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Business Insider’s personal finance team compared Monarch Money to the best budgeting apps and found it to be an industry leader. It’s feature-rich, allowing you to create infinite savings goals, make a zero-balance budget, and connect accounts from over 13,000 financial institutions. That being said, there’s no free version of the app, and the subscription is on the pricey side.
Monarch Money Budgeting App Review
Monarch Money’s primary purpose is to help you figure out how to budget your funds and create savings goals. In order to do that, it lets you connect your bank accounts, credit cards, investments, loans, and cryptocurrency accounts so you can automatically track each account simultaneously. The app even lets you look up your home address and your car’s VIN number so it can track the value of both.
If you have an account that isn’t supported, you can choose to create a manual account. You can name the account, say what type of account it is (such as savings, 401(k), or mortgage), and put in how much it’s worth. You’ll still have to track changes to your account manually, but it can help you get a more complete picture of your finances.
Once you’ve linked all of your accounts, Monarch Money will automatically group each of your transactions into categories like entertainment, groceries, and medical. If you think one of your transactions has been miscategorized, you can go in and change the category. The app also lets you create custom categories. Each category belongs to a group; for example, the categories groceries, restaurants and bars, and coffee shops all belong to the food and dining group.
You can also make infinite savings goals in the app. For example, you can make a savings goal for your emergency fund, set how much money you want this savings goal to have long-term, connect one or more bank accounts, indicate what money in the accounts goes toward the savings goal, and indicate how much you plan to put into this savings goal each month. The app will show you how close you are to completing your savings goals and take them into account when you create your budget.
Monarch Money is designed to help you build a traditional, zero-balance budget each month. This means it will help you make it so your monthly income equals your monthly expenses. You can set how much you’ll make each month and how much you plan to spend on each group and category, as well as how much you plan to put toward savings goals. Monarch Money will show when you’ve gone over budget for a specific category. This can be helpful if you have a steady income and are prepared to spend some time each month going over your budget, but this is a fairly time-consuming way to budget, and it can be very hard to make work if you have a variable income.
One of Monarch Money’s biggest draws is its diagrams. To help you figure out how to budget, Monarch Money automatically generates charts that help you visualize your spending. This includes area charts that show the change in your total net worth, line charts that compare your spending this month to last month’s spending, and Sankey diagrams that show where all of your income goes each month.
Monarch Money has a website you can use in conjunction with the app. It also lets you invite people onto your account at no additional cost, which could be helpful if you have joint bank accounts with a significant other.
The biggest drawback to Monarch Money is its cost, which could be especially frustrating if your main goal is to figure out how to save money. Monarch Money has a Premium Plan with a 7-day free-trial, then $14.99 per month or $99.99 annually. It doesn’t have a free version. Other budgeting apps, like Rocket Money or Honeydue, come with free versions, and many of its competitors are less expensive. That being said, Monarch Money currently lets you get your first annual subscription 30% off if you use the code WELCOME to sign up on the web version of the app.
Monarch Money
Insider’s Rating
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3.75/5
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Perks
Fees
Premium Plan with a 7-day free-trial, then $14.99 per month or $99.99 annually
Pros
Check mark icon
A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction.
Link bank accounts
Check mark icon
A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction.
Create unlimited budgets and make customizable categories
Check mark icon
A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction.
Track individual savings goals
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A check mark. It indicates a confirmation of your intended interaction.
Graphs and charts that track your spending and savings
Cons
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No free plan
Insider’s Take
Monarch Money is an overall solid option if you prioritize creating monthly budgets and saving for individual savings goals. The main downside of the app is that it doesn’t offer a free plan. You’ll have to a monthly or annual subscription fee.
Monarch Money Pros and Cons
Monarch Money Pros
Over 13,000 bank accounts available to be linkedInfinite savings goalsAutomatic transaction categorizationMonthly budget creationMobile app and website optionsCan add collaborators at no extra costGraphs and charts for data visualization
Monarch Money Cons
No free versionExpensive subscriptionGeared toward traditional budgetsLimited customer service
Monarch Money Customer Ratings and Reviews
Monarch Money is a fintech app available for both iOS and Android. It’s well-rated, with a 4.9 rating on the Apple store and a 4.7 rating on the Google Play store. It can also be used through its website.
