The Best Finance Apps From California Companies

Everyone knows the importance of saving money, but when you’re living in a big city, it seems almost impossible to economize. Whether it’s due to high rent prices or transportation costs, our bank accounts seem to be drained by the end of each month. Fortunately, balancing a checkbook in a paperless world has become effortless thanks to the thousands of finance apps making our lives easier. 

There are plenty of budget, investing, and money management apps to help us keep track of bills and payments. It’s not too late to follow through on your New Year’s resolutions—here are the best money management apps to improve your personal finances.  

11 Best Money Management Apps For Every Need

1. Goodbudget

iOS: Available

Android: Available

Cost: Free 

Company based in: San Francisco

Goodbudget is one of the most popular money management, expense tracking, and budget apps out there. It first started out as an experiment by Dayspring Partners to create virtual envelopes. Before long, features like checkbook reconciliation, accounts, and recurring transactions were added, and Goodbudget was born. Now, the finance app helps you stay on top of your bills and payments. Users have envelopes for frequent expenses—such as rent, groceries, entertainment—and more envelopes for saving up for a vacation, holiday gifts, and an emergency fund.    

2. Personal Capital

iOS: Available

Android: Available

Cost: Free 

Company based in: Redwood Shores

Out of all the investing apps available, Personal Capital is one of the best. Thanks to this finance app, users are able to see all of their accounts—bank accounts, stocks, retirement funds, investments—without having to switch between apps, which enables people to get a dynamic view of their financial life. The investing app has numerous features such as a financial dashboard, retirement planner, and fee analyzer, plus budgeting and investment tools. This allows you to more easily keep track of your debt, savings, and expenses so you can make better money decisions. Regain control of your finances and monitor your investments and savings, all in one place. 

3. Credit Karma

iOS: Available

Android: Available

Cost: Free 

Company based in: San Francisco

If you’re looking to keep a close eye on your credit score and make financial progress, then Credit Karma has the perfect finance app for you—the company’s app provides users with their credit score and credit reports for free along with weekly updates. Credit Karma also allows you to connect with government stimulus programs, unemployment benefits, debt-relief opportunities, and loan options. Thanks to the finance app, you can even see which credit card and personal loan offers you’re more likely to get before applying.

4. MoneyPatrol

iOS: Available

Android: Available

Cost: $84 for a year

Company based in: Newark

The best budget app for tracking your spending and managing your personal finances is MoneyPatrol. Not only does the finance app securely monitor your financial accounts, but it also allows you to effortlessly keep track of your bills, payments, and spending habits. Users can securely access their data from any device to set up and manage their budgets. MoneyPatrol will also send you alerts and insights via text or email. Thanks to MoneyPatrol, you’ll get a clear picture of your daily, weekly, and monthly expenses helping you see what you’re spending the most money on.

The Investing Apps To Get Now

5. Acorns

iOS: Available

Android: Available

Cost: Free 

Company based in: Irvine

Acorns is the ultimate investing app for those seeking an effortless and uncomplicated way to invest. This awesome app invests spare change from your purchases in exchange-traded funds to gradually build up seed capital. First, you fill out a questionnaire to provide information regarding your financial situation and goals. Then, the Acorns app recommends a bunch of exchange-traded funds for you to invest in. All you have to do is link the investing app to your checking account and debit card, and Acorns rounds up the change from any purchases you make. 

6. Robinhood

iOS: Available

Android: Available

Cost: Free 

Company based in: Palo Alto

Looking to make unlimited commission-free trades in stocks and exchange-traded funds? The Robinhood investing app does precisely that and more. Not only are users able to buy and sell cryptocurrencies, but they can also access real-time market data, read relevant news, and get notified about important events to manage their portfolio. Robinhood allows you to customize your portfolio so you can invest in various different companies and funds in order to reduce risk. Simply choose how much you want to invest, and the app converts the money into parts of a whole share. 

The Best Free Budget Apps

7. Prism

iOS: Available

Android: Available

Cost: Free 

Company based in: Sunnyvale

Prism is arguably the best free budget app on the market. Enabling you to stay on top of your money, the budget app brings together all of your bills to paint a complete picture of your monthly payments. Thanks to Prism, you’ll be reminded of your bills and receive alerts if a manual or scheduled payment might overdraft your account. Upon downloading Prism, you choose all of your billers and connect them to the app. Prism then syncs your account balances and bills for you to see in the app, so you can pay them directly from there. 

8. Expensify

iOS: Available

Android: Available

Cost: Free 

Company based in: San Francisco

Expensify is the go-to budget app for making easy expense reports. The finance app allows users to scan receipts, track business and personal expenses, and even book travel. Thanks to Expensify’s SmartScan technology, all you have to do is take a photo of the receipts, and the app captures the details. There are plenty of features in the budget app—multi-level approval workflows, mileage tracking, automatic credit card import, corporate card reconciliation, advanced tax tracking, automatic currency convertor, and more. Expensify is essentially your virtual accountant. 

9. Mint

iOS: Available

Android: Available

Cost: Free

Company based in: Mountain View

Ask anyone using a finance app, and they’ll tell you that Mint is one of the best free budget apps you’ll ever use. The Mint app has plenty of pros—it allows you to see all of your accounts in one place and automatically categorizes your transactions so you keep track of your bills and payments. You’ll also be able to set up bill reminders, get alerts if you’re low on cash or if your credit card balance is too high, and gain free access to your credit score. 

10. Honeydue

iOS: Available

Android: Available

Cost: Free

Company based in: San Francisco

Tracking your finances doesn’t have to be a solo task—Honeydue allows couples to stay on top of their finances together. The free budget tool allows couples to monitor their bank account balances in one spot and establish monthly family spending restrictions on each category. The finance app also has a joint banking feature, which allows each partner to have their own account number and debit card on top of a shared one. Honeydue is the best free budget app for modern couples who want to keep track of bills and payments together. 

11. Wally

iOS: Available

Android: Available

Cost: Free

Company based in: Foster City

Designed to help you take control of your personal finances, Wally centralizes all of your accounts so you can learn, manage, and improve your expenses. Managing your finances can be stressful; that’s why this free budget app does all the hard work for you. Wally gives you instant insights regarding your spending habits and cash-flow pattern; the app even outlines your recent expenses, budget, and upcoming financial transactions. You can also set a savings target and a daily budget through the finance app. All you need to do is sync your savings, checking, credit card, and loan accounts.