting, which makes them an extremely strong budgeting app The app costs $5/month however it’s worth the $50/year. YNAB synchronizes your bank, credit cards and loan accounts onto the app with ease. They also offer great customer service through email (responses come within 24 hours.)
Additionally, YNAB offers great training courses to help you become a budget expert! Currently, YNAB is only available in US currency. For my Canadian Investors, I recommend you try Mint (see above).
Google Play Android: Download YNAB here
Good For Free Advice: Albert
Looking for free financial advice? Out of all the budget apps, Albert is the one for you!
Who Is It For:
Budgeter who needs financial advice & help with saving
Best Feature:
- Albert Genius, a feature that allows you to ask the app financial questions
- Smart Savings
Cost:
Free however Albert genius is $4-$6 per month
Albert is a fantastic budgeting tool. It synchronizes your financial accounts onto the app and analyzes your overall financial health. One of the best features of the app is Albert Genius. Ranging from $4-$6 per month, you can text your money questions to real human financial experts.
Albert Savings has another great feature that deserves more credit. The app monitors your accounts and transactions and will automatically pull small amounts of money ranging from $5-$30 (that you won’t miss) and transfers them into Albert savings. It’s a great way to get a head start on your savings each month and control overspend!
App Store: Download Albert Here
Google Play Android: Download Albert Here
Best For Controlling Overspend: Pocket Guard
Pocketguard is an app that will show you how much money you have left in your pocket after all of your monthly expenses, savings and subscriptions have been removed.
Who Is It For:
Budgeter who wants a simple way of managing expenses
Best Feature:
Automatically estimates how much money is in your pocket after all bills are accounted for
Cost:
Free
After linking your bank accounts to the app, PocketGuard analyzes what your spending, less your savings goals to give you an accurate estimate of what’s left in your pocket. The app takes a simplified approach to budgeting. If you’re an overspender this app is for you! One of the basic concepts of budgeting is making sure you don’t spend more than you make and this app does just that.
App Store: Download Pocketguard Here
Google Play Android: Download Pocketguard here
Good For Group Travel: SplitWise
Are you a traveler? Do you usually travel with others? If this sounds like you, out of all the budget apps, you need SplitWise!
Who Is It For:
Group Traveller’s
Best Feature:
Splits bills/costs easily between travellers
Cost:
Free
I can’t tell you how many trips I’ve been on where I can’t keep track of who owes what. Especially when traveling in a group! Enter Splitwise, the budget app that does the tracking for you.
When you start a trip, you can easily add all of your fellow travelers into a group on the app. You can then add amounts to the app and customize who you want to split it with. Everyone can have access to the group split on their own mobile devices, so everyone can keep track. At the end of the trip, you can get a final split, which shows who owes who what.
App Store: Download Splitwise Here
GooglePlay Android: Download SplitWise Here
Final Thoughts
That concludes our top 8 budget apps you should try out! If you’re looking for more budgeting tips check out our related article:
4 Budgeting Hacks That Help You Save!
If you’re not sure where to start with budget apps try out Mint. It’s the best overall to start you off, you can then assess your personal needs and try out others after.