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The best budgeting apps help your family track monthly income and expenses and give you access to your budget anywhere, at any time. Instead of relying on an old notebook and pencil or a spreadsheet, budget apps offer automatic expense tracking and let you set and track savings goals. If you’re not comfortable linking bank accounts to a mobile app, no problem. Many of the budgeting apps on our list still allow you to manually enter your information, but still, take what you input and analyze it to help you find gaps in your budget, examine spending habits, and ultimately improve your budgeting skills and save more money.
Some budgeting apps offer free and paid versions, allowing you to choose the best option. Free budget apps are great to test drive before investing money in mobile money management. Some offer free trials as another way to test an app before paying for access.
Even if you like to manage your finances on your own, using a budgeting app in conjunction with manual budgeting can help you spot trends and target overspending and unwanted or long-forgotten subscriptions. Some budgeting apps will even negotiate monthly bills with your providers to lower your expenses and save more money every month.
To determine the best budgeting apps for families in 2023, we looked at compared features, ease of use, availability, cost, app ratings, and other essentials so that you can make the best choice for your family.
Table of Contents
Best Budgeting Apps For Families
Here are Family Money Adventure’s picks for the best budgeting apps for families.
Mint
Mint has won many best budget app awards over the years and offers account linking to thousands of financial institutions. Be warned, this is a free budgeting app, but there are ads everywhere, making it hard to see your data.
Who It’s Best For
- This is a great app if you’re new to budgeting or want to see an overview of your finances quickly.
Pros
- Easy Set-Up: Mint is one of the easiest apps to set up and use. Just create an account, add your financial information and start creating your budget.
- Customizable Budgets and Reports: Once you import your data, there are different reports to give you insights into your spending and savings potential.
Cons
- Synchronization: Mint occasionally has problems syncing with outside financial institutions.
- Lackluster Customer Service: Mint only offers email support and can be slow to fix reported issues.
Cost
- Mint is free but includes ads. Mint Credit Monitor is a premium version for $16.99/month, which includes your Equifax score and credit report.
Empower
Personal Capital is now Empower. The free budgeting and investment app offers more insight into your investments than your average budget app. It monitors your 401(k), Roth, and other retirement accounts and has budgeting features that point out where you can save so you can invest more. The budgeting features do, however, take a backseat to the investment features.
Who It’s Best For
- Empower is best for DIY investors who want to review their budget with an eye toward more investing,
Pros
- Easy Set-Up: Empower is user-friendly and easy to set up. Just input your external account information and start building your budget.
- Large Purchase Planning: Empower can run investment scenarios, so if you like to plan ahead for future growth or are planning a large purchase, these features could be very helpful.
Cons
- High Investment Fees: Empower’s wealth management investment fees are .89% on the first million invested and drop with higher account balances. This fee is relatively high, though still less than working with a financial institution.
- Account Minimums: Empower’ wealth management services require a minimum investment of $100,000, which may be a barrier for some folks.
Cost
- Empower’s budgeting app is free to use, but there are fees if you invest with them.
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Rocket Money
Rocket Money is a free budgeting app that allows users to track spending, create budgets, automatically save money, negotiate bills, and monitor subscriptions. Premium membership gives you access to extra features like unlimited budgets, concierge services, premium chat support
Who It’s Best For
- Rocket Money is great for individuals who want to save money on existing bills and monitor subscriptions.
Pros
- Rocket Money will negotiate bills on your behalf to cut your expenses
- The app helps locate and eliminate unwanted or old subscriptions
- Full budgeting capabilities
Cons
- Some of the app’s advertised features are only included with Rockey Money Premium.
- Rockey Money charges a portion of the money saved on negotiated bills.
Cost
- Rocket Money is free to use but offers a Premium membership ranging from $3 to $12 per month.
EveryDollar
EveryDollar utilizes zero-based budgeting for easy-to-use budget tracking through the free mobile app. The app doesn’t allow you to sync bank accounts within the free version, but the feature is available through EveryDollar Premium. Within EveryDollar, you can personalize budgets to your needs, set due date reminders, split transactions on receipts, and make notes within budgets.
Who It’s Best For
- EveryDollar is ideal for people who use a zero-based budget and also prefer to manually enter bank account information.
Pros
- EveryDollar allows you to split large store receipts up by budget categories.
- Users can add notes to their budget for reference.
Cons
- Account linking is only available in the premium paid version.
Cost
- EveryDollar is free to use. EveryDollar Premium comes with a 14-day free trial, and then it costs $12.99 a month or $79.99 annually.
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You Need A Budget (YNAB)
Often included among the best budget apps, YNAB promotes the popular Zero-Based Budgeting strategy. Every dollar is given a job: spending, saving or investing- down to the last penny.
Who It’s Best For
- YNAB is best for people who want to dive deep into their finances and pay off debt or save for a large investment.
Pros
- Comprehensive: YNAB offers an extensive view of your finances and lets you see where you habitually overspend.
- Customer Service: They have responsive customer support, and most emails receive a reply in 24 hours.
Cons
- Cost: YNAB is the most expensive app listed, and you can find most features in other free or lower-cost apps.
- Hard to Remove Reimbursable Expenses: YNAB does not have a way to remove or hide a transaction that doesn’t apply to your budget, like reimbursable work expenses.
Cost
- YNAB offers a 34-day free trial, with monthly billing of $14.99 or yearly at $99.
