Best Budget Apps for Couples in 2024
If you and your partner need to sync up your finances, consider downloading one of the best budgeting apps for couples.
Budgeting can feel like enough of a challenge on its own when you try to use multiple spreadsheets and manual calculations. Using a budgeting app to help track multiple income sources and spending can provide some relief through automation. Not only can you track your finances, but you and your partner can also work together toward a unified budget.
What Is the Best Budgeting App for Couples?
The best budgeting app for couples is the one that you and are your partner are actually going to use together. However, we do have our favorites that we are willing to share with you! Two apps that we consistently recommend to couples are Empower and Cleo. Both are good for collaboration.
The Benefits of Budgeting With Your Partner
While not every couple shares bank accounts, all couples can benefit from learning to manage money together. A recent Cornell study concluded that couples who pooled their finances into joint bank accounts report experiencing longer, happier and more stable relationships.
These relationship benefits correlated closely with communicating clearly about the big financial picture and coordinating shared savings goals. Fortunately, whether you and your partner share the same account or maintain individual accounts, budget apps can provide the same benefits.
We’ve researched, downloaded and tested the top budgeting apps available for Apple and Android devices to help couples manage combined finances. Situations vary — we’ve provided multiple options so you can pick the app that best fits your financial needs and goals.
Best Budgeting Apps for Couples
| Budgeting App | Price | ||
|---|---|---|---|
Cleo |
Free, with premium features for $5.99/mo |
GET STARTED | |
EarnIn |
Free |
GET STARTED | |
Monarch |
$14.99/month, $99.99/year |
GET STARTED | |
Rocket Money |
Free, with premium features for $3-$12/mo |
GET STARTED | |
You Need a Budget (YNAB) |
$14.99/mo. or $99/yr. |
GET STARTED | |
Empower |
Free |
GET STARTED | |
Quicken Simplifi |
$3.99/mo |
GET STARTED | |
PocketGuard |
Free, or premium version for $12.99/mo., $74.99/yr |
GET STARTED | |
Trim by OneMain |
Free, or 15% of total first-year savings |
GET STARTED | |
Goodbudget |
Free, or a paid plus version for $10/mo. or $80/yr |
GET STARTED | |
Honeydue |
Free |
GET STARTED | |
Zeta |
Free |
GET STARTED |
Breaking Down the Best Budgeting Apps for Couples
These budgeting apps will help couples tackle shared expenses, achieve joint money goals and build a strong financial future together.
1. Cleo
Cleo: Best for Fun Engagement
- Uses AI chatbot for personalized recommendations
- Tracks spending and savings in a fun way
- Offers a credit builder program
Cleo stands out for its unique approach to financial management. The app uses a conversational AI to interact with users, offering budgeting recommendations and savings tips in a light-hearted manner. Cleo’s features include automatic savings, spending tracking, and even a “roast mode” that humorously calls out overspending. For those looking to build credit, Cleo also offers a secured credit card that helps improve your credit score.
Whether you’re looking for a serious financial management tool or something that makes budgeting more enjoyable, Cleo is a great addition to your financial toolkit.
2. EarnIn
EarnIn: Best for Paycheck Advance
- Early access to paycheck
- No interest or mandatory fees
- No credit check
Here’s how to get started: Sign up and link your bank account, access your hard-earned money, then automatically repay EarnIn when your check hits. Plus, you won’t have to worry about interest, mandatory fees or credit checks.
And there are other ways EarnIn improves your financial stability. It provides resources on financial goals, budgeting and paying off debt, as well as a credit monitoring tool.
3. Monarch
Monarch: Best for Organization
- Household collaboration
- Set notifications on savings goals
- Complete view of finances
You can track your spending and whether or not you are on track with savings goals, as well as sync all accounts and investments in one view. And we love that with Monarch, there’s no ads and no selling data to third parties.
You can always try it for free for seven days before starting a paid subscription. But right now, you can get 30% off your first year with the code WELCOME.
4. Rocket Money
Rocket Money: Best at Bill Negotiation
- Negotiates bills to save you money
- Provides spending insights and budgeting tools
- Tracks and cancels unwanted subscriptions
Rocket Money provides an overview of your finances by categorizing expenses and offering insights into spending habits. Rocket Money’s bill negotiation service can lower your monthly expenses on items like cable, internet, and phone bills, charging a success fee of 30-60% of the savings achieved. Rocket also helps users avoid paying for subscription services they no longer use.
