5 Best Free Budgeting Apps to Take Control of Your Finances

Published on April 26, 2024 at 5:55 PM

Take a ten-minute scroll on TikTok or Instagram and you'll be hard-pressed not to run into a post or video discussing the rising cost of living. From the increasing cost of housing and rent to the overwhelming amount of student loan debt, most people are struggling to find some breathing room in their finances. Despite your financial struggle, budgeting is the best jumping-off point to taking control of your finances, and thankfully, there are plenty of free budgeting apps out there to help.

"Taking the first step toward creating a budget may seem intimidating, but it doesn't have to be," Courtney Alev, a consumer financial advocate at Credit Karma tells POPSUGAR. "Know that you may not build the 'perfect' budget on your first try. You will likely adjust your budget over time, which is completely fine."

Creating a way to manually track your budget on your own can seem like a good idea – I know I certainly thought so once upon a time – but it may not be the most effective. And paying for a financial expert or budgeting tool seems counterintuitive when trying to save money, so what's the solution? Free budgeting apps are a welcome resource for anyone looking to create a budget and stick with it.

"With personal finance apps," says Julie Ramhold, consumer analyst at DealNews.com, "you usually just pick and choose which features you want to use and you may have to play around with how you want to track items, but for the most part the best apps will have the legwork done and you just have to input the basic info."

To help you take control of your finances without spending any more money, I've researched the best free budgeting apps out there to save you time.

Goodbudget

Goodbudget is one of the best free budgeting apps due to its straightforward and effective way of managing your finances. The app follows the envelope budgeting system, where you allocate funds into virtual envelopes for different expense categories, such as groceries, rent, entertainment, and savings. This system's visual representation of your budget helps you stay on track with your spending goals.

One of the best features of Goodbudget is its simplicity and ease of use. The app's interface is intuitive so you can easily set up your budget, track spending, and make adjustments as needed. Easily add transactions manually or sync your accounts to automatically import transactions to ensure your budget is always up to date.

Another key aspect of Goodbudget is its emphasis on sharing and collaboration. The app allows you to create and share budgets with family members or partners, making it ideal for households looking to manage their finances together. This feature promotes communication about money matters, helping you work towards your financial goals as a team.

SoFi

SoFi has a powerful free budgeting app designed to provide valuable insights and guidance to manage finances more effectively. With features tailored to personal finance management, investing, and budgeting, the app offers a comprehensive view of your financial health.

One of the standout features of the SoFi app is its ability to analyze your spending patterns and provide personalized recommendations for saving money and optimizing your budget. You can categorize expenses and identify areas to cut costs or make smarter financial decisions. Sometimes, you just need to see what you're doing in black and white to understand what's working and what's not.

If budgeting and financial planning feel foreign to you, SoFi sets you up for success with insights and educational resources to help you make informed decisions. You'll receive a free 30-minute session with one of SoFi's financial planners to get a head start on a successful budgeting plan.

Zeta

Zeta is one of the best budget apps for couples and families looking to work together on their finances. The app offers joint accounts, expense tracking, and budgeting tools to help you customize spending categories and access real-time transaction notifications.

The merging and allocation of finances in a relationship can be tricky to navigate, but Zeta makes this much easier to accomplish and open the conversation of financial literacy collaboratively. Zeta emphasizes transparency to allow partners to have equal access to financial information and participate in decision-making. Their budgeting tools enable couples to set shared financial goals and track their progress together.

One of the keys to being successful in budgeting is accountability and what better way to do that than by working with your partner on it? While Zeta does have a free version of their app, you can also upgrade to the premium version for $7. The premium version of the app features automation tools to set your savings, bills, and financial goals on auto-pilot.

Rocket Money

Rocket Money offers a comprehensive budgeting tool that automatically tracks spending, categorizes transactions, and offers timely notifications for upcoming charges or low balances. In the app, you can access your credit score and track your subscriptions for insights on better money management. Aside from tracking your spending, you can build a budget in the free budgeting app by creating individual expense categories and savings goals.

While Rocket Money's basic service is free, the app does offer a premium plan for a monthly fee ranging from $4 to $12. These premium features make Rocket Money one of the best personal finance apps as upgrading features exclusive benefits like subscription cancellation and bill negotiation. These simple tools save you money and time since you don't have to do the legwork.

Rocket Money offers a seven-day free trial if you want to test these features to see if they're worth the monthly cost. You're in luck if you have a mortgage serviced by Rocket Mortgage as you have complimentary access to Rocket Money Premium.

YNAB

While YNAB (You Need A Budget) doesn't offer a free plan, they provide a 34-day free trial that could be a great starting point for understanding your finances. YNAB uses the zero-based budgeting approach, which means every dollar you earn has a job. From paying the bills to buying groceries and even allocating funds toward leisure, the concept gets you to zero to ensure each dollar plays a role in improving your finances.

Once you get inside the YNAB and play around with the features, you can start understanding how to allocate your budget to work for you. They even offer free workshops to help you out, which is a great feature to take advantage of. If you're savvy enough to learn a new skill and put it to use, you may be the right person to take advantage of the tools from YNAB and implement them on your own.

The zero-based budgeting concept can be a great method for taking control of your budget. Just taking the month to learn about this from the app could be advantageous in conjunction with one of the other best free budgeting apps on our list. If you do plan to upgrade, you can choose between a monthly plan of $115 or an annual $99 plan.

Kate Fann is an established SEO content writer with 10 years of freelance writing experience. She focuses on creating engaging SEO content for lifestyle brands, covering home, technology, and entertainment.