The 10 Best Money Apps to Manage Money

In these modern times — when there's an app for just about everything — it has never been easier to manage your money. With the right personal finance app you can automate and track everything from bill payments to debt payoff and savings goals.

Just like credit counseling, budget apps can be a great, free or low-cost tool to make managing your management easier. If you're ready to add an app to your financial toolkit, these are our top recommendations.

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    Why Use a Money App?

    It's no secret that most of us struggle with money management. In 2021, about half of U.S. adults had less than $400 in emergency savings. At the same time, the average person spent $276 a month on impulse buys.

    So why not take advantage of a tool that can make money management easier? Budgeting apps can help you automate important financial tasks, like making a budget, setting and tracking specific financial goals and saving money from each paycheck.

    Acorns logo

    Acorns App


    Cost: $1-$5/month

    Where It’s Available: IOS, Android, Web

    At a Glance

    Acorns is an automated savings tool that rounds up your purchases on linked credit or debit cards, then sweeps the change into a computer-managed investment portfolio.

    The target audience for Acorns includes college students, passive investors and people who struggle to save money. You can use Acorns even if you don't earn income or have a retirement account yet.

    You can choose certain investment classes and transfer your change into an investment portfolio, either automatically or manually, and then review each purchase on the app.

    Acorns also has several partners, such as Apple, Nike, Kohl’s, Walmart, Uber Eats, Chevron and Blue Apron, that offer 10% cash back when using a linked payment method with them.

    Of course, unlike employer-sponsored retirement accounts, Acorns doesn't offer a match on your contribution, so, you might not want to put all your acorns in this basket — or something like that.

    Acorns also publishes financial advice in Grow Magazine, an online resource that's geared toward millennials. It offers tips related to side gigs, credit-card debt, student loans and other pertinent topics.

    Why We Recommend It

    Acorns can help you work toward financial goals with what feels like no effort. By setting aside your spare change, the app harnesses the power of your seemingly negligible spare change. The contribution to your savings and retirement might not seem like much, but they're better than nothing, and their value can grow over time.

    Pros and Cons of Acorns

    • Investing is easy because Acorns sets your spare change aside
    • Users can earn cash-back for shopping with one of 15,000+ brands
    • You could be losing money if you invest with Acorns instead of an employer-sponsored account.
    • Personal accounts are $3 a month and its $5 for family accounts (there's no free version)

    Safety

    Acorns uses 256-bit data encryption. Checking accounts are FDIC-insured up to $250,000. Automatic logout, IDs and other security measures are employed.

    Pocket Guard Logo

    Pocket Guard


    Cost: Free, $4.99/month, $34.99/year

    Where It’s Available: iOS, Android

    At a Glance

    This app shows you how much spendable money you have after covering basics like bills, debt, and long-term financial goals.

    PocketGuard offers tools that simplify your income and expenses, allowing you to take command of your budget and even grow your savings account. It lets you link all your accounts in one place for a comprehensive view of your balances and net worth.

    After creating a profile and filling out some personal information, PocketGuard can also send you offers for lower rates on financial services.  Products are tailored to your interest, based on your past transactions.

    These days our transactions are handled digitally, so it can be hard to tell how much money you have available to spend, but PocketGuard helps you stay on top of the numbers. It displays graphs to show categories where you overspend and you can customize categories or personalize them with hashtags.

    The free version of PocketGuard should work for those who want an easy way to keep track of their spending. The premium version offers more in-depth customization and detailed reports.

    Why We Recommend It

    PocketGuard lets you see your monthly spending budget with a quick glance, and helps you make real-time adjustments. Plus, the basic version of the app is free.

    Pros and Cons of Pocket Guard

    • You can track your monthly spendable money at a glance
    • No advertisements
    • The basic version of the app is free
    • Studies have found that budgeting apps which show money in your spending budget can encourage more spending
    • If you want to customize your account, you'll have to pay at least $4.99 a month

    Safety

    Your data is secured with 256-bit SSL encryption, PIN codes and biometrics.

    Mint Logo

    Mint App


    Cost: Free

    Where It’s Available: iOS, Android, Web

    At a Glance

    Mint is speedy and reliable, offering detailed and in-depth accounts for users in the U.S. and Canada. Both the mobile app and the website have a useful, clean design.

    Mint analyzes your spending habits, income, and other financial transactions through customizable alerts.

    If you tap on the plus sign and choose “Create Budget,’’ you are taken to a page with a list of spending categories (such as groceries or movies). It suggests a monthly spending limit based on your history, while also tracking your money through a few months of historical data. There’s a look at your monthly budget through a simple line graph, so there is a short-term and long-term perspective.

