Best Budgeting Apps Australia

Lady holding Australian currency. five dollar note

With the cost of living making even basic day-to-day expenses harder to meet for most Brisbane families, finding ways to be more clever with our budgeting can be a life saver. For this reason, budgeting apps are incredibly useful for families looking for ways to keep track of their spending. With tools that allow you to monitor, track and allocate your money effectively, these apps are designed to make staying on top of costs and bills easier. Out of all the budgeting apps that are currently available, we have found what we believe are the best budgeting apps Australia wide.

Best Budgeting Apps Australia – Free

Frollo

Availability: iOS and Google Play

Cost: Free

Frollo is a FREE app that will not only allow you to get a broad overview of your entire financial situation, but also help you to budget, save, and work towards paying off debts too. By allowing you to link all of your financial institutions together within the app, including bank accounts, loyalty points, investment portfolios and even superannuation, you will be able to keep track of your overall wealth as well as expenditures in real time.

Key Features:

Set budgets by category and track what you spend
Goal setting (to save for something like a holiday, or to pay off a debt)
Sync from Australian bank accounts – including superannuation and investments
Automatically categorises transactions
Automatic bill tracking
Keep track of your net worth
Bank-level security and encryption
Track tax-deductible expenses

GetReminded

Availability: iOS and Google Play

Cost: Free

When the bills are coming in thick and fast it can sometimes be hard to stay on top of which ones are due and when. This is where the GetReminded app can be an absolute godsend. By allowing you to input bills and due dates, the app can send you reminders ahead of time. It can also let you know when household contracts and bills are set to expire, such as utility bills, car insurance and registration, and subscriptions. Another handy feature is its ability to help you compare the market and look for cheaper policy options. Alerts are sent to your phone and email with the relevant advertiser’s offers so you can start shopping around straight from the app. Something many of us always want to do but never seem to get round to doing.

Key Features:

Set reminders in multiple categories for all household costs
Automated bill reminders ahead of time
Annual cost summaries for household contracts
Can recommend cheaper policies

Best Budgeting Apps Australia – Cost involved

WeMoney

Availability: iOS and Google Play

Cost: Free basic plan, with the paid WeMoney Pro costing $9.99 per month (first 7 days free)

If one of the main reasons you are searching for a good budgeting app is to help you pay down an existing debt, then WeMoney should be the first one you look at adding to your phone. Helping you keep track of your overall ‘financial wellness’, this budgeting app will allow you to connect all of your financial accounts in one place and then work towards clearing the outstanding debt you may have through a carefully managed budget. You can track your bills and subscriptions, set up money goals, and even keep track of your credit score.

Key Features:

Connect all financial accounts
Track credit score
Connect with other users for community tips
Create budgets
Get bill reminders
Manage subscriptions
Goal tracking

Buddy: Money & Budget Planner

Availability: iOS

Cost: Free to download, however users must pay a subscription to unlock full functionality. Buddy Premium costs $4.99 per month or $34.99 per year.

Buddy is the best budgeting app when you need to share expenses and keep track of budgets with a number of people. If you have a shared trip coming up, or even if you’d just like to share your budgeting journey with your partner, family or friends, the app allows you to invite other members into your budgets so that everyone can get a clear picture on who spends what. Users can also import all their transactions from their bank accounts to see how their budget is doing. The app enables you to share distribution of costs for specific events and bills too.

Key features:

Shared budgets and cost distributions for events and bills
Invite other members into the budget
Sync from Australian bank accounts
Split function allows you to see who paid what and how to settle up the bill
Users can create their own categories and choose the colour themes of the app
Can set up multiple accounts as well as any debt to see total net worth

Goodbudget

Availability: iOS and Google Play

Cost: Free basic plan, with a paid plan costing US$8 per month or US$70 per year.

Although Goodbudget is an American app, its availability and popularity in Australia make it one that is definitely worth looking into. Using the old-fashioned but much-loved ‘envelope’ method of saving, Goodbudget helps you manually divide your funds up into clearly labelled envelopes. By allocating certain amounts to each category / bill, you can set yourself a limit as to how much you have available to spend. By linking to your financial accounts, the app can present you with spending pie charts and can even export your data to Microsoft Excel.

Key Features:

Great budgeting app for beginners
Simple ‘envelope’ system of fund allocation
Export data to Microsoft Excel
Reports generated, such as an income vs spending report
Spending analysis for each envelope, including pie-charts
Schedule transactions and automatic envelope fills

YNAB (You Need A Budget)

Availability: iOS

Cost: After free 30 day trial, $14.99/month or $99/year.

YNAB, short for You Need A Budget, is another American app that works just as well for Australian’s looking to budget, save money and get out of debt. Focussing only on your present financial situation, the app helps you work out what your priorities are and makes sure each dollar has a job to perform. The app can provide you with a number of extra features including goal tracking and financial habit reporting, but it is the support from YNAB staff that can make it a more effective journey, with dozens of online workshops available to assist you. The app allows you to share your budgeting plans with others and link your financial accounts too.