Best Budgeting Apps of 2015


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UPDATE: Check out our latest app recommendations in our new Best Budgeting & Saving Apps of 2016!

Happy New Year! The time has come for a clean slate, a year to top all other years in greatness. And that includes finances. Whether you’ve resolved to save more, get out of debt, or quit spending $1000/year on Starbucks, the key to sticking to those goals is a budget. Johnny and I are big fans of tracking every cent of spending, and budgeting and personal finance apps make it easy peasy to do just that. With a few taps of your thumb each day, you can stay on top of your finances.

And you’ve come to the right place because we’ve compiled the best budgeting and personal finance apps of 2015, just for you. And you. And you. All right, here goes…

NOTE: All apps listed below are for iPhone. We cannot speak to the availability or functionality on other phone platforms.

Paid Budgeting Apps

We know this is a budgeting site, and we’re usually all about free stuff. But sometimes paying for something can actually save you money. And in this case, we think these apps might just be worth the couple bucks.

HomeBudget appSpendbook appYNAB app

HomeBudget with Sync ($4.99 – 4.5 stars)
Everyone has a budgeting system that works for them. For Johnny and me, this is the app that’s worked for us over the past few years. We manually enter our expenses and info, which is what we prefer. The design and flow is intuitive and really easy to set up. But the biggest draw has always been that it syncs our budget in the cloud to both of our phones so that we’re always on the same page.

Spendbook ($1.99 – 4.5 stars)
If you’re looking for a manual budgeting app with a beautiful design, Spendbook is the app for you. Their claim to fame is that they make budgeting an “enjoyable experience,” and its users seem to agree. If they had a sync option between devices, Johnny and I would switch to this app in a heartbeat!

YNAB (free* – 4.5 stars)
Johnny and I have been late to the You Need a Budget (YNAB) praising, but our readers RAVE about this app. Although the app is free to download, we’ve added it to the Paid category since using the app requires using the YNAB software — which costs $60 ($6 off if you order here) to buy. The software syncs between your computer and other devices, ensuring your budget is always up to date. If you want to be able to see your finances from the very broadest to the most granular points of view, this is the budgeting system for you.

080615.personalfinanceappsCTA.web

Free Budgeting Apps

These apps are free, free, free. So if one of them fits what you’re looking for in an app, your budget’s already off to a great start.

Wally appBillGuard appDollarbird app

Wally (4 stars)
If simplicity of use and design are your thing, look no further. Wally simply tracks your income and expenses and projects your savings each month. It takes out the tediousness of actually creating a detailed budget, and focuses solely on your spending vs saving vs income ratio. Personally, we enjoy the tedium when budgeting (because we’re weird and OCD), but something about the simplicity of this app is really appealing.

BillGuard (4.5 stars)
This app not only automates all of your budget, but it also alerts you anytime an unauthorized charge occurs on any of your accounts or credit cards. The user experience is both intuitive and enjoyable, and it’s a great app if you’re looking for a more automated budgeting system.

Dollarbird (3.5 stars)
Similar to HomeBudget, Dollarbird allows users to create a budget and enter expenses manually. The design is light, bright, and easy to use. This is an ideal manual budgeting app for a single person trying to stick to a budget.

 

General Finance Apps Worth Mentioning

We decided to include this category this year since there are so many incredible finance apps available now that aren’t necessarily budgeting apps. Here are some of our favorites:

Mint appAcorns app

Mint (free – 4 stars)
Mint takes you out of the budgeting equation, and literally does it all for you. And although you can create a budget in the app, we’ve found that expenses oftentimes get miscategorized. So while we don’t use Mint as a budgeting app, we love using it as a general overview of where our money stands. We also use it to keep track of our net worth at the end of the month since it tracks the balances of our various accounts. This is an app everyone should own.

Acorns (free* – 4 stars)
Acorns invests your spare change — automatically! It rounds up your expense to the next dollar and invests the extra into a diversified portfolio. Pretty nifty, right? And while the app is technically free, it does charge you $1/month once you start investing. Saving money doesn’t get any easier than this!

Digit (free)
This is another great app for those whose savings need a gentle nudge in the right direction. Digit connects to your bank account (it’s safe) and analyzes your average balance and spending. After it figures that out, it uses an algorithm that moves a small amount (usually between $5 to $50) from your bank account and into a savings account. The magic behind it all is that you should never even notice it’s missing. Get $5 deposited into your account for free when you sign up here.

Bonus

Ebates Coupons and Cash Back
While you’re looking to maximizing your budget with a new app in 2015, be sure to maximize your savings with your online shopping, too. Our go-to site for every online purchase is Ebates. Why? Because they give you cash back if you shop through their site for most online stores. We saved a couple hundred bucks in 2014 from our normal, budgeted online shopping. There’s no catch, no strings attached, and joining the site is totally free. Free money doesn’t get easier than that, so take advantage of it and sign up to start saving dough!

And if you’re looking for apps that will help you beyond budgeting like saving and investing, check out our Best Personal Finance Apps of 2015 recommendations.

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Best Budgeting Apps of 2015

We hope one of these apps fits your budgeting needs to a T. But don’t forget that an app is only part of the equation. Check out our How to Start a Budget guide to see what else is involved.