    It isn’t an app for analyzing each transaction; it’s more about spending and big-picture financial status. Mint can calculate your net worth, but also offer an analysis of your spending habits. If you’re looking to set financial goals — such as escaping credit-card debt or buying a home — it’s good for that, too.

    It will send push notifications for bills. If you’re close to the budget limit in your given categories, you'll get a warning.

    Because of Mint’s all-knowing, all-seeing approach to your financial accounts, it knows precisely how much interest you’re earning and how much interest you’re paying on your mortgage, loans, credit cards and savings accounts, along with ATM fees and annual service charges.

    Why We Recommend It

    Mint tracks your spending and gives you useful insights to help you curb bad habits, including real-time spending alerts. The app also tracks important financial details that you might not be paying attention to, like interest charges on your debt.

    Pros and Cons of Mint

    • Users get spending alerts and bill reminders
    • The basic version is free
    • There's no automatic bill pay or investing feature
    • If you want to customize your account, you'll have to pay at least $4.99 per month.
    • The app has advertisements

    Safety

    Mint uses security scanning with VeriSign and stores login credentials in a separate database using multi-layered hardware and software encryption. It also uses multi-factor authentication and you can add a passcode and a four-digit PIN to the app.

    Personal Capital

    Personal Capital


    Cost: Free

    Where It’s Available: iOS, Android, Web

    At a Glance

    Personal Capital is a comprehensive app that lets users do everything from track spending to reviewing their investment portfolios. Anybody can sign up for free and use Personal Capital’s money planning tools.

    Like many of the apps on this list, Personal Capital lets you link your accounts in one place for easy management and viewing. You can use it to estimate your net worth and craft a detailed goal for where you’d like your finances to be in the future. The app also offers advisor analysis that provides you with a personalized financial plan if you open an account of at least $100,000.

    Personal Capital stands out for offering both high-quality mobile apps and superior, easy-to-navigate desktop interfaces when compared to other apps. It also offers to analyze your investment accounts and uncover hidden fees that could be hindering your earning potential.

    Why We Recommend It

    Personal Capital offers similar features to some other budgeting apps, but it does more when it comes to investing. The app helps you stay up-to-date on your net worth and makes sure you're not unnecessarily losing money on investment fees.

    Pros and Cons of Personal Capital

    • The app tracks your savings and your net worth
    • You can find an eliminate hidden fees in your investment accounts
    • There is no free version available
    • Users pay a fee of 0.89% on their assets, which is high compared to similar robo advisors

    Safety

    Personal capital uses 256-bit AES encryption and maintains payment card industry compliance (PCI DSS Level 1) and ISO 27001 certification.

    YNAB Logo

    You Need A Budget


    Cost: $11.99/month, $84/year

    Where It’s Available: iOS, Android, Web

    At a Glance

    You Need a Budget (YNAB) excels at providing guidance for smart money management and financial responsibility. The app's tutorials and education material are excellent and extremely helpful and catered to modest households who need the basics.

    Basically, YNAB assigns a job to every dollar you're projected to earn. It’s either spent or saved. YNAB connects to your financial accounts to pull account balances and other information in real time. It’s more of a traditional approach to budgeting and it’s a good approach for people who are serious about managing their money.

    YNAB uses tutorials and pop-up windows to introduce its concepts, which include a checklist that helps you get started. As you get more into the process, however, it can get tedious to come up with all the customized categories needed to direct your money flow. You can change categories and YNAB provides a “Stuff I Forgot To Budget For,’’ which becomes helpful.

    Why We Recommend It

    YNAB is unique in that it gives you a proactive, positive approach to money management. Instead of warning you about bad habits, it does what a good budget should do for you: it assigns a job to every dollar. 

    Pros and Cons of You Need A Budget

    • Uses the effective approach of assigning a role for every dollar
    • College students get a free 365-day trial
    • No automatic bill-pay feature
    • It can be tedious to set up accurate spending categories
    • Subscription plans start at $14.99 a month (there's no free option)

    Safety

    YNAB uses 128-bit encryption (AES_128_GCM), and should you choose to leave the app, YNAB says your information will be deleted. You can use YNAB without linking your financial accounts, but you'll have to enter your transaction information manually.

    Honeydue Logo

    Honeydue


    Cost: Free

    Where It’s Available: iOS, Android

    At a Glance

    Honeydue is for couples who desire more transparency in their relationship, particularly when it comes to spending. The app is free and it can work for couples at any stage of the relationship, so long as they are ready to begin sharing financial details with each other.

