Best Free Personal Finance App

Personal finance management is a complex task, and many people struggle to find the right system for keeping track of their income and expenses.

In this article, we’ll look at some of the best options for managing your personal finances, whether you’re looking for a simple budgeting tool or something more robust.

Best Free Personal Finance App

• Best Overall: Mint
• Best for Debt Payoff: You Need a Budget
• Best for Wealth Management: Personal Capital
• Best for Bill Payment: Prism
• Best for Shared Expenses: Spendee
• Best for Budgeting: EveryDollar
• Best Visuals: Mobills

BEST OVERALLMint

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Mint, Intuit’s personal finances app, is one of the most well-known personal finance apps that provides your complete financial picture in one place. Once you link your credit and debit cards to your account, Mint pulls your transactions, categorizes them, and shows how you’re spending your money. You can keep track of your bills and spending and create a budget you can stick to. The site provides access to your credit score for free, and you can get a breakdown of the factors contributing to your score to stay on top of your credit health. Plus, you can track your investments and manage utility payments.

BEST FOR DEBT PAYOFFYou Need a Budget

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You Need a Budget also known as YNAB is a personal finance app that’s built around YNAB’s Four Rules. The rules – Give every dollar a job, Embrace your true expenses, Roll with the punches and Age your money – not only help you build a better budget but also help you gain control of your spending. Import transactions from your checking account and apply them to each budget category to get an accurate picture of your spending. Keep a balanced budget by adjusting budget categories if you accidentally overspend (or if you underbudgeted for a certain category). Detailed reports show you how your spending is progressing throughout the month and help you spot places that you can improve your spending. According to YNAB, the average new user saves $600 in the first two months and more than $6,000 in the first year. You can try the app for free for the first 34 days.

BEST FOR WEALTH MANAGEMENTPersonal Capital

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Personal Capital is a personal finance and wealth management app that allows you to manage your assets and investments along with your everyday spending accounts. While you can connect to your bank account to track spending and create a monthly budget, the app really shines in helping you track and optimize your investments. You can track your portfolio by account, asset class, or individual security. With built-in intelligence available on the tablet and mobile versions of the app, you can discover opportunities for diversification, risk management, and discover any hidden fees you may be paying. Comparing your own portfolio to major market benchmarks allows you to determine whether you’re on track to meet your investment goals. Personal Capital provides registered financial advisors who can provide you with customized advice tailored to your goals.

BEST FOR BILL PAYMENTPrism

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Prism shows all your bills and financial accounts in a single app, giving you a complete picture of your finances. The app touts more than 11,000 billers, including larger banks and even smaller utility companies. Add your bills to the app and Prism automatically tracks your bills and sends due date reminders to help you prevent late payments. You can use the app itself to pay your bills by scheduling payments to be made the same day or several days in advance. Prism eliminates the need to login to multiple accounts paying bills.

BEST FOR SHARED EXPENSESSpendee

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Many other personal finance apps are for individual use. Spendee allows you to create shared wallets with friends and family that you can use to manage shared expenses for a household budget. Import your bank transactions and let the app categorize them for you to tally how you’re spending money each month. You can manually add cash expenses for a more accurate picture of where your money goes. Keep from going over budget by creating budgeted amounts for each spending category and tracking your progress toward the budgeted amount. The bill tracker functionality ensures you remember to pay each of your bills and avoid late payment penalties. If you’re going on a trip or another special event, you can create a category specifically for that event to track your spending and keep yourself on budget.

BEST FOR BUDGETINGEveryDollar

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The EveryDollar app uses the zero-based budget method recommended by personal finance expert Dave Ramsey. The zero-based budget gives every dollar a purpose in the budget, hence the app’s name EveryDollar. A built-in monthly expense tracker allows you to connect to your bank to import transactions to keep up with your spending. The tracker shows you the amount you’ve spent so far for the month and the amount you have left to spend. Through the app, you’ll be able to connect with money management experts who can help you with your financial planning. You’ll be able to access your budget through the app or via a desktop computer. All new users receive a free trial of the premium version of the app. You can permanently upgrade through the app menu.

