Our Top 5 Budgeting Apps
It is important to keep track of your spending. Whether you’ve already got a budget to stick to, want to make one, or if you’d just like to see where your money’s going, a budgeting app could help. There are plenty of useful features, like graphic visualisations of your outgoings into categories like leisure and household bills, or a money-left-until-payday counter.
With a budgeting app, you can track your spending, set budgeting goals, and get helpful alerts to your phone.
The following apps let you view all of your income, outgoings, and will reveal your spending habits to help you spot the best ways to save money.
The Top 5
Money Dashboard
Free & available on Android, iOS, and desktop.
“We give you the answers with zero effort”
Money Dashboard lets you view all of your financial accounts in one place. This includes current accounts, savings accounts, and credit cards. The app currently supports 60 financial providers including high-street banks like HSBC, Halifax, Santander, and Lloyds.
The app automatically categorises transactions into bills, shopping, and savings, and will send you notifications if you overspend. This means you can see where your money is being spent and how far you’ve progressed on your financial goals.
Every month, you can set a budget and base this on your previous months’ spending. Use the planner feature to forecast your balance to any point in the future and see where you’re heading.
Money Dashboard was even voted the Best Personal Finance Application in 2017, 2018 & 2020.
Moneyhub
£0.99 per month.
Moneyhub is available on Android, iOS, and desktop.
“Set yourself budgets that you can actually stick to”
Bring all of your financial accounts together, viewing current accounts, savings accounts, credit cards, mortgages, pensions – and investment funds, too – in one application.
Gain insights into your spending habits and click through the Moneyhub tools to help you change your behaviour.
If you have any regular payments or subscriptions, such as home insurance, Moneyhub will even alert you if there are any better deals available on the market.
Moneyhub will send you notifications about upcoming bills and offers to connect you to financial advisors to talk through your financial goals, be it a mortgage, new car, or tips on spending less – all included in the subscription fee.
Squirrel
£9.99 per month with the first 8 weeks free.
Available on Android, iOS, and desktop.
“Spend the money you can afford to spend”
Squirrel aims to get you through to payday by separating your bill money from your spending money, helping you to budget effectively and set clear savings goals.
To sign up and make the most of Squirrel, you are invited to change where your boss sends your wages to a specific Squirrel account. Add your monthly expenses and savings goals to the app and, using this information, the app will release the money you need for bills when they’re due to your usual bank account, as well as spending money for the week.
By sorting your money into weekly allowances, you can only spend what you have and can’t go over budget.
Yolt
Free and available on Android, iOS, and desktop.
“Change the way you think about money”
Yolt puts all of your current accounts, savings, credit cards, pensions, and investments onto one screen to help you see where you really are financially. Yolt currently supports over 35 banks including Barclays, Lloyds, NatWest, Santander, and Tesco Bank.
Your self-set budget is laid out into categories such as housing, transport, shopping, and bills – and the app tracks your spending at retailers to show how much you have left in each mini-budget. This makes it much easier to take corrective action to return to your budget by cutting down on your spending in one category if you’ve overspent in another that month.
Yolt even contains a comparison service to help you find a better deal on your bills.
Spendee
Free and available on Android and iOS.
“Get your money into shape”
Spendee has a shared wallets feature, helpful for couples, families, and roommates who can handle their finances together in the Spendee apps. See what’s left to pay towards upcoming bills and avoid surprises.
Simply log into your bank accounts, e-wallets and crypto wallets in the Spendee app to import your transactions, and add your cash expenses manually, for a comprehensive look at your finances.
Understand the colourful graphs at a glance, set smart budgets to help you to not overspend in a chosen category, and receive alerts and reminders about reaching your budget limits. Customise your categories, too, with a in-app picture or a location to each expense.
With Spendee, you can quickly see and stick to a daily spend limit and save money for your future.