7 Best Budget Apps for Couples [in 2020]

Money talk is one of the biggest – if not the biggest – problem-triggering talks in marriages.

In fact, a study revealed that how often a couple haggles over finances could easily foretell the possibility of either of them filing for the big D.

Speaking of, keep the big D at bay with this list of simple at home date ideas.

But money doesn’t necessarily have to be a cause for issues.

While my husband and I go old school and collaborate on our values and goals using spreadsheets, when it comes to finances, the following are the best budget apps for couples that I’ve found.

There are countless apps available for both singles and couples online.

Some of these budget apps are absolutely free, and others have premium versions, but I show you the absolute best budget apps that will help you and your ‘significant other’ reach your financial goals.

Here Are The Best Budget Apps For Couples In 2020

1. Honeyfi

This budget app allows couples to sync credit card and bank accounts all from one place.

It also provides a household budget based on spendings in the past.

If you need to put out some funds for specific needs, this app can help you achieve a saving goal to that end.

You can create your own rules on savings and have the app set aside a certain figure each month for your checking accounts.

Honeyfi provides some other really good features.

I personally like the in-app money discussions feature which allows you save discussions with your partner in the app.

For instance, you can nag your SO about overspending at a certain event or request they pick up detergent for laundry on their Target run.

In addition, and you’re gonna love this one, if you want to limit what your partner can see on your spendings, you can do just that.

And since each partner is able to access the individual bank account and credit card account on a screen, it makes it easy to get a general summary of your joint financial situation.

The budget app costs $9.99 every month, and $59.99 annually.

 2. Honeydue

Honeydue, like Honeyfi, provides opportunities to make meaningful financial discussions with your partner.

It gives couples a high-level of transparency in their spending.
You can literally see what your partner is doing with money in real-time.

And comments or reactions can be done with emojis under purchases you make.

There’s a reminder feature that keeps you both up-to-date with your bills and when they are due.

There are features to help you keep track of expenses and savings via shared bank transactions.

Your investment and loan accounts can also be synced to make it easy for you and your partner to manage savings and debts.

Forbes has rated Honeydue among the list of “best apps of the year.” in the past.

It’s actually very similar to Honeyfi.

The best part, Honeydue is absolutely free!

3. EveryDollar

This budgeting app for couples was created by prolific financial expert, Dave Ramsey!

So, if you guys have already found love with the guru’s favourite method for money management, the zero-based budget, then EveryDollar should be considered.

The app offers the opportunity to customize the budget template to fit your needs.

Great user experience and no annoying ads all around. And with EveryDollar Plus – the premium version – you can automatically sync your bank accounts and connect to Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University.

Users can choose to opt either for the free version or the premium version which goes for $129.99 a year.

4. PocketGuard

PocketGuard does a great job of detecting your income and bills automatically after you have connected your bank accounts to the app.

You may still be required to do a few necessary adjustments however.

After this, you’ll simply go on to set your target on savings. You’ll have a minimum daily savings of $1 and monthly savings of $30.

Once you have gotten these done, you will be given access to a feature called, “In My Pocket.” This feature reveals what cash is left for you and your family to spend after regular bills and savings have been settled.

All other shared transactions by couples will surface on near real-time.

One cool thing about PocketGuard is it’s spending-limit-feature which gets couples notified when they are near overspending.

The free version has almost every necessary feature you need to begin. And with $4.99 a month, you can opt for all the opportunities the app offers, includes features like tracking purchases and customization of spending categories. The quarterly fee is $10.99, while the annual subscription goes for $34.99.

5. Goodbudget

If you love the cash envelope system to plan your spending, but would rather not carry cash everywhere in some physical envelope, then Goodbudget app for couples is your best bet!

This budget app provides you with digital envelopes where you “put” some amount of money, so that whenever expenses are made from a particular envelope, both partners are aware.

With Regular Envelopes, you are able to track the regular expenses you make, such as laundry, gas, rent, groceries, etc.

You will also have access to More Envelopes which is designed to help you keep track of irregular expenses you incur, like your car insurance which comes up every six months.

And if you’d like to save for your next car or Christmas gifts, More Envelopes offer you great benefits with their features.

The free version on Goodbudget offers you 1 account, 10 regular envelopes, 10 more envelopes, 2 devices and 1 year of history.

And if you’ll rather have access to unlimited envelopes, unlimited accounts, and even much more, then it’ll cost you a monthly fee of $6.

It’s good to note that even though you’ll be able to track your bank account balances when you upload transactions manually in real-time, or by importing downloaded files from your bank in real-time, you will not be able to sync your bank accounts automatically on either the free or paid version.

Related: 17 Highest Paying Apps In 2020 For Smart People

6. Mint

Mint is a cloud-based free budget app that can be accessed right from your browser.

