The 5 Best Free & Paid Budgeting Apps Including Mint, YNAB

Budgeting can seem like a nightmare with tricky spreadsheets and a million paper receipts but a budgeting app can do the heavy lifting for you. A budgeting app can help you budget with ease, take control of your finances and work toward your goals.

Whether your focus is trimming expenses or paying off debt, budgeting — with an app or otherwise — is a powerful strategy to make your financial life less stressful.

To help you achieve more financial freedom, we rounded up the best budgeting apps — both free and paid — for Android or Apple devices. These apps aim to simplify budgeting, automate mundane tasks and even connect to your bank account to pull in and categorize purchases automatically.

What Is the Best Budgeting App for You?

There are several things to consider when you’re looking for a good budgeting app.

• Flexibility: You may want the flexibility to customize your budget based on various factors, such as different types of income (ie cash tips, side hustle) and the kind of budget you like to use.

• Account syncing: Budgeting apps can do a little or a lot. You may prefer to manually track transactions. Or maybe you want real-time tracking on transactions for some or all of your accounts.

• User experience: How an app functions can vary. Are you OK with ads? Credit card offers? Categories that can’t be personalized?

• Cost: Some budget apps are free. Some are paid. Some are…