12 Best Budget Apps For Couples (Never Fight About Money Again)

Budgeting as a couple – sounds good, right? But how do you do this in the best way for you?

In this article, we will go through the best budgeting apps for couples and hopefully, find the best one for you and your partner.

Here at Living Low Key, we are huge fans of budgeting and making sure that you and your spouse are on the same page. According to a survey done by New Ally, 36% of couples found that money caused the most stress in their relationships.

We started budgeting because we had $30,000 debt and were living on a $35,000 salary. With the help of our budget, we paid it all off!

Not only that, but we have stayed debt-free (so important!) and have a net worth of $200,000. We did this as a team, and believe that working together is the key to success.

Let’s take a look at the best free budget app options for couples now:

Best Budget Apps For Couples

In this article, we will look at the best budget apps for couples. There are so many to choose from, some apps are even designed to use as a pair.

You can do cool things like syncing your accounts and even using instant messenger to query transactions with each other and send emojis.

If you are looking for transparency with your partner, budget apps are a perfect way to do just that.

Not to worry, though as there are some apps that we will be looking at that allow you to choose which data you want to share with your partner. If you’re a planner, you’ll love these.

The best couples budget apps include the following apps:

• Mint 
• Digit
• Personal Capital
• PocketGuard
• EveryDollar
• Wally
• You Need A Budget
• Goodbudget
• Clarity Money
• Honeydue
• Honeyfi 
• Zeta

We will look into each of these in more detail as we move throughout the article, to find the best budget app for you!

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What Is A Budgeting App?

Budgeting is really important when it comes to managing your finances.

A common misconception with budgeting is that it means that you can never spend any money, ever. Wrong!

A budget is a way of making sure that you are spending your hard-earned money on the things that you truly want to.

Often what happens is that the bills are paid, and then whatever is left is spent. But on what?

Have you ever got to the end of the month and wondered where all of your money has gone? This is where budgeting your money can help you and make sure it’s going where you want it to.

When it comes to creating a budget, it’s up to you which method you choose to do this, but we like using a budgeting app if you are doing this as a couple.

A budgeting app is an app that you can use on your phone to create and work on your budget in real-time.

What Should You Look For In A Budget App For Couples?

You’re going to want to look for some features when you’re picking a budgeting app, and some additional things if you’re doing it as a couple.

The most important thing that you need to look for in a couple’s finance app is if it is a shareable budget app between your two phones.

You will want it to be able to sync between your phones and quickly so that you have real-time information.

It’s also worth looking at if the app supports both sets of devices so that if you have a different type of phone to your partner, then it’ll still work for you.

You may want the app to link to your bank accounts, but then again, you may not, so this is something to think about.

Speak to your partner and see what kind of features they would be interested in having in the budget app as well, so you’re on the same page.

Best Budgeting Apps For Couples 

We will now go through the best budgeting apps for couples. We’ll take a look at the different features and benefits of each; to hopefully, help you decide which one to pick!

1. Mint

Mint is one of the most popular budgeting apps out there, with over 20 million users, and for a good reason!

It’s a free app, and Mint is part of Intuit, which is a company that also owns TurboTax and QuickBooks.

It’s a money management app and is mainly focused on helping you with running your budget.

The great thing about the Mint app is that you can see all of your finances in one place. They bring together your bank balances, credit card balances, credit score, and more.

Your spending will be categorized by which areas you have been spending in. We love a good colored graph!

It won’t only show you all of your finances, but give recommendations on things that you can do to improve them as well.

Mint works by analyzing various offers e.g., checking, saving, and credit card proposals, and making recommendations about which is best for your lifestyle.

You can also set up notifications to alert you of certain things in your budget, such as bill pay reminders, to make sure that you don’t miss any due bills.

Fee: Free

Available on: iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Android, and Windows mobile devices

2. Digit

The Digit app is free for the first 30 days, and then it’s $5 per month. It can be canceled at any time.

Digit is U.S. only and supports over 2500 banks and credit unions within the United States.

You will share what you want to save for, and Digit will help you to reach your savings goals.

Examples of things that you could be saving for include things like an emergency fund, Coachella, vacations, and down payments. Whatever your saving goal is, it is up to you!

Digit is an app that works by automatically saving your money for you. The way that it does this is by analyzing your upcoming bills, how much you are expected to spend, and the minimum amount that you need in your account.

If you have a surplus of money in your account, it will move it into a savings account for you. You have unlimited withdrawals if you save more than you’d like.

Not only that, but Digit will save for and pay off your credit card debt. Every 3 months, you will get a 1% savings bonus.