The app downloads all financial transactions from bank accounts automatically once the accounts are connected to it, and creates a budget based on your previous spendings.

Some of the distinct features it has is the ability to categorize transactions automatically for users, and set up phone or email alerts based upon a number of functions you set it to achieve.

For instance, you can create an alert to be notified by email whenever any of the categories is over budget. You’ll also get summary reports of your activities every week. 

So, Can Couples Use Mint? 

Definitely.

While it is more rewarding for managing individual finances, the app is a simple budgeting app with great features for managing budgets that help couples stay in tune together with their finances.

And the beautiful thing is that Mint is a free app!

7. Zeta

Zeta is another free budget app couples should consider. With this app, you can sync shared bank accounts, or manage individual accounts together.

You can query your partner’s financial decisions within the app or make other finance-related chats.

In fact, Zeta makes it possible to split transactions, so as to get your significant other to refund payment such as household bills.

The app provides a section for savings or financial plans towards future purchases too.

And you have control over whatever information you want your partner to be aware of.

8. Mvelopes 

Mvelopes is another great budget tool that employs the cash envelope system. It is very similar to physical envelopes.

And you and your partner will be able to create virtual envelopes after linking your bank account to the app, as this will be determined by how much you plan as expenses in the different categories.

All your expenses within the month will be done from the digital envelopes provided.

The app offers 3 budget plans. Mvelopes Basic is the cheapest, and it gives users features to set up envelope budget, keep track of their bank account balances, access interactive reports on their budgets, and also receive supports via live chats.

Mvelopes Plus gives additional perks such as access to Mvelopes Learning Center, tools for reduction of debts, and budgets such as quarterly finance training checkups.

Mvelopes Complete is a premium version of the app which provides monthly sessions with a money pro and more education on budgeting. The Tiered plans vary in their prices. They go for $6, $19, and $59 a month respectively.

Well now that we’ve listed all the best budget apps for couples, the next thing I would like to share with you is how to choose the best budget app for your needs.

But before we do that, let’s look into some of the reasons why couples need budget apps.

Why exactly should you and your SO begin app budgeting straight away?

Here Is Why Couples Should Budget With Apps

1. Budgeting apps will help keep couples in check with their financial goals and help you make the best financial decisions.

2. Since budget apps like Pocketguard have features such as, ‘In My Pocket,’ couples are able to plan towards achieving their family goals while also being frugal with whatever they have left.

3. Being debt free is a blessing. Mvelope, among others, provides tools for couples to reduce their debt and also achieve present plans.

4. EveryDollar which is owned by a financial guru, Dave Ramsey offers an opportunity to connect to Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University, and be able to make the best financial decisions following the path of experts.

5. Budget apps make your monthly budget discussions interesting and give every dollar in your account a purpose.

Now that we have that sorted, let’s talk about how to choose the best budget app for your family.

Questions To Ask Before You Choose A Couple’s Budget App

1. How do you intend to use your budget app?

Will you rather consider an app that will help you sync to your own account to track your real-time spending or will you and your partner sit regularly over your household budgets to manually take a record of transactions in the app at leisure hour?

2. Do you get pissed with ads displayed on your apps?

If ads offend you then it’s best to choose an app with no in app display ads.

Most apps like this are usually paid though. The creators either make money through ads or through sales.

3. What about the cost of subscription?

Can you spare some cash every month or year to harness the features of a budget app or you’ll just prefer to settle for the free stuff?

If you decide you want something more robust, ensure you test out your choice of budget app with the free trial first, before proceeding on paying for subscriptions on the app.

If it is something you think does not just deserve your 5-star rating, please ensure to cancel the trial and give another app a try.

4. What Device Will Your App Be Used On?

What if you use an Apple device but your partner is of the Android fold?

Make sure that whatever app you choose has the version for the device you both have.

The good thing is that all the enlisted budget apps for couples work nicely on both apple and andriod.

Now to a sensitive question…

But Are Budgeting Apps Really Safe?

This question is super valid.

When making a decision on a reliable and comfortable budget app to use, you should definitely think of this.

However, even though a lot of things go wrong in the digital world, and nothing is ever guaranteed, here are a few things the budget apps on this list have in place among other measures to secure your data.

• They use a minimum of 128-bit SSL encryption. In fact some of them use 256 bit encryption to secure users files on servers.
• They employ third-party monitoring systems such as VeriSign and TRUSTe.
• A lot of them have other security measures such as 2-factor authentication or Touch Id built in the apps.

And if you’d rather not connect your bank account to any app, then you may consider budget app Goodbudget or You Need a Budget.

So that’s about it on budgeting for couples.

I hope you consider these apps to help make your marriage, relationship, and future together better.

In the meantime, here’s something else I think you’ll love!

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