Best Personal Finance Apps and Tools Compared

Personal finance apps and tools can help you effortlessly track spending, create budgets, manage investments, and reach financial goals. With digital money management solutions booming, countless options now exist. This guide compares the leading personal finance apps to determine the best choice for different needs.

Budgeting & Expense Tracking Apps

Monitoring where your money goes each month is the foundation of money management. These apps make tracking spending and creating budgets simple.

Mint

Mint is one of the most popular budgeting apps with over 20 million users. It syncs to bank accounts, credit cards, loans and bills to provide comprehensive expense monitoring. Users can set budgets across categories and receive alerts for overspending. Mint provides free credit monitoring and can generate monthly budgets automatically.

Key Features:

Automated transaction import from thousands of financial institutions
Customizable budget creation with alerts
Spending trends over time and analytics by category
Credit score monitoring and annual credit report access

Best For: Hands-off automated expense tracking and budget oversight for those who link most accounts.

Considerations: Manual cash spending is difficult to track. Some users experience glitches with account syncing.

YNAB

YNAB (You Need a Budget) focuses on manual entry over automation for maximum user awareness. Its age-based funds approach provides greater flexibility than rigid monthly budgets. YNAB prioritizes helping users get ahead by breaking paycheck to paycheck cycles. The web and mobile app support shared budgets for couples.

Key Features:

Envelop-style budgeting methods based on goals
Manually entering transactions to boost engagement
Flexible approach beyond monthly budgets
Accountability through direct bank link syncing

Best For: Those wanting structured frameworks for spending mindfully, saving aggressively, and planning ahead.

Considerations: Tedious manual entry. No automation unless directly linking accounts.

EveryDollar

From personal finance guru Dave Ramsey, EveryDollar emphasizes simplicity in budget creation. It focuses only on monthly income and expenses without long-term planning features. Flexible budgets can be made on the web or mobile app with minimal setup time. However, EveryDollar lacks automation capabilities compared to competitors.

Key Features:

Fast, simple monthly budget creation
Easy bank account syncing recently added
Debt repayment tools and reminders
Free and paid Plus version with more features

Best For: Users who want easy, no-frills budgeting without a steep learning curve.

Considerations: Very basic with limited features beyond budgeting. Lacks trends and analytics.

Credit & Financial Health Apps

Monitoring your credit reports and scores is essential for maintaining financial wellness. These apps provide full visibility over this key metric.

Credit Karma

As a pioneer in free credit tools, Credit Karma provides free access to credit scores and reports from TransUnion and Equifax. It also supplies monitoring for credit inquiries and new account openings. Users even receive weekly updates on score changes. Credit Karma provides ratings for credit cards and loans tailored to your credit profile.

Key Features:

Updated credit scores and report access
Custom notifications for score changes
Credit inquiry and new account monitoring
Personalized offers for credit cards and loans

Best For: Monitoring overall credit health and getting individualized recommendations to improve credit standing.

Considerations: Only provides TransUnion and Equifax scores, not full FICO scores.

Experian Boost

Experian Boost allows you to instantly increase your credit score by linking utility, phone bills, streaming services, and bank accounts. Paying these on time boosts your Experian credit score for free. Trended credit data helps you see the direct impact of payments over time. Experian’s membership program provides identity theft protection and daily credit reports and scores.

Key Features:

On-demand credit score increases by linking accounts
Trended credit data to assess score factors
Identity theft protection and resolution
Unlimited daily credit reports and FICO scores

Best For: Quickly improving credit scores by demonstrating responsible bill payments. Ongoing monitoring.

Considerations: Only boosts Experian credit score, not others. Membership fees apply.

Investing Apps

Investing apps make it simple for anyone to grow their money in the market. These platforms offer automated, diversified portfolios, fractional shares, and zero commissions.

Ellevest

Ellevest provides goal-based robo-advisor investing tailored specifically to women’s financial needs. The platform considers longer female lifespans and pay gaps in its algorithms. Ellevest offers both taxable investment accounts and IRAs with no minimums. It provides access to banking services and coaching on personal finance topics beyond investing.

Key Features:

Customized portfolios optimized for women
Banking and credit services provided
Educational tools and content
Option for individually managed advisor account

Best For: Women seeking a wealth advisor attuned to their financial lives and goals.

Considerations: 0.25% management fee. No direct stock trading.

Betterment

Betterment automates investing using algorithms to match your risk tolerance and goals. This robo-advisor spreads money across diverse ETFs for sound returns at low fees. Betterment’s platform offers individual retirement accounts, Roth IRAs, and standard taxable brokerage accounts. Smart rebalancing keeps your asset allocation on track. Custom socially responsible investment options available.

