Take control of your finances with these cheap or free expense tracker apps that make budgeting and tracking your spending a breeze.
Tracking your personal expenses is an essential part of managing your finances and staying on top of your budget. With the rise of smartphones, there are now countless apps available to help you easily keep track of your expenses on the go.
A good spending tracker app can help you manage your money by monitoring your expenses, setting budgets, analyzing spending patterns, setting financial goals and gaining financial insights. Read on to discover to some of the best personal expense tracker apps (free or cheap) available this year. Explore your options to get started and take control of your cash flow, business expenses, receipt information, vendor payments and much more in one place.
Quick Look: The Best Expense Tracker Apps
- Best Overall Free: Clarity Money
- Best for Virtual Financial Assistance: Empower
- Best for Receipt Tracking: Wally
- Best for Building Savings: Oportun (formerly Digit)
- Best for App Features: Quicken
The 5 Best Expense Tracker Apps
Check out Benzinga's list of the best free or cheap expense tracker apps available this year.
1. Best Overall Free: Clarity Money
Why we love it: It's encouraging and champions your progress
Available on: iOS and Android
Wouldn’t it be nice to have a cheerleader that cheers you on when you meet a financial goal and gives you usable insights about your spending habits and makes your financial future a priority? Clarity Money, a financial management tool, does do that, and it’s totally free to use.
Clarity Money helps you take control of your finances and brings more transparency to your spending, giving you the whole picture all in one place, including your free credit score. The app tracks your spending and lets you know how much you’ve spent on, say, dinners out, compared with your goal for the month. Clarity Money also uncovers subscriptions that you don’t use as much as you thought you would, such as Netflix or Audible, and will cancel them for you.
Pros
- You can uncover subscriptions you don’t need
- You can check spending categories with ease
Cons
- Even though the platform is free, it may not offer all the services you need, thus defeating the purpose of the free service
2. Best for Virtual Financial Assistance: Empower
Why we love it: Acts as a virtual financial assistant
Available on: iOS and Android
Keeping track of expenses when you have several credit cards and different bank accounts can be difficult, especially if you’re not particularly skilled at number crunching. Enter the Empower Spend Tracking app.
Empower acts as your personal financial assistant. You can save money, build up your credit and get ahead, which empowers you to make smarter financial decisions about your money. Create a flexible budget with alerts, trackers, reports and helpful insights regarding your spending patterns. When you link your credit cards, checking account and savings account to Empower, you can see your balances, transactions, due dates and monthly payments anytime, anywhere.
The app is free but allows you to add other investment features for a fee. You don’t have to worry about security, either. Empower protects your account with advanced security measures.
Pros
- You can set alerts and use trackers to watch your money more carefully
- You can see all your monetary data in one place
Cons
- Even though Empower is constantly growing, you’re not guaranteed to qualify for all their services
3. Best for Receipt Tracking: Wally
Why we love it: Interesting features like currency conversion and family financial management tools
Available on: iOS (Wally) and Android (Wally+)
Wally is a personal finance app that comes in two free versions — Wally for iOS users and Wally+ for Android users. It was created by a small team of people who want to give you a complete picture of your money so you understand exactly what you have coming in, what you have going out, what you have budgeted for and what you have saved, in order to set and achieve your financial goals. Wally helps you keep track of the details of your spending.
Wally's free receipt tracking app feature allows users to add a photo of receipts with every expense you enter. The basic version of both versions is free, and the team plans to add upgrades in the future with features such as currency conversion for travelers or family management tools for users with children.
Pros
- There is a free version you can try and learn from
- There are mobile apps for iOS and Android that anyone can try
Cons
- While you can help your kids learn about money through this mobile app, it might be difficult to remain diligent while using it
4. Best for Building Savings: Oportun (formerly Digit)
Why we love it: Focuses on building savings
Available on: iOS and Android
It’s amazing how fast you can achieve your savings goals when you use the Oportun mobile app. Just decide what you want to budget for — your next vacation, a house down payment, paying off credit cards or student loans, or starting an emergency fund. Oportun will take it from there.
First, you’ll need to deposit your money in a Oportun account. Your money is held at FDIC-insured banks, protected up to $250,000, and 256-bit encryption keeps your data safe. Oportun will do the saving toward your specific goals and will take care of the payment for you once you’ve saved enough. You also get a bonus for saving with Oportun — 1% every three months.