Rocket Money also offers features like smart savings, credit score monitoring, and the ability to view your net worth. These tools make it a comprehensive app for those looking to manage their finances more effectively and reduce unnecessary costs.
5. You Need a Budget (YNAB)
YNAB: Best for Zero-Based Budgeting
- Good for zero-based budgeters
- Creates reports to assess your spending
- Can use on almost any device
You Need a Budget, or YNAB, is for couples who want to stay on top of every dollar they make and make sure that money is going to good use.
This app is set up around the zero-based budgeting method and is designed to help you and your significant other save money and get out of debt. YNAB identifies areas of overspending and gives you suggestions on how to adjust. It also makes recommendations for your budget based on your goals.
You can access this budgeting tool from almost any device including your Apple Watch or Amazon Echo. With YNAB, you’ll never have an excuse not to pull up your budget.
Learn more from our YNAB review.
6. Empower
Empower: Best for Investment Tracking
- Links to all your financial accounts
- Calculates your net worth
- Offers a retirement planning tool
Empower (formerly Personal Capital) is for the couple who is serious about their future together — particularly their financial future.
In addition to keeping tabs on your day-to-day spending, the app links to your 401(k)s and IRAs so you can see how you’re tracking toward retirement. It even offers a free retirement planner tool.
Empower also factors in financial information like your mortgage and other loans to give you a complete picture of your net worth. So, if you’re looking for more in-depth insights, give Empower a try.
7. Quicken Simplifi
Quicken Simplifi: Best for Beginners
- Simple interface that’s good for beginners
- Links to loans, 401(k), credit cards and more
- Backed by Quicken customer support
Simplifi remains one of our favorite budgeting apps for couples or individuals. When we first tested Simplifi, its simple layout and design made budgeting feel less intimidating. If you’re looking for a way to budget without confusion, Simplifi is a steadfast recommendation.
The Simplifi app enables you to connect all of your financial data, including bank accounts, credit cards, loans and 401(k) accounts. You and your significant other can keep a close eye on your accounts, establishing a bird’s-eye view of your finances.
Once connected, you can set financial goals and budgets to work toward your ideal future. If you go off track, Simplifi will show you how much money you had planned initially to spend and how much you ended up spending. How’s that for accountability?
Simplifi is courting Mint users who need a new budgeting app since Intuit shut Mint down in early 2024. Simplifi makes it easy to import your data from Mint into its own platform.
8. PocketGuard
PocketGuard: Best Automated Features
- Tells you how much money you can spend
- Creates custom reports on your spending
- Helps you pay off debt
PocketGuard syncs your bank accounts, credit cards, loans and investments so you and your partner get an overall view of your shared finances. It automatically builds your budget based on your income, recurring bills and financial goals you’ve set.
The app offers users three common budgeting techniques:
- Envelope: Create customized categories and allocate a certain amount of money to each one based on anticipated monthly spending
- Zero-based: Ensure that your income minus expenses equals zero
- 50/30/20 budgeting: Allocate 50% of your income to needs, 30% to wants, and 20% to savings
“In My Pocket” is another app feature that allows you to analyze your monthly income and expenses, showing the amount you have available to spend. With this feature, you can understand your spending capacity, and PocketGuard will notify you if your spending exceeds 50% or 75% of your budget.
The premium version — PocketGuard Plus — includes additional features such as customized spending categories and ways to track cash purchases. This app, whether you select free or premium, is an excellent choice for reducing overspending.
You can even try the app before you buy it with a free seven-day trial.
9. Trim by OneMain
Trim: Best for Cutting Expenses
- Analyzes accounts and spending for savings
- Negotiate bills and cancel subscriptions
- Tiered pricing on plans
Trim has a few tricks up its sleeves for couples who want help saving for the future and managing their current expenses. The app connects to your bank to make budgeting easier, automatically importing transactions to analyze spending patterns and make smart recommendations.
Trim can also find and help cancel any unwanted subscriptions that you may have forgotten. For services that you want to keep (such as your cable, internet and phone) Trim can attempt to negotiate lower pricing deals. Trim will even go as far as attempting to negotiate down your medical bills if desired.
