Best Budgeting Software

YNAB is more expensive than its free counterparts and it takes more time to develop your budget. Despite these drawbacks, it's the best budgeting software for taking control of your money because it gives you the necessary tools to create a value-driven spending plan. 

The app is built around its four rules, which include giving every dollar a job. The program will guide you through the process of allocating every dollar so you can spend intentionally. Its customizable reporting and goal tracking features, which include attractive and informative charts and graphs, help you stick to your plan. YNAB also provides comprehensive education, including more than 100 free online workshops, and offers real-time updating so you'll always know where your money is going and can make adjustments on the fly.

Honeydue is designed to help couples manage their finances together and its features are focused on joint communication. Honeydue makes sharing information about money simpler by allowing you to respond to your partner's transactions with a note, a thumbs-up, or other emojis. You can also aggregate your linked account information to see all of your individual and joint transactions in one place. 

Honeydue makes tracking spending easy by automatically categorizing transactions as well as allowing you to add your own custom categories. And while there are fewer reporting options than with some other programs, customizable alerts help ensure nothing falls through the cracks.

For college students who are newer to managing money, PocketGuard's simple user interface and intuitive pie charts make it easy to start budgeting and tracking spending. PocketGuard's In My Pocket feature also reduces the risk of overdraft accounts by keeping tabs on money available to spend at all times. 

While the free version doesn't include as many features as the paid option, most college students will likely find the program is robust enough and can avoid committing to a monthly subscription fee. And algorithms in the program that help you identify and cancel unwanted subscriptions can help college students identify opportunities to keep more money in their pockets.

EveryDollar is an ideal choice for families who want to take a hands-on approach to budget together. It allows you to allocate every dollar that you're spending and provides a customizable template to make the budgeting process easier. 

For those who want added features, including the ability to link bank accounts, upgrading to the paid version is necessary. Ramsey+ comes at a higher cost than other programs but offers more features including Dave Ramsey's popular Financial Peace course as well as Baby Steps tracking to help work through the seven baby steps Ramsey has identified for building wealth.

Empower integrates budgeting software with other financial tools in one financial dashboard. You can track spending, monitor investment performance in real-time, set retirement goals, and track your net worth all in one place. You can also access special features such as an investment checkup, which compares your portfolio asset allocation to the target allocation for your age and circumstances. 

The investment checkup feature is only available on the desktop version, though. However, the iOS and Android apps still offer plenty of features including interactive tools for tracking your investments and cash flow. Financial advisors are willing to talk with you about your plans, but you can expect to be upsold on Empower's wealth management services if you take advantage of this feature.

Albert creates an automatic budget for you, helping you to identify where your money is going at all times. You can instantly see your income, bills, and the money left over. You'll also have many reporting options including reviewing past months' budgets or seeing your transactions as a pie chart. 

Albert not only facilitates easy budgeting but also makes saving effortless by identifying when there's extra money available and moving it into a digital wallet. You'll be rewarded with an annual bonus on your savings and can easily track savings goals. However, if you want the Albert Genius add-on, which boosts your savings bonus and provides access to financial guidance over text messages, you'll have to pay a minimum of $4 per month.

Earn cash back when you use your Albert debit card. Cash back ranges from 10% to 20% and covers purchases like gas, food delivery, groceries, and other common merchants.

Mint makes it easier to make your first budget by providing a long list of categories and showing you how your spending compares to the national average. You can also link your financial accounts. And transactions are automatically categorized so you can see if you're on track with your spending. 

Mint is completely free and in addition to budgeting tools, the program helps you track your net worth and monitor your progress towards goals. You're somewhat limited in what you can select for goals, though. You have a choice of preset options and while you can specify a customized savings goal, there doesn't appear to be a way you can set mortgage payoff as one of your goals.

Envelope budgeting involves dividing your available cash into different envelopes for different spending categories. Goodbudget allows you to implement a digital version of envelope budgeting, with your home screen showing how much is left in each envelope. 

Goodbudget offers a free and paid version, but the free version has plenty of helpful features including the ability to create up to 10 envelopes and easily transfer money between them. While manually uploading and logging bank account transactions can be tedious, some users prefer not to provide access to their bank accounts.