Personal budgeting tools have become a necessity. Budgeting has become front of mind for many people as they continue to deal with the financial uncertainty brought on by more than a year of catastrophic economic shocks owing to the pandemic. While a handwritten budget is perfectly acceptable, budgeting apps have become a popular tool to track spending and savings habits.

It may be difficult to navigate through the multiple personal budgeting tools available, especially when each one offers a different set of functions. In this list of top tools, we have compiled the top 17 personal budgeting tools along with their features and pricing for you to choose from.

1. Trim

Trim describes itself as your "personal finance assistant," and that's a fairly good description of what it does. It not only helps you save money on auto insurance by lowering your bills, but it also assists you in canceling useless subscriptions and services that you may be paying for on a monthly basis but seldom or never using.

You can simply create an account and link your bank accounts to get started with Trim. Trim takes control at that point. The app keeps track of my expenditures and is always seeking ways to "save" a little money each month.

Key Features:

• Trim searches through your transactions for reoccurring subscriptions. Do you no longer require one? Simply ask Trim to cancel it on your behalf!

• Medical bills are notoriously difficult to negotiate, but their team of professionals is up to the task! Simply send them your bill, and they'll work with your provider to find the best rate and payment plan for you.

• Trim can help you negotiate reduced interest rates (APRs), cancel interest charges, and receive refunds on unjust bank fees with your bank.

• Trim, like other large banks, protects your data with 256-bit SSL encryption and two-factor authentication.

Cost:

It charges a fee of 33 percent on all invoices it successfully negotiates.

2. Goodbudget

Goodbudget offers a feature-rich free version. It allows you to virtualize the envelope budgeting idea without having to pay for budgeting software. To observe how your money is spent, you may manually insert bank transactions and use Goodbudget's straightforward pie charts. Considering the free price tag, this is an extremely feature-rich alternative.

Envelope budgeting is separating your available funds into various envelopes for various expenditure categories. Goodbudget enables you to use a digital version of envelope budgeting, with the amount of money remaining in each envelope shown on your home screen.

Key Features:

• By synchronizing your household budget across all of your iPhones and Androids, Goodbudget keeps you on the same page. When you take money out of an envelope, the person you're sharing it with knows exactly how much was spent, where it was spent, and when it was spent.

• You may plan ahead and save for large costs months in advance using Goodbudget.

• Use Debt Accounts on the web to keep track of your debt repayment progress and discover when you'll be debt-free — all while putting money away for other expenses.

• Based on the envelope budgeting approach — a tried-and-true strategy!

Cost:

$7 per month.

3. Personal Capital

Personal Capital is a popular software app with a lot of free functions that make it a suitable pick for almost anybody.

It's a budgeting program that, like most others, allows you to import transactions from your numerous accounts. It does not, however, allow you to construct your own budget categories. You're stuck with the app's selection.

After you've figured out how to use the site, you can generate a variety of charts for both spending and savings, allowing you to compare your budget from week to week or month to month.

Key Features:

• Track your financial progress and get a comprehensive view of all of your assets and obligations in one safe location.

• Make a plan to achieve financial independence. Examine your prospects of retiring successfully and discover what you can do to achieve your objectives.

• Find out what fees you're paying in your mutual fund, investment, and retirement accounts. Compare plans to see which one is best for you.

Cost:

Pricing will be revealed after you get started.

4. Mint

Mint is the perfect budgeting app if you are looking to improve your credit score.

With a Mint membership, you'll get not only free credit score monitoring but also spending and investment tracking. Simply connect your bank, credit, loan, and investment accounts to begin shopping. Mint will learn your financial patterns and tailor its recommendations as you establish each month's budget.

Key Features:

• Easily add your cash, credit cards, investments, and bills to see where your money goes.

• Personalized Mintsights let you stretch your dollar farther. They'll automatically look for any discounts you may have missed.

• Custom objectives that keep you going will help you improve your spending habits. Save for a down payment, pay off debt, and plan for the future.

• Pay no more than is necessary. Mint will keep track of your bills so you don't forget about them. Get overdraft protection warnings as well.

Cost:

You can start for free.