Here’s to keeping our best budgets yet in 2015! Any other apps you’d add to this list? How do you feel about paying money for an app that’s supposed to help you save… money?

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123 Comments

  • Reply Petrish @ Debt Free Martini January 1, 2015 at 9:52 am

    I currently do not use any financial app, but I’m gonna peek at some of these apps and see if any of them make me warm and fuzzy. Thank you for the information.

    • Reply Johnny January 2, 2015 at 12:57 am

      “Warm and fuzzy” is pretty good gauge for most things in life. Hopefully our list doesn’t disappoint.

  • Reply Rob January 1, 2015 at 10:01 am

    Happy New Year guys! Hope you and Sal didn’t drink too much of the bubbly last night! 🙂

    Interesting list of apps that you list today, Joanna, unfortunately I use none of them as I have neither an iphone, a cellphone, a tablet, nor an ipad – just a kindle ebook reader and a PC desktop for this retired old computer Neanderthal! 🙂

    That all said, however, I still spreadsheet track budgets, incomes, expenses. as well as investment results, down to the cent on an ongoing regular basis like you guys do (which I’m currently doing today as part of my year-end “state of the family” report to my wife!). This all works for me and provides the right amount of control (even if it might be a tad more time consuming than using an app). But that’s just our approach. I’m sure that apps provide good value as well if used correctly.

    • Reply Johnny January 2, 2015 at 1:01 am

      Sal is still recovering from her few stolen sips of “mommy juice” aka Diet Coke. 🙂

      I’m all about going manual spreadsheet-mode with our net worth. I feel way more in control that way. With our regular spending, apps seem to do the trick since we always have our phones with us. So I guess we can only claim half-Neanderthal.

  • Reply Sara January 1, 2015 at 10:43 am

    Love this list! Heads up to people wanting to try YNAB… college students (both full and part time) actually get it for free. All you have to do is send them proof that you’re a student (like a picture of your student card or whatever) and they’ll send you a product key for the calendar year!

    Here’s a link to their blog for more info, but as it’s not really advertised anywhere else I figured I should pass along the info!

    http://www.youneedabudget.com/blog/2014/ynab-is-now-free-for-college-students/#proof

    • Reply Johnny January 2, 2015 at 1:01 am

      Very cool! Thanks for the heads up, Sara.

  • Reply Erin January 1, 2015 at 5:34 pm

    I use the Mint app all the time and really like it for the overview it gives. I do have to recategorize quite often but it’s not time consuming. Another finance app I really like is “Credit Karma”. Unlike Mint where you have to input all of the accts you want tracked, Credit Karma does everything like a credit check. And gives you ideas for how to improve your credit score. I only use this one once a month or so but it’s very informative.

    • Reply Johnny January 2, 2015 at 1:04 am

      Mint is our go to at-a-glance app. It serves as a great dashboard and has come in handy a number of times when we’ve wanted to search for a particular transaction but can’t remember what account we used. And big thumbs up on Credit Karma. We’ll definitely give them a shout out in an upcoming post about credit scores.

  • Reply Halsy January 2, 2015 at 8:21 am

    I have been pleased with the few dollars spent on HomeBudget. I think it has absolutely made me not purchase items because I don’t want to hear my husband say, “Really…Starbucks again” or “did we really need 100 rolls of toilet paper”.

    • Reply Johnny January 4, 2015 at 2:44 am

      Haha. It does have that affect. And no, you can never have too much extra TP.

  • Reply Miranda January 2, 2015 at 12:52 pm

    We took a look at YNAB but never pulled the trigger. I do like their ‘this months bills with last month’s budget approach’ and I do think they’re more flexible. Especially for those of us who like to float unused money from category to category. Maybe we’ll pull the trigger this year! =)

    • Reply Johnny January 10, 2015 at 8:46 pm

      I’m pretty sure they offer a 30-day free trial. Pull that trigger.

  • Reply Jayson @ Monster Piggy Bank January 2, 2015 at 7:52 pm

    Yay! I think I am gonna use a budgeting apps to support my new year’s resolution on saving money. Aside from having a financial spreadsheet, I will have one of this app. I just wish there’s an app which can sync my spreadheets. LOL I am not yet sure what best for me. So I think I am gonna try one after the other. Thanks for the suggestions John.

    • Reply Joanna January 7, 2015 at 11:40 pm

      Sounds like a plan! Good luck on your 2015 budget!

  • Reply Caity January 3, 2015 at 12:12 am

    I plan and track our expenses on paper, because there’s something about writing it down that’s fun for me…but after reading your post today, I decided to try out an app. I downloaded both Spendbook and HomeBudget. Spendbook is much more simple and doesn’t have as many options as HomeBudget, but it does show me how much I have left for the month after my expenses. I’m not seeing this option on HomeBudget- I only see how much I have spent, but not how much I have left. Am I missing it?

    • Reply Joanna January 7, 2015 at 11:43 pm

      On the home screen of HomeBudget, it shows you how much you have left. It looks like a dial and it’s listed under a heading that says “Available.” Hopefully that helps. And good luck with your 2015 budget!

    • Reply Johnny January 8, 2015 at 12:11 am

      Also, if you tap the Budget button on your home screen, it will take you to a category-at-a-glance view where you can see how much you’ve spent and how much you have left for each category.

