Scoring sheet
How we scored the best budgeting apps
Every score in The best budgeting apps comes from this sheet: the tools we considered, the scale for each criterion, and the evidence and date behind each score.
This page shows the working behind the best budgeting apps: the apps we considered, the criteria and weights, what each score means, and every score with the source behind it.
Ten of the 11 apps were scored from desk research: vendor pricing pages, help centers, privacy policies and app store listings. We did not use those ten hands-on, and we never connected a real bank account to anything. Actual Budget, which is open source, we installed and tested ourselves with made-up data. Everything was checked on October 21, 2026, unless a line says otherwise.
The question and the reader
The question, in the reader's words: "What's the best budgeting app?" People also ask for the best budgeting app for couples, the best free one, and whether YNAB or Monarch is better. We asked four AI models (GPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity, through their APIs with web search on) all four questions in October 2026, which gave 16 answers. Those answers, and the review pages they cite, built the field below.
The reader is a person or a couple in the US who wants to plan spending by category each month, not only see where money went, and who will use the app on a phone and probably a computer. Couples and people who want a free app get awards on this page rather than separate pages, because the same scores answer their questions.
Must-haves
An app had to pass all three to be scored. These are filters, not criteria.
- It sets a spending amount for each category every month. A tracker that only reports spending, or sets one overall spending target, doesn't count.
- New users in the US can sign up today.
- It works on a phone, through a native app or a web app that fits a phone screen.
The field
"Named" counts the answers, of 16, whose text recommends or discusses the app.
| App | Named | Decision |
|---|---|---|
| YNAB | 14 | Scored |
| Monarch | 12 | Scored |
| Honeydue | 9 | Scored |
| Goodbudget | 7 | Scored |
| Empower Personal Dashboard | 6 | Not scored: its budget tool sets one monthly spending target (Empower's budget planner page), and NerdWallet's review found no way to set and track separate category budgets, so it fails must-have 1 |
| EveryDollar | 5 | Scored |
| Quicken Simplifi | 4 | Scored |
| Copilot Money | 3 | Scored |
| PocketGuard | 3 | Scored |
| Mint | 3 | Not scored: Intuit closed Mint in March 2024 and moved users to Credit Karma, which dropped monthly budgets and custom categories, so it fails must-haves 1 and 2 |
| Rocket Money | 2 | Scored |
| Actual Budget | 1 | Scored, and tested hands-on |
| NerdWallet's app | 1 | Not scored: named once, as a free spending tracker. We scored apps whose main job is a monthly budget |
| Fidelity Full View | 1 | Not scored: a dashboard inside Fidelity's website for people with a Fidelity login, not a stand-alone budgeting app |
| Splitwise and Tandem | 1 each | Not scored: recommended in our sample for splitting shared bills, not for budgeting |
| Spreadsheet templates (Google Sheets, Aspire) | 1 | Not scored: a spreadsheet you build and maintain yourself, so the features depend on the template |
| Lunch Money | 0 | Scored. An independent, web-first budgeting app with a paid plan and free collaborators, which none of the answers named; we added it to see how a smaller app compares |
| Tiller | 0 | Not scored: Tiller feeds bank transactions into your own Google Sheets or Excel spreadsheet, so as with templates, the budget is a spreadsheet you maintain |
| Quicken Classic | 0 | Not scored: Quicken's desktop finance software. Quicken Simplifi is Quicken's budgeting app, and it is scored |
| WalletHub | 1 | Not scored: named once, citing WalletHub's own review, for free manual entry. WalletHub's app is built around free credit scores and credit monitoring, and the company earns from the credit card and loan offers it shows, so budgeting is one part of a credit app rather than its main job |
| Origin | 0 | Not scored: no answer recommended it, though one cited its blog. Origin is an all-in-one planning app built around an AI financial advisor, investing, forecasting and estate planning, with budgeting as one part |
| Zeta | 0 | Not scored: named in couples roundups we read, not in our answers. Acorns bought Zeta's assets in June 2025, saying Zeta's customers would get Acorns' benefits. We found no current way for a new user to sign up for Zeta itself (must-have 2) |
Criteria and weights
These were set before any app was scored, with one exception: the server deduction under Platforms and setup was added after a first pass of scoring put Actual Budget first. See Changes before publishing.
