From budgeting to tracking your expenses, there are a lot of things you could do with personal finance apps. Some of these apps also have features that allow you to do a lot more like tax planning and keeping up with your investment portfolio.
Today, there are dozens of finance apps with a lot of money management features that look inviting. However, things are not always as they seem on the surface, so we decided to save you the time of searching for the best tool for your financial needs by doing the hardwork for you.
We’ve handpicked the top personal finance apps based on user reviews, features, design, and ease of use. Whether you’re looking for an app on investment, budgeting, saving and managing money, managing debt or tracking your expenses, you’re sure to find an app with all the right features on our list
The 10 Best Personal Finance Apps That Actually Work
1. Mint: Best Money Management App
The Mint App is one of the most popular management apps today and this is not just because it is free, but also that it comes with a lot of money management features that won’t cause a headache to use.
Mint is owned by Intuit, a business and financing software company that runs other financing products like Quickbook and Brainfree.
Overall, we consider Mint to be the best money management app with a free tag on it. You get to manage everything like your budget, expenses, investment portfolio and check your credit score on the app.
Features
- Bill Track Payment: You can easily track your credit card, utility bills, rent payments and all other bills on the Mint App. An advantage of this feature is that you get to a payment tracker that could save you from late fees.
- Budgeting: Budgeting is never easy but with the Mint app, you can create budgets you’ll actually stick to. You get a daily budget tracker to help you manage your daily spending and keep track of your budget goals.
- Alerts: You also get alerts that help you manage your ATM fees and get warnings when you exceed your budgets.
- Investment: Whether you’re a beginner investor or a pro, you can easily track your investments and identity hidden investment fees from advisors and brokerages.
Why you should go for this app: The Mint app offers all the money management features you’ll ever need for free. If you want to create a budget you can stick to and manage your bills properly, then this app will be just perfect for you.
2. You Need a Budget: Best Budgeting App
Managing debt can be really tough and things usually get extremely difficult when you have multiple debts. If you’re looking for an app that helps you budget, save and get rid of debt, then you’re probably looking for the You Need A Budget App.
This apps makes budgeting really easy by making you live within your actual income. You can also measure your expenses with your income so that you know just how much you can save. If you are living from paycheck to paycheck, then you definitely need to get your hands on this app.
Features
The You Need A Budget App uses the “Every Dollar has a Job” principle to help you save and budget properly. But you can apply this principle to more than just budgeting. You also get to set and track your budgeting goals for the set period of time.
Pricing
Like all things that really work, this budgeting app has a price tag attached to it. You’ll get a free 34-day trial to use all the features in the app to manage your expenses properly. After that, you’ll have to pay $6.99/month (billed annually at $83,99) to use the app.
If you’re a college student, you get to use the app free for 12-months.
Why you should go for this app: You Need a Budget is one of those few budgeting apps that has saved a lot of money for its users. It is so effective that you could save about $6,000 in the first year by budgeting the right way.
3. EveryDollar: Free Best Budgeting App
If you want a budgeting app that can effectively help you to save money and manage debts then you should expect to spend pay a charge every month or year to use that app. Despite that, there are some apps that offer amazing budgeting features and benefits free and EveryDollar is one of those apps.
EveryDollar helps you create a realistic monthly budget so you can achieve your monthly goals. It is so easy to set up that you can create your first budget in a few minutes
Features
The app allows you to create a template for your expected monthly expenses and create a transaction for every amount you spend. This way you can easily track your budget and stick to your budget goals.
To create the template, you’ll have to first add your expected monthly income, this helps you to create a realistic budget you will stick to.
You can also connect your bank to enable the app to track your expenses faster and help you reach your budgeting goals.
Pricing
As said earlier, the EveryDollar is totally free, however, it comes with a premium version EveryDollar Plus. The premium version has more expense tracking and budgeting features than the free version. New users get a 15-day free trial of the premium version, after that, you’ll have to pay $129.99 per year to use the app.
Why you should go for this app: If you need a free budgeting app that works, then the EveryDollar app is there for you. You can use this app on your mobile or desktop without any restrictions.
4. Acorns: Best Investment App
Acorns has gotten very popular as a micro-investing app that allows you to invest your spare change and make huge returns. On the app, you get to invest in low-cost exchange-traded funds (ETFs). These funds are made up of broad holding of stocks or bonds and your investments are spread over 7,000 stocks and bonds.
One good thing about this app is that everything is automated. So you wouldn’t have to spend painstaking hours doing all the investment by yourself since the app does it for you. Acorns’ investment portfolio is made up of a wide range of bonds so the chances of you making huge returns from your investments are high.
Features
- Automate Investing: You can easily invest your spare money and grow a recurring investment
- Spend Strategies: The app provides you with ways to save and budget while you spend.
- Investment Tips: You also get investment tips that not only teach you how to invest but also how to save and spend the right way.
Pricing
Acorns offer three pricing plans for its users. Its cheapest pricing plan Acorns Core offers a lot of beneficial investment features at $1/month. You get more features like IRA and Investment Portfolio recommendations, automatic updates, assisted rollovers and total security from its other pricing plans.
Why you should go for this app: There are lots of investment apps on the internet, but the Acorns app offers features that most investment apps can’t keep up with. Its broad portfolio, flexibility investment options, and affordable pricing plans are just the right reasons you should have this investment app on your mobile.
5. Robinhood: Free Investment App
While Acorns is a great app for automated investing in ETFs, Robinhood offers you investment opportunities in more areas and better still, it doesn’t come with a service charge.
Robinhood is a free-of-charge investing app that offers unique and unbeatable features that other investing apps are simply struggling to keep up with. With this app, you get a lot more investing options. Although these investment opportunities wouldn’t be automated, you won’t have to pay ridiculously high fees to invest.
