11 Best Budgeting Apps

Use tools to help you achieve your financial New Year’s resolutions

Is this the year you’ve resolved to finally get your finances in order? If so, you’ll want to start using a budgeting app to create spending categories, track your payments, work toward savings goals, and more.

When choosing an app among those listed here — or others you might be considering — take these factors into account:

• Cost. Some budgeting apps are free, but others require a subscription. Many allow you to use the app for free but offer a paid version if you’d like access to additional features.
• Syncing. Some budgeting apps allow you to sync to your financial accounts, so you don’t have to enter your information manually. This can be a big timesaver.
• Device. Which device do you use the most, your laptop or your phone? Some apps work better on one versus the other.
• Personalization. Everyone has their own methods for managing finances and creating budgets. Choose an app that fits your personal style and approach.

The budgeting apps listed here offer you a wide variety of options.

You Need a Budget (YNAB)

This app uses the zero-based budgeting method in which you give every dollar you make a “job,” such as paying off debt or going toward savings or house-hold expenses. Using this method, YNAB helps you be forward-thinking about your money rather than looking back.

Goodbudget

Another smart method is envelope budgeting, in which you portion income toward specific spending categories (or envelopes). Goodbudget uses this approach to make sure you don’t come up short at the end of the month.

NerdWallet

NerdWallet lets you track your cash flow, including how your spending fits into the 50/30/20 budget guidelines (50% of your money toward needs, 30% toward wants, and 20% toward savings). You can also see your net worth and debt, as well as monitor your credit score.

EveryDollar

Another all-around budgeting app, EveryDollar allows you to create customizable budget and savings goals. You can upgrade to get additional benefits like bank connectivity, paycheck planning, group financial coaching, and custom budget reports.

Empower Personal Dashboard

If you’ve been careful with your money and have some extra to invest, use this app to track your investments and your spending. It can help you monitor your checking, savings, credit, loan, and retirement accounts.

Oportun

Oportun is an app focused on saving. It uses a “set it and forget it” approach to help you achieve your goals, such as taking a vacation, paying for education, or the less glamorous but always necessary objective of building an emergency fund.

Rocket Money

The purpose of this app is to help you cut down on your monthly expenses. It does so by monitoring spending and sending helpful notifications about upcoming charges and low balances. It also includes a service to cancel memberships you no longer use.

Simplifi by Quicken

This app has some of the same features as the others but is unique in its use of real-time updates to let you know how much money you have left to spend in the current month. It tracks your monthly bills and subscriptions, including those you don’t use.

PocketGuard

Looking for a simple budgeting app without a lot of extra features? PocketGuard could be it. Use it to connect financial accounts, track bills, and determine where your money is going and what you have left for additional spending.

Honeydue

Sharing finances with someone else makes everything more complicated and this app is designed to help. You and your partner can both view joint financial information in one app. You can sync accounts but choose how much you want to share with the other person.

Stash

This app does it all, including budgeting, saving, and investing. When you start one of the affordable subscription plans, you get access to budgeting tools, a brokerage account, and a debit card that earns you stocks when you use it for expenses.