Fee: Free for the first 30 days, then $5 a month

Available on: iPhone and Android

3. Personal Capital

Personal Capital is another service that you can sign up for, which gives you a great overall look at your finances.

Personal Capital’s primary focus is on investments. That means that the budgeting features are perhaps not as in-depth as the other apps on this list, but it’s a fantastic tool nevertheless.

It provides you with a bunch of tools for managing your investment portfolio and asset allocation.

It will link and show all of your accounts in one place for your ease. There are tools on Personal Capital that will show you your income, expenses, and cash flow.

Fee: Free, with a wealth management fee of 0.89% if you choose to use that part

Available on: iPhone and Android

4. PocketGuard

The PocketGuard app is aptly named, as its job is to stop you from overspending.

You will need to link all of your finances – your credit cards, checking accounts, savings accounts, and loans. Once they are all linked, you will be able to see them all in one place.

PocketGuard will automatically update your spending and then put it into categories. Categorizing your money is really helpful because you can see the areas that you may need to work on.

There is a section called ‘In My Pocket’, which will show you how much you’re able to save after paying all bills.

This budget app is great because it creates a budget for you by looking at your income, bills, and the goals that you have set. This is handy if you are budgeting as a couple because there’s no need for any disagreements on budget amounts.

It can even do the hard work for you to find bills that you can save money on and negotiate for you.

Fee: Free, with an optional Paid version for $3.99 per month or a $34.99 annual fee

Available on: iPhone and Android

5. EveryDollar

Are you a fan of Dave Ramsey? If so, you’ll have probably heard of this app before, as it’s one that he developed!

It’s a free app, but there is a premium version available. With the free version you get:

• To create as many budgets as you’d like
• Track your transactions against your budget
• Email support

With the premium version you get all of the above plus the following:

• Connect to your bank account
• View your account balances while in the app
• Call-back support and coaching calls

The EveryDollar app works on the zero-based budgeting method, which is where you make sure that every dollar you earn has a goal and purpose.

It’s set up with Dave’s Baby Step program in mind, so this could be the perfect app for you if you are following this plan.

Fee: Free, with a premium version available for $99 a year

Available on: iPhone and Android

6. Wally

Wally is a personal finance app that is available on the iPhone. They have recently released a Wally+ app which is on Android and has a few new features.

It is excellent for budgeting because it allows you to look at your income and expenses and compare them to see how your budget is doing.

It’s really handy to show you how much money you have left of your budget and how much you can save.

Wally is a free budgeting app, and they’ve tried to make it really simple to use. The main difference between this app to the others is that everything is done manually.

Therefore it could be a good app to start with if you are new to budgeting.

Fee: Free, with plans to add more premium versions in the future

Available on: iPhone and the Android version is called Wally+

7. You Need A Budget 

You Need a Budget app is usually referred to as the abbreviation YNAB and is a very popular budget app.

You can use it for free for the first 34-days (random number!), and they also have a referral program where for every person that signs up, you get an extra month free.

After that, it’s $11.99 a month to use, or $84 a year if you pay upfront. Unless you’re a student – you get a year for free on top of your 34-day trial.

The thing that we love about YNAB is that its focus is on forward planning. After all, if you are only looking at your budget at the end of the month, then you will have already spent that money. 

As well as being available on iPhone and Android, you can also access YNAB on iPad, Alexa, and Apple Watch.

You can sync your bank accounts, get real-time updates, get reports, and more.

Fee: Free for the first 34 days and then $11.99 per month after that, or $84 a year. It’s free for students for the first year.

Available on: Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android

8. Goodbudget

Goodbudget was previously known by the name Easy Envelope Budget Aid. I’m sure you’ll agree with me that the new name is a lot easier to say!

They still use the envelope method of budgeting. The envelope method is traditionally where you have a set of envelopes and pull out cash for each category in your budget. 

You would then put the cash into the envelopes for each category amount.

Goodbudget uses software to have a digital version of the envelope method. Some budget categories include things like food, beauty, pets, household, and so on.

This can be a good budget app for couples because it can sync across your devices. Your partner will be able to see if you have spent in a budget category, and how much.

They offer both a free and paid version. With the free version you get the following features:

• 10 regular envelopes
• 10 more envelopes
• 1 account
• 2 devices 
• 1 year of history
• Debt tracking
• Community support

The paid version is $7 per month (or $60 annually), and you get the following features:

• Unlimited envelopes
• Unlimited accounts
• 5 devices
• 7 years of history
• Debt tracking
• Email support

Fee: Free, with a paid version for $7 per month or $60 annually

Available on: iPhone and Android

9. Clarity Money

Clarity Money is a free app that helps you to analyze your spending and see how you can save more.