| Criterion | Weight | What it measures |
|---|---|---|
| Budgeting tools | 25 | Category budgets, rollover, goals and sinking funds, zero-based or envelope budgeting, upcoming bills, and a debt payoff plan |
| Price and free plan | 20 | What the free plan allows, plus the regular yearly price for a household after any first-year discount |
| Bank connections and imports | 15 | Automatic bank sync, more than one sync provider, file import, manual accounts, and sync outside the US |
| Couples and sharing | 15 | A login for each partner, who-owns-what views, privacy within a shared budget, more than one other person, and a record of changes or comments |
| Platforms and setup | 10 | A computer app or web app, native iPhone and Android apps, and whether you must run your own server |
| Your data and privacy | 15 | Full export of transactions and budgets, a copy that survives the company, and how the company makes money from you |
Why these weights: the budget is the job, so budgeting tools count most. Price is the next reason people pick or drop an app, and these apps cost anything from nothing to $109 a year. Bank connections and sharing each decide whether a household can use an app at all. Your data counts as much as either of them, because these apps hold years of your financial history and some earn money by sharing it.
Not scored: ease of use, how accurately an app categorizes transactions, and how reliably bank sync works. We found no independent test with a published method that covers this field, sync quality varies from bank to bank, and we wouldn't connect a real bank account to measure it. We didn't score customer support either.
What each score means
Each criterion is the sum of its parts, up to 10.
Budgeting tools
| Part | Points |
|---|---|
| Category budgets: a monthly amount per category | 2 |
| Rollover: money left in a category (or overspent) carries into next month | 2 |
| Goals or sinking funds: save toward a target with a monthly amount | 2 |
| Zero-based or envelope budgeting: a "left to budget" or "ready to assign" figure you bring to zero, or envelopes you fill | 1.5 |
| Upcoming bills and recurring transactions | 1.5 |
| A debt payoff plan or tracker | 1 |
What a 10 looks like: all six. A 7.5: category budgets with rollover, goals and bills, but no zero-based view or debt plan. A 3.5: category limits and bill reminders only.
Price and free plan
- Free plan: 4 for free forever with no caps; 3 for a free plan with unlimited categories but no bank sync; 2 for a free plan with caps (on categories, envelopes or accounts); 0 for a trial only.
- Regular yearly price for the household, after any first-year discount: 6 for $0; 5 for up to $30; 4 for up to $60; 3 for up to $90; 2 for up to $110; 1 for up to $150; 0 above that.
- For pay-what-you-want pricing we use the lowest price the company publishes. For a free app that needs hosting to reach more than one device, we use the hosting cost the app's own documentation gives.
Bank connections and imports
| Part | Points |
|---|---|
| Automatic sync with US banks, included in the price | 4 (2 if it costs extra) |
| More than one sync provider for US banks, so a bank that fails on one can try another | 2 |
| File import | 2 for CSV plus OFX or QFX; 1 for one kind |
| Manual accounts or manually entered transactions | 1 |
| Sync with banks outside the US | 1 |
Couples and sharing
| Part | Points |
|---|---|
| A login for each person at no extra cost | 4. Own logins only after you set up an outside sign-in provider on your own server: 2. One shared login: 1 |
| Views or filters that show whose account or transaction is whose | 2 |
| A person can keep some accounts, transactions or budgets private | 2 |
| Sharing with more than one other person | 1 |
| A record of who changed what, or comments or review assignments on transactions | 1 |
Platforms and setup
- A web app or a computer app: 3. A native iPhone app: 3.5. A native Android app: 3.5.
- Where there is no native phone app but the web app fits a phone screen, half the native points for each phone platform.
- Subtract 3 if you must run or rent your own server to use the app on more than one device. This part was added after the first pass of scoring (see below), and only Actual Budget is affected.
Your data and privacy
| Part | Points |
|---|---|
| Export of all your transactions as CSV | 3 (1.5 if only month by month) |
| Export of your budget | 2 for a file from the app (1 if month by month, or only through an API) |
| Open source, or a local copy you keep using if the company closes | 2 |
| How it makes money from you | 3: subscriptions or tips only; no selling or sharing your data for other companies' marketing, and no other companies' ads or offers in the app. 2: as 3, but the app pushes the company's own other products. 1: shares personal data with affiliates or partners for marketing (including sharing that California law counts as a sale), or shows other companies' ads or offers. 0: sells personal data outright |
Every company here, including those scoring 3, uses ad networks to advertise itself, and their privacy policies say so; that isn't counted. What counts is whether your data from the app feeds anyone else's marketing.