Features
- Stocks Investing: Robinhood allows you to invest in a lot of companies and build your investment portfolio
- ETFs: You can also diversify your holdings. You can buy into a bundle of stocks in a single investment with this app.
- Cryptocurrency Investment: Investing in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum is made easy with this app.
Pricing
All the features in this app are completely free of charge. Instead of charging a monthly or annual fee for using its services, Robinhood makes money by upselling premium services like payment for order flow and margin trading
Why you should go for this app: With these many investing features, it is a surprise that the Robinhood app comes free of charge. Well, if you’re new to investing, then this app could be just perfect for you. Options like investing in stock, ETFs, and cryptocurrency are good enough to get you some experience in making investments.
6. Coinbase: Best Cryptocurrency App
Coinbase is one of the most popular currency exchange platforms where you can buy, sell and earn cryptocurrencies. All traders get a wallet where they can store their cryptocurrencies while pro traders get advanced cryptocurrency trading options.
Features
On the Coinbase platform, you can trade cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin – which are the most popular cryptocurrencies. You can also trade other less popular cryptocurrencies like Tezos, Ethereum Classic, Chainlink, EOS, and USD Coin.
The Coinbase platform allows you to trade one of the widest ranges of cryptocurrencies and charges one of the most affordable fees for transactions
Pricing
The prices and transaction charges for cryptocurrencies differ, however, you are sure to get affordable trading prices on the platform.
Why you should go for this app: Coinbase is the right app for trading cryptocurrency. Whether you’re buying, selling or hoping to earn cryptocurrency, you will find what you need on this platform.
7. Qapital: Best Banking App
Saving, especially when you’re on a low income is never easy. Sometimes, you find yourself saving way less than you expected due to untracked and unexpected expenses. To save better you’ll need more a diary or an excel worksheet for your expenses, you will need the Qapital app.
Qapital is a saving app designed to meet your saving goals. The app was created by George Friedman and Katherine Salisbury who sought an effective way to save money amidst all the expected and unexpected daily expenses.
Features
- Saving: With the Qapital app, you can easily save by setting your saving goals and following saving rules that will effectively keep more money in your account with little effort. You can also team up with others to reach joint saving goals.
- Invest: Qapital also allows users to invest. All you have to do is provide a timeline and the amount you want to invest and the app will handle the rest.
Pricing
Qapital offers users three pricing plans; Basic, Complete and Master. New users get a 30-day free trial to use all the features of the app. After that, they’ll have to sign up for one of the subscription plans. Each plan has different features, but you should be able to save effectively with its Basic plans (billed at $3/month).
Why you should go for this app: Qapital doesn’t just help you save, it also helps you to become a smart spender and pro-investor. With features like its Payday Divvy, you can easily plan your spending and save more than $5,000/year.
8. Digit: Best Saving App For Beginners
There are a lot of reasons why beginners should go for a saving app like Digit. With this app, you get most of the saving features you can find in other saving apps, however, you also get additional features like saving bonuses.
Digit rewards loyal users that save with the app for 3 consecutive months with 1% annualized Savings Bonus. This Saving Bonus is automatically deposited in the user’s Digit account. You also get credit card reduction and can set unlimited savings goals to ensure you save correctly.
Pricing
Digit offers a 30-day free trial for new users. Once that elapses, the user will have to pay a $5 per month subscription to access all the features of the app.
Why you should go for this app: Digit has a more affordable charge on its services compared to other saving apps on the market. Also, it has many beneficial features and offers rewards for loyal users who remain true to their saving goals. It is one of the best savings apps to try out.
9. TurboTax: Best Taxing App
Taking care of your taxes could be frustrating, especially if you have multiple sources of income. This is why you need something that can manage your taxes effectively, provide you with expert tax advice and manage tax deductions.
Luckily, the TurboTax app can perform all these functions effectively. Below are the features you can access on the TurboTax app.
Features
- Unlimited, on-demand answers from a CPA or EA
- Year-round expert tax advice and guidance
- Final review from a CPA before you file
- Covers W-2 income
- Earned Income Tax Credit (EIC) and child tax credits
- Get a head start by transferring last year’s info
- Mortgage and property tax deductions
- Student loan interest and education expenses
- Covers stocks, bonds, and ESPPs
- Rental property income and refinancing deductions
- Gains and losses from cryptocurrency transactions
- Auto import of investment income
- Finds deductions specific to your line of work
- Maximize deductions for work expenses
Pricing
TurboTax offers several pricing plans and a free edition for users. Its pricing plans and free plan offer different features that will manage your taxes effectively.
Why you should go for this app: Although the price tag of this tax app is slightly higher than others, its features definitely make up for all it has on offer.
10. Zillow: Best Real Estate App
Zillow is one of the best real estate apps where you can buy, rent and sell homes with ease. The app was founded in 2006 and has grown to become one of the best real estate apps for big-time investors and folks looking to buy a property.
On the app, you can estimate the worth of your home and decide the rate you wish to sell it. You can also calculate your mortgage, refinance, affordability, amortization, and debt-to-income ratio.
Zillow provides you access to one of the largest real estate directories with property options in almost every state in the U.S.
Pricing
Zillow doesn’t have any set charges. The charges you will incur depend on the type of business you do on the platform.
Why you should go for this app: Zillow is the number one app for real estate investors, those who wish to buy a home or those looking to sell a home. You can get the latest rates from the site and buy, sell or rent with ease.
Wrap Up
Some of the personal finance apps on our list are completely free while others charge certain fees depending on the features you want to use. We have made sure that all the apps listed here are completely efficient and will help you manage your finances efficiently.
