The Best Budget Apps for 2025
These budget apps vary in scope, methods and features — but they all rank high among users.
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Basic budget apps typically connect with your financial accounts, track spending and categorize expenses so you can see where your money is going. But the best budget apps do much more.
We assessed budget app features and user reviews to arrive at top choices for you to consider. See our full methodology below the list.
Budgeting apps
Monarch Money, for customized budgeting
Monarch Money, which is new to our list, made the cut thanks to its robust lineup of features and customizable budgeting tool.
Monarch allows you to sync bank accounts, credit cards, loans and investments. After syncing, you choose between two budgeting strategies.
Flex budgeting is a simple, high-level view. It shows three buckets and how much you’ve spent toward each, as well as how much is remaining.
The buckets reflect your fixed expenses, non-monthly recurring expenses (like insurance premiums) and flexible expenses. The flexible bucket includes all the expenses that vary from month to month — like groceries, meals out and shopping — in a single number.
Category budgeting is the more traditional and detailed view, which prompts you to set limits for specific types of expenses, from your water bill to clothing purchases.
Beyond these budgeting features, Monarch provides a net worth tracker, investment dashboard, personalized reports and reminders of upcoming bills.
Monarch also allows you to add a household member to the subscription at no extra charge. The app is available on desktop and mobile.
YNAB, for hands-on zero-based budgeting
This app is designed so that users plan ahead for their financial decisions, rather than track past transactions. YNAB follows the zero-based budgeting system, which has you make a plan for every dollar you earn.
As soon as you get paid, you tell YNAB how much of your income should go toward various categories, including spending, savings and debt. The idea is that you become more intentional with your money when you’re prompted to actively decide what to do with it.
With all this decision making, the YNAB app is a hands-on way to budget money. To help users trek up that learning curve, YNAB’s website offers many educational resources describing exactly how to budget and use the app.
YNAB allows you to link your checking and savings accounts, as well as credit cards and loans. Or you can opt out of syncing your accounts and manually add or import your transactions, if you would prefer.
The app also features a loan payoff simulator, as well as the “YNAB Together” function. The latter is designed for partners, parents, caregivers or other close connections. It allows up to five users to share a membership.
The app works on mobile, desktop, iPad and Apple Watch.
» We tried this app. See our YNAB review
Goodbudget, for hands-on envelope budgeting
Goodbudget is more about planning your finances than tracking previous transactions. This app is based on the envelope budgeting system, in which you portion out your monthly income toward specific spending categories (called envelopes).
The free version doesn’t connect to your bank accounts. You manually add account balances (that you can pull from your bank’s website), as well as cash amounts, debts and income. Then you assign money to envelopes.
That free version allows one account, two devices and limited envelopes.
The paid version, Goodbudget Premium, allows unlimited envelopes and accounts, up to five devices and other perks. You can also link checking, savings and credit accounts to allow automatic tracking.
You can access the app from your phone and the web. You’ll also find many helpful articles and videos that help you use the app. Goodbudget provides courses related to budgeting, paying off debt and more.
» We tried this app. See our Goodbudget review
Empower Personal Dashboard, for tracking wealth and spending
Empower is primarily an investment tool, but its free app includes features helpful for budgeters looking to track their spending.
You can connect and monitor checking, savings and credit card accounts, as well as IRAs, 401(k)s, mortgages and loans. With that information, Empower offers a net worth and portfolio tracker.
For its budgeting features, the app provides a spending snapshot by listing recent transactions by category. You can customize those categories and see the total monthly spending each category represents.
The app can be accessed through phone, tablet and desktop. An Empower dashboard can be shared with up to five people, who have their own login credentials.
» We tried this app. See our Empower Personal Dashboard review
PocketGuard, for a budget snapshot
PocketGuard is another app that follows the zero-based budgeting framework.
To start, you connect your credit, checking and savings accounts. Then you provide your monthly income, as well as spending categories, such as groceries.
With that intel, the app shows a detailed view at your incoming and outgoing money. It also shows how much you have left to spend after setting aside money for necessities, bills and goals.
PocketGuard also provides a net worth tracker, which allows you to sync investment accounts, track property values and manually track other assets.
Other PocketGuard features include a savings goals tracker, a debt payoff plan and a tool designed to identify unwanted subscriptions and cancel them.
You can access PocketGuard on the web, phone and Apple Watch.
» We tried this app. See our PocketGuard app review
Honeydue, for budgeting with a partner
Honeydue is designed so you and your partner can view both your financial pictures in one app. Both partners can sync bank accounts, credit cards, loans and investments. (Although you can choose how much you share with your significant other.)
The free budget app automatically categorizes expenses, but you’re also able to create custom categories. Together, you can set up monthly limits on each of these categories, and Honeydue will alert you when you or your partner is nearing them.
Honeydue also sends reminders for upcoming bills and lets you chat and send emojis.
» We tried this app. See our Honeydue review
EveryDollar, for simple zero-based budgeting
Everydollar, designed by personal finance expert Dave Ramsey’s company Ramsey Solutions, offers another zero-based budgeting framework.
Let’s start with the free version of the EveryDollar app. You don’t sync accounts, but rather manually enter incoming and outgoing money throughout the month. You also categorize line items in your budget.
The paid version of EveryDollar includes those features and allows you to connect your bank account. Your transactions automatically appear in the app, which also provides custom reports and recommendations based on your habits.
EveryDollar is available on both mobile and the web.
» We tried this app. See our EveryDollar review