  • Reply Seth January 13, 2015 at 12:27 am

    GoodBudget is another solution that we use. It started as a the envelope system, but digital, and then formed into GoodBudget. I haven’t used YNAB extensively, but it looks like GoodBudget does the same thing for the most part, but has a free option. Our plan is to use it primarily for discretionary income that we can control from month to month. This will allow us to take ownership of our budget, but also use the freemium model. The blog is great, just stumbled upon it tonight. Thanks for doing this.

    • Reply Joanna January 14, 2015 at 11:19 pm

      Very cool. Sounds like a great option. We’ll have to look into GoodBudget!

  • Reply Dani January 13, 2015 at 7:31 am

    Hi J&J,

    Hello from Portland, Maine! Thanks so much for your excellent blog–we’ve been reading up on lots of your tips and tricks as we make another attempt (fingers crossed) at getting out of debt and sticking to a budget. We were hooked by your recommendation of HomeBudget and bought it ($19.99 + tax) for the Mac desktop, and mobile versions ($4.99; thank goodness for iOS 8 and family sync for paid apps). Unfortunately, when trying to network in our accounts, it doesn’t recognize our small credit union. The HB user guide says to do a manual update with an OFX import, but would that mean we have to enter our account balances and each purchase ourselves, daily? We were hoping for a platform that would scoop the data so we could just organize it. Did we choose the wrong app? Thanks for your help, and for being great budget ambassadors for our generation!

    • Reply Joanna January 14, 2015 at 11:27 pm

      It sounds like instead of it automatically importing it, you’ll have to direct it to download the data for that particular credit union. I wish I knew more than that, but we just use the mobile version, which is all manual entry. I hope you guys can figure out a way to have it work for you! Mint is a great tool if you want if you want it all to be automatized. Good luck with your 2015 budget and thanks for reading!

  • Reply Kathy January 15, 2015 at 4:19 pm

    I’m trying to decide between HomeBudget and MoneyWiz. What are the main differences, and is there a reason MoneyWiz didn’t make your list this year?

    • Reply Joanna January 15, 2015 at 10:31 pm

      HomeBudget is all manual entry, while MoneyWiz imports everything automatically. They both sync between devices, so that’s good. They both cost $4.99 in the app store, but MoneyWiz continues to cost $4.99/month to use it. It might be a good app, but we hesitate to include apps that will continue costing the user money from month to month. And most of what it offers can be found in a free app like Mint. Hope that helps!

  • Reply Tiare January 16, 2015 at 1:16 am

    As a social techie, I love that technology is helping us with how we think about money. It’s exciting to think about all the possibilities!

    Our family has used Mint in the past. I liked how comprehensive it is but feel that its growing size has turned it into lumbering bells and whistles that are too much headache for the ham. We used Moni last year and really liked how easy peasy simple it was. My non-techie husband especially appreciated that it wasn’t complicated or overwhelming.

    However, I could use a little more functionality, such as a receipt scanner. We’re checking out HomeBudget with Sync now and have been pleased thus far.

    • Reply Joanna January 19, 2015 at 8:52 am

      We’re all about the simple budgeting apps. We love how comprehensive Mint is, too, but it’s a little much for the day-today. I’m still waiting for that perfect app to come along, but until it does, HomeBudget is working well for us!

  • Reply Karen January 19, 2015 at 3:19 pm

    I have used Mint for years and always struggled to keep up on budgeting/tracking. Can you tell me why you use HomeBudget as well as Mint? What do you get from HomeBudget that isn’t available in Mint?

    • Reply Joanna January 22, 2015 at 10:19 pm

      Good questions! With HomeBudget, you have to enter all your expenses in manually — in real time. As soon as we spend, we enter the expense in. It helps us to hold ourselves accountable. Because of how automatic Mint is, it’s easy to lose track of spending. We’re all for an active approach to budgeting, which is why we prefer a manual budgeting app. It does sync between both of our phones, which makes it easy to keep track of both of our expenses. Hope that helps!

    • Reply Nancoise March 24, 2015 at 8:57 pm

      I have been trying for two years to use Mint. It is tedious, but i thought I’d get used to it. Sadly, I haven’t. I must add budget categories every month, POS transactions show up almost unidentifiable sometimes. It’s just not for me. Glad to find your article. Maybe a new app is the answer as spreadsheets aren’t the answer anymore. I use mostly my iPad but need something that crosses,over to husband’s windows laptop.

  • Reply Rachel January 28, 2015 at 8:12 pm

    Hi, has anyone tried Pocketbook? I am after a budget app that gives you a budget function, tracking of that budget with an automatic syn to your bank accounts, ability to input directly to the app when you make expenses and also budget for future expenses, e.g. Fridge is 6 years old so maybe in the next 5 years you may need to replace and that costs X so you need to have Y in your savings each fortnight to cover those expenses.

    • Reply Tina Nash June 11, 2015 at 4:17 pm

      Dave Ramsey
      Has the best .
      Google Dave Ramsey budgeting tools image he has an old CD fo 5.00 i woul be willing to mail ours or you can check goodwill etc

  • Reply Laura January 30, 2015 at 1:27 pm

    I currently use Mint and it’s working great. Do you ever worry about Mint getting hacked and stealing all of your information? I know this sounds a little paranoid, I am just wondering if I am the only one feeling this way or if this is actually something that would stop you from using this app. Also, do you know of other apps where we wouldn’t have to input all of our bank information? Hope you are enjoying New York! 😀

    • Reply Joanna February 1, 2015 at 12:54 am

      Thanks! We’re enjoying it, and we’re excited to enjoy it even more once it warms up some!

