The best personal finance software lets you manage and keep track of your finances quickly and easily, from receipts and payments to income and outgoings.
It simplifies the process of personal financial management by largely bypassing traditional receipts and spreadsheets. At the same time, the best personal finance software lets you collate your records, have them all in one place and backed up too, often using cloud storage(opens in new tab) for added flexibility.
Top Rated Personal Finance Software
Mint
Best budgeting app overall
Cost: Free
Mint is one of the most popular budgeting apps and for good reason. It is free to use, something rare among the best budgeting apps, and you get financial budgeting shared by 24 million users.
The app allows you to create a personalized budget and will then monitor your spending. It studies your spending habits and advises how to increase your savings. It will also check your subscriptions to ensure that you are not paying for services you do not need. With MintSights, you can set goals to reach financial milestones and build a stronger financial foundation. Once you connect your accounts, you can easily navigate between outstanding account balances, your monthly expenses versus spending, and even access your free credit score. Mint is compatible with not just banking accounts, but also your credit cards, loans, and investments. You can even file your IRS taxes and receive your refund through the app’s integrated TurboTax services.
Whichever version you opt for, there’s a 30 day free trial available, so you can try before you buy to get an idea if BankTree will work for you.
Money Dashboard
The Money Dashboard iOS/Android app doesn’t try to reinvent the banking world or offer anything truly ground-breaking, but it is perhaps one of the most useful money management tools out there. Hook up every one of your UK bank and credit card accounts and you’ll be able to see each of your balances in a single place with a single login. That in itself is enough for us to recommend it.
But there’s more – Money Dashboard will track your spending, offering you an overall pie chart depicting your spending on loans, consumables, transport and the like. There’s an at-a-glance overall balance, showing exactly how much money you have available across all of your accounts, and you can compare this to the previous month’s figure to show how well you’ve been managing your funds. That’s a great motivator.
Moneydance
Made primarily for Mac users (but also out on Windows and Linux), Moneydance is a desktop money management package with a very neat single-window interface. Load it up and you’ll get an instant view of your finances, upcoming bills, recent expenses and more. Click an item in the left hand sidebar and the main content changes to reflect it.
Its reporting features are quite strong if not spectacular to look at, and one of Moneydance’s most useful sections is its account register. If you’re old-school and once managed a cheque book, this operates on a very similar principle. There’s also an iOS app for logging transactions on the go, which later syncs with the software on your desktop.
Unfortunately for UK users, Moneydance doesn’t support the connection protocols used by UK banks, so you’ll need to download your transaction history manually to keep on top of it and revert to your bank’s own app to move money around. US users, however, are well covered.
Goodbudget
Best budgeting app with digital envelopes
Cost: There is a free version with ads, or you can upgrade to an ad-free plan for $7 per month or $60 per year.
Goodbudget is a budgeting app that helps you create and stick to a budget. There is available debt tracking to keep you motivated and on track. It also helps with money management so you know exactly where your funds are and how they are performing. You will have to subscribe to Goodbudget, but once you do, you will have wide access to the app through both the web and multiple phones. This means that it is easy to share your account with others, like a spouse or family member. It helps you stay connected financially even if you are physically apart, helping to prevent miscommunications and financial mishaps. All transactions are synced to the cloud so you never have to worry about certain financial transactions going missing. Review pie charts and reports to track your spending, with generated reports to show your finances in greater detail. Digital envelopes help you categorize your finances into available funds with each envelope assigned to certain expenses. It is a visual way to improve your finances through the help of virtual tools.
Personal Capital
Best budgeting app for investors
Cost: Personal Capital is free to use.
More than 2.8 million people utilize Personal Capital, and it is a portfolio tracker specifically designed to help with your investments, offering a unique digital approach to your personal finance. The app works with several different types of accounts, including your normal banking accounts, as well as investments, stocks, and retirement funds. The exclusive Retirement Planner tool helps you view your 401K, IRAs, and also your debt so you can have a complete, well-rounded portrait of your finances at the click of a button. The Cash Flow graph stacks your income versus your expenses for an overall financial snapshot that is easy to understand, plus there is an Investment Checkup tool that checks your investments, looking for ways to minimize risk while maximizing rewards. The Retirement Planner is an excellent option when you want to create and manage your retirement. You also have the option to join Personal Capital as an investment client so you can receive direct support from its financial advisors.
