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Aug 05, 2019 Keep your personal and business expenses organized with a handy expense tracker app. By Maryalene LaPonsie, Contributor Aug. 5, 2019 By Maryalene LaPonsie, Contributor Aug. 5, 2019, at 9:56 a.m. Pros: Good customer support, good smartphone apps. Cons: Budgeting tools and some reports are $5 per month extra. Moneywiz is a well-rounded app designed for Mac, iPhone, and iPad.
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With numerous budgeting apps available on the market, it’s essential you know which ones are the best and what they have to offer so you don’t waste your time, money, and privacy.
The best budgeting apps take into account your lifestyle and financial situation, can be tailored to your budgeting style, and offer great customer service.
Let’s take a look at the leading contenders.
Why Use a Budgeting App?![]()
The primary reason you should use a budgeting app is because it helps you save money. These apps provide organization so you are informed, as you ought to be, of exactly where all of your money is coming from and going to.
Many people, once they start tracking their expenses, are shocked to see how much more money they spend than they think. Using a budgeting app will help you see where all of your money is going and thus, how you can cut back on your spending and save a significant amount of money.
There are a few different ways to keep track of your budget. Some people may prefer a budget template or spreadsheet, but many people prefer the convenience of a mobile app.
The 7 Best Budgeting Apps
All of these apps have something different to offer. The “right” app for you will be the one that meets your needs and fits with your own situation.
1. Mint – The Best Overall Budgeting App
This app, owned by Intuit, (which also makes QuickBooks and TurboTax), is widely considered to be one of the best budgeting apps. It offers numerous features that help you manage your money from a huge list of banks, brokerages, lenders, credit card companies, and other financial institutions.
Mint links up to any of these accounts and categorizes your spending habits in sections like gas and fuel, groceries, clothing, etc.
Another great aspect of Mint is it sends push notifications, alerting you when you have a bill payment coming up, an overly large purchase, or when you overdraw on an account.
2. You Need a Budget (YNAB) – The Best Budgeting App for Hands-On Users
Like Mint, YNAB connects with your credit cards and bank accounts, importing any and all transactions into the app’s database.
YNAB differs from other budgeting apps in that it assigns a “job” to every dollar that comes into your account. The dollar can be assigned to living expenses, debts, investments, savings, and any other job you want that dollar to work towards.
With every dollar being accounted for, you can rest assured that no money will be wasted and that every dollar will be used on important things.
YNAB also has a great feature called “budget inspector”, which allows users to view a quick summary of their cash flow and expected spending.
3. EveryDollar – The Best Budgeting App for Passive Users
EveryDollar is Dave Ramsey’s budgeting tool. That alone will attract a lot of users to this app.
This app creates a monthly budget. You start by adding your monthly income and then plan your expenses with a customizable template. All you do from here onwards is follow the plan you made and track your spending.
There is a free version and a plus version of the app. The free version allows you to create unlimited budgets, track transactions, and provides email support.
The plus version allows three additional features: the ability to connect your bank for faster expense tracking, viewing account balances with EveryDollar, and call-back support along with coaching calls.
4. Personal Capital – The Best Budgeting App for Investors
A combination of a robo-advisor and a finance app, Personal Capital is the perfect app for an investor.
The Personal Capital app is free to use, and there are some really nice features like net worth tracking, expense tracking, and reporting based on your investments. Net worth tracking is probably the strength of Personal Capital, and the app links to your accounts to automatically calculate and track your net worth.
As far as budgeting is concerned, Personal Capital can help you to track your expenses. The budgeting features and functionality aren’t quite on par with the other apps in this list, but the net worth tracking and reporting features (plus the fact that it’s free) make Personal Capital worthy of your attention.
In addition to the app, Personal Capital also wealth management services that are somewhat of a cross between a traditional advisor and a robo advisor. The account minimum for the investment services is $100,000. You can invest this money is numerous appreciable assets, from real estate to stocks. This app provides hands-off management and expert tax-harvesting.