Scores
Features are scored on each app's main paid plan (Monarch Core, not Monarch Plus). Free-plan limits count only under Price and free plan.
YNAB: total 7.8
| Criterion | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Budgeting tools | 10 | Category budgets, targets for monthly amounts and savings, money assigned from what you have now ("Ready to Assign"), scheduled transactions and a loan planner (YNAB features). 2 + 2 + 2 + 1.5 + 1.5 + 1 |
| Price and free plan | 2 | No free plan; a 34-day trial with no card when you sign up directly with YNAB. $109 a year or $14.99 a month, plus tax, shared by up to six people (pricing page). College students get a year free. 0 + 2 |
| Bank connections and imports | 10 | Linked accounts through Plaid or MX in the US and Canada (linked accounts guide), and in the UK and much of Europe (direct import in Europe). File import of CSV, QFX, OFX and QIF (file-based import guide); unlinked accounts you enter by hand. 4 + 2 + 2 + 1 + 1 |
| Couples and sharing | 8 | Up to five other people, each with their own login; the plan manager chooses which plans to share, so a personal plan can stay private; Recent Moves shows the changes a partner made (subscription sharing). No who-owns-what views. 4 + 0 + 2 + 1 + 1 |
| Platforms and setup | 10 | Web, iPhone, Android and Apple Watch (subscription sharing page). 3 + 3.5 + 3.5 |
| Your data and privacy | 8 | Exports the plan and the full transaction history as two CSV files, on the web (export guide). Closed source. "We do not sell your Financial Data or any other information you provide through the Product" (privacy policy). 3 + 2 + 0 + 3 |
Actual Budget: total 7.6
Tested hands-on on October 21, 2026: Actual 26.10.0, the free self-hosted server, with a made-up "Demo" household (a checking account with 17 transactions in an OFX file and a credit card with 25 in a CSV file, July to September 2026). No bank was connected.
| Criterion | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Budgeting tools | 9 | In our test, money left in a category rolled into the next month (utilities: $10 left in July, $13.50 in August, $10.50 in September), a $240-a-month car insurance category built to $480 and then paid a $720 bill, and overspending in cash came out of the next month's money to budget (August's $130.68 overspend appeared in September as "Overspent in Aug"). Budgets are zero-based ("To Budget"). Schedules cover upcoming bills. Automatic goal templates are still experimental, and there is no debt payoff plan. 2 + 2 + 2 + 1.5 + 1.5 + 0 |
| Price and free plan | 9 | Free and open source, with no paid tier. Using it on a phone and a computer needs a server; Actual's PikaPods page puts hosting there at about $1.50 a month as of November 2025, about $18 a year. 4 + 5 |
| Bank connections and imports | 6 | Bank sync costs extra: in the US through SimpleFIN, which charges $1.50 a month or $15 a year (Actual's bank sync docs; SimpleFIN); Enable Banking covers much of Europe. In our test, CSV import mapped the columns itself and brought in 25 transactions, OFX import brought in 17 with the balance matching to the cent ($8,405.50), and re-importing both files offered "Import 0 transactions": no duplicates. Manual accounts work. 2 + 0 + 2 + 1 + 1 |
| Couples and sharing | 5 | By default everyone signs in with the one server password. Separate logins need an OpenID sign-in provider you configure on the server (OpenID setup); then each budget file can be shared with chosen users or kept private (multi-user docs). No record of who changed what. 2 + 0 + 2 + 1 + 0 |
| Platforms and setup | 3.5 | A web app plus desktop apps for Windows, macOS and Linux (install guide). No native phone apps; in our test the web app worked at a 390-pixel phone width. You must run or rent a server to use it on more than one device. 3 + 1.75 + 1.75 − 3 |
| Your data and privacy | 10 | In our test, an account's transactions exported as CSV (account, date, payee, notes, category group, category, amount, split amount, cleared), and Settings, Export data produced a zip with the whole budget as a SQLite database, which opened in Python and held every transaction and every month's budget. Importing that zip restored an identical copy, same balances and same months. Open source, no company to sell data. 3 + 2 + 2 + 3 |
Monarch: total 7.4