    The app lets you track your accounts across a range of financial institutions including bank accounts, loans, and investments. Timely notifications and bill reminders keep you on top of your payment schedules and help you avoid late fees.

    Honeydue can provide a joint bank account for both you and your partner, though this service is optional. The account is FDIC-Insured with Sutton Bank, comes with a free debit card, and requires no minimum balance or annual fees. You don’t need a Honeydue bank account to take advantage of the app.

    You can even send your partner chat messages through the app to let them know when a bill has been paid or ask about a specific transaction.

    Why We Recommend It

    Whether you combine finances with your partner or keep your money separate, it can be difficult to manage all of the moving parts in one household. Honeydue is the only service on our list that's specifically built to solve that problem, by allowing couples to communicate about and improve their finances together. Plus, it's free to use.

    Pros and Cons of Honeydue

    • The app is free
    • You'll get budget tracking and bill alerts
    • Free FDIC-insured bank account
    • Built to help partners coordinate their bills, expenses and goals
    • There's no goal-setting or goal tracking feature
    • The app has advertisements

    Safety

    Your information is securely encrypted in 256 bits, both in transit and in storage. Honeydue also requires multi-factor authentication.

    Simplifi Logo

    Simplifi


    Cost: $5.99/month ($3.59/month if you pay for a whole year up-front)

    Where It’s Available: iOS, Android, Web

    At a Glance

    Simplifi by Quicken can help you create a budget, set and track goals, automatically pay your monthly bills and track your investments.

    The visual interface makes it easy to look at all of these different aspects of your finances and see how you're progressing. Plus, if you want a little extra encouragement, Simplifi gives you virtual badges when you make progress or practice good financial habits. 

    You can pull up visual reports in the app, and view easy-to-read pie charts showing your income, savings, customized spending categories or net worth. Plus, you can set customizable alerts.

    Simplifi also lets you plan for the future by allowing you to plug in budget items that you expect to change. You can enter a new stream of income, for example, and see projections on how your account balances will shift once the money starts coming in.

    For Quicken users, it's worth noting that Simplifi does not use info from your Quicken accounts.

    Why We Recommend It

    Simplifi offers several of the features you want from a budgeting app. It helps you create a budget, pay bills automatically, and it incentivizes saving and investing. The visual features also make it easy and fun to monitor your financial accounts.

    Pros and Cons of Simplifi

    • Free 30-day trial
    • Tracks your budget, spending, savings and investments
    • Users can set up automatic bill pay
    • No advertisements
    • Lacks debt payoff features that some other apps offer
    • Membership costs $5.99/month, or $3.59/mo if you pay for a whole year up-front (there's no free version available)

    Safety

    Simplifi uses Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology and 256-bit encryption to transmit data from your bank. All data stored in your mobile device is encrypted as well.

    QAPITAL Logo

    Qapital App


    Cost: Free

    Where It’s Available: iOS, Android

    At a Glance

    Qapital allows you to save money with relative ease, through gamification and the small actions you take in everyday life. It does require you to open a new account, which is FDIC-insured (no minimum balance or monthly service fee).

    How do things work? If you buy coffee each morning, Qapital rounds up the price and puts the change in a savings account. If you come under budget for anything — such as groceries or commuting expenses — you could put that balance to use. For example, it can go into your vacation fund. Before you know it, almost invisibly, you are saving money. It also connects to IFTT (an app that stands for “If this, then that’’), which suggests more ways to save.

    Qapital has other cool features, such as asking if you’d like to learn a new skill like cooking or photography. If so, you are asked how much it will cost and then walked through a process to set and track your goal.

    Why We Recommend It

    Qapital has unique ways of helping you prioritize your financial goals, including by automatically moving your budget surplus into savings. Plus, it uses your spare change to help you reach your savings goals than much faster.

    Pros and Cons of Qapital

    • Free 30-day trial
    • Saving is easy because the app sets your spare change aside
    • You'll have to open at least one Qapital bank account
    • Membership costs $3 to $12 a month (there's no free version)
    • Some features are not available for low-or-mid- cost memberships

    Safety

    Qapital is secured with SSL (Security Sockets Layer) and TLS (Transport Layer Security) encryption standards. Bank communication is only transmitted over encrypted end-point, and personal information (including SSN and login credentials) is not stored on Qapital Servers. Users can also use fingerprint ID and enable passcodes.