      With everything that’s been hacked these days, I don’t think your concern is too paranoid. That said, their security measures have got to be top, top notch to store the kind of information they do. I’m sure they have a ton of safeguards in place. We use HomeBudget, which is manual and doesn’t require bank information. Hope that helps!

  • Reply Jon February 6, 2015 at 1:59 pm

    Will the HomeBudget app sync between devices if you have separate iTunes accounts? My wife doesn’t like to use the same iTunes account as me because she doesn’t like when my sports apps and such sync onto her phone, haha.

    • Reply Joanna February 8, 2015 at 9:49 pm

      Yes! It does… Johnny and I have totally opposite accounts, so no sports app syncing necessary! 🙂

      • Reply Karen Manning November 3, 2015 at 8:16 pm

        I am looking for a very simple app to track mostly expenses (medical, dental, starbucks, hair salon, shoes, etc.) I’d like a graph so I can see where to cut:) My expenses are fixed so I’m no interested in stocks, investments, etc. What’s the best?

  • Reply Victor February 7, 2015 at 4:03 pm

    Hi, I’ve recently bought Homebudget with sync after reading your post and I can’t figure out how to sync my iPhone and iPad. I use the app for myself, do I have to use the family sync feature?
    Thanks in advance.

    • Reply Joanna February 8, 2015 at 10:03 pm

      Yes, I think using the family sync should solve the problem!

  • Reply Sergio February 12, 2015 at 2:05 am

    Joanna

    I’ve been using Homebudget for 4 years and it’s a great app, but as Laura, I am concerned about data security.

    In a cellphone that is online ALL the time, what about if a hacker enter to your phone by a backdoor (that means you don’t realize) ? Could he read your data? Is data encrypted?

    I usually get very good support from the Home Budget support team, except when I did this question to them, I did not get an answer anymore. 🙁

    • Reply Joanna February 16, 2015 at 8:06 am

      I’m not sure… we don’t actually keep any information in that app other than our budget for the month — none of our account information or anything. Hacking is always a concern these days, but I think many phones have security measures of their own. Still, it’s good to be careful.

  • Reply Pedro Rocha February 15, 2015 at 6:36 am

    Hi Joanna and Johnny,

    I’m an IOS developer and just published “SmartWallet App” on the App Store, I thought it could interest you. SmartWallet was made for personal and family budget control. It’s for free, you don’t need to create an account (it uses facebook authentication, but nothing will be posted on Facebook), the reports are easy to read and it allows you to define budgets and create your own Income/Expense Categories.
    The app synchronizes automatically between devices and allows you to share your transactions with people to have an overview of family/group finances.

    You can find the App here https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/smartwallet-app/id942007262.

    By the way, I like your blog very much and find it very helpful, even more from a European perspective as budgeting is not as common here as it is in the US. Reading your articles was actually one of the starting points for SmartWallet.

    Regards

    • Reply Johnny February 16, 2015 at 9:09 am

      Great work, Pedro. We’ll have to take a closer look for our next budgeting app round up.

    • Reply Dorothy March 18, 2015 at 10:15 am

      Hi Pedro – Is there or is there going to be a Windows 8.1 PC version I can sync with my iPhone?

      • Reply Pedro Rocha March 18, 2015 at 11:52 am

        Hi Dorothy,

        We are working on a web site where you can manage your wallet, export data and some other nice features. We expect to release it in September.

        Greatings

  • Reply Pragati // Simple Medicine February 23, 2015 at 10:22 am

    what are your thoughts on the Pennies app? I love what you’ve got here, but I’m intrigued by Pennies and would love your opinion. Thanks!

    • Reply Johnny February 24, 2015 at 8:53 am

      We’ve checked out Pennies, but we’re not fans of apps that focus on taking your entire budget, dividing it by the number of days in the month, and then telling you what you can spend each day. Spending doesn’t work that way. I might only spend $5 today total, but then have a bunch of errands tomorrow that will cost $100. With these apps, I’d be over-budget. Not the best method.

      • Reply Pragati // Simple Medicine February 24, 2015 at 10:59 am

        I have to agree with you – I did a little more research after posting my comment and found the system to be a little odd. Thanks for your input!

  • Reply Becky March 6, 2015 at 12:10 pm

    Hello,
    Found your blog this week and have gotten a lot of insight from it so far. I also love the response time with comments…so here goes, like Dani’s concerns above, I’m in a very similar boat. My family SERIOUSLY needs a budget. We need out of debt and need to balance all the sports activities along with our household bills. I’m embarrassed to say, we are one of those established families that have never had a budget and I’m feeling it. To help make a budget and stick with a budget, I want to use an app that can link between by Mac computer and my cell. I enrolled in Mint as per your suggestions ~ my big bank was found, but our small town credit union was not. Most of my credit card companies were found, but 2 small department store ones were not. I worry about putting in my bank and cc info with the hacking/data security that does occur out there. Your best suggestion of app/program that fits my above issues without breaking the bank and without paying a monthly fee?