Pocketguard
Best budgeting app for overspenders
Cost: There are three subscription plans, in addition to a basic plan with limited features for free.
| Type of plan | Cost |
| Monthly | $7.99 |
| Annual | $34.99 |
| Lifetime One-Time Purchase | $79.99 |
PocketGuard takes a different approach to budgeting, utilizing smart algorithms to manage and track your spending. It also monitors your bills, helping to ensure that you do not miss a payment and risk falling further into debt. There is a bill tracker and organizer available as soon as you link your bank accounts. Any subscriptions you have will be automatically flagged and built into your monthly budget. With the IN MY POCKET feature, the app will automatically calculate your monthly expenses and then advise you on what is left over to spend. It also can help you negotiate better interest rates on your existing accounts, helping you save those extra dollars. It is easy to identify what disposable income you have to spend when the app does all the calculating and reporting for you. You do not have to pay to use PocketGuard, although you will need to subscribe if you want to access all of the best features.
BankTree is more than happy to support worldwide currencies, and in fact does a solid job if you’re working simultaneously with more than one, offering balances in multiple currencies rather than rounding them off into a single total. It’s also good for keeping track of everything, allowing you to scan receipts with its mobile app and import them later on.
It’s not the prettiest software around, and it’s slightly more awkward to use than many of its more refined cousins, although BankTree does produce very neat reports which you can break down by time, or by payee. It may be worth experimenting with the free trial before you choose to invest in this one.
The desktop software comes with one year of updates and support, though you are restricted to one PC and there is a charge for any additional PC you want to run the software on. There’s also a browser-based version available.
Best budget app
1. Quicken
Quicken is a long-established tool for managing personal accounts, and while its reputation was built on a desktop version, it’s now available to run as an app on your mobile devices.
Quicken offers a good range of financial reporting tools. These are set around a few different areas, namely budgeting, bills, accounts, and even investments. For budgeting, it offers you a chance to input your purchases and income so you can compare them both together to get a better idea of how much you are spending compared to how much you are earning.
In terms of bills, you can also see which utilities and similar you are constantly paying out to, and see both the amounts to be paid and how much money you have left over. For accounting purposes you can even bring your banking and credit card bills together in one place so that you have a very clear idea indeed of how much you’re paying out. This is especially handy as people easily underestimate how much regular small purchases can add to costs.
For investments it also offers the ability to track these, whether as part of your savings, investment portfolio, or 401k pension plan. This means you have a clear idea of how much your savings and investments are worth, though it’s fair to say you shouldn’t panic about short-term fluctuations in the stock market.
Altogether, Quicken brings together your budgeting, banking, and investment reporting into a single dashboard, which you can view from your desktop or even via your cell phone from the mobile app.
2. YNAB
Just in case you need to be told explicitly what to do, along comes YNAB – short for You Need A Budget. Because, hey, if you don’t want to spend every single penny you have and more, you absolutely do need one. And perhaps you have more money than you thought?
YNAB’s primary mission, as you might expect, is to help you curb overspending and avoid living from paycheck to paycheck. Stick to the program, temper your spending appropriately, and eventually YNAB will see you spending last month’s money rather than that which you’ve just earned.
It’s quick to install, supports the majority of transaction information downloadable from banks, and appropriately configures itself for personal or small business use by changing its monetary categories depending on your needs.
If you get off track, YNAB – which is reasonably forgiving and understanding for a bit of software – will tell you what you need to do to get back to where you need to be. You’ll have to make sacrifices, but if it’s guidance you need, this sets itself apart from the likes of Quicken.
Best home accounting software for windows 10 and mac
#1) Intuit Mint
Best for online accounting.
Intuit Mint is the platform for personalized insights, custom budgets, spend tracking, and monitoring subscription. It supports Android and iOS devices. You can add your cash, credit cards, bills, and investments to the tools to track the money easily. It will categorize bank transactions and provide safety and security to your data.
Features:
- Mint is a platform with the budget planner and credit monitoring.
- In a budget planner, you can add and update the categories as per your requirement easily.
- For securing the data, it has various features like safeguarding the mobile app with a 4-digit code, multi-factor authentication, etc.
- It automatically finds the savings that are missed.
- It can track the bills to help you without missing them.
Verdict: Intuit Mint is a trusted, protected, and dedicated platform to manage your finances. It will help you stay focused on your financial goals. It is a platform for all accounts in one place and offers the functionalities of bill payment tracker, budgeting goal tracker, free credit score, budget alerts, investment tracker, etc.
#2) Honeydue
Best for couples to manage finances.
Honeydue is an application that helps couples to manage their finances together. It is a smart tool that provides instant notification and real-time balances & budgets for each partner. It is a collaborative tool. It is a secure platform and offers real-time card locks functionality. It offers 24*7 fraud protection.
