If you’re struggling to keep on top of your finances or you just want an overall picture of your wealth, then a budgeting app is the way to go. But should you opt for an app that’s easy to use or one with all the budgeting features you’ll ever need? Here’s a breakdown of the best budgeting apps in the UK.
And the winner is…
Moneyhub
Top of the list is Moneyhub. It’s a bit of an all-rounder and can be connected to a good range of banking and investment accounts. It does come with a small fee, but it’s certainly worth the money. There are free alternatives available, which do a sterling job but aren’t quite as comprehensive.
The best budgeting apps in the UK
The last few years have seen an explosion in the Fintech market. Thanks to the introduction of open banking, more and more companies are introducing their own money management app.
And although the basis of these apps is generally the same, in an attempt to compete with each other, they all offer different perks.
Below is a complete list of the best options available. They’re broken down into three categories:
- Dedicated budgeting apps
- Banking budgeting apps
- Other finance budgeting apps
So, let’s get started.
Dedicated budgeting apps
The first apps to make our list are aimed towards anyone, no matter who you bank with. You will usually have to pay a small subscription fee to make the most of these.
Moneyhub
This budgeting tool is not only easy to set up but also great for giving you an overview of your finances. You can link Moneyhub to your current accounts, mortgages, loans, credit cards and even investment accounts like Nutmeg and Fidelity.
If you’re looking for an overall picture of your net worth, Moneyhub is one of the best apps. However, although you’ll have a free trial for six months, you will need to pay a £1.49 monthly fee or £14.99 for the year.
Pros:
- ✅ Lots of budgeting options
- ✅ Unique features to see your financial health
- ✅ Comprehensive analysis of your spending habits
- ✅ Connects to more financial accounts compared to its rivals
Cons:
- ❌ There is a small fee
Snoop
There’s nothing groundbreaking with Snoop, but it’s a simple way to keep an eye on your money and track your spending habits. It will send you ‘Snoops’, easy-to-understand summaries about your finances, giving tips on how to save money.
The free version has some decent budgeting features and should be enough for most people. However, upgrading to the paid subscription will mean you can customise your spending categories, track your budgets from payday to payday (rather than monthly) and add financial accounts manually.
Pros:
- ✅ Easy to set up
- ✅ No fees
- ✅ Uses language that everybody understands
- ✅ Will let you know of any wasteful subscriptions
- ✅ £5 Amazon voucher for referring friends (subject to availability)
- ✅ Recommends some useful financial products
Cons:
- ❌ Snoops aren’t always relevant
- ❌ Budgeting features aren’t as impressive as rival apps
- ❌ Doesn’t link to as many accounts as Emma and Moneyhub
Emma
The Emma app has lots of budgeting features and takes only a few minutes to set up… although you may need to sort out the spending categories. You can create your own monthly budget or Emma can do it for you by looking through your previous spending. The analytics are incredibly easy to understand and can be shown to you in a range of pie charts and bar charts.
Emma lists all your subscriptions and will let you know how to cut spending with ‘savings opportunities’.
The final plus point is Emma allows you to save and invest. And you’ll find the interest rates are often better than those on the high street.
The big downside to Emma when it comes to budgeting is that you can only connect to two financial accounts with the free version. If you want to see everything under one roof, you’ll need one of Emma’s paid subscriptions.
Pros:
- ✅ Ability to set spending limits/budgets
- ✅ Easy navigation
- ✅ Will point out where your money is wasted
- ✅ A good savings account
Cons:
- ❌ Most people will need a paid subscription if they have several financial accounts
- ❌ The savings opportunities aren’t great
- ❌ Free plan only links to two accounts
Banking budgeting apps
Next up are apps offered by digital banks. Although they don’t usually offer as many features as a dedicated budgeting app, they offer convenience and can be better value.
Monzo
Many banks have now started to provide their own budgeting apps and Monzo’s is one of the best. This digital-only bank allows you to track your spending and set your own monthly budget. You can create savings pots, easily putting money aside for a rainy day. Plus, you’ll get instant notifications when you spend with your debit card.
If you need to connect other accounts or want extra features like personalised spending targets, you’ll need to upgrade to a paid version of Monzo.
Pros:
- ✅ Simple to organise your spending
- ✅ Budget and bank with the same app
- ✅ Budgets can be set starting on any day of the month
Cons:
- ❌ You can only connect to other banks and cards if you pay a monthly fee
- ❌ Analytics aren’t as comprehensive as other budgeting apps
Use the button below and you’ll get a £5 bonus if you open an account and spend using your card within 30 days.
Starling
Starling customers get insights into their spending history, with the app breaking it down into categories and merchants. There is some customisation available with the ability to exclude up to five categories. They’ll also see a clear list of all their recurring payments.
When it comes to creating budgets, there’s a manual tool available on the website, so you can add your income and bills to calculate how much you have to spend each month. But this isn’t as handy as an app doing the work for you.
Pros:
- ✅ Quick to set up
- ✅ You can customise some of the information
- ✅ Free to use
Cons:
- ❌ The manual budgeting tool is limited
- ❌ Cannot connect other financial accounts
Monese
Like Monzo, Monese allows you to bank and budget all from one app. You can set weekly or monthly spending budgets, move your money into separate pots and receive instant notifications when a transaction is made.
But unlike Monzo, you can link Monese to other accounts for free.
Pros:
- ✅ Track spending and budgets
- ✅ Link to other banking accounts
- ✅ Monese is free
Cons:
- ❌ Not as comprehensive as other budgeting apps
Other finance budgeting apps
Away from digital banks, there are other finance apps offering budgeting features. These accounts come with unique perks, which are certainly worth checking out. Sadly, these apps focus more on spending analytics rather than creating budgets… but they are free to use.