5. Albert

Albert builds a budget for you automatically, allowing you to see where your money is going at all times. You may check your income, bills, and any money left over right away. You'll also have a variety of reporting choices, such as reviewing budgets from previous months or visualizing your transactions as a pie chart.

Albert not only makes budgeting simple, but it also makes saving simple by detecting when there is excess cash and transferring it to a digital wallet. You'll get an annual incentive for your efforts, and you'll be able to simply track your savings objectives.

Key Features:

• Albert will forecast your monthly income and regular expenditures so you know precisely how much money you have left to spend.

• They sort your money into categories and keep track of where it goes. They look for patterns so you don't spend more than you make.

• When they find overdraft fines, strange transactions, or bill increases, they notify you. And they're always looking for methods to save money.

• Your math will be handled by them, automatically budgeting so you know every dollar is going where it should be. In one huge image, you can see your bank accounts, expenditures, debt, and investments.

Cost:

You can start for free.

6. Moneydance

Moneydance is simply a Mac version of Quicken. This personal budgeting tool performs what Quicken and many other programs do, including assisting you in creating a budget and alerting you when invoices are due. It allows you to create graphs and charts to help you keep track of your expenditures. The webpage gives you a complete picture of your current financial condition and is available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux.

It also accomplishes a few things that not all budgeting applications for personal finances do. Moneydance keeps track of your investments and notifies you of monthly net worth changes.

Key Features:

• Download transactions and transmit payments from over a hundred banking institutions automatically.

• Create visual reports of your income and spending with the graphing tool. Set the graph type, date range, and any other preferences for the graph you want.

• Account transactions are entered, edited, and deleted using the account register. It looks like a paper checkbook register, but the balances and transactions are all calculated and sorted automatically.

• You may use the Moneydance mobile app to enter or change transactions and see balances while on the go. Changes are synchronized with your desktop promptly and securely.

Cost:

You can purchase it for $60.

7. Chime

Chime is a personal budgeting program that includes features like a spending tracker to help you keep track of how much you spend in each area.

It's like having a personal financial adviser on your phone or tablet. Chime keeps track of your spending and tells you where you may save money, including which bills to pay off first and which fees to avoid.

Key Features:

• The Chime mobile app allows you to keep track of your account balances, daily transactions, and savings from anywhere.

• When you use your Chime Visa® Debit Card, turn on balance notifications and immediate transaction alerts.

• Pay Pals is a feature on the mobile banking app that allows you to send money to friends instantaneously.

• When your direct deposit is deposited into your Spending Account, you'll receive an email notification.

• Never be concerned about paychecks going missing in the mail.

Cost:

$4.99 per month.

8. Every Dollar

Every Dollar is a great option for families that want to take control of their finances and don't want to pay a monthly charge. It helps you to budget by allocating each dollar spent and includes a customizable template to make the process easier.

Those who want more features, such as the option to link bank accounts, must upgrade to the premium version.

Key Features:

• Make a line item for each spending you expect to incur. Create categories to bring together related expenditures. Drag and drop to create the desired order.

• Begin putting money down for the future, whether it's tomorrow or five years down the road. Transform line items into cash.

• You may create due date reminders for line items that need to be paid on a specific day in EveryDollar. No more forgetting to pay your bills, and no more fretting about it.

• Budget insights from EveryDollar provide you with information on your spending and income.

Cost:

$59.99 per 3 months.

9. CountAbout

CountAbout is a browser-based personal budgeting tool that comes in two flavors: Basic, which is best for budgeting beginners, and Premium, which contains more advanced capabilities.

Choose the Premium edition if you want an app that automatically connects to your financial institutions and downloads your transactions. It connects to more than 12,000 financial institutions. You may import transactions from other sites using the basic version, but you'll have to manually update it.

Key Features:

• Import data from Quicken and Mint with ease, and set up running register balances, standard and custom categories, and more in a clutter-free, ad-free interface.

• Sync data from your banking, credit card, and retirement accounts automatically.

• With their iOS and Android apps, you can keep track of your money from anywhere – at home, at work, or while going through airport security. They'll automatically sync your data wherever you type it so you can see it.

Cost:

$9.99 per year.

