FreeBudget Review: Why This Free App Might Be All You Need
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If you’ve wrestled with sticking to a budget, you already know: the hard part isn’t making one. It’s finding a system you’ll actually keep coming back to. Many budgeting apps feel overwhelming. Some push premium tiers or hide the best features behind additional fees.
FreeBudget takes a different path. It helps you track income, spending, and net worth in a simple, private dashboard with no ads, no data selling, and no subscription required.
If you’ve been looking effective budgeting tool without having to pay for access, FreeBudget is worth trying. Its layout and tools are straightforward, and you can access it on a desktop or any phone browser.
Here’s a look at how FreeBudget works and whether it fits your needs.
What Is FreeBudget?
FreeBudget is a 100% free web-based budgeting tool that helps you see exactly where your money goes and plan where it should go. There’s no paywall or upsell pressure. You won’t find any ads within FreeBudget, either. Its interface stays focused on core budgeting, with no distractions.
FreeBudget wasn’t built by a big tech company. It was created by someone who genuinely loves budgeting and wanted to make it easier for others. This is what inspired its founder, Mike Kern:
“As a CPA and Excel nerd, budgeting has always been something I’ve cared about. After Mint shut down, I built FreeBudget to provide a simple, high-quality budgeting app that’s accessible to everyone and completely free. There are no ads, no upsells, and no selling of your data. The focus has always been on helping users first.”
— Mike Kern, Creator of FreeBudget
Here’s a quick look at the main sections you’ll see when you log into FreeBudget:
📊 Dashboard
Shows your income, expenses, net income, and net worth all in one place. You can filter views by date range, category, or account to get the snapshot you want.
📋 Transactions
A sortable list of everything coming in and out. Filter by date, account, or category so you’re not scrolling endlessly to find specific charges.
🗂 Categories
FreeBudget gives default categories you can use right away, or you can add and customize your own to match how you actually spend.
💼 Accounts
Add bank and credit card accounts so balances and transactions flow into your dashboard.
📅 Budget Planner
Build monthly or long-term plans using a familiar spreadsheet-style layout. It feels simple because you don’t have to deal with formulas or setup headaches.
📈 Reports
Generate net income or net worth reports and download them as PDFs or CSV files for your records.
It’s basically everything most people need to budget well without the noise.
How FreeBudget Handles Transactions
FreeBudget lets you choose how you track your finances, from manual control to automated syncing:
🔐 Automatic Syncing via Plaid
You can link your bank and card accounts using Plaid, a widely used and secure connection service. This allows your transactions to sync in real time, keeping your budget up to date. Like many budgeting tools, FreeBudget relies on Plaid to offer secure syncing without storing your login credentials.
While FreeBudget is free to use, linking accounts via Plaid incurs a small passthrough fee that goes directly to Plaid. The current cost is $0.99 per month for up to two linked accounts, and $0.50 per account after that. FreeBudget is upfront about this fee on its website and during sign-up, and you can unlink accounts at any time to stop charges. Manual entry and CSV import are free if you prefer not to link.
⚙️ Automatic Categorization
When transactions sync, FreeBudget assigns categories you can edit if needed, saving time on manual entry.
✍️ Manual Entry
If you prefer not to link your financial accounts, you can manually add transactions one at a time. Manual entry is more time-consuming, but it is an option.
📥 CSV Import/Export
You can also import and export financial information in CSV format. This lets you bring in data from other tools or keep offline records for tax time or analysis.
What Makes FreeBudget Useful
Some budgeting apps overcomplicate things. FreeBudget keeps it simple, focusing on the tools that actually help you manage money day to day.
It’s not about doing more. That’s not why people struggle to keep a budget. It’s about making budgeting easier to stick with. Here are some of the simple, but useful FreeBudget features we love:
📌 Easy to Use Budget Planner
The budget layout feels familiar and uncluttered. You can copy figures from one month to another or push budgeted amounts into future months without rebuilding everything from scratch. That’s especially handy if your income or expenses vary.
