5 Ideal Money Management Apps to Sort Your Financials

Budgeting or money-management apps are not new. However, technology has made them more functional and personalized now. Facing debt? Get a personalized plan with budgeting apps to pay off your loans. Spend too much on shopping? A money-management app can keep your spending in check. In short, I suggest everyone have at least one budgeting app to streamline their finances.

Also, fret not if you’re unaware of the best budgeting apps available. Here, I will share everything there is to know about those apps so you can choose the best-suited app.

You Need a Budget (YNAB) – Best for Setting Financial Goals:

Features:

• You can connect your banking apps with YNAB and import financial data and transaction history.
• YNAB can be synced with other devices. You can also use YNAB without any internet connectivity.
• Users get several customizable options and widgets on YNAB that make it more interactive.
• You can share one YNAB account with up to 6 people.

The Ideal Thing about YNAB?

One thing I liked the most about YNAB is it offers extreme customizability with widgets. You can create or change a budget whenever and as many times as you want. Plus, the security features offered by YNAB are top-notch and the app also offers ever-available customer support.

One Thing That Could Be Improved?

On YNAB, you can only budget with the money available in your linked account. To put it simply, you cannot plan for future expenses on YNAB.

Pricing:

YNAB offers a 34-day free trial period. Besides that, their monthly plan starts at $14.99 and the annual plan costs $109.

Goodbudget – Best for Personal Budgeting:

Features:

• Goodbudget follows the envelope method to manage finances. You can create envelopes for different tasks, for instance, groceries, rent, utilities, etc., and put money accordingly to manage them.
• You can share the Goodbudget account with your family members so managing household finances becomes transparent.
• Goodbudget lets you create numerous plans in case of upcoming or probable expenses.
• Goodbudget’s debt tracking tool is quite handy to pay off your debts with a plan.

The Ideal Thing About Goodbudget:

One outstanding feature of Goodbudget is how seamlessly you can enter upcoming expenses and plan accordingly. Also, Goodbudget’s free version offers a lot of functionality and may be enough for those who simply want to budget their monthly expenses.

One Thing That Could Be Improved?

You cannot link your bank account with Goodbudget and need to manually enter transactions on the app. In the long run, users may find it a bit frustrating since entering every transaction can be a time-consuming task.

Pricing:

Besides the free version, Goodbudget offers two plans; $10 a month or $80 annually.

CountAbout – Best for Customizable Budgeting:

Features:

• Apart from banking apps, you can import financial data on CountAbout from other budgeting apps like Quicken and Mint.
• You can create unlimited expense subcategories to streamline your expenses.
• CountAbout offers built-in invoicing and receipt-capturing features that you can use to send invoices/receipts to vendors.
• CountAbout can access your financial records on banking apps and credit cards and inform you about unused subscriptions.

The Ideal Thing about CountAbout?

CountAbout lets you create a budget where you can include as many expense sections as you want. For someone with diverse expenses, it’s a helpful feature to streamline the monthly budget.

Plus, if your financial information is on other banking apps or money-management apps, you can easily import them to CountAbout.

One Thing That Could Be Improved?

CountAbout does not offer monthly subscription plans i.e., only annual plans are available. Also, in the standard plan, users have to manually enter their transactions.

Pricing:

Besides the 45-day free trial period, the standard plan of CountAbout costs $9.99 a year while the premium plan is for $39.99 per year.

PocketGuard – Best for Tracking Spending:

Features:

• The “Spending Insights” offered by PocketGuard analyzes your spending behavior and provides a detailed view of your spending i.e., where and what items you spend the most on.
• PocketGuard can offer a debt-free plan after analyzing your credit card and bank account information.
• PocketGuard can quickly identify and notify you in case it detects any suspicious financial transaction from your bank account.
• When budgeting on PocketGuard, the app can notify you about the pending bills. Also, it reminds you of unused subscriptions so you don’t spend unnecessarily on them.

The Ideal Thing About PocketGuard?

Some people may not want to share a budgeting app account with their family. And if you’re one of them, then PocketGuard would be the right fit for you. Plus, I also like how easily users can access their financial history on a single dashboard.

One Thing That Could Be Improved?

PocketGuard’s free version offers limited features. Even creating new categories or customizing the budget isn’t possible on the free version.

Pricing:

Besides PocketGuard’s free version, you can buy its subscription for $12.99 a month or $6.99 per year.

Monarch Money – Best for Replacing Mint:

Features:

• If you’ve invested in multiple assets on different digital platforms, you can integrate those platforms on Monarch Money. This way, you can evaluate your portfolio’s performance from a single dashboard.
• Monarch Money offers different financial scenarios to test your savings, income, and expenditures. Hence, you can find out how different financial difficulties will affect your financial standing.
• You can share your Monarch Money account with your family and friends.

The Ideal Thing About Monarch Money:

You can integrate different investment platforms into Monarch Money. Also, you can evaluate your assets’ performance from a single dashboard. Hence, you won’t need to open multiple investment apps to check your assets’ performance.

One Thing That Could Be Improved?

Monarch Money does not offer any free version or a trial period. Every user has to buy a monthly or yearly subscription.

Pricing:

Monarch Money’s monthly plan costs $14.99 and the yearly plan starts at $69.99.

Bonus Section: Necessary Factors to Consider in a Money-Management App:

Before I wind up, here’s a brief list of must-haves you must consider in any budgeting app:

Account Linking: A budgeting app should seamlessly link with your bank account, so you don’t have to manually enter the financial data.

Data Encryption: If a budgeting app is linked to your bank account, ensure it uses reliable methods to encrypt your data.

Interactive Dashboard: A money-management app should offer a simple, yet interactive dashboard so it’s easy for users to navigate around.