Free Budgeting Apps
These apps cost nothing to use. Some are permanently free, some offer a generous free tier above which you start paying, and a few are manual software you simply own outright. The tradeoff usually shows up somewhere else, fewer automated bank feeds, ads, or a feature the paid competitors bundle in, and they suit anyone who wants to start tracking money today without typing in a credit card number first.
- 1
Owned by Intuit and free with no paid tier, it links US bank and card accounts automatically and tracks spending by category alongside your net worth and credit score in one place. There's no way to set a budget limit or a savings target, so it works better as a snapshot than as a plan.
- 2
A simple, fully manual budgeting list with no bank linking of any kind. The core list-and-balance format is free, and Fudget Plus, around $4.99 a month or $19.99 a year, adds sync across devices and the ability to export your data.
- 3
A free financial app from the company best known for credit card and loan comparisons. It dropped its 50/30/20 budget planner, bills tracker, and insurance manager in August 2025, leaving an account-linking tool that tracks cash flow, net worth, and your credit score rather than a structured budgeting app.
- 4
A free tier plus Spendee Premium, roughly $3 to $5 a month or $23 to $45 a year, with Plaid-based bank sync on paid plans and shared wallets for splitting costs with a partner or roommates.
- 5
A free budgeting app for iOS and Android that mixes manual entry with some bank linking, with a shared mode so a partner can see the same numbers. A 2026 update added an AI assistant for answering questions about your spending.
- 6
Free, open source, and maintained by volunteers, GnuCash runs real double-entry bookkeeping on Windows, Mac, and Linux rather than a simplified budget view. There's no live bank sync, transactions come in by hand or through OFX and QFX file imports.