The Best Budgeting Apps for Couples to Manage Money Together
Budgeting can seem like enough of a challenge on your own, but add in a partner and suddenly it can feel overwhelming with multiple sources of income and more spending to track.
Whether you’re on the same budgeting page or not, these top budgeting apps for couples can help you align your finances.
We’ve analyzed some of the top budgeting apps available for Apple and Android devices to help you manage combined finances.
Since situations vary, we’ve provided multiple options, allowing you to pick the option that best fits your personal finance life.
10 Best Budgeting Apps for Couples
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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.
Trim
4 out of 5 Overall
Key Features
Analyzes accounts and spending for savings
Negotiate bills and cancel subscriptions
Tiered pricing on plans
Trim is a smart budgeting app that connects to your bank account, analyzing transaction details to recommend smart saving solutions. What we like most about Trim is its ability to help cancel unwanted subscriptions, negotiate the cost of utility and medical bills and obtain lower interest rates and refund banking fees.
Trim
Price
Free or $10 monthly
Syncs with bank
Yes
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 wish 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 pricing for the Trim app depends on how you want to pay. With the free edition, you’ll pay up to 15% of your annual savings if you opt for bill negotiation. You can also opt to sign up for Trim’s Premium subscription for $10 a month. If you want an AI-powered budgeting tool, Trim is a solid option for couples.
Goodbudget
4.5 out of 5 Overall
Key Features
Good for cash envelope budgeters
Tracks your debt payoff progress
Goodbudget is modeled off of the cash envelope system — except you don’t have to carry around physical cash. Instead, you use virtual envelopes for all of your various spending categories. This app also includes a debt-tracking feature so you and your other half can see your collective progress on paying off credit cards and student loans.
Goodbudget
Price
Free, or premium version for $70 annually or $8 monthly
Syncs with bank
No
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 a total of 20 envelopes. The paid version allows you unlimited envelopes.
Another difference between the two versions: You can only use the app on two devices with the free version; whereas with the paid version, you can use up to 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.
Honeydue
4 out of 5 Overall
Key Features
Tracks spending, debt and investments
Choose what to share with your partner
Merge money with joint banking
Honeydue syncs to bank, credit and investment accounts to give couples a holistic picture of their shared finances. Choose full financial transparency or limit what your partner can see — so that gifts still remain a surprise. Honeydue also offers a joint bank account through Sutton Bank. You can use the Honeydue Visa card surcharge-free at over 55,000 ATMs nationwide.
Honeydue
Price
Free
Syncs with bank
Yes
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.
Firstly
4.5 out of 5 Overall
Key Features
Track spending, debt and investments
Set family savings goals
Set reminders about upcoming bills
Previously known as Honeyfi, Firstly is a budgeting app that’s specifically targeted to families in the “sandwich generation” — couples carrying the responsibilities of supporting their children and their aging parents. You can use the app to manage your household’s expenses, while teaching your teens about saving and monitoring your parents’ monthly bills.
Firstly
Price
Free
Syncs with bank
Yes
Firstly is a budgeting app that’s ideal for couples who are carrying the financial responsibilities of raising children plus assisting their aging parents. The app is created as a one-stop shop for managing family finances.
In addition to tracking spending and wealth building, Firstly helps to encourage money convos by letting users send in-app communication to their partner or another family member. You can also set family savings goals, like putting aside money for a big vacation or to purchase a larger house. You set your savings rules and authorize Firstly to pull a certain percentage or a set amount from your checking accounts each month.
Firstly was previously known as Honeyfi until Strategic Financial Solutions acquired the app in March 2021 and rebranded it.
Mint
4.5 out of 5 Overall
Key Features
Track spending with your partner
Set alerts about upcoming bills
Create unlimited spending categories
Mint is a popular budgeting app from Intuit, the makers of QuickBooks and TurboTax. Use this app to customize your budget, stay on top of upcoming expenses and discover where you’re overspending.
Mint
Price
Free
Syncs with bank
Yes
Mint has been around for over a decade and is known as a tried-and-true money management system. You and your other half can get on budget together by syncing your bank accounts and creating as many spending categories as you’d like.
Mint sends you reminders about upcoming bills so you and your partner stay on top of paying everything on time. It’ll also alert you when you’re low on funds. You can use Mint to meet savings goals and for insight on where you’re overspending.
One downside of this app, however, is that it can feel a bit cluttered with ads and offers — a common criticism of free apps.
Learn more from our Mint review.
