Discover the top 8 apps that will help you budget and manage your money effectively. Take control of your finances.
Finance apps are a useful tool that will help you save money, track expenses, and save for a vacation. We selected services from the AppStore and Google Play and analyzed their pros and cons. Choose the one that suits you.
1. It’s a bit heavy
Available in AppStore and Google Play
Pros:
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simple design.
Minuses:
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the set of functions is limited: there is no distribution of expenses by categories, planning, different wallets.
The design of the app resembles a calculator. You enter the amount you have, for example, for a month. And “Tyazhelovato” divides it by the number of days and shows how much you can spend so as not to go beyond the set budget. This helps develop the habit of recording expenses and get rid of spending on trifles.
Expenses are not divided into categories like “Food” and “Entertainment” — the user only records the amounts they spend. If you do not go beyond the set budget, the app will praise you and offer to put aside the saved money or increase the limit for the next day. If you spend more than necessary, the further daily budget will be reduced.
“Tyazhelovat” is ideal for those who are just starting to monitor their finances and want to optimize their expenses.
2. Mobiles
Available in AppStore and Google Play
Subscription: free, 379 rubles per month or 1890 rubles per year.
Pros:
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intuitive design
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distribution of expenses by categories
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separate accounting of expenses on credit card
Minuses:
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no synchronization with mobile banks
This app has many more features for managing money: you can create several accounts, distribute expenses by category, and request spending analytics. The expenses themselves must be entered manually, since there is no synchronization with the mobile bank.
When you first use Mobills, you are prompted to choose a financial goal: get out of debt, start saving, or invest. Based on this, the app sends educational tips, such as how to best distribute income.
In Mobills, you can plan your monthly budget: set limits for each category of expenses. For example, 20,000 for “Supermarkets”, 5,000 for “Leisure”. The application will send a notification when you are approaching the end of the limit.
The main screen displays information on the main debit account and credit card. It is convenient that you can enter credit card expenses separately – this makes it easier to track which purchases were unexpected and went beyond your income.
Mobills is easy to understand. The free version is enough to get started. In the paid version, you can increase the number of accounts, rename or add expense categories, and download budget reports as Excel tables.
3. CoinKeeper: accounting of expenses and income
Available in AppStore and Google Play
Subscription: free, 149 rubles per month or 1790 rubles forever.
Pros:
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training for new users;
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email newsletter with practical tips on how to plan a budget;
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distribution of expenses by categories;
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Family access for unlimited users in the premium version;
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the ability to issue a virtual Ak Bars bank card within the application and automatically account for expenses on it.
Minuses:
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synchronization with banks is currently only available for iOS
The main screen of CoinKeeper contains coin icons: the user can record their bank accounts, the amount of cash and expenses by category.
To add income or expenses, you need to move the corresponding coin. For example, you paid a bill at a cafe with a debit card. To account for this check in CoinKeeper, drag the “Eating out” coin to the bank card icon and enter the amount.
The free version has 10 expense categories, each with a limit and 20 accounts and wallets for tracking income. You can also subscribe to an educational email newsletter. All this is enough to get into the habit of recording expenses and analyzing where the money goes.
The premium subscription has an unlimited number of expense categories. Moreover, you can set up notifications about regular expenses, for example, so you don’t forget to pay for the Internet at the end of the month. It is possible to add debt accounts to monitor the repayment schedule of loans and credits. And also set up shared use for any number of users.
4. Money Flow
Available only in AppStore
Subscription: 199 rubles per month, 699 rubles per year and 2400 rubles forever.
Pros:
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training using the example of a ready-made demo account with expenses and a budget;
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distribution of expenses by categories;
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the ability to customize spending subcategories;
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interactive charts for analytics by periods, categories or purchase locations.
Minuses:
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does not synchronize with banks;
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there is no free version;
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for iOS only.
Money Flow is somewhat similar to an online banking app: colored expense labels, a feed with transaction history on the main page. But, unlike a bank, here you can plan a detailed budget for each expense category and set spending limits for the month.
For example, you receive 80,000 rubles per month and divide it:
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10,000 – to the piggy bank;
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30,000 — for mandatory payments (rent, utilities, Internet);
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25,000 – for food;
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15,000 – for entertainment and clothing.
The app will tell you how to redistribute your money when you approach the limit: for example, it can advise you to cut back on entertainment if you don’t have enough for food. In the settings, you can choose which expenses to consider a priority and which ones are secondary.