| Criterion | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Budgeting tools | 10 | Rollovers on expense categories; category or Flex budgeting; a "left to budget" figure that supports zero-based budgeting (creating your budget); Save Up goals with a planned monthly contribution; recurring bills; Pay Down goals for debt. 2 + 2 + 2 + 1.5 + 1.5 + 1 |
| Price and free plan | 2 | No free plan; a 7-day trial that asks for a payment method. Monarch Core $99.99 a year or $14.99 a month; Monarch Plus $199.99 a year, annual only. New users get 30% off their first year of Core with the code WELCOME, so $69.99 and then $99.99 (pricing page). Plus launched on April 20, 2026. One subscription covers the household. 0 + 2 |
| Bank connections and imports | 9 | Plaid, Finicity and MX, with a choice of provider per bank and a public connection status page (data providers); US and Canada only (availability). CSV import only, on the web (importing transactions). Manual accounts. 4 + 2 + 1 + 1 + 1 |
| Couples and sharing | 8 | Invite one or more household members at no extra cost, each with their own login; "You cannot hide bank accounts or transactions" (couples and households). Shared Views mark accounts and transactions as yours, your partner's or shared, with filters; Monarch says the filters "are not available in Budgets, Recurring, Goals, or Investments", which always show the whole household, and each household shares one budget. A transaction can be assigned to a household member to review (reviewing transactions). 4 + 2 + 0 + 1 + 1 |
| Platforms and setup | 10 | Web, iPhone and Android (pricing page). 3 + 3.5 + 3.5 |
| Your data and privacy | 6 | CSV export of transactions and balance history, which stays available after a subscription or trial ends (downloading history). No budget export found. Closed source. No ads, and Monarch says it never sells your data (pricing page). 3 + 0 + 0 + 3 |
Lunch Money: total 7.4
Lunch Money's own pages refused our automated requests. The prices below come from search engines' copies of its pricing page and its January 2026 announcement, read on October 21 and 22, 2026; its help center, which loaded, supplied the rest.
| Criterion | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Budgeting tools | 9 | Category budgets with rollover to the same category, a zero-based option that budgets until "Left to Budget" reaches $0, sinking funds through budget presets and rollover (budgeting FAQ), and recurring items. Goals are "coming soon". No debt plan. 2 + 2 + 2 + 1.5 + 1.5 + 0 |
| Price and free plan | 4 | No free plan; a 30-day trial. $10 a month, or a yearly price you set, shown as $100 with a "Set your own price!" option. Lunch Money's announcement of January 12, 2026 raised the lowest yearly price from $50 to $60 for anyone subscribing from March 15, 2026. Under our rule for pay-what-you-want prices, scored at $60. The price is per budget, not per person (collaborators). 0 + 4 |
| Bank connections and imports | 7 | Plaid only, for most US and Canadian banks and some in the EU (automatic imports). CSV and PDF statement import (CSV and PDF importing). Manually managed accounts. 4 + 0 + 1 + 1 + 1 |
| Couples and sharing | 8 | Any number of collaborators with their own logins; only the budget's admin pays (collaborators). Each subscription allows unlimited separate budgets, so a personal budget can stay apart from a shared one (unlimited budget accounts). Each transaction has a change history (transaction features). 4 + 0 + 2 + 1 + 1 |
| Platforms and setup | 10 | Web-first, with official iPhone and Android companion apps that have budget and home tabs (mobile app; App Store listing). 3 + 3.5 + 3.5 |
| Your data and privacy | 7 | CSV export of any transaction view, with categories, tags and account names (transaction features); budgets only through the developer API. Canceling deletes all data within 48 hours (billing), so export first. The privacy policy, as quoted by a search engine, says Lunch Money will "never sell your personal information to any third-party for any reason". 3 + 1 + 0 + 3 |
EveryDollar: total 7.0
| Criterion | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Budgeting tools | 10 | A zero-based monthly budget with unlimited budget items; funds that roll over from month to month for savings goals; Premium adds paycheck and bill-date planning and a debt payoff tracker (EveryDollar Premium). 2 + 2 + 2 + 1.5 + 1.5 + 1 |