10. YNAB

YNAB (You Need A Budget) is more expensive than its free competitors, and creating a budget takes longer. Despite these flaws, it's the finest budgeting software for gaining financial control since it provides you with the tools you need to develop a value-driven spending plan.

This personal budgeting tool is based on four rules, one of which is to give every dollar a job. The application will walk you through the steps of allocating each dollar so that you may spend wisely. Its customized reporting and goal-tracking capabilities, which include visually appealing and useful charts and graphs, assist you in sticking to your strategy.

Key Features:

• Access to real-time data from any device, at any time, makes sharing finances with a partner a breeze.

• YNAB's data is encrypted, all user passwords are bcrypt hashed, and the data centers they utilize are accredited numerous times.

• Prompt customer support via email. Alternatively, you can browse through the 100+ free, online, live Q&As they host each week.

• Analytical reports and easy-to-read graphs.

Cost:

$11.99 per month.

11. Quicken

Quicken is mentioned in almost every list of personal money and budgeting applications and for good reason. This programme predates the computer age, having been around since 1983 in one form or another.

It is, however, a little out of date in certain areas. It sets the bar so high that it accomplishes everything a budgeting programme should do, and it does them well. Quicken gives you a consolidated view of your bank, investment, retirement, and credit card accounts, as well as keeping track of your spending categories.

Key Features:

• Track what's left after the bills are paid to stay on top of your spending. Create unique budgets that you'll stick to and make better financial decisions.

• Look at how much money is coming in and going out of your accounts. Check your account balances once you've paid your bills. You may also set up notifications so you never miss a deadline.

• To have more confidence in your buy/sell selections, review your investment portfolio, track performance, and look at market comparisons.

Cost:

$35.99 per year.

12. Money Patrol

Money Patrol includes many of the same functions as other budgeting applications, such as connecting to your bank account to log transactions, creating and managing budgets, and keeping track of your assets. On your dashboard, you'll be able to track your progress and receive insight into your spending patterns.

MoneyPatrol, on the other hand, does more than track your spending and assists you in sticking to your budget. The software is also supported by technology that looks for ways to enhance your finances on its own. These tips can help you develop healthier financial habits that will last a lifetime.

Key Features:

• It notifies you of spending patterns, forthcoming bills, and recurrent expenses.

• To track your spending by categories and merchants, create weekly and monthly budgets. Using the finest budget planner, receive timely alerts and insights.

• To simply comprehend your monthly Cash Flow and establish feasible Savings goals for the future, see your Income and Expense figures in one spot.

• Provides you with the information you need to make better financial decisions for yourself and your family.

• Improve your credit score by understanding your credit usage, rates, balances, and payments.

Cost:

$59 per year.

13. Honeydue

Honeydue was created to assist couples in managing their money jointly, with a focus on shared communication. Honeydue allows you to reply to your partner's transactions with a message, a thumbs-up, or other emojis, making it easier to share financial information. You may also view all of your individual and joint transactions in one location by aggregating your connected account information.

Key Features:

• Honeydue works with over 20,000 financial institutions in five countries, offering everything from bank accounts to loans and investments.

• With the bill reminders, you may avoid fines. When it's time to pay, we'll remind you (or your partner).

• Send your partner a "thumbs up" or inquire about the transaction. Honeydue has it all built-in.

• Upgrade to a Honeydue joint bank account when you and your spouse are ready. Sutton Bank, a member of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, insures deposits.

• Honeydue protects your financial identity and data by following industry best practices.

Cost:

You can download the app for free.

14. Digit

Digit is a budgeting tool to consider if you wish to save money for the future. This programme goes above and beyond traditional automated savings, utilizing technology to assist you in putting money down.

All you have to do with Digit is enter your objectives and attach your bank account, then spend like you typically would. You will enjoy how the app transfers little sums of money to your savings account when you're least likely to notice it. The algorithms learn more about you each time, making this procedure even more precise.

Key Features:

• Digit calculates sensible amounts to save and invest each day using machine learning and financial best practices.

• Digit examines all of your bank transactions, searching for spending trends and when you get paid.

• Digit considers your objectives, balance, and bills. Then it calculates a quantity you won't notice.