Revolut
Although very much like a bank, Revolut has yet to be granted full banking status in the UK. But this digital account will link to other current accounts and allow you to analyse your spending and set budgets.
Pros:
- ✅ Free to use
- ✅ Analyses spending from Revolut and other current accounts
Cons:
- ❌ Won’t link to investment accounts or credit cards
- ❌ You can’t customise categories
Curve
The main feature of Curve is the ability to link all of your spending accounts into one card. This allows Curve to break down your spending into categories each month.
You can also link your bank accounts to get an overview of your balance.
The basic Curve subscription is free, but if you want to link more than three cards, you’ll need to pay a subscription fee.
Pros:
- ✅ Basic option is free to use
- ✅ Useful to be able to combine your cards into one
- ✅ Some great extra features
Cons:
- ❌ The spending analysis feature is quite simple compared to others on this list
- ❌ No option to set a budget
HyperJar
This app allows you to store money in jars to spend in specific stores. In return, you receive interest. But the main benefit to HyperJar is that you can add child accounts for free – great if you have children and want to avoid monthly fees from companies like GoHenry.
The analytics in HyperJar allow you to see your spending set out by month and it can be broken down by category, merchant or by person if you have children’s accounts attached. The analytics can’t be customised, so it’s a little limited.
Pros:
- ✅ Analytics are free to use
- ✅ You can see your and your child’s spending
Cons:
- ❌ Spending categories are pre-determined, you can’t edit them
- ❌ Unable to get your spending data from other banks
- ❌ You can’t create spending budgets
Plum
Plum is a little limited as a budgeting app but you can use it for free. Link all of your current accounts and Plum creates a bill tracker so you can see all the bills you have paid that month and those that are due to be taken. Plum will also list all of your regular payments.
The real benefit to Plum is it uses AI to analyse your current account and works out how much you can afford to save. Plum transfers small amounts from your current account every few days to an account held by Plum.
There is a paid version of Plum, but that’s not needed for the bill tracker.
Pros:
- ✅ Basic functions are free
- ✅ Easy to use, no editing needed
- ✅ See a list of all of your regular payments
Cons:
- ❌ You can’t set any budgets
- ❌ Unable to connect financial accounts like credit cards
Are these apps safe?
The vast majority of finance apps use bank-grade security, so the same as you would expect from your main current account provider. They also only use read-only access, which means you can’t make any transactions from the apps. That means that if a hacker should ever get access to your finance app, there isn’t too much damage that can be done.
All apps on this list are registered with the Financial Conduct Authority ( FCA ). They are available to download from the app store.
And, they’re generally easy to set up. If you have the banking app of your provider already downloaded, it will take minutes to do. Please note that they do not offer financial advice.
Which is the best budgeting app?
With so many budgeting apps, this is quite a difficult decision, and it really depends on how comprehensive you want to be.
The best has to be Moneyhub. Thanks to the number of accounts it can link to and how customisable it is, it beats the rest to the post. Yes, there is a fee after six months, but it’s very good value.
Both Snoop and Emma shouldn’t be ignored, but you will need to upgrade to their paid options if you need full budgeting control.
As for the rest of the apps on this list… they’re all fine if you’re happy with limited results.
Of course, there’s no reason why you can’t download multiple apps to suit your needs.
Gone, but not forgotten
You’ll find that even the most popular budgeting apps are abandoned by companies when they realise they’re not making enough money. Below is a selection of apps that are no longer available on the UK market:
Cleo Money – the last we heard from Cleo was that they were now concentrating on the US market but we would see them back in the UK at another point. We shall see…
Oval Money – they withdrew from the UK a couple of years ago, although they still run their app in Italy.
Yolt – this app was backed by ING bank, one of the biggest banks in Europe. However, this was withdrawn back in 2021.
Claro – an app that provided personal finance coaching. It was withdrawn in July 2022.
Quirk – an app which built up a financial profile for you. Closed quietly sometime in 2023.
Money Dashboard – a free app that was very useful. However, it was closed in October 2023.
FAQs
Do budgeting apps really work?
Yes, they do. However, you need to put in the effort and keep an eye on the data given to you. They give you a great breakdown of where your money is spent.
Bee L
Wednesday 3rd of January 2024
I can’t find any services that deliver the useful feature from Money Dashboard. It was great to see the effect of current spending on future balances for each account. I miss this greatly.
Sean
Wednesday 4th of October 2023
Is there any free alternative to Money dashboard that has the ... well... dashboard feature, the calendar particularly and that I can link to my bank so I can do day to day budgeting? I can't find any free app that does this. Moneyhub only does a monthly prediction, which will be completely useless for me.
Nick
Sunday 5th of March 2023
Thanks for the comprehensive reviews. Very useful round-up of a long list of budgeting apps.
I'm currently using Money Dashboard. I find the budgeting features more difficult than using my old budgeting spreadsheet. When looking at total spend for one merchant I have to manually add up the individual transactions. Would also be nice to group a few merchants together on ad-hoc basis and get a quick total automatically. Setting up a pay-cycle when each person in the household gets paid on a different day of the month is also a bit of a pain for forecasting a monthly budget. I also don't like Money Dashboard putting merchant transactions in random categories. Plus some regular merchant transactions don't show up in the category even though category is set correctly.
I might try a couple of the other apps at the beginning of your list.
Money Saver Pete
Sunday 5th of March 2023
Hi Nick. I'll be honest, it's been a little while since I've used Money Dashboard. But it's a shame that it's throwing up some issues and thanks for letting me know. I use Moneyhub now, which I found a little easier, although it does come with a small cost.
Jimbo
Thursday 1st of July 2021
The only problem with most of these apps is connecting to a bank that the app has not named.
Andries
Thursday 16th of April 2020
Great review, very helpful. Many thanks