| Price and free plan | 6 | Free plan: the full budget with unlimited categories, but transactions entered by hand, with upgrade ads (upgrade ads). Premium $79.99 a year or $17.99 a month, 14-day trial (Premium page). 3 + 3 |
| Bank connections and imports | 7 | Premium connects banks through Mastercard Connect and Plaid; bank connection isn't in the free version (getting started). "Importing files is not supported" (export article). Manual transactions. US only. 4 + 2 + 0 + 1 + 0 |
| Couples and sharing | 4 | A spouse joins the household with their own email, and both see and edit the owner's budget (inviting a spouse). The help center says the household "should only be your spouse" (who can see). No private items, ownership views or change log found. 4 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 |
| Platforms and setup | 10 | Web, iPhone and Android (Premium page). 3 + 3.5 + 3.5 |
| Your data and privacy | 4.5 | Premium exports CSV one month at a time, either the month's transactions or the month's budget (export article). Closed source. The app promotes Ramsey's other products and shows upgrade ads on the free plan. 1.5 + 1 + 0 + 2 |
Goodbudget: total 6.6
Goodbudget's help pages and pricing page refused our automated requests in October 2026. The facts below come from its pages that did load (marked), its August 2024 post on plan changes, and search engines' copies of its help pages.
| Criterion | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Budgeting tools | 10 | Envelope budgeting, where envelope balances carry from month to month; annual and goal envelopes you fill monthly (goals and annuals); scheduled transactions; debt accounts that track payoff (what you get, loaded). 2 + 2 + 2 + 1.5 + 1.5 + 1 |
| Price and free plan | 5 | Free: 10 regular and 10 more envelopes, one account, one year of history, two devices plus the web. Premium $10 a month or $80 a year, with unlimited envelopes and accounts, seven years of history and five devices (plan changes, August 2024; subscribing). Refunds within 30 days (refunds page, loaded). 2 + 3 |
| Bank connections and imports | 7 | Premium syncs US banks (linking bank accounts) through Plaid, the aggregator its privacy policy (loaded) names. Upload of QFX, OFX and CSV files on any plan (uploading bank files). Manual transactions. 4 + 0 + 2 + 1 + 0 |
| Couples and sharing | 1 | A partner signs in with the same email and password on their own device (sharing with a partner). 1 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 |
| Platforms and setup | 10 | Web, iPhone and Android (what you get). 3 + 3.5 + 3.5 |
| Your data and privacy | 6 | CSV export of transactions (exporting transactions); no envelope budget export found. Closed source. "We don't sell or rent your information to third parties" (privacy policy, loaded). 3 + 0 + 0 + 3 |
Quicken Simplifi: total 6.0
| Criterion | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Budgeting tools | 7.5 | A Spending Plan with planned spending by category and rollover, savings goals with a monthly contribution taken out of the plan, and bills with projected cash flow. No zero-based view or debt plan. 2 + 2 + 2 + 0 + 1.5 + 0 |
| Price and free plan | 3 | No free plan. $3.99 a month for the first year, then $6.99 a month, billed yearly ($47.88, then $83.88), on an offer running to November 13, 2026 (Quicken's pricing comparison). 0 + 3 |
| Bank connections and imports | 9 | Several connection methods, including Finicity, Plaid, Intuit and Akoya, as listed on Quicken's community forum; US and Canada only (Simplifi). CSV import on the web (importing transactions). Manual accounts. 4 + 2 + 1 + 1 + 1 |
| Couples and sharing | 4 | One additional member with their own Quicken ID, at no extra cost; the invitation is accepted on the web; access is all or nothing (space sharing). 4 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 |
| Platforms and setup | 10 | Web, iPhone and Android (Simplifi). 3 + 3.5 + 3.5 |
| Your data and privacy | 4 | CSV export of transactions (exporting). Closed source. Quicken's privacy statement lets it share data with advertising partners, and its California notice says it may share personal information with credit card and bank partners to offer you their products, which it treats as a sale you can opt out of. 3 + 0 + 0 + 1 |
PocketGuard: total 5.7