    • Reply Johnny March 22, 2015 at 12:04 am

      Sorry for the delay, Becky! There’s never a wrong time to start budgeting — except tomorrow. 🙂 Honestly, given your situation and criteria, I would go with a manual entry option. There’s no better way to whip your budget into shape than having to answer for every single expense and type each painful (hopefully not too painful) transaction in yourself. Don’t get too caught up with all the super techy options that aggregate all your accounts. Just focus on tracking your expenses one at a time, and checking on your categories as the month progresses.

      Best of luck, and shoot us an email if you have more questions.

  • Reply Sean March 12, 2015 at 3:03 am

    Great info, guys! What about an app that integrates bill payment tools? Like something where I could set up due dates and reminders, and check off bills that are paid (and perhaps have even cleared the bank). Mint seems to be able to do this, but only with bills that are recognized in their system (my landlord is obvi not listed). BillGuard has similar capabilities, but lacks a budgeting tool. A lot of the others just don’t have this. Any thoughts?

  • Reply Sean March 12, 2015 at 3:13 am

    Wait…I take that back…looks like Homebudget does that….now if only it could link to a bank account, like Mint (but without all those annoying ads), as well as allowing for manual entry.

    • Reply Johnny March 22, 2015 at 12:08 am

      This is actually one area that we’re not super well versed since we automate the majority of our bills. I know Mint’s parent company, Intuit, recently acquired Check and now uses that as their Bills product. I haven’t used it yet, but I was familiar with Check, so it might be a winner.

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  • Reply David March 28, 2015 at 3:58 pm

    I’m really trying to tame this wild beast called my budget and so far all of the information on your site has helped a ton. A few questions for you: how much time per day do you spend on your finances? Do you have a strict regime of checking the status of your accounts x many times per day? Do you manually enter in e v e r y transaction? What about month to month bills?

    • Reply Johnny April 14, 2015 at 10:30 pm

      We spend 5-10 minutes a day on our finances. Tops. We do manually enter nearly every single transaction. That’s the key ingredient. Without that, we’re really not able to be 100% accountable. Month to month bills usually go in either on the 1st of the month if it’s a fixed cost, or on the date we get the bill if it’s a variable cost. And then once a month we spend an hour or so analyzing our budget, changing category amounts, tracking our net worth, and looking at our financial state of affairs.

      • Reply John October 15, 2015 at 9:55 pm

        What app/tool are you using? Could you please take a look at our foreceipt app for tracking all your financial needs? It allows you to take a picture of your receipt and enter the details of your transaction and categorize it… It also could track your incomes/bills/refunds and plus you could set up a monthly budget. It also tracks all your bank account balances. You could find our app here https://goo.gl/zW332G

        Thanks,
        John

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  • Reply Leone April 23, 2015 at 10:39 pm

    I have downloaded the free lite version of Homebudget to see if it feels like the right app for me.
    We are just starting a budget for the first time this year! I am really happy with it except for one thing, which I am sure there would be a setting for but can’t find, and was wondering if you could please clarify….
    When I enter my budget, say Health Insurance for $1,500 every 3 months, it allocates $500 every month in my expenses and says I’m doing really well as I haven’t spent that $500. A bit misleading, especially when I start entering all the annual payments I want to budget in a particular month, not spread over every month.
    Are you please able to help? Thanks very much for your blog!

    • Reply Johnny May 10, 2015 at 12:25 am

      Hey Leone. Sorry, I’m not super familiar with that type of feature. If you haven’t been able to figure it out already, I’d recommend heading to the developer’s website and shoot them a message to see how to do that. Happy budgeting!

  • Reply Hannah May 1, 2015 at 1:30 pm

    Thanks for this list! I’ve been using Spendee for the past 9 months. It has a cute and clean interface, customizable categories and icons, and shows you graphs of your income and expenses AND pie charts of expense categories. It also will email you an excel or csv file of your data, with the category, date, and amount. This was an essential feature for me.

    • Reply Johnny May 10, 2015 at 12:27 am

      Very cool, Hannah! We’ll have to give it a whirl sometime soon. We’re suckers for a clean interface and intuitive user experience.

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  • Reply Shannon May 8, 2015 at 8:39 am

    Hello,

    Googled “best budget apps” and it led me to your awesome blog! I’ve read so many other blogs but lost interest QUICKLY. I love your honest and down to earth approach. I’ve already read 5 posts and will definitely be coming back for more. Thanks for making a nail biting task seem fun and doable!

    • Reply Johnny May 10, 2015 at 12:28 am

      Hey Shannon! Thanks so much for stopping by. Hope to see you around the comments!

  • Reply alex May 16, 2015 at 6:32 pm

    Hey guys, I just launched Budget Calendar for the iphone and android, please check it out. is a cash flow calendar that forecast your balance daily for years and years. http://www.budgetcalendar.net

  • Reply Erica May 25, 2015 at 2:40 pm

    Thanks for the info! I am working on setting up the Family Sync on HomeBudget for myself and my hubby. Do we both need to purchase the app?

  • Reply Sarah May 25, 2015 at 8:25 pm

    I have been using BestBudget. This app won’t let me change the amounts and keep the amount building up before that date. For example, I wanted to increase our income starting from a new date and adjust the amounts we spent in different categories. But the money we had saved in the categories zeroed out. Does home budget let you adjust? Hope this question makes sense. Thanks for all the information on your blog!!

