Best Free Budget Apps in 2026

Prices and free-tier limits checked against each company's own site on October 28, 2026. A cell says Not documented when those pages did not state the fact, or when two of that company's pages disagreed and neither one settled it. This is not a ranking.

A search for the best free budget app, or for free budgeting apps in 2026, is a narrower job than a search for the best budget app. The wider comparison, including paid apps, is best budget apps in 2026. People leaving Monarch for any reason, including cheaper paid apps, are on Monarch Money alternatives. That page has a short section on free and cheaper options. This page does not repeat those lists. It stays on what you get without paying, and what the paywall keeps. The Android app questions, including widgets and the Play Store price, are best budget apps for Android.

If the question is a free alternative to Monarch Money, start with the Monarch row. It is first because it is the app those searches compare against. It is not a free app. Whether the paid product is worth it is a different page: is Monarch Money worth it.

Most fully automatic bank-synced trackers cost money. On a free plan you usually type the transactions, you accept a thinner budget, or the accounts connect and the budget tools stay thin. The table is that trade. FYN is our product, and it is the last row.

The comparison

Seven rows, checked October 28, 2026. The date on the table is Checked Oct 28, 2026. Monarch Money is the default rival. The other rows are not ordered by score.

On a phone, scroll the table sideways. The first column stays put. Prices are what each company published that day. App-store checkouts can differ, and tax may be extra when the page said so.

What you give up

The usual paywall is the bank feed. EveryDollar and Goodbudget say the free plan is manual, and that automatic import is paid. Rocket Money's pages put real-time sync on a paid plan, and they disagree about whether a free account can link a bank at all. Monarch has no free plan, so the sync starts on the 7-day trial and then requires Core or Plus.

Empower is the exception in this table. The dashboard that connects accounts is free, and the limit is the budget: one monthly number, not a target per category. A spreadsheet is free because you type it. If you want the bank transactions to land in the sheet, that product is paid. See Tiller vs Monarch Money.

Monarch Money

Monarch's pricing page, read October 28, 2026, does not list a free plan. Core is $14.99 a month or $99.99 a year, shown as $8.33 a month when billed yearly. Plus is $199.99 a year, shown as $16.67 a month. The plan cards say a free 7-day trial, then the plan price, and that a payment method is required. Cancel in settings before the trial ends. Prices are in US dollars, plus tax where it applies. A month-to-month Plus price was not on the page. Not documented. The FAQ offers a no-questions-asked money-back guarantee and does not say how long that window lasts.

That is the whole free-tier fact. The budget, the household, and the bank connections are on the subscription. For the paid product, use Monarch Money alternatives and is Monarch Money worth it. Monarch also publishes an MCP connector, updated October 22, 2026, on Core and Plus. Read-only is the default. Write access is separate, and you have to allow it. That connector is not a free plan.

Empower

Empower's tools page answers "How much does it cost?" with "Nothing! The dashboard experience and financial tools are completely free and take just a few minutes to set up." The same FAQ says you can connect IRAs, 401(k)s and other retirement plans, investments, mortgages, loans, savings, checking, and credit cards. The terms, last updated August 1, 2025, say use of the dashboard is free of charge, and that Empower may change that pricing later. Wealth management is a separate service you can choose, for a fee. You do not pay that fee to use the dashboard.

The budget is the limit. The budgeting widget help, updated April 24, 2026, says it is not possible to set specific budgeting goals. You edit one monthly budget. The widget shows what you spent in the past 30 days, compares that with the same point last month, and lists expense categories sorted by amount. That is a spending picture, not a plan with an amount per category.

Use Empower when net worth and the connected accounts are the job, and a single monthly number is enough. The longer comparison, including the advisory fee schedule, is Empower vs Monarch Money.

EveryDollar

EveryDollar's product page says the free version lasts as long as you want. After a 14-day trial for new users, Premium is $17.99 a month, or $79.99 a year shown as $6.67 a month. The free list on that page is a monthly budget, unlimited categories and lines, the computer, phone, or tablet, manual transactions, sinking funds, splits across categories, bill due dates, and support from a live person.

The same page puts these on Premium: bank connect, paycheck planning, custom reports, a CSV export, the financial roadmap, coaching, and projected net worth. The bank-connection article says bank connection is for Premium subscribers and is not available on the free version. New budgeters can use the 14-day trial to try it. The providers named on the product page are Plaid and Mastercard Connect.

The free plan is a zero-based budget you type. Income minus the jobs you gave each dollar equals zero. You give up the import. That is the trade, and the page says it plainly.

Goodbudget

Goodbudget's signup page, read October 28, 2026, lists Free at $0: 10 regular envelopes, 10 more envelopes, 1 account, 2 devices, 1 year of history, debt tracking, and community support. Premium is $10 a month or $80 a year: automatic bank sync for US banks only, unlimited envelopes, unlimited accounts, 5 devices, 7 years of history, and email support. The help article, last updated February 1, 2020, lists the same Free and Premium limits, and says to email within 30 days for a refund. A trial is not named on the signup page.

A second page, Subscribe for More, also lists Plus at $8 a month or $70 a year, between Free and Premium. The feature bullets on that page sit above both paid plans and are not labeled by plan. What Plus includes, and whether bank sync is on Plus: Not documented. The signup page and the 2020 help article do not mention Plus, and both put bank sync on Premium.

The free plan is envelopes without a bank login. One account covers the spending money. Debt accounts are separate, and both pages include debt tracking on Free. History stops at one year unless you pay. The head-to-head with Monarch is Goodbudget vs Monarch Money.