    Digit Logo

    Digit App


    Cost: $2.99/month

    Where It’s Available: iOS, Android

    At a Glance

    Digit is geared toward people who want to save money without a studious effort. Almost in Big Brother fashion, Digit evaluates your spending habits and automatically moves money from your linked bank account into your Digit account.

    How does it work? Every two or three days, Digit makes a transfer, generally after interpreting your checking balance, upcoming income, upcoming bills and recent spending patterns. Based on these variables, Digit calculates a non-essential amount that you won’t notice based on your spending patterns.

    You might think, “Wait, can’t I do this stuff on my own?’’ Possibly. But Digit is geared toward people who would rather automate the process. For those folks, it’s worth the fee and convenience.

    Plus, all customers earn a 1% annualized savings bonus for every three months they save with Digit. There’s also a $5 referral bonus if you get a friend to join the service.

    Digit includes a text service with SMS messaging that allows customers to perform regular banking transactions (viewing a balance, initiating withdrawals, viewing upcoming bills) without using a computer.

    Why We Recommend It

    Digit helps you analyze your spending and ensures that you'll save money each month. Plus, Digit has features that help you automatically save more when you have a surplus, while at the same time protecting you from checking account overdrafts.

    Pros and Cons of Digit App

    • Free six-month trial
    • You can set savings and investing goals and track your progress
    • Membership costs $5 per month (there's no free version)
    • You'll have to open a savings account through Digit
    • Digit savings accounts may earn less interest than other savings accounts

    Safety

    Digit uses 256-bit encryption and firewalls, and Digit Savings are FDIC-insured up to $250,000. Digit also has a no-overdraft guarantee.

    GoodBudget App Logo

    GoodBudget App

    Visit Site

     


    Cost: $7/month, $60/year

    Where It’s Available: iOS, Android, Web

    At a Glance

    There’s an old-fashioned savings method called the "envelope method" that involves physically dividing all your cash into envelopes. You have one for groceries, one for your telephone bill, one for gas, etc.

    Think of Goodbudget as your virtual envelopes. Goodbudget allows you to specify how to spend and save your money. The free membership provides a basic way to control and track finances. The paid membership is for more expansive budgets.

    Goodbudget provides “regular’’ envelopes for frequent expenses such as rent, groceries and entertainment, and there are “more’’ envelopes for annual expenses, vacations, Christmas gifts or an emergency fund.

    Envelopes can be customized by adding income and listing a financial account such as checking, savings, credit card or cash. Goodbudget’s free plan provides 10 regular and 10 annual envelopes but customers who pay can track as many categories as they please.

    The balance of each envelope is represented by a colorful bar on the home screen. Green means you have money left in the envelope. Red means you’ve gone over budget.

    Goodbudget is fairly easy to understand, but the spending categories are a bit cumbersome to set up and manage. Even if files are imported from your bank account, each transaction must be categorized manually.

    Why We Recommend It

    Goodbudget harnesses the power of a tried-and-true budgeting method: the envelope. The app lets you categorize your budget items and, once you get started, it lets you see if you're on track or nearing your spending limits via a quick glance.

    Pros and Cons of GoodBudget

    • A free version is available
    • The app provides free financial education courses
    • Spending charts make it easy to see if your spending is on-track
    • You can share a household budget with your partner
    • You'll have to pay $8 a month to access all of the features
    • Bank accounts aren't linked, so you have to download your transaction information or enter it manually

    Safety

    Accounts are protected with 256-bit encryption, read-only access and a PIN. User data is not sold to third-parties and bank accounts are not linked to Goodbudget.

    Additional Financial Resources

    Budgeting apps are just one of many tools that you can use to tackle your finances. If you're looking for even more help managing debt, a nonprofit credit counselor can give you advice on how to pay off your balances or even set you up with special debt management tools, including.

    • Nonprofit debt consolidation: When you use debt consolidation services from a nonprofit organization you can potentially reduce the interest rates on your credit cards or loans and pay off your debt within 3 to 5 years.
    • Debt management: Unlike risky debt settlement services, debt management involves working together with your creditors to come up with a payment plan, and potentially reducing your monthly expenses and account fees.

    » More: Best Debt Payoff Apps

    Speak to a Professional About Your Budget

    Each budgeting app has its own benefits, but even the best app has limitations. In fact, one study found that some budgeting apps can even inadvertently encourage you to spend more money.

    Ultimately, nothing can replace the experience and expertise you get when you work with a real-life professional. If you're ready to get personalized, one-on-one help managing debt and achieving your financial goals, you can schedule an appointment with a credit counselor right away.