The pandemic has helped us understand one thing – nothing is permanent. Situations change, people change, mental health gets affected, etc.
The financial dilemmas caused by more than a year of the pandemic have made everyone aware that budgeting is an essential aspect if we want to live with mental peace.
A handwritten budget is a well-known way of tracking what we spend on along with our saving habits.
But with the advent of applications, we now know that we can take our budgeting anywhere and access it anytime.
As you might know, there are tonnes of budgeting apps – some free, some paid – but knowing which one is the best for you takes some trial and error.
I have taken the liberty to find the 10 best apps for budgeting that will help you to get to know to understand your revenue and how you spend them, effectively giving you maximum control over your money.
But, before getting to the best apps for budgeting, we ought to know what a budget is.
What is a budget?
A budget is a financial plan for your revenue and expenditures over a precise period. For instance, your monthly income is $2,000.
The goal is not to spend all the money, but less than $2,000. If you do, you’ll have critical financial difficulties. If you draw up a budget on how you should spend the $2,000, you’ll save some money for long-term saving and spending.
A budget guarantees that you never run out of money before your next payday.
10 Best Apps for Budgeting
Following are some of the best mobile applications for handling budgets, expenses, and savings. For this list, the apps put focus on U.S. consumers. The ten apps offer an assortment of valuable features and tools that can help people manage personal finance monetary needs.
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1. Mint: Budget planner & tracker
Mint is the best budgeting app, period! With 25 million+ downloads, it has set a standard quite high for other services.
Firstly, it is free and when it comes to using it, and secondly, its easy approach will make it your forever budgeting app.
If you want an app that can do it all, then skip the list and download Mint.
And when I say do it all – it includes tracking investments, reminders for paying bills and accessing your credit score.
These are the best features when you consider that it’s a free app. Although keep in mind that you’ll see targeted financial product advertisements.
Develop your spending habits with Mint.
Key Features:
- Track monthly expenses, transactions, account balances, and taxes.
- Monthly bill reminders to avoid late fees.
- Connect credit cards, loans, & track investments.
2. Mobills – Budget Planner
Take control of your finances with Mobills.
The application is filled with financial features such as creating a custom monthly budget, tracking your spending, controlling your money, the total amount due and accomplishing your monetary goals.
Save money and stay out of debt with Mobills built-in bill payment reminder and budget planner. Mobills can also let you manage all your credit cards.
By creating categories, you can efficiently plan your finances.
With a customized category, you can create a budget for you and your family members and never overspend.
With Mobills, you can track your expenses throughout the month.
Key Features:
- Monitor expenses and income.
- Manage all credit cards in one place.
- Receive alerts about all monthly bills.
3. Truebill Budget Planner
Truebill is a superb budget planner which is used by 2 million+ users.
It will help you spend less, save more, and see where your money is going – all in the app.
This automated app will act as your financial assistant and budget tracker which will give you the control you need over your money.
It will identify and cancel undesired subscriptions which will lower your bills along with getting you a refund.
With Truebill, you’ll get better rates on your bills, trace your net worth, track your credit score. The app also has bank-level security & privacy.
Forbes once reviewed it saying, “This App Will Save You Hundreds.” They weren’t lying.
Key Features:
- Monitor transactions & recieve alerts.
- Access instant cash when you need it.
- Track net worth & credit score.
4. Emma – Money Manager & Budget Planner Tracker
Emma is a great budget planner app that will help you manage your money. With this app, you can analyze your current and savings accounts along with credit cards.
If categorizing your splurging is the main goal, then this is the app you should download.
Know where your money goes. You can list your subscriptions, bank fees you have been charged, and stuff that you are paying for but not using.
Get more with Emma Pro, a premium account that enables extra cashback and allows you to create personalized categories. This app is excellent for first-time budgeters and those who want to manage subscriptions.
5. Monefy – Budget Manager and Expense Tracker app
Monefy is a fabulous option for people who want a very expeditious and natural experience.
Its simple user interface makes navigation through the app an easy job. This app is an amazing choice for beginners.
Monefy lets you keep a track of your expenses and earnings. A calculator is automatically summoned when you enter your expenses.
Speaking of expenses, it can be viewed in different time frames – daily expenses to yearly spending.