PocketGuard
PocketGuard tells you what is left in your pocket after recurring expenses are paid. Millennials may enjoy the hashtag and emoji features, and the clean, simple structure could work well for someone who just wants to know what they have in their pocket at any given time.
Who It’s Best For
- Pocket Guard is geared toward younger users with a predictable paycheck and is great if you just want to know what’s left to spend after bills and savings have been accounted for.
Pros
- In My Pocket (IMP): The IMP feature helps you determine at a glance if that impulse purchase is covered. It gives you your available balance after the bills have been paid, and shows you upcoming transactions.
- Hashtags: PocketGuard lets you tag specific transactions related to each other. For example, if you go on vacation, you can create a hashtag related to gas, food, and hotel expenses and create a report based on the hashtag later.
Cons
- Lacks Investment Options: This is a transaction-based budget app, and PocketGuard is not set up to incorporate investment accounts.
- Not All Features Available for Free: While PocketGuard is free, there are features, such as cash tracking and custom categories, that are only available for PocketGuard Plus users.
Cost
- Free version with ads, or $7.99 a month or $34.99 a year for PocketGuard Plus. There’s also a lifetime option for $79.99.
RELATED: Why You Need A High Yield Savings Account
Honeydue
Honeydue is a budgeting app specifically geared toward couples. The app allows two people to manage household expenses and budget together. It also allows you to keep individual expenses and shared expenses as needed. There’s also a shared calendar with bill alert reminders. If you’re looking for a new shared bank account, you can upgrade to a Honeydue joint bank account, which comes with joint debit cards.
Who It’s Best For
- Honeydue is for couples who want to budget and manage their finances together. It’s also a good option for couples looking for a joint bank account with fee-free ATM access and no monthly fees.
Pros
- Honeydue has individual and shared expense management and tracking.
- It’s free.
Cons
- Honeydue doesn’t have a desktop version.
Cost
- Honeydue is free to use.
Marcus Insights
Marcus Insights (Marcus by Goldman Sachs) is a free budgeting app that offers basic expense review and transaction importing.
Who It’s Best For
- Marcus Insights is best for people who want to see all of their accounts at a glance but don’t necessarily want to create a formal budget.
Pros
- Monthly Spending Breakdowns: Marcus Insights provides a monthly spending breakdown and category overview, along with cash flow information, so you know how you’re doing each month.
- Useful Push Notifications: Marcus Insights sends you push notifications based on when you get paid, if your balance goes below a set point, or when an expense is withdrawn from your account.
- You don’t have to be a Marcus customer to use the app.
Cons
- Only syncs to linked accounts: Marcus Insights can link several accounts but only tracks spending from those accounts, and you cannot manually add transactions from an unlinked account.
- No Budget Customization: Marcus Insights provides one-size-fits-all budget categories that can’t be customized.
Cost
- Free with ads
Goodbudget
Goodbudget uses a traditional envelope budgeting system. The free version allows you to set up 20 envelopes to encourage saving and debt repayment with less temptation to use funds earmarked for other goals or bills. Goodbudget Plus is the paid version of the app and offers additional features like unlimited envelopes, seven years of transaction tracking and email support.
Who It’s Best For
- Goodbudget is for people who prefer envelope budgeting or want to become more disciplined at paying off debt and saving money.
Pros
- Separate envelopes for various savings goals.
- Reports to analyze spending trends.
Cons
- The free version offers limited support.
- Multiple users are only available with a paid plan.
Cost
- Goodbudget is free to use. Goodbudget Plus costs $8 a month or $70 annually.
Other Budgeting Apps to Consider
If the budgeting apps above don’t fit your needs, consider these other top budgeting apps to help you manage your family’s finances.
Wally
While Wally may be too complicated for most users, it’s a useful budgeting app if you deal in foreign currency or have multiple people involved in a budget (think event planning, etc.)
- Cost: Free to use, but offers paid versions. Wally Gold is $8.99 per month or $39.99 annually. Monthly bank account linking costs $2.99.
Albert
Albert is a free basic savings platform with the ability to keep all of your accounts in one place. Albert offers basic budget features, but the focus is really on their in-house products. The app now offers banking with a free Cash debit card.
- Cost: The basic version is free, but Albert Genius charges a minimum of $8 a month (you pay what you think is fair).
Simplifi
Simplifi is Quicken’s answer to the personal finance app, and though it launched only recently, it does seem to have some interesting features, like excluding a transaction from your budget, which is helpful for reimbursable employment expenses.
- Cost: 30-day free trial, $5.99/month or $47.88/year
Spendless
Spendless is a family budgeting app specifically for Android users that lets one or more people manage a household’s expenses and budgeting efforts. It also allows users to tag locations to expenses and leave personalized messages for their spouse or partner.
Homebudget With Sync
HomeBudget with Sync is a free expense-tracking app for households. Reviews show it’s easy to use and customizable. There’s a free “lite” version and an upgraded version for a one-time fee of $4.99 with more functionality.
Fudget
Fudget is a free manual budgeting app that doesn’t require you to sync your bank accounts to use. The app features a simple, easy-to-use interface. Fudget has a free version and a paid Pro version with a $3.99 one-time fee.
What’s your favorite budgeting app or software to manage family finances? Let us know in the comments below.
Kate Daugherty is a freelance writer based in Denver, CO. She specializes in grant writing, finances, and senior health.