| Criterion | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Budgeting tools | 8.5 | Unlimited category budgets, each with rollover, which PocketGuard suggests for sinking funds; savings goals, bills and a debt payoff plan (PocketGuard Plus overview). No "left to budget" feature found in its help pages. 2 + 2 + 2 + 0 + 1.5 + 1 |
| Price and free plan | 3 | The pricing page offers only a 7-day trial: PocketGuard Premium at $74.99 a year ($6.25 a month), $12.99 a month ($155.88 a year), or $149.99 once for life (pricing page); its help pages call the paid plan PocketGuard Plus. The Penny Hoarder reported in 2026 that a limited free version (two accounts, two categories) was unlocked by email after it declined the trial; we score what the pricing page offers. 0 + 3 |
| Bank connections and imports | 8 | A main aggregator plus Plaid as a second provider; CSV import and export and cash accounts (Plus overview). No sync outside the US found. 4 + 2 + 1 + 1 + 0 |
| Couples and sharing | 1 | Partners "sign in with the same login and password", with hashtags to mark shared spending (sharing a profile). 1 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 |
| Platforms and setup | 10 | Web, iPhone, Apple Watch and Android (pricing page). 3 + 3.5 + 3.5 |
| Your data and privacy | 4 | CSV export of transactions (Plus overview). Closed source. PocketGuard's privacy policy allows it to use financial data to show offers from marketing partners, and to sell aggregated, de-identified data. 3 + 0 + 0 + 1 |
Honeydue: total 5.7
| Criterion | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Budgeting tools | 3.5 | Monthly limits per category with alerts (adding a budget) and bill reminders. No rollover, goals, zero-based view or debt plan found. 2 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 1.5 + 0 |
| Price and free plan | 10 | Free, with every feature; an optional monthly tip of $1 to $10 (how Honeydue earns money). 4 + 6 |
| Bank connections and imports | 6 | "Over 20,000 financial institutions across 5 countries" (how it works); the provider isn't named. No file import found. Cash transactions and manual accounts (tracking cash). 4 + 0 + 0 + 1 + 1 |
| Couples and sharing | 7 | Each partner has their own account; for each account you choose whether your partner sees balances and transactions, balances only, or nothing, and you can hide single transactions (what your partner can see); partners can comment on a transaction or send a thumbs-up (how it works). Two people only. 4 + 0 + 2 + 0 + 1 |
| Platforms and setup | 7 | iPhone and Android apps (Honeydue); we found no web or desktop version, and NerdWallet's review says there is none. 0 + 3.5 + 3.5 |
| Your data and privacy | 1 | No export found. Closed source. Its privacy policy (last updated in 2020) allows ads and sharing aggregated data with advertisers. 0 + 0 + 0 + 1 |
Most of Honeydue's help articles are dated 2019, which suggests little recent development; that is a reason for caution, not part of the score.
Rocket Money: total 5.3
| Criterion | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Budgeting tools | 5.5 | Category budgets (unlimited and custom on Premium), financial goals with a monthly amount moved into a savings account, and bill and subscription tracking (budgeting help). No rollover, zero-based view or debt plan found. 2 + 0 + 2 + 0 + 1.5 + 0 |
| Price and free plan | 5 | Free plan with core tools and limited budgets; custom categories need Premium (pricing help). Premium is "pay what you think is fair", typically $7 to $14 a month, with a 7-day trial; Premium+ is $15 a month (Rocket Money's pricing article). Scored at $7 a month, $84 a year. 2 + 3 |
| Bank connections and imports | 5 | Plaid only, and a checking account Plaid supports is required to use the app at all (no checking account). No file import found. Manual transactions on Premium. US only. 4 + 0 + 0 + 1 + 0 |
| Couples and sharing | 4 | One partner, with their own login, covered by one Premium membership (account sharing). 4 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 |
| Platforms and setup | 10 | iPhone and Android apps, and web access in a desktop browser on Premium (Rocket Money's pricing article). 3 + 3.5 + 3.5 |
| Your data and privacy | 4 | CSV export of transactions (exporting). Closed source. Its privacy notice says it shares data with other financial companies for joint marketing, which you can't limit, and lets affiliates such as Rocket Mortgage market to you, which you can. Bill negotiation costs 35% to 60% of the first year's savings (pricing help). 3 + 0 + 0 + 1 |