Pros
- You can easily set savings goals
- You can collect bonuses every quarter that will add to your cache of funds
Cons
- While this platform is helpful and can hold your money, you may prefer to do this sort of thing with your bank
5. Best for App Features: Quicken
Why we love it: Several plans to choose from, both for personal and business needs
Available on: iOS and Android
Quicken is a personal finance management software designed to help individuals and small businesses manage their finances effectively. With Quicken, users can track their income, expenses, investments, and budgeting all in one place. The software also provides features such as bill payment reminders, tax preparation tools, and the ability to generate various financial reports.
Quicken is known for its user-friendly interface and its ability to sync with bank accounts and credit cards to automatically import and categorize transactions. It is a popular choice for those looking to gain better control over their personal finances and simplify the process of financial management.
Quicken offers several plans with different features: Quicken Simplifi ($2 per month), Quicken Classic Deluxe ($2.50 per month), Quicken Classic Premier ($3.50 per month) and Classic Business & Personal ($5 per month). All plans are compatible with both the desktop and mobile app.
Pros
- Offers several plans to suit different needs
- Provides various tools and features for detailed financial planning
Cons
- Does not offer any free plans
What Is an Expense Tracker App?
An expense tracker app is a digital tool designed to help individuals and businesses keep track of their spending. Users can link all their accounts to their mobile phones so they can use the app’s features to manage finances, track expenses, get out of debt, pay bills, boost credit score, save money and achieve their financial goals.
What to Look for in an Expense Tracker App
The best expense tracker apps offer a list of features and functionality that help you manage your whole financial life in the palm of your hand, from the linking of your accounts to your mobile phone to making sure your data is safe and protected. Here are some of the things consider when looking for an app to keep track of expenses and get your finances back on track.
Keep All Your Money in One Place
This allows you 24/7 access to your credit card and bank account balances and transactions, due dates for bills, monthly payments and spending and saving goals so you can manage your money from wherever you happen to be.
You can act as your own bookkeeper, and as business owners you can see the cash flow. You can even track receipts for your accountant, generate a spending report for the team and get money management advice from these expense tracking apps. The more information you have, the more cost-effectively you can live or work.
Track and Curb Spending
Your transactions are synthesized into insights you can act on to stay on track with an expense tracker app. You get personalized tips and advice for maximizing your money. Alerts help you stay on top of your bills and credit score and let you know when you start to go over a set limit in a spending category.
Protect Your Financial Data
All the best expense tracker apps make the protection of your financial data a top priority. Using state-of-the-art security measures, like 256-bit SSL end-to-end encryption and multifactor authentication and Touch ID, they keep your accounts safe and secure.
Pros and Cons of Expense Tracker Apps
While these apps can be a helpful tool for managing finances, it's important to weigh the pros and cons before deciding if a spending tracker app is right for you.
Pros
- Easy to use: Expense tracker apps are designed to be user-friendly, making it simple for users to input their expenses and categorize them accordingly.
- Budgeting tools: Many expense tracker apps come with budgeting tools that allow users to set limits for different categories of expenses. This can help users stay on track and avoid overspending.
- Real-time tracking: Expense tracker apps update in real-time, giving users a clear picture of their financial situation at any given moment.
- Analysis and reporting: Expense tracker apps often come with features that allow users to analyze their spending habits over time. This can help users identify trends and track their progress towards financial goals.
Cons
- Privacy and security concerns: Allowing an app access to your financial information can raise security concerns. It's important to choose a reputable app with high-level security features to protect your sensitive information.
- Inaccurate tracking: Expense tracker apps rely on users to input their expenses manually, which can lead to inaccuracies if users forget to input certain transactions.
- Cost: While there are free expense tracker apps available on the market, some may charge a fee for premium features or advanced functionalities.
- Dependency: Some users may become overly reliant on expense tracker apps to manage their finances, leading to a lack of awareness about their spending habits and an inability to budget effectively without the app.
Tracking Expenses Properly and Accurately
Finances are complex, and most people have a lot to manage with bank accounts, multiple credit cards, debts to pay down, savings to bulk up and credit scores to improve. Tracking your spending, keeping a budget and monitoring your spending throughout your life is the best way to give your finances a leg up.
Luckily, there are expense tracker apps that make the process easy, interesting and even fun.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who needs an expense tracker?
Are expenses trackers useful for businesses?
Are expense trackers safe?
What is the best app to keep track of your daily expenses?
The best spending tracker app to monitor your daily expenses depends on individual preferences and needs. However, some popular options that are highly recommended by users include Empower and Wally.
Is there a free app to track expenses?
Yes, there are several free apps available to track expenses such as PocketGuard and Wally. Another good option is Money Manager, as recommended by a Redditor.