Personal Capital provides a free financial dashboard that features a net worth tracker (the easiest way to track your net worth), a retirement planner, budgeting tools, a fee analyzer, and more.
5. Wally – The Simplest Budgeting App
Wally allows you to enter all of your income sources and expenses manually, allowing you to view all of your personal finances at any time.
Though many may find this tedious, it’s beneficial to individuals with multiple accounts and/or those who worry about giving all of their personal financial data away.
A further benefit of this app is that it supports almost every currency in the world, making it a great choice for foreigners. Keep mac awake lid closed.
6. Goodbudget – The Best Budgeting App for Couples
This is the best budgeting app for couples. It is based around the familiar and simple “envelope system” of budget planning, where couples pool all of their personal finances into the app and divide them into compartments.
At the beginning of each month, you place defined amounts of money into each envelope and renew at the beginning of the following month.
It is great for couples since Goodbudget allows multiple users to log into a single account across several devices.
You can also manually import transactions/expenses into your account(s).
7. PocketGuard – The Best for Protecting Your Money
As you may have guessed, PocketGuard is the best for guarding your money and keeping you from overspending.
This app allows you to link all of your financial accounts and helps track your spending compared to your budget on a monthly basis.
It’s one of the easier apps to setup. Simply connect your accounts and PocketGuard will track your earnings, any bills, everyday expenses, and savings account(s).
This app has a unique feature that allows you to track each individual bill and find ways to save by providing suggestions on where to cut back and it even searches the internet for better deals on internet, cell service, and more.
What to Look for in a Good Budgeting App
Though budgeting apps will vary in many ways, there are a few attributes that make a budgeting app good and all of them will share these.
1. An App That Suits Your Style
There are tons of budgeting apps on the market, with each one targeting specific individuals with specific wants and needs. Some are designed for individuals who want complete control over their budgeting. Others are designed for persons who want a laid-out strategy and template with which all they do is plug in numbers.
Some apps, as you will see in this article, help reinvest a user’s money to earn more money rather than just save.
2. Platform Availability
What good is a budgeting app if you can’t use it? Some budgeting apps do not work on certain devices such as laptops or iPads. It is important to make sure that the budgeting app you use (and possibly pay money for) is compatible with the device(s) you plan to use it on.
Best Business Budgeting Tracker Mac App Download3. Good Customer Service
Technology can and does malfunction from time-to-time. There may be things that you don’t understand about your budgeting app and you need help with it.
The best budgeting apps ensure that you have access to great customer service and tech support.
They will allow you to contact them through a number of avenues, namely phone and email, and help you easily and comfortably.
If you are really bad at using technology, you may search for budgeting apps that offer extended customer service options. This is, however, probably not necessary since tech support will walk you through everything simply, on the phone or email. App to import photos from iphone to mac.
READ NEXT: How to Create a Budget That Works
The best way to manage your finances is through budgeting and now is the time to start. Everything is now accessible through your smartphone, including the world of banking, meaning that you can budget effectively from your phone too. Many budgeting apps now can connect electronically to your bank accounts to collate them all in one place so it makes it easier to manage your spending and budgeting effectively, without having to flip through a number of different mobile banking apps. Below we take a look at some of the best budgeting apps that will help you get your finances in shape.
Best free budgeting appsEmma - Great for finding wasteful subscriptions
Yolt - Great for tracking spending across multiple accounts
Money Dashboard - Great for helping you budget for future goals
Best paid for budgeting appsBest Business Budgeting Tracker Mac App SoftwareMoneyhub - Great for data privacy
Budgeting through a bank
Budgeting apps are a great way to control your finances but now there is the opportunity to budget via digital-only banks. Below we have listed banks that have the same or similar features to many of the above apps alongside their own fully functional personal bank accounts.
Monzo - best for budgeting![]()
Starling Bank - best for round-up saving
Best Business Budgeting Tracker Mac App AccountRevolut - best for travelling abroadBest Business Budgeting Tracker Mac App Setup
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