The majority of Trim’s offerings, such as transaction monitoring and subscription cancellation, are free, but you’ll pay up to 15% of your first-year savings if you opt for bill negotiation. If you want an AI-powered budgeting tool, Trim is a top pick for couples.
10. Goodbudget
Goodbudget: Best Envelope System
- Good for cash envelope budgeters
- Tracks your debt payoff progress
Goodbudget is for couples who like the cash envelope system but are ready to stop carrying cash everywhere.
This app uses virtual envelopes for your various spending categories. If you’re using the free version, you get 20 envelopes and one account across two devices. The paid version allows you unlimited envelopes and unlimited accounts across five devices.
With Goodbudget, you’ll need to be comfortable manually updating your envelopes when you make purchases or uploading your transaction history from your bank. The app does not sync to bank accounts to track spending in real time. Overall, it’s a good choice for couples looking for a more modern version of a tried and true budgeting technique.
11. Honeydue
Honeydue: Best for Separate Accounts
- Tracks spending, debt and investments
- Choose what to share with your partner
- Merge money with joint banking
Honeydue helps you and your partner stay on the same page by letting you track spending and saving together, collectively manage debt and save for the future.
Like its name implies, Honeydue has a feature that reminds you and your honey when bills are due. You can also chat with your partner directly in the app about all things financial. Marketed as the simplest way for couples to manage money together, it’s a solid choice for getting on the same page across multiple accounts.
12. Zeta
Zeta: Best for Split Expenses
- Tracks personal and shared spending
- Control what info your partner can see
- Offers a joint account
Zeta is a budgeting app designed specifically for couples. It’s set up so you can manage shared and individual accounts together, but you’re in control of what information you want your partner to see.
You can sync your bank accounts or choose to manually update your budget. If you want to leave a note for your significant other about a transaction, you can do that within the app. Zeta also has a split transactions feature so you can pay each other back for household bills.
When it comes to planning a vacation or saving for a house, Zeta has a section for money goals so you can stay on track and make progress as a couple.
Note: Once one of the world’s most popular budgeting apps for couples and solo budgeters, Mint was officially discontinued by Intuit in early 2024. Some of Mint’s popular features are still available to budgeters on Credit Karma.
5 Things to Consider When Selecting a Couples Budgeting App
We’ve given you a bunch of options to choose from. To nail down what will work best for you and your significant other, consider the following factors.
1. Preferred Features
Think about how you’ll use your budgeting app. Do you want something that syncs to your bank account to capture spending in real time? Or do you and your partner have a regular household budget meeting where you’ll manually record transactions in the app over a couple of drinks?
How you prefer to manage your personal capital might not be the same method that works for a shared budget app. Start by considering your method of use and then narrow down your options for an app from there.
2. Financial Goals
The right personal finance app for you as a couple will encourage action on shared financial goals (like saving for a down payment on a house) and adapt well to your money management style.
Some budgeting apps are best for enforcing spending limits, while other budgeting apps can help you craft and stick to a monthly budget or split up and pay bills. Focus on your most important goals first to make it easier to select the most effective app for your needs.
3. Cost
Are you OK with ads or do you prefer an ad-free platform? How about the cost? Are you open to spending a little bit on your budgeting app each month? In some cases, you might find it worthwhile to pay for extra features.
If you do go with a budgeting app that charges a monthly fee, test it out with a free trial first. If it isn’t something you love, cancel the trial and try something else. You can always start with a free account and upgrade later.
4. Sharing Options
It’s OK not to share everything as a couple, and that includes some financial information. If you do plan to keep individual accounts, find a budget planner app that allows you to connect bank accounts but still customize what you share with your partner.
For instance, consider if you want to share account balances on unlimited accounts, including credit cards. Or, you may prefer sharing a checking account or a few savings accounts to be managed jointly.
5. Multiple Devices
If you’re Team Apple and your honey is Team Android, don’t sweat. All the options above are compatible with both operating systems.
Keep in mind that the best budgeting app for you as a couple is the one you’ll actually use together. So, if the interface on Android doesn’t automatically sync accounts or the different spending categories don’t quite fit your life, be open to exploring other apps.
Michael Archambault is a former senior writer at The Penny Hoarder specializing in technology. Kaz Weida, Nicole Dow and Timothy Moore also contributed.