Rocket Money

Rocket Money's own pages do not describe one free tier. The cost article, read October 28, 2026, said it was updated that day. It says the free plan includes subscription tracking, spend reviews, and bill reminders, and that budgeting and subscription cancellations are reasons to upgrade. Premium is a price you choose on a sliding scale. That article does not print a dollar amount. New Premium members get a 7-day trial, then the price they picked. The article names custom budget categories, Financial Goal plans, credit score tracking, and real-time account syncing as Premium. Premium+ is $15 a month plus tax. It adds Rowan, an assistant you text, and it includes bill negotiation at no extra fee while the membership is active. A high-yield savings account is for eligible members. Not documented: who is eligible.

The FAQ on rocketmoney.com describes a wider free tier: subscription tracking, upcoming bills, net income, spend tracking, transaction categories, and up to two custom category budgets. It says hands-off cancellation is Premium, net worth is Premium, and free members see a basic credit score snapshot while Premium gets a weekly FICO Score 2 from Experian and full credit reports. Account linking on that FAQ goes through Plaid. It says Plaid works with over 12,000 institutions in the United States. It does not say the free plan includes that link.

A January 19, 2026 article on Rocket Money's site says Premium is typically $7 to $14 a month, subject to change, and Premium+ is $15 a month. Its comparison table says free users can link accounts, real-time sync is Premium, and web access is Premium. The same article's prose says free users get up to two custom category budgets. The table says category budgets up to 3. The prose also says transaction history going back more than three months, while the table says unlimited transaction history on the free row. Those numbers do not agree. A single free budget limit, and a single history limit: Not documented.

What the pages do agree on: there is a free plan, hands-off cancellation is paid, and real-time sync is named as a Premium feature. Bill negotiation is not fully free. The cost article and the January article both say a successful negotiation costs 35 to 60 percent of the first year of savings. Premium+ is the plan that drops that fee. The January article says Free and Premium still pay it. The head-to-head with the paid rival is Rocket Money vs Monarch Money.

Google Sheets

Google's Sheets page, read October 28, 2026, answers "How much does Google Sheets cost?" with "Anyone with a Google Account can create in Sheets." Some Gemini in Sheets features are only on Google Workspace plans. The price of those plans is not on the Sheets page. Not documented here.

The Docs editors help page says you can use Google-created templates, including budgets, from the Template Gallery. You open Sheets, click Template Gallery, pick a template, and a copy opens. A Google blog post dated February 28, 2023 names a monthly budget template and an annual budget template under Personal in that gallery, and it says you can type @budget to insert a personal budget template. This check did not open a signed-in gallery, so whether those two named templates are still listed: Not documented on a page dated 2026. What the current template's columns contain: Not documented.

Neither page describes a bank connection. You type the income and the expenses. That is the point of this row, and it is also the limit. A spreadsheet that pulls bank transactions is Tiller, and Tiller is paid. The comparison is Tiller vs Monarch Money.

Where FYN fits

FYN is our product, and it is last. The free plan is $0. It does not expire and does not ask for a card. It includes receipt photos and emailed receipts, 20 a month as one count, and Ask FYN, 20 questions a month. Scanning a receipt creates the transactions from it. A read-only connector lets assistants such as Claude and ChatGPT read your FYN data, 500 MCP calls a day on the free plan.

Bank sync is not on the free plan. Pro is $9.99 a month. It adds live bank sync through Plaid, up to 15 accounts, raises receipts to 200 a month, Ask FYN to 500 questions a month, and read-only MCP calls to 10,000 a day. The pricing page lists 1 household member on Free and unlimited household members on Pro. Everyone shares the plan's limits. A shared member can be an owner, a member, or view-only. Monarch also publishes an MCP connector, so FYN is not the only one. The plan table is on pricing.

FAQ

Sources

Checked October 28, 2026. These are the vendor pages behind the table. FYN limits are from this site.

• Monarch Core and Plus prices, the 7-day trial, and the payment method: monarch.com/pricing.
• Monarch MCP connector, on Core and Plus, read-only unless you allow write. Updated October 22, 2026: Monarch MCP connector.
• Empower tools FAQ, including the line that the dashboard and financial tools are completely free, and which accounts you can connect: empower.com/tools.
• Empower dashboard terms, last updated August 1, 2025. Use of the dashboard is free of charge. Wealth management is a separate fee: Personal Dashboard terms.
• Empower budgeting widget. It is not possible to set specific budgeting goals. Updated April 24, 2026: Using the Budgeting Widget.
• EveryDollar free plan, Premium price, 14-day trial, and the free versus Premium lists: EveryDollar.
• EveryDollar bank connection is Premium only, with a 14-day trial for new budgeters: getting started with bank connection.
• Goodbudget signup, Free and Premium limits, read October 28, 2026: goodbudget.com/signup.
• Goodbudget Free and Premium limits, last updated February 1, 2020, and the 30-day refund note: subscribe to Goodbudget.
• Goodbudget Plus at $8 a month or $70 a year. What Plus includes is not labeled on the page: subscribe for more.
• Rocket Money cost article, read October 28, 2026, which said it was updated that day. Free plan, Premium sliding scale, Premium+ at $15 a month plus tax, and the 35 to 60 percent negotiation fee: how much Rocket Money costs.
• Rocket Money FAQ. A wider free list, Plaid, and which tools are Premium: rocketmoney.com/faq.
• Rocket Money pricing article, January 19, 2026. The $7 to $14 range, the free comparison table, and the note that Free and Premium still pay the negotiation fee: free vs Premium vs Premium+.
• Google Sheets price. Anyone with a Google Account can create in Sheets: google.com/sheets/about.
• Google template gallery, including budget templates: create a file from a template.
• Google blog, February 28, 2023, naming the monthly and annual budget templates and @budget: three Google tools to help you save money.
• FYN free receipt scans, Ask FYN, read-only assistant calls, and Pro bank sync: pricing.