If you don’t want that, the ‘Interval’ option lets you manually set custom time frames.
Monefy offers 15 categories of expenses, three categories of income which are in place to help you track where most of your money is going.
6. NerdWallet: Personal Finance & Money Tracker
If you want to nerd out on your financing, then NerdWallet is an excellent app.
You can track your expenses, get to know your credit score, see your net worth and debt. If you don’t want anything to do with the app, there’s a free budget worksheet to register your expenses.
There are online budget templates so that you can immediately check your finances.
The app also lets you track spending beyond multiple cards and accounts.
If you want to know how much you spend monthly, the app lets you Compare spending month-to-month to spot your categories and trends.
Download the app and boost your savings.
7. Personal Capital: Investment, Finance & Retirement
As the name suggests, Personal Capital caters to your personal needs. Be it managing your finance, investment, and retirement.
The app has some great tools that will assist you in building your wealth.
You can use the app’s budgeting tools to see your total earnings and expenses every month.
This is the best app for planning your retirement.
The Fee Analyzer feature helps you check portfolio fees. You can synchronize your financial accounts in one place to trace your net worth.
Even though the app doesn’t let you add budgeting transactions manually, but you can manually add expenses without syncing those accounts
It’s a nifty app that you can download from the links below.
8. Digit: Save money, pay off debt, invest with ease
Digit is an amazing budgeting app that will help you attain your financial goals easily.
Its personalized methods assist people in saving for the future so that you don’t have to ponder much about it.
The service examines your expenses and income daily. This means that it can show you what you can afford so that the accurate amount is saved for your goal.
Be it saving for vacation, emergencies, down payments, or everyday obligations – Digit saves for all of them.
You can save for innumerable goals, which is great for a free goal.
When you use this app, you know you are in control which will improve your savings.
9. YNAB (You Need a Budget)
You Need a Budget or YNAB is one of the best budgeting apps as the firm has a great reputation for its budgeting philosophy.
According to YNAB, fresher budgeters typically save $500-$600 in their first two months.
For a year, they save anywhere between $5,000-$6,000 in their first year.
I won’t sugarcoat that YNAB is an extremely expensive service, but should you choose to opt for it, it will be worth your every penny.
Also, you can select from a 34-day free trial if you want to experience the service without paying a hefty amount.
If you have privacy concerns, then YNAB protects your information by using bank-level encryption for all data.
10. EasyBudget – Personal budget planning made simple
Last but not least is EasyBudget – a personal budget planning that is made simple by the application.
As you might have seen, the aforementioned apps are a tad bit complicated in terms of design and the features that they have to offer.
EasyBudget is easy when it comes to budgeting and navigating.
This is a clean and easy-to-use app that will help you manage your money without any hassle.
Download it from the link below.
FAQs
What are the best free budgeting apps?
Mint, Mobills, Truebill Budget Planner, Emma, Monefy, NerdWallet, Personal Capital, Digit, YNAB (You Need a Budget), and EasyBudget are the best free budgeting apps.
Do budgeting apps work?
Yes, but it depends on you. You need to be consistent in tracking your budget.
Is Mint the best budgeting app?
Mint is the best budgeting app as it is the best free option out there. In addition to offering basic budgeting features, Mint also provides customized alerts when you’re over budget, bill payment reminders, and a credit monitoring service.
Is Truebill better than Mint?
No, Mint is better than Truebill. But both apps offer financial services if you want to build budgets or save up money for specific goals. The apps can also help you keep a track of your check your credit score and the factors affecting your credit.
What is the best personal budgeting app?
NerdWallet’s multitude of features makes it the best personal budgeting app.
Conclusion
These are the 10 best apps for budgeting. They help you keep track of your financial accounts and spending. You can also classify expenses so you can see where you are spending your money.
The crowd-pleasing apps are well-known because of their features.
Of course, if you want robust features, you’ll need to opt for premium services as they have they offer some great functionality as compared to the free ones.
If you ironically don’t want to spend on a budgeting app, you can opt for a free trial to see if the app is worth your penny.
What is your opinion about budgeting apps? Are they useful? Have you tried one in the past? Tell us in the comments below.