BEST VISUALSMobills

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Mobills organizes your expenses in categories so you can track your spending is progressing toward your budgeted amount. See the amount you have remaining to spend in each budget category so you can rein in your spending as needed. The budget planning app includes interactive charts that allow you to analyze your financial life; you can use them to make adjustments as you need to reach your larger financial goals. Add your credit cards to the app so you can see your current balance and spending limits all in one place. You can add all your bills and due dates to keep track of when your bills need to be paid. The free version of the app has limited functionality while upgrading to the premium version will give you full access to all the app’s features.

best budget app for couples

• Best overall free app: Honeydue
• Best for the envelope budgeting system: Goodbudget
• Best for tracking your spending: Mint
• Best for zero-based budgeting: You Need A Budget (YNAB)

Best overall free app

Honeydue

LEARN MOREInformation about Honeydue has been collected independently by CNBC and has not been reviewed or provided by Honeydue prior to publication.

• CostFree
• Standout featuresAllows couples to see both partners’ bank accounts, credit cards, loans and investments (and each partner can select what to share with the other) so you can manage money together and see everything at one glance
• Categorizes your expensesYes, but users can customize
• Links to accountsYes, you and your partner’s bank and credit cards
• AvailabilityOffered in both the App Store (for iOS) and on Google Play (for Android)
• Security featuresData encryption, Touch ID and multi-factor authentication

See our methodology, terms apply.

Pros

• Free to use
• Helps couples manage their money together, track spending, coordinate bills
• Syncs to you and your partner’s bank accounts
• Choose what accounts you want to share
• Users set up monthly spending limits in each category and are alerted when they or their partner is reaching limit
• Bill payment reminders
• Chat and send emojis to your partner through the app
• Offers joint bank account
• Security features include data encryption, Touch ID and multi-factor authentication

Cons

• Some reports of app being buggy and transactions not showing up immediately

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Who’s this for? The Honeydue budgeting app makes it easy for you and your partner to get a comprehensive view of your finances together without having to log into a bunch of different accounts every single time. In other words, loans, investments, checking accounts and savings accounts can all be shared with your partner, but the app allows both of you to choose which accounts you want to actually connect.

The app also allows you to track spending and coordinate bill payments so you’re both on the same page. And with bill payment reminders and monthly spending limits that users set up in each category, the app helps couples make sure they aren’t overspending. If you or your partner are reaching a certain spending limit, you both will be alerted. Partners can also split expenses with each other directly in the app.

And, Honeydue is also offering its own joint bank account. The account has free ATM access, a debit card for both partners and no monthly fees or minimums.  

Best for the envelope budgeting system

Goodbudget

LEARN MOREInformation about Goodbudget has been collected independently by CNBC and has not been reviewed or provided by Goodbudget prior to publication.

• CostFree for 20 total envelopes; $70 annually for unlimited envelopes
• Standout featuresAllows couples to use the envelope system digitally for budgeting, and allows couples to track their debt
• Categorizes your expensesYes, but users must manually input transactions since the app does not sync to your bank account
• Links to accountsNo, users must manually input purchases and transactions
• AvailabilityOffered in both the App Store (for iOS) and on Google Play (for Android) and as a version for laptops
• Security featuresInformation is secured using bank-grade 256-bit SSL

See our methodology, terms apply.

Pros

• Free version of the app
• Helps couples manage their money together, track spending and track debt
• Ability to share budget with your partner
• Digital envelopes help couples save for big goals that matter to them
• Indicates when you’ve gone over budget
• Money management courses and resources available

Cons

• Can’t connect bank accounts so users must manually enter transactions

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Who’s this for? The Goodbudget app allows users to track their household’s spending using the “envelope method.” The envelope method means that each month, users allocate a certain amount of their income into categories (or digital “envelopes”) labeled for things like groceries, rent, date nights, travel and debt payoff.

This makes it easy to prioritize your spending and plan ahead. Users are only supposed to spend the amount allocated to each envelope, and if they go beyond their budget the envelope will show red to indicate that they overspent.