Customer service options are limited. You can send them an email or submit a request through your app’s settings menu or through the help center. Monarch Money does not have a phone line for customer service.
If you’re switching to a new budgeting app after the Mint shutdown, Monarch Money lets you import your Mint history using a CSV file.
Is Monarch Money Trustworthy?
As part of our review, we report on the ethics of each company we cover so you can get a sense of whether the company’s values align with yours.
We include what lawsuits and controversies a company has been involved with in the past three years, as well as the company’s Better Business Bureau rating, to give you a sense of how the business interacts with its customers.
Monarch Money has not been rated by the BBB yet, possibly because it’s a relatively new app. It hasn’t been involved in any recent lawsuits or controversies.
Monarch Money Alternatives
Monarch Money vs. Rocket Money
Rocket Money will probably be your choice if you’re looking for a free budgeting app. Rocket Money is free to create a budget (subscription fee applies to premium services) Its subscription fee is between $6 and $12 on a sliding scale, although you’ll have to pay annually for lower prices. Rocket Money also offers bill negotiation, which lets you upload a bill that Rocket Money will review to see if it can get you a lower price. Monarch Money doesn’t have any similar features.
If you’re interested in using charts and data to help with your budget, you might prefer Monarch Money. Monarch Money provides more detailed charts and is more focused on budgeting features than Rocket Money.
Rocket Money Review
Monarch Money vs. Quicken Simplifi
If you’re interested in the less expensive option, you’ll probably want to go with Quicken Simplifi. Quicken Simplifi has a $5.99 monthly subscription or $71.88 annual subscription, which is less expensive than Monarch Money. Neither app comes with a free version, although both offer free trials.
Whether you prefer Monarch Money over Quicken Simplifi might just depend on which app’s design feels better to you. Since both apps have free trials, consider signing up for both to see which one feels more intuitive to you. Just make sure to cancel your subscription to your least favorite before the trial’s up.
Quicken Simplifi Review
Why You Should Trust Us: How We Reviewed Monarch Money
Business Insider’s budgeting app rating methodology is similar to our bank account rating methodology. We start by rating several categories, including app pricing, availability, customer reviews, usability, customer support, and trustworthiness, on a scale from 0 to 5. We then average each score together to get a budgeting app’s overall score.
Monarch Money FAQs
Monarch Money is a budgeting app designed to help you monitor your spending and create savings goals.
Yes, Monarch Money is a legit budgeting app. It’s available on both the Google Play store and the Apple App store.
You cannot use Monarch Money for free, outside of a seven-day free trial available when you sign up. After the seven days pass, you’ll have to pay a subscription to use the app.
Monarch Money has a Premium Plan with a 7-day free-trial, then $14.99 per month or $99.99 annually.
Monarch Money could be a good replacement for Mint if you’re OK with spending money. Unlike Mint, Monarch Money isn’t free; it has a Premium Plan with a 7-day free-trial, then $14.99 per month or $99.99 annually.
Kit Pulliam
Banking reporter
Kit Pulliam (they/them) is a banking expert who specializes in certificates of deposit, savings accounts, and checking accounts. They’ve been reporting, editing, and fact-checking personal finance stories for more than four years. ExperienceIn college, Kit worked as an undergraduate research assistant in a psychology lab. While there, they found that they were passionate about writing and helping others write about topics that matter.Before Business Insider, Kit was an editorial specialist for Tax Analysts, diving into the tax code to help readers get the best information about a confusing but necessary subject.They find banking similar to taxes in that way: There are some things everyone needs to know because just about everyone needs to work with a bank — and you don’t want to end up with an account that doesn’t serve your needs.As interest rates change, they enjoy the fast pace of reviewing rates for products like CDs and high-yield savings, which can change daily and have a direct impact on readers’ money.Their work has been featured in Business Insider and MSN. They were part of the My Financial Life series with Business Insider.ExpertiseTheir expertise includes:Certificates of depositSavings accountsChecking accountsCD ratesBank reviewsEducationKit is an alumnus of Vanderbilt University, where they studied English and psychology and received the Jum C. Nunnally Honors Research Award for their senior thesis.Outside personal finance, Kit enjoys reading, film, video games, and cross stitching. They are based in the DC area.
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