On this app, you can organize your bills with automated expense tracking. You can track all aspects of your budget on this app. 

With the Clarity Money app for couples, you can also cancel your subscriptions and automate your savings.

Fee: Free to use, but they will charge a one-time fee equal to 33% of the annual savings you receive from their bill negotiation service.

Available on: Android, iOS, and web

10. Honeydue

Honeydue says that they are a free app for couples to use for budgeting, no matter what stage of their relationship.

You can track all of your accounts like your bank account, loans, investments, etc. – Honeydue supports more than 20,000 financial institutions in over 5 countries.

Something that we love about Honeydue is that although you can track your expenses with your partner, you also have the option to restrict some information. This is perfect if you are trying to buy a surprise present!

There’s an Instant Messaging type feature on the app where you can query transactions with your partner and send each other emojis.

Fee: Free to use for both partners

Available on: iPhone and Android

11. Honeyfi 

Honeyfi is an app that concentrates on how to manage finances as a couple. It’s free to use for the first 30 days, and after that, it’s $59.99 per year (around $5 per month).

You start off by telling the app which financial goals you want to save for e.g., saving for a home, vacation, wedding, etc.

You can link your accounts and choose what you share with each other. The Honeyfi app also gives you the ability to tag transactions to one of you, and you can even comment on them to ask your partner about them.

On the budgeting side of the app, you can track your spending and bills all in one place. It will send you alerts for upcoming bills, which means you shouldn’t ever miss a payment again.

Fee: Free to use for the first 30 days and then $59.99 per year

Available on: iPhone and Android

12. Zeta

Zeta is a free mobile and web app where you can combine your finances as a couple but is a budget app that can be shared.

This app is focused on managing your money as a couple. So it’s best for budgeting as a couple rather than on your own (although you can do it on your own).

You can either link all of your accounts to share with your partner, or both set up separate accounts and choose what you share specifically with them via the app.

This is another app that offers the bill alerts option to help you from missing any payments.

Something that we love about this app is that you can split transactions with your partner, to manage to pay each other back.

Fee: 100% free to use

Available on: iPhone and Android

Bonus Money Management Tool: Kubera

Kubera is a serious portfolio tracking app. But, that doesn’t mean it isn’t perfect for couples whether you’re just starting to combine finances or continuing to grow your financial lives together!

Kubera is the only all-in-one wealth tracker that empowers users to monitor and manage every single dollar, stock, collectible, real estate purchase, crypto coin investment, and any other assets you own. Not only can you see and dive into each asset using Kubera’s modern dashboard, Kubera also automatically updates and keeps track of their value to give you a real-time calculation of your net worth!

As powerful as Kubera is, it’s still simple to use. You can even create multiple profiles in Kubera to track your assets together, individually, or in any unique combination that helps you keep track of specific goals. 

If account security is a concern for you, Kubera employs bank-level security and will never sell your data or annoy you with upsells. The platform is free to get started then requires a simple monthly or yearly fee after that. No surprise or increased fees based on your assets.

Fee: Free 14 day trial and then $15 per month after that

Available on: Desktop

Are These Couples Budget Apps Safe To Use?

Whenever you sign up for something online, it’s always essential to make sure you look at the security.

You will need to check each individual app and read through the T&C’s. Most apps will have a website that will have a security section explaining how it works.

Most of the couple’s budget apps will have bank-level encryption software and won’t store any of your information on their server.

PocketGuard uses an encrypted token system, which they use to get the information from your bank. This means that your information isn’t stored on their servers.

Summary Of The Best Budget Apps For Couples

When it comes to managing your money with your partner, it’s never been easier!

There are so many great budget tracking apps for couples out there, with so many targeted explicitly to helping you as a pair, that you can’t really go wrong.

Have another read through our summaries of each budget app and have a think about which one would work best for your household. It’s important to get feedback from your partner on this as well, as you will be doing this as a team.

Which budgeting app you pick will come down to what you want to get out of a budget app. Do you want to be able to link your accounts? Do you want to have your own account still and only share certain parts of it?

You may want to start with a free version of an app first – there’s nothing wrong with trying them all out and picking the one that you get on the best with.

Managing your money as a couple can be tricky if you are new to it, but these budget apps for couples make it easy to do and even sprinkle in a bit of fun.

As a couple, you should have joint financial goals that you are working on together, to envision your life together. Having a budget app together will help you work on this as a team and give each other accountability.

Do you use a budget tracking app in your household? Which one do you recommend? If not, which one do you want to try?

Make sure to save this article for later, and join us on Pinterest for more money-saving tips and tricks!

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