Compare budgeting apps
Find an app you’ll actually use.
For budgeting, goals and net worth together, start with Monarch.
Your money. One clear picture.
Bring your accounts, spending and savings goals together.
- See where your money goes
- Track goals and net worth
- Manage money with a partner
“I’ve used Monarch for about a year, and the net worth tracker is the feature I use most.”Brian Meiggs
Read our Monarch reviewGet a clearer picture of your money.
$49.99for your first year
Annual Core plan · Renews at $99.99/year
Includes a 7-day free trial
Get 50% off MonarchNew members only. Annual Core plan billed directly by Monarch. Payment method required. Cancel in settings before the trial ends.
Ad-free app · Partner access included
Compare the other ways to budget
Choose the approach that fits how you manage money.
| App | Choose it for | Explore |
|---|---|---|
| MonarchOur pick | Budget + goals + net worth | Get 50% off |
| Quicken Simplifi | Planning around bills and income | Details → |
| Empower | Retirement and investment tools | Details → |
| YNAB | Giving every dollar a job | Details → |
| PocketGuard | Bills and subscription tracking | Details → |
| Tiller | Managing money in spreadsheets | Details → |
We may be compensated by the companies whose products we review.
Monarch: the budgeting app I use
50% off your first year
$49.99 first year of annual Core, then $99.99/year. New members only.
I’ve used Monarch for about a year, and the net worth tracker is the feature I use most. Then there’s the AI side: I’ve connected it to ChatGPT and Claude, which helps me get smarter with my money. I tried Empower, YNAB and a few other budgeting apps before settling on Monarch.
Monarch pulls your accounts into one dashboard, so your budget, net worth and goals all sit in the same place. Past net worth, the goals side is worth a look: savings goals, debt paydown goals and goal forecasting. Paying something off or saving for something specific? That’s what keeps a budget from feeling pointless.
The catch: it’s a paid app. With one checking account and no goals, a spreadsheet or one of the lighter options below may be plenty.
50% off your first year with code MONARCHVIP: $49.99 for the first year of annual Core, then $99.99/year. New members only. Annual Core billed directly by Monarch. It can’t be combined with other offers. Enter the code at checkout, or get 50% off Monarch.
Our full Monarch Money review goes deeper on the price and the downsides, and Monarch vs YNAB compares it with the app people ask about most.
Other budgeting apps and who they might suit
Monarch is the one I use, but budgeting is personal. So here are five other apps, what each one does, and who it might fit.
Quicken Simplifi
Simplifi is Quicken’s web and mobile budgeting app. Start with your monthly income, subtract your bills and subscriptions, and you get a spending plan that adjusts as you spend. Projected cash flow with what-if scenarios, savings goals and reports are in there too, and it connects to over 14,000 financial institutions.
It might suit you if you’d rather start from what’s coming in and going out than set a limit for every category. Quicken runs promotional pricing for new members, so check the current price on its page.
Empower
Empower offers free retirement planning tools, including a Retirement Readiness Score and a recession simulator, and its tools also cover net worth and budgeting and cash flow. It might suit you if retirement and investments are as big a question as your monthly spending.
I’ve tried Empower too, and I still keep it because it’s free. One thing to know before you sign up: Empower also sells paid advisory services, and its sign-up form asks for a mobile number.
YNAB
YNAB is built around one question: what’s this dollar for? You give your money a job before you spend it, then adjust the plan as life changes. It costs $14.99 a month or $109 a year, with a 34-day free trial and no credit card needed, and it runs on iOS, Android, the web and Apple Watch.
It might suit you if you want a hands-on method, not an app that mostly runs in the background.
PocketGuard
PocketGuard links your accounts to track spending, bills and subscriptions, savings goals and debt payoff, on the web, iPhone, Android and Apple Watch. It has a 7-day free trial. It might suit you if you want to test a budgeting app for a week before you decide.
Tiller
Tiller is for people who’d rather live in a spreadsheet. It feeds your daily spending, income, debt and balances into Google Sheets or Excel, updated each day, and you control the layout. If you already like spreadsheets, it might suit you. Pricing is on Tiller’s pricing page.
Cash back apps: the two I use
A budgeting app shows you where your money goes. A cash back app puts a little of it back on things you were going to buy anyway. Fetch and Upside are the only cash back apps I use, so those are my favorites.
Fetch
Fetch gives you points for scanning receipts and for playing games, and you turn the points into gift cards. If you shop at the same stores every week, the receipts are the easy part.
Upside
I’ve been using Upside for years. It gives you cash back on gas, groceries and dining at nearby retailers. You claim an offer in the app, buy something, and pay with a credit or debit card. You can cash out to your bank account or PayPal, or pick gift cards, and the app is free to download.
Other cash back apps
Two more you’ll see mentioned a lot. Rakuten is a cash back shopping site and app with cash back at 3,500+ brands. Joining is free, and rewards are sent every 3 months. Ibotta is a free cash back app where you earn cash back when you shop in the app or in store. For a longer list, see our best rebate and cash back apps, or the Fetch review and Upside review.
Do you even need an app?
Richard Quinn, a retired VP of Compensation and Benefits with over 50 years of experience managing pension and 401k plans for a Fortune 200 company, puts it bluntly:
“Nobody needs an app. They don’t even need a budget. They need to do a few simple things: Take their net pay and save 10% or more, throw away all credit cards, buy what you can afford only and spend all you want after fixed expenses. No budget needed.”
He has a point. If you already save 10% of your pay and live on what’s left, you may not need one. But for the rest of us, an app shows where the money goes, and that’s the first step toward the habits he describes.
Whatever you pick, build a cushion first. Our emergency fund guide covers how much you need and where to keep it, and the best high-yield savings accounts are where I’d park it.
Bottom line
My pick is Monarch, and it’s the one I use. If it doesn’t fit, the others above each cover a different style, from Simplifi’s spending plan to YNAB’s method to Tiller’s spreadsheets. And if you want a little cash back on things you’re already buying, add Fetch and Upside. You can start with Monarch here and enter MONARCHVIP at checkout.