Copilot Money: total 5.0
| Criterion | Score | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Budgeting tools | 7.5 | Budget rollovers, savings goals that show the amount needed each month, and recurrings. No zero-based view or debt plan found. 2 + 2 + 2 + 0 + 1.5 + 0 |
| Price and free plan | 2 | No free plan; a one-month trial (FAQ). $95 a year or $13 a month (Copilot's home page). 0 + 2 |
| Bank connections and imports | 7 | US banks only, through Plaid, Mastercard, MX and Akoya plus direct links to some companies (how Copilot gets your data). No general file import; only a one-time import from Mint. Manual accounts. 4 + 2 + 0 + 1 + 0 |
| Couples and sharing | 1 | A partner signs in to the same account through a forwarded sign-in link and has "full control" (sharing with a partner). 1 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 |
| Platforms and setup | 6.5 | iPhone, iPad, Mac and the web; no Android app (FAQ). 3 + 3.5 + 0 |
| Your data and privacy | 6 | CSV export of all transactions (exporting). Closed source. No ads, and Copilot says it doesn't sell your data (FAQ). 3 + 0 + 0 + 3 |
The order
YNAB 7.8, Actual Budget 7.6, Monarch 7.4, Lunch Money 7.4, EveryDollar 7.0, Goodbudget 6.6, Quicken Simplifi 6.0, PocketGuard 5.7, Honeydue 5.7, Rocket Money 5.3, Copilot Money 5.0. The site computes each total as the weighted average of the scores, rounded to one decimal place.
How close is the top? YNAB leads Actual Budget by 0.25 before rounding. Actual wins Price (by 7 points) and Your data (by 2); YNAB wins everything else, most of all Platforms and setup (by 6.5, which includes the server deduction) and Bank connections (by 4). Moving two points of weight from Platforms and setup to Price, or three from Bank connections to Price, would put Actual first. Without the server deduction (see below), Actual would lead, 7.9 to 7.8. So YNAB's first place rests on one judgment: that having to run or rent a server is a real cost for this reader. A smaller deduction of 2 points would also keep YNAB first.
Monarch can't pass YNAB by any change of weights: it scores the same as YNAB on four criteria and lower on Bank connections (CSV import only) and Your data (no budget export).
Ties: Monarch and Lunch Money tie exactly at 7.35; we list Monarch first because it scores higher on Budgeting tools, the criterion with the most weight. PocketGuard and Honeydue tie exactly at 5.68; we list PocketGuard first because it scores higher on Budgeting tools, the criterion with the most weight.
What we couldn't check
- Lunch Money's pricing page, blog and privacy policy, and Goodbudget's pricing and help pages, refused automated requests. Lunch Money's $60 minimum is worth confirming at checkout, since it moves Lunch Money from fifth to fourth. Those facts come from search engines' copies of the pages and are labeled above.
- Whether PocketGuard still offers a free version to people who decline the trial.
- Which bank data provider Honeydue uses, and whether it has an export.
- How reliably any app's bank sync works with a given bank, and how well each app categorizes transactions. That needs real accounts, and we don't connect real accounts.
- Every app except Actual Budget was assessed from documents. We didn't use YNAB, Monarch or the others hands-on.
Changes before publishing
- October 21, 2026: our first pass with these anchors put Actual Budget first, 7.9 to YNAB's 7.8. We judged that the rubric had left out something this reader would weigh: Actual needs a server you run or rent before it works on a phone and a computer, and no other app here does. We added the 3-point server deduction to the platforms criterion and renamed it Platforms and setup. It applies only to Actual Budget. No weight changed and no other score changed. This deduction was added after we saw the order, and it decides first place; we kept it because a server is a real burden for the reader this page is for, and we say so on the page.
- October 22, 2026: after a fresh review, Lunch Money's price was rescored at the $60 yearly minimum its January 2026 announcement gives, following the rule we already used for Rocket Money (Price and free plan 2 to 4, total 7.0 to 7.4, fifth to fourth). Actual Budget's hosting cost was corrected to Actual's PikaPods page (score unchanged), and WalletHub, Origin and Zeta were added to the field as not scored.