Mvelopes
4 out of 5 Overall
Key Features
Good for cash envelope budgeters
Unlimited virtual envelopes
Access to money coach with premium plan
Mvelopes brings the cash envelope system to the digital world. Curb overspending by creating virtual cash envelopes for each of your budgeting categories. You’ll know at a glance how much money is available to spend in a category before you swipe your debit card.
Mvelopes
Price
Tiered plans priced at $5.97 a month, $9.97 a month and $19.97 a month
Syncs with bank
Yes
If you and your significant other are fans of the cash envelope budget, Mvelopes will help you stick to that system — but without needing to carry around wads of cash.You link your bank account and create virtual envelopes based on how much you want to spend in different categories.
If you and your partner need to stick to a strict grocery budget or curb what you spend on entertainment, you can easily tell how much you have left to spend for the month in each budget category.
With the Mvelopes app, there are three different plans you can sign up for. The cheapest, Mvelopes Basic, allows you to set up your envelope budget, monitor account balances, get interactive reports and access live chat support.
Mvelopes Premier adds perks like debt reduction tools and access to the Mvelopes Learning Center. The premium Mvelopes Plus includes a personalized financial plan and quarterly sessions with a money coach.
Learn more from our Mvelopes review.
Personal Capital
4.5 out of 5 Overall
Key Features
Links to all your financial accounts
Calculates your net worth
Offers a retirement planning tool
Personal Capital is an app that gives couples a holistic view of their financial situation. Not only will it help you stay on top of everyday spending, but it’ll help you chart your way toward big goals like home ownership or retirement. While this app is free, it also offers wealth management services for a fee.
Personal Capital
Price
Free
Syncs with bank
Yes
Personal Capital is for the couple that’s 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.
Personal Capital also factors in financial information like your mortgage and other loans to give you a complete picture of your net worth.
Learn more from our Personal Capital review.
PocketGuard
4 out of 5 Overall
Key Features
Tells you how much money you can spend
Creates custom reports on your spending
Helps you pay off debt
PocketGuard helps couples account for all their spending. The app has an “in my pocket” feature, which lets you know how much you can spend on date night after covering household bills and other obligations. PocketGuard also digs through your expenses to identify savings and ways to improve your finances.
PocketGuard
Price
Free, or premium version for $7.99 a month or $79.99 a year
Syncs with bank
Yes
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 premium version — PocketGuard Plus — includes additional features like customized spending categories and ways to track cash purchases.
You Need a Budget
4 out of 5 Overall
Key Features
Good for zero-based budgeters
Creates reports to assess your spending
Can use on almost any device
You Need a Budget — or YNAB — is a useful app for couples who want to align their spending with their financial goals. It helps you account for every dollar you earn, stay ahead of bills and save for big expenses over time. YNAB also offers online workshops and video courses to improve your financial literacy.
You Need a Budget
Price
$14.99 a month or $98.99 a year
Syncs with bank
Yes
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.
Zeta
3.5 out of 5 Overall
Key Features
Tracks personal and shared spending
Control what info your partner can see
Offers a joint account
Zeta is a budgeting app for couples that allows you to manage shared and individual spending and money goals. The app allows you to split expenses and send messages to each other about transactions. Zeta also offers a joint account if you’re ready to completely merge money with your significant other.
Zeta
Price
Free
Syncs with bank
Yes
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 questionable transaction, you can do that within the app. Zeta also has a split transactions feature so you can get your other half to pay you 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.
What to Consider When Selecting a Couples’ Budgeting App
We’ve given you a bunch of options to choose from. Now it’s time to nail down what will work best for you and your significant other.
Think about how you’ll be using 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 drinks?
Are you OK with ads or do you prefer a platform that limits those distractions?
Cost is another factor. Free is a great price, but some people feel more motivated to actually use what they’ve downloaded when they’re forking over money for it.
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’d give a 5-star rating, cancel the trial and try something else.
And if you’re Team Apple and your honey is Team Android, don’t sweat. All the options above are compatible with both operating systems.
Nicole Dow is a former senior writer at The Penny Hoarder. Additional reporting from former staff writer Jen Smith was included in this article.
Michael Archambault is a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder specializing in technology.
This was originally published on The Penny Hoarder, which helps millions of readers worldwide earn and save money by sharing unique job opportunities, personal stories, freebies and more. The Inc. 5000 ranked The Penny Hoarder as the fastest-growing private media company in the U.S. in 2017.
