Online budgeting tools

When choosing our top five, we identified three types of budgeting tool categories: spreadsheets, desktop software and smartphone apps. There's no a one-size-fits-all approach to budgeting, and these picks we ranked reflect that. At the end of the day, it's important to choose the budgeting tool that works best for you.

These three categories spreadsheets, software and apps offer different approaches to tracking your money with varying degrees of how hands on you need to be. We narrowed down our best picks for just about anyone: beginners, investors and small business owners. The selections we chose all come at zero cost to use and have strong user reviews.

See our methodology for more information on how we choose the best free budgeting tools. No, but some templates offer third-party add-on software that automatically pulls financial transactions into Google Sheets.

Google server protection: Unless you've shared your Google Sheet with someone, nobody can access your files without your Gmail account username and password.

For this, Google offers two-factor authentication and physical security keys like YubiKey. Allows users to plan their household's spending using the "envelope method," where they allocate a certain amount of their income into categories like groceries, rent and debt payoff.

Users are only supposed spend what's in their envelopes and if they go beyond their budget the envelope will show red to indicate that they overspent. App is free, but users have option to add investment management services for 0. Desktop software that uses double-entry accounting method to tracks users' bank accounts, income, expenses and investments.

It also offers basic accounting functionality for small businesses to manage invoicing, bill payment and payroll. GnuCash is not an online, cloud-based program so no one has physical access to your data; the software runs on your computer and your data lives wherever you store it, such as on your desktop, a hard drive or Dropbox.

Budgeting gets a bad rap for being a monotonous and tedious task, but it can also be a helpful way to understanding your spending habits. And a budgeting tool can make the process a lot easier if you find the right one for your needs.

That tool might be an already-formatted spreadsheet where you just plug in your transactions, or an app that auto-categorizes your spending for you. Because different budgeting tools offer slightly different approaches to tracking your money, first decide how intentional you want to be.

Hands-on methods, such as manually enter your transactions into a spreadsheet, may take more time, but the process can help you be more thoughtful about your spending. You'll also want to decide if you want to pay for a budgeting tool.

While the top-rated tools on this list come no cost to users, those who don't mind paying a premium have options for budgeting tools with more robust features.

Learn more in the app's review. Once your budget is created, the bulk of the work is done and from then on you are just revisiting it to make tweaks as your spending habits or income change. To determine which free budgeting tools offer the best user experience, Select analyzed over a dozen different budgeting tools and looked at their features and user reviews.

We narrowed down our ranking by looking for at least one pick in each of the following categories: spreadsheets, desktop software and smartphone apps. We wanted variety in the ways users can build their budget, and we ranked each tool by who it is best designed for anyone, beginners, investors or small business owners.

The five tools we selected for this ranking are all free and easy to use. For our selection, we also favored budgeting tools that have strong user reviews. Other factors we looked at included the security features, user customization and illustrative data insight, such as graphs and reports, that are available. Skip Navigation. Select Logo. Follow Select. Our top picks of timely offers from our partners More details.

Upstart Personal Loans. LightStream Personal Loans. SoFi Personal Loans. We may receive a commission from affiliate partner links. Click here to read more about Select. Click here to read our full advertiser disclosure. We may receive a commission when you click on links for products from our affiliate partners. Understanding how much you earn and spend is key to getting control of your finances.

Best free spreadsheet for anyone: Google Sheets Best overall free smartphone app: Mint Best free smartphone app for beginners: Goodbudget Best free smartphone app for investors: Personal Capital Best free desktop software for small business owners: GnuCash. What does a budgeting tool do?

How do you create a budget? Learn More. Information about Google Sheets has been collected independently by Select and has not been reviewed or provided by Google Sheets prior to publication.

Cost Free. Gmail account users can access a variety of free budgeting templates to help get started. The premium plan, EveryDollar Plus, offers a day free trial. PocketGuard helps you manage your budget better by telling you how much you actually have to spend. Link up all your accounts and it calculates how much disposable money you have left after your budgets, bills, and savings goals.

Another cool feature is that it helps you save more by negotiating better rates on your cable, cell phone, and other bills. Cost : The basic version is free. Mvelopes is the modern, digital approach to the traditional envelope style of budgeting.

It also uses the "give every dollar a job" concept. Add income : Mvelopes can either scan your accounts to determine your income, or you can manually input it. Create your envelopes : Create spending categories and set aside cash in "envelopes.

You can get as specific as you want. Track spending : Mvelopes will automatically assign transactions to each envelope. Once you have used all the money in that envelope for the month, your money for that category is spent. The envelope budgeting system is a proven method that works. While Mvelopes isn't the most user-friendly app, it's a solid tool to help keep your spending in check. All plans have a free day trial with a money-back guarantee.

Buxfer 's main focus is helping you plan by giving you previews into your future. Screenshot of Buxfer. You can set weekly, monthly, and yearly budget limits on spending categories. This helps you not only plan month-to-month but to plan ahead as well. One really cool feature is that it forecasts your future net worth and cash flow, based on your earnings and past spending.