  • Reply April May 31, 2015 at 5:15 pm

    I love Goodbudget. It’s great to have the envelope system in virtual form. I’m not running off of last month’s money yet, so I’m not able to really use the reports since I do my budget every two weeks when I get paid. I can’t wait until I reach that point. I’m enjoying your blog so far. 🙂

  • Reply 15 habits you definitely should have stopped years ago June 4, 2015 at 6:10 pm

    […] paycheck on the season’s latest trends, but bad credit and late fees are even worse. Use an app to tailor your budget to your needs (and wants), and do your best to live within your […]

  • Reply Myra June 29, 2015 at 10:30 pm

    Do any of these apps track what each user inputs? For example, when sharing a bank account, how to keep track of what each person using the account inputs. I’d like to be able to see which entries were by which person.

    • Reply Johnny July 2, 2015 at 11:20 pm

      Good question, Myra. I’m actually not sure if there’s anything out there that breaks it down by spender. We’ve created a few categories in HomeBudget for our personal spending, but that’s the closest thing I’ve done/seen. Sorry!

  • Reply John July 6, 2015 at 7:07 pm

    To add
    I am playing with PowerWallet https://www.powerwallet.com as a upgrade from Mint.
    It looks beautiful so far.

  • Reply Dan Olson July 19, 2015 at 8:15 pm

    My wife and I still begrudgingly use Mvelopes. Two musts for us are bank sync (hate having to manually enter every transaction) and an “envelopes” style of budgeting. (Both graduates of the Dave Ramsey system.) The app, both mobile and browser, are both sooooooo clunky and buggy. We are waiting for the day that they scrap the whole flash based thing and rewrite the app in beautiful HTML.

  • Reply Suzanne Clifford July 21, 2015 at 6:38 pm

    We created MyMoneyPicture as a simple application that helps you
    track your expenses, monitor account balances, and compare actual
    spending to your budget.

    It is free, and does not need access to your accounts. Spending is entered manually to increase awareness. Check it out: http://www.mymoneypicture.com

  • Reply Art Stopper July 26, 2015 at 5:59 pm

    I’m looking for a check register & budget app that I can also use on my windows laptop, syncs with all my Apple mobile devices and allows multiple users. One that also incorporates receipt capture would be golden. Not too interested in analysis feature.

  • Reply Jenna July 28, 2015 at 3:34 pm

    This Budget Beast has been a very slow learning process for me. I have been using a free manual app called Expense IQ to keep track of every transaction. It has a lot of nice Report features (yay pie charts!) and everything is easy to categorize. I’d been using it happily for a few months to track bill reminders and income when I finally got around to setting up one of the budget features, which I think works like the envelope system, only to find that it only calculates from the 1st to the 31st. Our first paycheck of the month comes in on the 5th, so it kept telling me I was under or over budget once the 1st of the month passed, but I was not on a new influx of cash yet! That feature became pretty much useless to me. Do you know of any apps that are more flexible with budget parameters? Not that I am looking forward to re-entering all this info into a new app, but I definitely need a new one if I’m going to beat the Budget Beast!

  • Reply JJK August 2, 2015 at 12:58 pm

    Not exactly “budgeting” app but if you are landlord, The Property is pretty neat for managing rent invoices, rental payments and property expenses with an option to export all financial data for tax purposes. See http://property-app.com

  • Reply The Penguin August 5, 2015 at 12:34 am

    Anyone have any opinions or feedback on Mvelopes? I have a friend who swears by their product. It’s been around for a while, but I didn’t see it on this list. Any help would be appreciated. Looking for something to help on the month to month budgeting.

  • Reply Catherine August 5, 2015 at 2:39 pm

    Hi, that was my NY resolution and we are in August BUT I want to thank you for taking the time to put this review together, well done. Thank you.

  • Reply John August 13, 2015 at 11:53 am

    I am using Foreceipt app to track our incomes & expenses and also manage our monthly budget. Foreceipt also save all your receipts and data directly into your Google Drive so that you will never worry about losing your receipts and data. Foreceipt syncs your data crossing multiple devices automatically so that your family could work on one budget:) You could download Foreceipt app here : https://goo.gl/zW332G

  • Reply nic August 20, 2015 at 3:42 am

    I came across grandbudget a while back. I found it very easy to use. Highly recommend it for anyone who wants a simple app. It took me a while to understand the import feature but once setup its easy. For anyone who’s interested. http://www.grandbudget.com

  • Reply Becauseweoughta August 24, 2015 at 3:31 am

    Dollar Bird is AMAZING!!! I live and work in a developing country and really wanted a budget tracker that didn’t have a connection to my American bank account AND could also allow me to track in other currencies AND allow me to manage multiple bank accounts AND allow me to create budgets. With my limited internet connection, I downloaded at least 8 in my research. And low and behold though it took a day to download Dollar Bird is AWESOME!!! IT HAS EVERYTHING! (CAN YOU TELL IM PUMPED? )

  • Reply Shanna August 26, 2015 at 11:53 am

    Our bank is small so apps like MINT cannot access our online checking account to show our balance. My husband and I are new at having a joint checking account and we use our debit cards frequently, so we are looking for a way to keep each other aware of daily expenses and our checking account balance. Which app is best for that and are there any apps to manage checking accounts that also automatically pull up our online credit card account information? Or would we need to use a separate app for online credit card accounts?

