In just 2 years things have changed in the budget app world. It seems the trend is that budget app makers are niching into specific demographics and user bases. The one size fits all is okay for the largest budget app companies like Mint, YNAB, Personal Capital and Simplifi (Intuit) but for growth the smaller companies are starting to focus on the niche’s. Financial technology companies (aka fin tech) increasingly use this approach to grow their user bases. Whether it’s debit card companies pursuing families and their children like Green light or crypto exchanges like Coinbase.
If you’re reading this you’re either already using a budget app or have almost written off the whole concept of budgeting. Many people find budgeting a complete hassle and I don’t blame them. I personally currently don’t use a budget app ,but have used Mint, Personal capital, Simplifi and spreadsheets over the past few years. My strategy has just to keep recurring expenses low and income high. That said I am in the market for a couples focused budget app. It has to be something that really stands out from the free ones that banks include with their online banking platforms and the larger budget apps that are loaded with features. Also, it’ll have to be really easy to use with helpful information that my wife will appreciate as we go about the regular business of buying stuff.
Our Picks:
Our Free pick is Honeydue since it’s simple and free and our paid pick is YNAB since the UI and features were easy for people and it has bold claims on money saved per month.
Recent App Store Customer Reviews - Feb 2022
Mint - 723k reviews. Many people like it. New version is slow to load for some, feature richness might be too much. Some data sync issues. Cost: Free
EveryDollar - 58k reviews. Many people like it. Dave Ramsey product. Complaints about slow operation of app. 15-30 second delay when using tracking features. Bank connection issues. Cost: $129/yr
YNAB - 38k reviews. Many people like it. Good UI and features. Claims average $600/mo saved. Bank direct import sync issues, price increase, poor support. Cost: $98/yr
Personal Capital - 36k reviews. Many people like it. Complaints about financial advisors aggressively calling to get you to use their advisory services. (It’s a lead generation tool for their financial advisory service business). Cost: Free
Honeydue - 7.1k reviews. Focused on couples finance. Many people like it, low customer support ratings, data sync issues. Some banks not supported for data sync. Cost: Free
Simplifi - 1.1k reviews. Many people like it. Buggy and UI complaints. No iPad version. 30 day free trial leads to paid subscription. Cost: $36/yr
Zeta - 127 reviews. Focused on couples finance. lots of buggy comments. Cost: Free
Traditional bank budget tools ( like USAA ). Very basic manual entry of monthly spending
I like adding tools like these to a low cost living approach while increasing active and passive income sources, lowering fixed costs (think mortgage and rent) and variable costs (think car, home, life insurance), subscriptions and booking travel deals in advance.