📊 Clear Charts and Trends
Income, expenses, and net worth translate into simple visuals that help you spot patterns over time. Seeing trends can make adjusting your habits feel less intimidating and more actionable.
🧰 Category Flexibility
You’re not locked into preset categories. You can add or rename them as your life shifts, whether you’re tracking kid activities, managing shared expenses, or customizing your budget to align with your values.
💳 Unlimited Accounts
Track as many bank, credit card, or other accounts as you want, all feeding into your totals.
🔒 Strong Privacy Focus
FreeBudget doesn’t sell your data, serve ads, or push upsells. The only data it collects beyond what you enter comes from your consent to sync accounts, and financial credentials are handled securely through a trusted third-party service.
Who FreeBudget Works Best For
FreeBudget fits people who want:
- A straightforward, encouraging way to understand their money
- A budgeting tool that doesn’t cost anything or try to upsell you
- Privacy and control over financial data
- A dashboardthat they can check quickly
- Flexibility to automate syncing or do things manually
If you want heavy forecasting, advanced automations, or investment analysis, FreeBudget doesn’t focus on those areas. But if your goal is to track spending, stay organized, and build better habits, it checks the core boxes without overwhelming you.
📢If you’re looking for more tools that work well for households or shared budgeting, check out our roundup of the best budgeting apps for families.
Where FreeBudget Might Feel Limited
No budgeting app is perfect, including FreeBudget. Since the app is relatively new, there may be bugs they need to work out or features they need to improve. They’ll likely take user feedback and explore improvements based on the information collected.
Since it keeps things streamlined, a few capabilities you might see in other financial tools aren’t yet part of FreeBudget. There’s no built-in bill pay, credit score monitoring, or investment tools
FreeBudget is a browser-based budgeting app. It relies on your web browser rather than traditional mobile store apps. This isn’t exactly rare. Many other budgeting apps and tools have a similar structure. It’s challenging to create an easy-to-use mobile budgeting app without hiding features off-screen.
I don’t necessarily see any of these facts as flaws. FreeBudget intentionally keeps everything simple. It’s squarely focused on budgeting.
Ways to Use FreeBudget as Part of Your Money Management Strategy
We love budgeting apps, but they aren’t the end-all, be-all solution for managing your money. They’re tools to help you, and I track our finances and, hopefully, learn to manage them better.
Fun fact: Just because a budgeting app comes with a specific tool or feature, doesn’t meanyou have to use it. You can pick and choose how you use FreeBudget and other apps.
Here are some specific ways you can integrate FreeBudget into your broader financial habits:
🗓 Weekly Check-Ins
Set a weekly habit to review your dashboard. Note spending categories that are creeping up, and adjust your budget for the rest of the month.
🧾 Income Categorization for Variable Pay
If your income changes month to month, use custom categories to track seasonal or variable income separately from regular wages. This clarity helps you plan savings or expenses during leaner months.
📊 Trend Tracking for Long-Term Goals
Export your net worth and net income reports quarterly. Use them to see how close you are to bigger financial goals, such as building an emergency fund or paying down debt.
📥 CSV Imports from External Tools
If you use another finance tool for certain accounts, periodically import those CSVs into FreeBudget to keep everything consolidated in one view.
📅 Monthly Budget Review Sessions
At the start of each month, use last month’s copy and the copy-to-future-month shortcuts to quickly build your next budget. Then tweak categories based on what actually happened last month.
Is FreeBudget Worth Using?
FreeBudget offers a straightforward, no-cost way to track your income, spending, and net worth without distractions. Its clean layout and flexible setup make it easy to get started and stay consistent.
For anyone who’s felt overwhelmed by complicated budgeting apps, FreeBudget delivers a simpler path to staying organized and building better money habits.
Kevin Payne is a travel and personal finance writer whose work has been featured in Bankrate, Credible, and Matador Network. He is the creator of Hey Kevin Payne, where he shares practical tips and tools to help individuals with ADHD travel and manage money with more intention. Kevin is also the creator of Family Money Adventure and host of the Family Money Adventure Show podcast.