    • Reply John August 27, 2015 at 2:53 pm

      Hi Shanna,

      Please check Foreceipt App https://goo.gl/zW332G . it will save all the receipts in Google Drive and keep tracking your expenses and incomes so that you could know your account balance easily. You could also set a monthly budget so that you could know where your money goes and how much you could spend each month.

      Thanks,
      John

  • Reply Chris September 1, 2015 at 5:09 pm

    Hi guys great list. Im looking for an app but still want to use the old paycheck to paycheque method. An app where I can set my budget from 23/09/15 – 23/10/15 would be great. Any help?

  • Reply Ben Winslow September 7, 2015 at 5:35 pm

    I recently downloaded Spendbook on your advice. I love the way it works day-to-day, but I’ve been really frustrated trying to figure out how to use the Export Data option. It says I have to set up an email account, but I have been completely unable to figure out how and I can’t find a how-to anywhere. Do you or anyone reading this blog happen to know how to do it?

  • Reply Samantha September 16, 2015 at 4:20 am

    Question. I don’t want to just have a budget app. I want one that I can enter the contact info/account info for anyone I pay bills to, or debt I’m paying off. Plus I want to be able to figure out how much debt I’ve paid and how much I have to go. Any super comprehensive software that you know of? I would go so far as small business software if I thought it would do the trick.

  • Reply Hannah September 28, 2015 at 1:54 pm

    Hey guys,

    I’m a young adult as well as a full-time freelancer. Therefore, my monthly income varies dramatically from month to month not allowing me to forecast much what I’ll be making. Until I have a clientele that will provide me a somewhat steady monthly income to depend on, which app do you suggest I use that will allow me to budget what I can spend now in order to be prepared for my next months payments?

    • Reply Johnny December 27, 2015 at 2:22 am

      Hi Hannah, sorry for the delay! For your situation, YNAB might be a really good option. Their entire system is based off a spend-what-you-made-last-month approach, so that despite not having a fixed income, you can still keep your earnings and spending in check.

  • Reply Tuesday Tips: Travelling on a budget « Babyccino Kids: Daily tips, Children's products, Craft ideas, Recipes & More October 20, 2015 at 2:15 am

    […] So the next step was looking for ways to whittle this down. Michael uses Excel but there are many apps (including free ones) you can use to help you […]

  • Reply Tracey October 20, 2015 at 9:10 pm

    What I am looking for, and I am not sure if it’s out there, is something that allows me to input all my bills and their payment dates and then gives me a week at a glance. Currently, I do it by hand, I sit down each payday and look at what bills are going out that week so I know how much is left over and how much of that we can use for fun money. I think I am getting a handle on making sure every week is in the black, so maybe this isn’t something that’s necessary once I have a smoothly flowing system?

    • Reply aman October 22, 2015 at 8:16 am

      Hi Tracey,

      If you use Windows, there is Piggylog, where you can put your income and spending on monthly OR weekly basis (piggylog.com) Otherwise, from the same developer there’s a new website piggypad.com, this is browser only and design resembles Craigslist, which can be good or bad — depending on your taste and needs. All their apps are manual entry only, though that can be partially automated. I don’t know why, but I prefer this way. Plain simple table — that’s it.

  • Reply Stacey October 22, 2015 at 7:42 pm

    Have you checked out Every Dollar from Dave Ramsey? It’s free unless you want to be connected to your bank. Curious as to how it compares to YNAB.

  • Reply The Ultimate Guide to Setting Up Your First Budget October 26, 2015 at 6:10 am

    […] every week. While that’s certainly an option, this is really best accomplished by utilizing a budgeting app. Doing so will save you significant time and […]

  • Reply Sal November 3, 2015 at 4:39 am

    So I got the home budget app (paid) for myself but in order to sync with my husband, does he have to purchase it on his phone as well?

    Sorry if this is a silly question. Thank you and love your blog!

  • Reply Dad Blog Funny Parenting Stories | Daddy Dazed November 7, 2015 at 6:07 am

    […] such, there are plenty of “adult-friendly” apps available for tablets too, and ‘HomeBudget’ is a great one for helping you to manage your home’s finances; allowing you to set a monthly […]

  • Reply Living in your own place | Young Persons Handbook November 24, 2015 at 10:50 am

    […] Rent and bills – budget tools to help you keep track of your money (computer) (mobile) […]

  • Reply Joanna Lansche November 27, 2015 at 9:36 am

    Hi there,

    I started using the Home Budget App, but I noticed one of the permissions it requires is the ability to access your phone call information and make phone calls. Any comment on this? Have you noticed increases on your phone bills, or weird numbers coming on your phone? I am a little sketched out by this and wanted some feedback regarding it.

    Thanks,

    Joanna

    • Reply Johnny December 27, 2015 at 1:47 am

      That’s a strange permission request that we never noticed at sign up. But to answer your question, no, we’ve never seen any weird phone usage or telemarketing calls that might have come as a result of using the app. I’d be interested to find out why they require that permission though.