Dividing your expenses into subcategories will help you better understand what products you spend the most money on. For example, “Food” includes “Meat”, “Sweets”, “Fruits and Vegetables”. If, say, it turns out that out of 25,000 per month for food, half of the amount goes to “Sweets”, there is reason to reconsider your diet.
The application has very detailed analytics. The diagram can be configured taking into account a dozen filters: by spending periods, places of purchases or amounts. Money Flow will especially appeal to those who are ready to analyze their budget literally penny by penny and delve into its planning in detail.
5. Buddy – Home Budget
Available only in AppStore
Subscription: free or 349 rubles per month, 2750 rubles per year.
Pros:
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step-by-step training when you first launch the application;
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setting reminders for regular payments;
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Shared access for any number of users in the premium version;
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“Split Bill” option in the premium version.
Minuses:
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for iOS only;
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no synchronization with banks;
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The free version is suitable for recording expenses and income of only one user.
The app has a simple design in pink tones and an endearingly cute pig on the icon.
It’s free for one person to use, but Buddy is designed specifically for budgeting with family or friends. Users pay for a subscription once and then invite others via email invitations. Once your loved ones install the app, they can also enter expenses and income, as well as track bill breakdowns.
Let’s explain with an example: let’s say you’re going on vacation with your girlfriends. To do this, you can create a “Vacation” budget in the app and divide it into categories: “Tickets,” “Hotel,” and so on. And divide each category equally or in any other ratio between all the travelers. This way, it’s convenient to track whether anyone owes anyone anything.
To develop a habit and not forget about it, you can ask the service to send you reminders to record your expenses: for example, every day at 19:00.
6. Wallet by BudgetBakers
Available in AppStore and Google Play
Subscription: free or 429 rubles per month, 1090 rubles per year, 4690 rubles forever
Pros:
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hints and training;
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more than 10 categories and subcategories of expenses and income;
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Family access for any number of users in the premium version;
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Sync with unlimited number of banks in premium version
Minuses:
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The free version does not have synchronization with banks, family access, or detailed reports.
Wallet lets you combine accounts and cards from different banks on one screen, including credit cards, e-wallets and savings accounts.
The service provides deeper analytics compared to other applications. It shows not only expenses by category on graphs, but also the percentage ratio of income, expenses and credit load. Having set up the application once, the user will clearly see every month how much money is available for unplanned expenses and how much is for mandatory ones. Wallet will also tell you how to optimize this ratio and plan a budget for the future.
7. Zen-money
Available in AppStore and Google Play
Subscription: free or 149 rubles per month, 799 rubles per year, 1790 rubles forever.
Pros:
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minimalistic interface;
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synchronization with banks in the free version;
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educational channel in Telegram with life hacks from developers;
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shared access for multiple users.
Minuses:
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Some users complain about incorrect synchronization with banks.
The app lives up to its name: no annoying colors, bright icons or complex charts in analytics. Everything is designed simply and neatly.
It has all the functions you need to manage your finances on your own or with a partner. You can connect an unlimited number of accounts, set up expense categories, set their limits and reminders for regular payments.
It is noteworthy that the Analytics section has a budget planning function using the 50/20/30 formula, which can be adjusted to the user’s needs. For example, 50% of income can go to mandatory payments (you choose which ones to consider as such), 20% to savings, and 30% will remain free – for vacations, gifts, and any other desires.
8. MoneyWiz 3: Personal Finance
Available in AppStore and Google Play
Subscription: free or 149 rubles per month, 1490 rubles per year.
Pros:
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distribution of expenses by categories;
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advanced financial analytics and the ability to export it to Excel tables;
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synchronization with all banks, investment and credit accounts;
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Opportunities for investors: you can monitor your brokerage account.
Minuses:
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may seem complicated for beginners due to the abundance of additional features.
The distinctive feature of MoneyWiz 3 is that it allows for fully individual multi-level customization of each section of accounts, expenses and statistics. This can be both pleasing and confusing: there are almost too many settings here.
Another feature is the ability to track financial flows not only on savings accounts, but also on brokerage accounts, so the service may be of interest to investors. The user also has access to basic analyses of income, expenses and regular payments. On one screen, you can monitor the status of all assets for one or several users, watch the movement of shares on the stock exchange, plan expenses and budgets by category.
This app is not the easiest to use. It is more suitable for those who have already practiced financial management in other services, started investing and are interested in particularly detailed analytics.