• Digit makes minor daily adjustments to assist you to achieve your short and long-term objectives.

Cost:

$5 per month.

15. Pocket Guard

Pocket Guard's a basic user interface and straightforward pie charts make budgeting and tracking expenditure easier for college students who are new to money management. By keeping track of money available to spend at all times, PocketGuard's ‘In My Pocket’ function decreases the danger of overdraft accounts.

While the free version lacks some of the capabilities found in the commercial edition, most college students will find the application to be enough and will be able to avoid paying a monthly membership cost.

Key Features:

• The In My Pocket feature of PocketGuard displays you how much money you have ready to spend right now.

• You can save money by using smart algorithms to find places where you can save money.

• Create a Payoff plan and stick to the timeline.

• Keep track of your account balances, net worth, and more by connecting all of your banks, credit cards, loans, and investments in one spot.

• PocketGuard assists you with keeping track of your expenses and negotiating lower prices on cable, mobile phone, and other bills.

Cost:

You can sign up to avail the pricing.

16. Neubrain Budgeting

For large and midsize businesses, as well as government agencies, Neubrain Budgeting is an all-in-one budgeting and performance management system. The system has features for creating operating budgets, budgeting for staff, forecasting, planning "what-if" scenarios, allocating funds, consolidating finances, performance-based budgeting, and more.

No prior programming knowledge is necessary to customize Neubrain Budgeting to match unique needs. Organizational structures, processes, data structures, computation logic, presentation, and other aspects are all customizable by users. With the Office client, users may work online or offline and directly access multi-dimensional data from within Excel, thanks to the Microsoft Excel add-in.

Key Features:

• Users can construct projections, what-if scenarios, driver- and version-based scenarios, and their own forecasting and budgeting methods.

• The Salary & Benefits component allows users to construct budgets for existing, open roles, frozen vacancies, contractor positions, and more. Budgets can be created for an unlimited number of positions and personnel.

• The Capital Budget component interfaces with financial systems and project management software, automates the generation, budgeting, reporting, and analysis of capital project budgeting tasks, and may accommodate numerous concurrent organizational hierarchies and roll-up levels.

Cost:

Contact the company for the details.

17. Questica

By developing a single source of data truth, Questica seeks to accelerate budget transformation. Since 1998, Questica has been a pioneer in the development of budgeting preparation and management software. Through partnerships with public sector organizations, Questica helps to improve data-driven budgeting and decision-making while boosting data accuracy, productivity, and stakeholder confidence. Their budgeting, performance, transparency, and engagement solutions, which seamlessly integrate with existing financial and other systems, have been used by more than 800 local and provincial governments, colleges, universities, K–12 schools, hospitals, and healthcare facilities across 50 states and 12 provinces and territories to do away with spreadsheets.

Key Features:

• Effortless payroll and human resources integration

• Configurable components that can be adapted to any organization's unique workflow

• Monitoring and auditing capabilities

• Different levels of access within an organization's security can be configure

• Workflow and approval processes can be configured.

• Capability for comprehensive reporting, dashboards, and analytics

Cost:

Contact the company for the details.

Things To Consider When Choosing A Personal Budgeting Tool

Cost

The prices of personal budgeting applications vary. Many budgeting applications are free (or have free versions), but some need a monthly cost. While it's tempting to go for a free app, don't forget about the premium applications. If a personal budgeting tool will help you better your financial situation, it may be well worth the money.

Features

Each app offers its own set of features and perks, so it's worth trying out a couple to determine which one best suits your needs. If you've used a mobile banking app before, you'll be familiar with the features you'll be looking for. Connecting all of your financial accounts, receiving reminders of incoming bill payments, making a budget, credit score tracking, tracking expenditure, setting up financial objectives, and more are all common features among the greatest personal budgeting applications.

Privacy And Security

Personal information protection is critical, especially when it comes to banking data and logins. While most budgeting programs are secure in some way, some are more advanced than others. Make careful to check each app's level of security encryption. Security measures such as 256-bit encryption and multi-factor authentication may be found on their websites. Security features like these, in addition to utilizing a secure Wi-Fi network, will help prevent attackers from accessing your data.