  • Reply steve December 2, 2015 at 12:54 pm

    Hello. I came across your website and found it quite helpful. I have noticed that many people are looking for different capabilities out of their apps or programs. Please provide your opinion on what app or program you would recommend for the simplest way of categorizing bank AND credit card transactions automatically (from linking bank information). It is also important to have the ability to modify, add or eliminate categories. I would not be so much interested in balancing checkbooks, etc. Budgeting features would be nice, but the #1 priority would be how much I spend by category, by vendor, by day/month/etc. that would allow me to drill down (for example if i notice and excessive amount of clothing charges, i could see that we had a large purchase at Nordstroms that month, a gift, etc. Thank you!

  • Reply Danny December 5, 2015 at 4:18 am

    Financial tools might be very complicated to control, I suggest to use simple goal trackers.
    My favorite is eXtrigo because it’s not only helps you to organize yourself but also provide valuable tips and insights which help you to achieve your goal in a better way.

  • Reply READER QUESTION: Budgeting - Build My Kingdom December 14, 2015 at 7:18 am

    […] This is a good article to read on apps. […]

  • Reply Kris December 16, 2015 at 11:57 pm

    I am looking for a budget app where I can manually input income and expenses, and, a budget is created based on % income. For instance, if I program that I want 30% of my income going toward housing, and I enter $1000 income, it creates $300 for the budget limit for the next month or 30 days (using small, simple numbers for the example). Does such an app exist? Thank you! So, what I mean is, it automatically recalculates the spending amount in each category based on what the income is that gets inputted, keeping it current as income fluctuates. Thanks!

  • Reply Emily December 17, 2015 at 8:52 am

    I like PocketGuard most of all. They are new and have fresh ideas. It tracks funds across all my financial accounts, categorizes spending’s into pockets (so I can see which takes a lot and reduce it) as well as detects and organizes your monthly bills and recurring subscriptions. And now they have new feature, which is “Can I buy it”. It helps me to decide whether I can buy what I want or no. Try it, it is really nice and simple to use. They also have AppleWatch app. I found it on App Store, here is the link http://bit.ly/1MiYmOn. Or just google and you will find their website.

  • Reply 3 NY Resolutions for Healthy Finances | Your Money Secrets December 20, 2015 at 5:02 am

    […] but may not necessarily have access to their computers at all times.  Check out this list of the best free and paid budgeting apps of […]

  • Reply Sense #2: Know your numbers | Financial Sense 101 December 28, 2015 at 10:12 am

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  • Reply How do you Determine your Budget When Flipping a House? - Clear Mortgage January 2, 2016 at 5:47 pm

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  • Reply Simeon Wakefield January 11, 2016 at 11:01 pm

    Hey, thanks for this! I’ve heard of acron but been skeptical so far. My parents always invested, but the idea of using an app is new. So as someone just starting to invest, (minimal amounts) would you recommend this Acorn as a good place to begin?
    Thanks!

  • Reply TomA February 16, 2016 at 3:01 pm

    Hello,

    Does the Home Budget with sync have the ability to do a weekly budget or is it monthly only? Thank you.

  • Reply Budgeting for Tiny Living and Travel: A General Guideline | Life Untethered February 27, 2016 at 4:33 pm

    […] more information on budget apps like Mint, check out Our Freaking Budget or Gotta Be Mobile, which include a variety of budget tools and their respective […]

  • Reply Lee Roesner March 1, 2016 at 7:09 pm

    Well if you’re not so normal-ish and your shopping for apps, and you’ve had enough, then ya gotta break the rules and take a look at http://www.MoneySlinger.com. Congrats on the popularity of your site! Sharp looking too…

    Lee

  • Reply Key Considerations for Planning Your Financial Future March 6, 2016 at 11:59 am

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  • Reply Jack Parker March 23, 2016 at 8:39 am

    You need to check out http://www.inbudget.net – I’d love to see your thoughts in another post. I think it’s really ideal for families – everything can be synced up between multiple group members so that you always know where your money is going and how it’s been spent. Of course, it’s free!

  • Reply Living on a Fixed Income: Six Adjustments to Live Well March 28, 2016 at 1:25 pm

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  • Reply Alex April 17, 2016 at 7:33 am

    I’d love to see Everwealth listed on this list. Your readers would definitely love its simplicity, budgeting tools, and net worth tools: https://www.everwealth.io/

  • Reply mccart April 18, 2016 at 7:34 am

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  • Reply paul April 30, 2016 at 11:45 am

    Has anything been developed that does it all?

    By this, I mean an app that can directly take any electronic version of a receipt, automatically categorize all items on the bill and split the amounts into the categories selected. For example, when you go to a grocery store, you buy household items and food items and have to comb over the bill later on in order to better grasp your true spending in those categories. A trip to a place like Walmart would require a close review of the bill.

    The need to have to constantly work at sorting parts of bills into categories should be reduced or eliminated to allow people quick feedback into their spending and thus keep them aware of how they are using their money.

    Any info would be appreciated.

  • Reply 7 Habits of Financially Successful People - Singapore's Life Insurance Blog: Expert and Unbiased Views August 17, 2016 at 10:13 pm

    […] There are mobile apps that can help people create and maintain the monthly budget.  Check out this list of budgeting apps; http://www.ourfreakingbudget.com/best-budgeting-apps-of-2015/ […]

  • Reply Can you afford to buy/build a house? | First White Picket Fence August 21, 2016 at 2:22 am

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