Honeydue Review: A Budget App for Two
Honeydue, a free app that focuses on budgeting together, makes a compelling case for couples who need basic features.
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The free Honeydue budget app lets two users come together to link their financial accounts in one place and provides tools to encourage transparency and collaboration on everyday money matters.
We downloaded and tested the iOS version of Honeydue to learn about the features and figure out if it’s worth it.
What is Honeydue?
It’s a budget app designed specifically for couples. While other apps — like EveryDollar and YNAB — allow users to invite partners to join, Honeydue’s marquee features are focused on helping couples budget money together. You and your partner can:
Link your financial accounts, both joint and individual, to view balances and transactions in one place.
Limit how much information you want to share with each account (i.e., show just the balance of a credit card and not transactions).
Set spending limits and monitor transactions in various budget categories.
Chat in the app about specific charges or spending.
Honeydue is only available as a mobile app for iPhone and Android phones, meaning you can’t log into your account and check your budget on a laptop.
How much is Honeydue?
Honeydue is free to download and use. There is no paid version and therefore no features blocked behind a paywall.
How does Honeydue make money?
The Honeydue website says it makes money by occasionally asking users to consider tipping an amount between $1 and $10 each month.
How does Honeydue work?
Invite your honey to the money party
After you download, sign up and log into the Honeydue app, you’ll be prompted to invite your partner via email or text. It’s a necessary step if you both plan to manage your finances on the app together.
Link and sync all the financial accounts you want
The next step, if you want to make the most of the app, is to add any financial accounts you feel comfortable linking to the app. Honeydue uses Finicity by Mastercard to connect with your bank. Honeydue says it supports connections with over 20,000 financial institutions across five countries. Your partner can add their accounts once they’ve signed up and logged in.
Like with most budget apps, linking your financial accounts automates the tracking process because transaction and balance data flows into the app. The Honeydue website says user information is securely encrypted and that the app requires multifactor authentication to protect access to your account. Still, you can add accounts manually in the app if you prefer not to link accounts.
Control what you share with your partner
Honeydue addresses what may be a sticking point for some by letting each user choose what aspects of a linked financial account the other can view. After linking a credit card account, for example, you can choose to share both balances and transactions, the balance only or nothing at all. There’s your solution for buying gifts or keeping the cost of beauty, or your bougie coffee habit, on the down-low.
Track your expenses and set spending limits
With your accounts connected, you and your partner get a collective view of your balances. Use the budget section of the app to monitor spending, note your biggest expense categories — which are automatically grouped in the app (e.g., Shopping & Fun) — and set spending limits. If you add your recurring bills and due dates, you can arrange to be notified by the deadline.
Chat and split transactions in the app
You can use the “chat” section of the app to message back and forth or tap into a transaction and leave a comment (“Your cut and color cost what?!?”). Choose your chat words wisely.
“Splitting” expenses is another neat feature of the app, but it’s really just a way to remind your partner to pay their part of a specific transaction.
Pros and cons of Honeydue
Pros
Honeydue is made for couples: An app designed for couples is a fresh, fun and useful concept.
It’s free and doesn’t hold back features in favor of a paid version.
The app promotes financial transparency among couples but lets users choose how much to share.
Cons
Features are fairly basic overall, with limited ability to plan for future spending.
There is no desktop version to tweak the budget on a bigger screen.
What do Reddit users say about Honeydue?
Reddit is an online forum where users share their thoughts in “threads” on various topics. The popular site includes plenty of discussion on financial subjects like budgeting, so we sifted through Reddit forums to get a pulse check on how users feel about budget apps. People post anonymously, so we cannot confirm their individual experiences or circumstances.
There’s mixed sentiment about Honeydue among Reddit users. Posters appreciate that the app is free and also value the couples-specific features, which are more apparent than with general budget apps. On the other hand, some who’ve posted about Honeydue on Reddit say the app lacks the robust features of paid options like YNAB.
Is Honeydue worth it?
Managing money as a couple can be challenging. Add kids to the mix, and the shared expenses grow and get more complicated. After giving Honeydue a test drive, we found it to be a good budgeting tool to get couples on the same page. It’s free, fairly easy to use and made for partners.
You can check out our best budget apps list for other considerations, like YNAB, EveryDollar and PocketGuard. Whatever you choose, we’re just glad to know you’re interested in making smart money moves.