The Best Budgeting Apps Based on How Much You Spend
If you are looking for a way to track your expenses and stay within your budget, then you need to choose the right expense tracker app. However, there are many, so your choice may vary depending on what’s important to you, such as ease, whether you share the cost, whether you’re self-employed, and how much you travel.
Mint is the best free app
Mint is free and one of the best known apps for tracking your expenses and helping you budget. It’s not as feature-rich as some of the other options on this list, but it’s a great choice if you have an average experience and are looking for something that isn’t overly complex or expensive.
Goodbudget is the best app for beginners
If you’re new to tracking your expenses, Goodbudget might be a good choice for you. Goodbudget members get 20 “envelopes” for free (think of the day you could put money for certain categories in separate, literal envelopes). But to access more envelopes, you’ll need to upgrade to Goodbudget Plus, which costs $8/month or $70/year.
YNAB is the best app for keeping track of every detail
YNAB is short for “You Need a Budget” and is one of the most popular expense tracking apps available. YNAB is great for those who want to keep track of every detail of their spending and budget. It’s a bit more expensive than some of the other options on this list, but it does offer a free 34-day trial. After that, YNAB costs $14.99/month or $98.99/year. People who don’t need that much detail or so many features may not want to pay the higher prices of YNAB, but if you’re looking for maximum functionality, YNAB is well worth it.
Splitwise is best for keeping track of expenses shared with other people.
If you share expenses with other people, such as roommates, family members, or a partner, Splitwise can help you keep track of who owes how much. It also works very well for the trips you take with other people. This is a great choice for those who need to keep track of overall spending and keep everyone accountable.
Splitwise allows users in the same group to “simplify spending”. If person A owes person B $20 and person B owes person C $20, Splitwise will automatically simplify the spending so that person A owes person C $20. Payment can be made out of the app via Venmo, PayPal, cash or other transfer. Splitwise is free to use, but there is a paid premium version that costs $2.99/month or $29.99/year. The premium version includes features such as check scanning, currency conversion, and expense lookup.
TravelSpend is the best app for tracking spending in different currencies
TravelSpend is a great choice if you travel the world frequently or need to track spending in multiple currencies. It is easy to use and offers many features, including the ability to track expenses in multiple currencies, set budgets, and classify expenses. Users can also track their expenses on a map based on GPS location when expenses are added to the app. TravelSpend is free to use.
Quickbooks Self Employed is the best app if you are self employed
Quickbooks Self Employed is a great choice for those who are self-employed or work part-time. This will help you keep track of things like your income, expenses, and vehicle mileage. Quickbooks Self Employed also syncs with your bank and credit card accounts for expense tracking, and then users can swipe left on business expenses (and reclassify them if the automatic classification is wrong) and swipe right on personal expenses. It also offers some features that other expense tracking apps don’t have, such as the ability to track mileage (useful for tax purposes) and create invoices. Quickbooks Self Employed costs $15/month or $120/year.