Features:
- Honeydue has the features to access cash from more than 55,000 surcharge-free ATMs, Apple, and Google Pay.
- With Honeydue joint bank account, the couples will be able to bank together.
- Honeydue supports multiple languages.
- It provides reminders for bills.
Verdict: Honeydue is a mobile application that will let couples collaborate on their terms. It offers the functionalities for tracking all the accounts, coordinating bills, and chatting. Honeydue is working on automatic bill payment features too.
Price: Honeydue is available for free.
#3) Mvelopes
Best as an envelope budgeting system.
Mvelopes offers an envelope budgeting system with three editions i.e. Basic, Premier, & Plus. The app is available for Android and iOS devices. It will let you connect with an unlimited number of accounts.
With all three editions, you will get access to live chat & knowledge base, interactive reports, and auto transaction importing & account balance monitoring.
Features:
- The basic edition will let you connect your bank accounts and create an online envelope budget.
- With the Premier and Plus plan, you will get access to Mvelopes learning center, debt reduction center, and initial setup assistance.
- For the Plus plan, Mvelopes offers the features like a dedicated personal coach, personalized financial plan, and high-level priority support.
Verdict: This envelope budgeting system will help you gain financial peace of mind. It is a simple and affordable budgeting program. With Mvelopes, you will be able to manage your finances from anywhere.
Price: Mvelopes offers a free trial for 30 days. Basic ($5.97/month or $69 per year), Premier ($9.97 per month or $99 per year), & Plus ($19.97 per month or $199 per year).
#4) PocketGuard
Best for categorization & organization of your expenses.
PocketGuard is the tool that will help you with categorizing and organizing expenses. It will categorize and organize your expenses into tabs and graphs. It will set aside the money for bills, goals & necessities and give you a clear view of spendable money. You can link all your bank, credit cards, and loans & investment in one platform.
Features:
- PocketGuard has features to personalize the reports with custom categories and hashtags.
- It provides the feature of AutoSave that will automatically grow your savings. You just have to enter your goal of saving and the tool will handle the rest.
- It will track the bills and negotiate better deals for cell phone bills, cable bills, etc.
Verdict: PocketGuard will help you with optimizing your spending and thereby grow the savings. You can see all accounts in one place and will be able to keep track of your account balances, net worth, etc.
Price: PocketGuard offers a free plan and a Plus plan. You can get a quote for its pricing details. As per the reviews, it may cost you $3.99 per month or $34.99 per year.
#5) EveryDollar
Best for creating monthly budget & tracking your spending.
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EveryDollar is a budgeting app with the functionalities to create a monthly budget, save money, and track spending. You can enter your monthly income, make a plan, and track spending by creating a transaction. It is accessible through a web and mobile app. The mobile app is available for iOS and Android devices.
Features:
- EveryDollar provides a customizable template to help you with planning your expenses.
- You can track your spending according to your plan.
- Every time you spend money you can create a transaction and this helps you to track spending.
Verdict: EveryDollar is an all-in-one budgeting guide that is accessible from anywhere. It will let you track your expenses and save more. This easy-to-use app will help you with achieving your goals.
Price: You can try the app for free for 14 days. EveryDollar offers the solution with three pricing plans i.e. 3 months ($59.99), 6 months ($99.99), and 12 months ($129.99).
#6) Moneydance
Best for personal finance management.
Moneydance is an application for personal finance. It supports Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS platforms. It has the capabilities of online banking, bill payment, account management, budgeting, and investment tracking.
It supports multiple currencies. It provides the summary of your finances that includes account balances, upcoming and overdue transactions, reminders, etc.
Features:
- Moneydance has features for downloading transactions and sending payments online. For this, it supports a lot of financial transactions.
- It provides the facility to create graphs and reports for your income and expenses.
- It has Account Registers for entering, editing, and deleting transactions in an account.
Verdict: Moneydance is a personal finance software that is easy to use. It provides all the features required to manage personal finances. It will easily handle any financial task. Moneydance has various functionalities including online banking and setting up reminders for payments.
Price: Moneydance offers a free trial. You can buy the tool for $49.99. It has a 90-day money-back guarantee.
Conclusion
Basing your budget on important financial items can help you save money on your everyday expenses and secure financial security in the long run. By making a list of your important financial items and tracking their status every month, you can keep track of your progress and make necessary changes as needed. Thanks to a well-budgeted lifestyle, you can be content with little extra income or space to save.