The envelope method is generally recommended for people who are new to budgeting, so if you and your partner need a way to ease into categorizing your spending, the app might be able to improve your confidence in that area.

Unlike most budgeting and expense tracker apps, Goodbudget does not link to users’ bank accounts and credit cards. Instead, you manually input your transactions into each digital envelope. This actually forces couples to take a hands-on approach to managing their money since they’ll have to actually check to see how much they’re spending in order to upload purchases to the app. However, some people may find manually inputting their transactions to be tedious.

The Goodbudget app has a free version which lets you create 20 envelopes, use the app on up to two devices, track one year’s worth of transaction history and track debt. Some couples may find that 20 envelopes aren’t enough for them, in which case they may consider upgrading to the premium version of Goodbudget for $70 a year or $8 a month; the premium version allows the use of unlimited envelopes, access to the account on up to five devices, access to seven years’ worth of transaction history and debt tracking.

Best for tracking your spending

Mint

LEARN MOREInformation about Mint has been collected independently by CNBC and has not been reviewed or provided by Mint prior to publication.

• CostFree
• Standout featuresShows income, expenses, savings goals, credit score, investments, net worth
• Categorizes your expensesYes, but users can modify
• Links to accountsYes, bank and credit cards
• AvailabilityOffered in both the App Store (for iOS) and on Google Play (for Android)
• Security featuresVerisign scanning, multi-factor authentication and Touch ID mobile access

See our methodology, terms apply.

Pros

• Free to use
• Syncs to your bank accounts and credit cards
• Users can create savings goals, track investments
• Customized alerts when over budget, for large transactions, ATM fees, etc.
• Bill payment reminders
• Credit monitoring service
• Offers blog and education tools, such as a loan repayment calculator
• Security features include Verisign scanning, multi-factor authentication and Touch ID mobile access

Cons

• Some user reviews complain of ads, glitches in app, expenses assigned to wrong category

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Who’s this for? While the Mint app isn’t actually targeted toward couples, the fact that it allows you to connect several different accounts can make it easier for couples to categorize their spending automatically. Mint syncs to your bank accounts, credit cards and retirement accounts to track your income, purchases and savings. And it’ll automatically categorize all transactions so you and your partner don’t have to manually enter purchases and deposits, but you’ll also have the option to revise and add categories as needed. You can also create your own savings goals as a couple and track your investments in the app.

The app will even send alerts if you’re being charged an ATM fee, going over budget or if there’s been a large or suspicious transaction on any of the connected accounts.

The app also has a monthly bill payment tracker allows you see all your bills at one glance, and you can get reminders on upcoming due dates and alerts if your funds are low. These features make Mint a solid pick for couples but unlike Honeydue, Mint doesn’t offer the option to create a joint checking account for you and your partner.

Best for zero-based budgeting

You Need a Budget (YNAB)

LEARN MOREInformation about You Need a Budget (YNAB) has been collected independently by CNBC and has not been reviewed or provided by YNAB prior to publication.

• Cost34-day free trial then $84 per year or $11.99 per month (students who provide proof of enrollment get 12 months free)
• Standout featuresInstead of using traditional budgeting buckets, users allocate every dollar they earn to something (known as the “zero-based budgeting system” where no dollar is unaccounted for). Every dollar is assigned a “job,” whether it’s to go toward bills, savings, investments, etc.
• Categorizes your expensesNo
• Links to accountsYes, bank and credit cards
• AvailabilityOffered in both the App Store (for iOS) and on Google Play (for Android)
• Security featuresEncrypted data, accredited data centers, third-party audits and more

See our methodology, terms apply.

Pros

• Offers a 34-day free trial, and students get 12 months free
• Designed to help you get out of debt
• YNAB website claims average user saves $600 in their first two months and more than $6,000 in their first year
• Syncs to your bank accounts and credit cards
• Users can set goals, customize spending categories
• Offers educational resources, such as budgeting advice and 100+ free workshops offered every week
• Personal customer support
• Security features include encrypted data, accredited data centers, third-party audits and more

Cons

• Costs $84 per year or $11.99 per month
• Customer reviews note that it takes longer to set up than other apps

Conclusion

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