This is useful to help you plan near-future expenses. Buxfer also alerts you to future situations ahead of time. For example, it can predict that your checking account will go negative next week after a bill payment. This allows you to transfer over funds to avoid overdrafts. Bill reminders Investment tracking Retirement and education planning Track shared expenses with other people Track accounts in other currencies.

Cost : Free for the basic account, which only supports manual inputs. MoneyStrands is a free easy-to-use budgeting app. Like other apps, you link your financial accounts to see everything in one place. Calendar : See your upcoming income and expenses in a calendar view. This is helpful for planning ahead for future expenses.

Community : Interact with other MoneyStrands users and compare budgets and habits. MoneyStrands even predicts your budget and forecasts any potential low spots of cash in the future. It can measure your cash flow for the future and predict how much money you can spend both now and in the coming months. Wally 's main focus is on expense tracking and budgeting.

Like other apps, you can set budgets by category and it'll keep track of your leftover money. Wally can track over foreign currencies and you can link to banks in 70 countries. This makes Wally a great choice for frequent travelers and expats. Cost : Basic version is free and includes account syncing. GoodBudget GoodBudget allows for multiple users, so it's good if you share a budget with a partner. The free basic version only allows one account.

BudgetSimple BudgetSimple is a more basic web-based budgeting software. Its main goal is to help you get you out of debt and build savings. It'll help you create a budget plan that makes sense for you, so you can actually stick to it.

It'll also give suggestions on where you can cut down spending or save more. Lunch Money Lunch Money is a simple web app that streamlines all your accounts and spending. It even lets you track your crypto portfolio and has multi-currency support.

If you travel a lot for work, this could be a great choice to keep your finances in check. MoneyDance MoneyDance is one of the only budgeting programs that stores data on your computer instead of in the cloud. It offers advanced financial tracking, including bill pay through the platform. It's often thought of as a cloud-based alternative to Quicken, so it's better for using on-the-go.

It doesn't require you to input bank or credit card information. It uses the envelopes budgeting system. What Makes a Great Budgeting App? There are so many budget apps available online, both free and paid. To find the best option for you, think about what features you need. Budgeting Creation : What kind of budgeting does the app offer? Some apps only give you a report of your spending, while others force you to assign every dollar a job. Auto Sync or Manual Apps that allow you to link bank accounts will automatically sync transactions.

Some other apps are manual entry only. This depends on what you prefer. Goal Tracker This feature is great for keeping track of your progress toward your goals. Some apps will help you set aside money every month toward your goals. Debt Payoff If you have debt, look for an app that helps you create a debt payoff plan. Bill Management If you have trouble keeping track of bills and payments, look for an app that sends bill reminders. Alerts Some apps will send alerts to your phone or email when your bank account balance reaches a certain level.

Credit Score Monitoring Some apps come with credit score monitoring. So how do you start making a budget? Here's how it works. To start, first calculate your after-tax income. This is your take-home income after automatic deductions for health insurance and retirement contributions.

This budgeting method can work for some people, but may not work for others who need stricter guidelines. For example, if you have a lot of debt, then allocate more to paying it off first.

Some debts, like student loans, can be good since it's an investment that will increase in value over time. Others, like credit cards, don't help your financial situation at all.

No matter how much of each debt you have, you'll need to pay it back. There are two ways you can approach paying off debt. Choose one that you feel you can stick to in the long run. Avalanche Method This method tackles your highest-interest debt first.

After paying the minimum on all your debts, any money you have left over goes to the debt with the highest interest rate. This method saves you the most money in the long term, since less of it is going to interest.

Snowball Method This involves completely paying off your lowest balance debts first and working your way up. The key is to roll over your payments to the next debt each time you knock one out.

Psychologically, this keeps you motivated as you see progress with every debt you pay off. Even after your debts are paid off, budgeting is an important life skill. But, it's not always easy. Find out clever ways to keep your financial health in check down below. Tips to Actually Stick to Your Budget. The first rule to keep in mind? It's OK to mess up! Many people do. Keep pushing forward and you will get there, even if it seems difficult.

Here are some smart ways to keep yourself on track:. Change Your Point of View You're not cutting out pizza night every Friday, you're budgeting in one pizza night a month.

It seems silly, but flipping the script helps keep you sane as you allow yourself some fun while spending less each month. Learn to Cook 3 Yummy Meals Cooking doesn't have to be complicated for it to be delicious.

Look up 3 recipes for pasta, soups, or stews—anything that you can make in bulk and store in the freezer for later. If you have great food on hand, you'll be less inclined to spend on takeout. Buy Secondhand Thrift stores, Facebook Marketplace, and Craigslist sell just about anything you can think of. Whether you're in the market for clothes or electronics, check secondhand options first. You'll save money and help the environment too!

Rethink Wants vs. Needs Let's be honest: You don't absolutely need a top-of-the-line laptop or new designer clothes. There is always a cheaper, high-quality alternative you can buy instead.

Take that mindset to your everyday purchases too. Off-brand groceries will help you save. Stick to Your Grocery List Before you go shopping, make a list of what you actually need.