Key Features:

Automated, optimized asset allocation using ETFs
Tax-loss harvesting to optimize after-tax returns
No trading commissions or account minimums
Fractional share investing

Best For: Hands-off investors who want a set-it-and-forget-it approach customized to their needs.

Considerations: Management expense ratio of 0.25% annually. Limited flexibility or control.

Robinhood

Robinhood offers free stock, ETF, options and cryptocurrency trading. This commission-free investing app has exploded in popularity amongst millennials. Users can start trading with any amount and receive a share of stock when signing up. While easy to use, Robinhood lacks retirement accounts, fractional shares, and automated tools.

Key Features:

Completely commission-free trading
First share for free upon signup
Extensive library of educational content
Option for premium membership with margin trading

Best For: Casual and active traders who want to freely buy and sell stocks and ETFs without any fees.

Considerations: No retirement accounts. Limited educational guidance. Encourages overtrading.

Money Management Platforms

These all-in-one platforms consolidate budgeting, bank accounts, investing, payments, and more into unified platforms.

SoFi

SoFi unifies investing, student loan refinancing, mortgages, personal loans, credit cards, and more under one umbrella. Users can open fee-free SoFi checking and savings accounts along with active investing. SoFi’s Relay tool aggregates external accounts for effortless money management. Financial advisors and career coaching provide added guidance.

Key Features:

Combination bank, wealth management, and lending
Access career and financial planners
Centralized control of internal and external accounts
Auto-savings and budgeting tools

Best For: Those wanting a full-service finance solution that simplifies money management and finances major purchases.

Considerations: Mediocre interest rates on checking/savings. High management fee for investment account.

Albert

Albert develops personalized financial plans with tailored advice on budgeting, debt, and savings. The app acts like an automated financial advisor through its AI-powered platform. Interest-earning accounts with debit cards, easy transfers, and overdraft protection provide full banking capabilities. Credit, investing, and tax prep services expand the offerings.

Key Features:

Automated financial planning with AI insights
Bank accounts with high yield savings
Licensed CFP support on demand
Investing and lending services

Best For: Comprehensive AI-powered financial management, planning, banking, and investment.

Considerations: Considerable fees for premium services like tax preparation and investment accounts.

Mint Bills

Alongside its popular expense tracking app, Mint Bills helps users manage recurring bills and payments. You can track upcoming due dates, get bill reminders, and receive warnings about potential fees for late payments. Support for bill negotiation and autopay helps reduce costs and avoid late fees.

Key Features:

Centralized bill payments and due date tracking
Bill negotiation consultations
Late fee alerts and warnings
Bank-level security

Best For: Avoiding late payments and minimizing expenses from bills. Tight integration with Mint budgeting.

Considerations: Minimal long-term planning features. Most beneficial for existing Mint users.

Retirement Planning Apps

These apps can boost your confidence in reaching retirement goals through smart projections and automated tools.

Personal Capital

Personal Capital aggregates investment accounts, bank accounts, credit cards, mortgages, and bills for an all-encompassing financial view. The secure dashboard provides investment analysis and retirement planning powered by algorithms. You get a projected retirement age based on current savings and simulated market conditions. Wealth management advisors provide personalized guidance.

Key Features:

Unified investing, banking, budgeting, and retirement planning
Retirement planner with Monte Carlo simulations
Managed portfolios and live advisor support
Tax optimization strategies

Best For: Comprehensive retirement planning and investment oversight. Access to human advisors.

Considerations: Account minimums to access investment services. Advisory fees can be high.

FutureAdvisor

FutureAdvisor offers free automated retirement planning and investment management. Users get a comprehensive analysis of current savings and whether they are on track for retirement. You can view tailored recommendations to get on path based on your age and risk tolerance. FutureAdvisor’s digital advisor manages your nest egg across IRA, 401(k), and taxable investment accounts.

Key Features:

Retirement planning assessment showing if on track
Hands-off investment account management
Automatic rebalancing and tax-loss harvesting
Access to finance coaches for guidance

Best For: Retirement planning and investment management without human advisor fees.

Considerations: 0.50% yearly fee may exceed costs of self-management.

Conclusion

Managing and growing your money has never been simpler thanks to user-friendly fintech apps. Select tools aligned with your needs and integrate them into your regular money management habits. Monitor your progress to achieve greater peace of mind, savings and wealth over time through these digital platforms.