Conclusion

Choosing a personal budgeting tool that works well for you is extremely important. It might not be possible to choose the right one in your first attempt itself. Hence it is recommended that you try out the free versions of a few tools and then finalize one. List down your requirements and then decide which personal budgeting tools fit your needs the best.

FAQs

What Is Personal Budgeting?

A personal budget, often known as a home budget, basically keeps track of how much money comes in and goes out of a family. A budget is, at its most basic level, a planning and monitoring tool that may be used to help a person or family spend less and save more.

Budgeting is all about being deliberate about how you spend money and preparing ahead to ensure you don't run into any uncomfortable – or perhaps financially devastating – shocks before your next paycheck arrives. This foresight also allows you to save money for future goals and determine how long it will take you to achieve them.

What Is A Personal Budgeting Tool?

A personal budgeting tool assists you in planning and allocating your own budget. Unlike accounting software, which is primarily concerned with recording what you've spent or owe, budgeting software is proactive in nature and allows you to allocate your funds before you spend them.

It might be difficult to know where to begin when creating a household budget. Budgeting software promises to make the process easier so you can put your money to work for you rather than just spending it as it comes in.

When Should You Consider Using A Personal Budgeting Tool?

Even if you aren't striving to achieve a specific financial objective, such as saving a certain amount of money or paying off debt, having a personal budget is essential for good financial health. You may avoid overspending or spending money that is required for prospective bills by keeping track of your spending and preparing ahead for future needs. Having everything written down makes it easier to see how much money you have and what you're spending it on.

A budget can assist in ensuring that these two sides of the equation are in sync. Even if you're simply looking on the short term, laying out what you need to spend your money on from week to week and month to month ensures you don't overspend on food and run out of money to pay your rent.

What About Forecasting And Planning Your Budget?

Ideally, you should map out your personal budget for 6 months to a year down the road once you've created your first budget, started using it, and gotten a solid sense of how it helps keep your finances on track. You can simply predict which months your finances will be tight and which months you will have additional cash by doing so. You can then seek strategies to balance out your financial highs and lows so that things are more manageable and enjoyable.

Extending your budget into the future also helps you to estimate how much money you'll be able to save for all major expenditures such as house and car loans. When it comes to long-term financial planning, using a realistic budget to anticipate your expenditure for the year may be quite beneficial. You may then make reasonable estimates about your yearly income and expenses and plan for long-term financial goals such as establishing a business, purchasing an investment or recreational property, or retiring.

What Is The Best Way To Budget One Time Expenses?

The majority of monthly family spending may be easily tracked: vehicle payments, food, rent or mortgage payments, and so on. However, you'll need to construct a separate budget item for infrequent or seasonal outlays if your costs don't fit neatly into a monthly spending category. This money will be used to cover holiday, birthday, and anniversary expenditures, as well as a routine eye doctor and dental appointments.

There's one more budget item that's even more crucial, and it's frequently the most damaging when it comes to sticking to a budget, so you should plan for it ahead of time: This line item is for one-time costs only. The "rainy day fund" is what most savers refer to as; usual practice is to set aside three to six months of income to meet bills that can't be predicted, such as a large automobile repair or medical crisis.

Can I Track My Savings Goals?

People save for a variety of reasons, depending on their age and lifestyle. You might be saving for retirement, annual property taxes, a trip abroad, a large home renovation, your children's education funds, or a high-end piece of apparel or jewelry. Track your progress toward all of your objectives, whatever they are. A spreadsheet may be used to track your savings if you're familiar with Google Sheets or Excel. Quicken is, of course, the most well-known money management program.

What is the price of budgeting software?

While some budgeting systems are fully free, some include monthly or annual fees. For instance, You Need a Budget charge around $99 annually, whereas EveryDollar's subscription edition costs $80 annually. Most top solutions will cost you between $5 and $15 per month. Compared to free solutions, budgeting software you pay for frequently has more features and customer support. Additionally, advertising frequently sponsors free software, so you can anticipate receiving business pitches while utilizing it.

What are the crucial elements of a personal budget?

• Follow Your Spending.

• Make your spending plan flexible.

• Monthly needs

• Monthly Wishes

• Goals for saving.