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Attention Canadians – are you ready to crush your financial targets? Personal finance and budgeting apps can help you stay on top of your spending habits and maintain a budget that fits your lifestyle.
Gone are the days of clumsy budget spreadsheets. Budgeting apps are designed for mobile devices and their slick, usable interfaces make it simple to balance your budget from wherever you are. These are the best budgeting apps in Canada and are the best for managing your finances.
What do budgeting apps do?
Many budgeting apps do a lot more than just help you track your spending. These Canadian budgeting apps also allow you to:
- Automatically set spending limits
- Pay down debt
- Analyze expenses
- Contribute to your savings
They can also help you grow your savings and put your money to work on autopilot through scheduled savings and investments.
Personal finance apps can often be synced to your financial institutions, allowing you to safely and securely monitor your personal bank accounts, investments, and credits card profiles. Some of the apps even allow you to link to family member’s accounts to help you to keep household expenses in check and make shared bill payments quickly and easily.
Moola’s Picks for the Best Budgeting Apps in Canada in 2021
It’s no secret that Moola wants you to save money and be financially savvy, which is why we have put together a stellar list of our favorite personal finance and budgeting apps available in Canada in 2021. These apps may help Canadians finally afford that house in Toronto!
1. You Need a Budget (YNAB)
Accounts for every dollar you make and puts it to work.
Cost: $11.99/month or $84/year
You Need a Budget. That’s right, it’s that simple, we all need a budget and this app makes it easy to maintain one.
Unlike other budget apps that use the bucket approach or envelope strategy for saving, YNAB is unique in that it accounts for every dollar you make and assigns it a specific task, such as bill payments, savings or investments. This app is popular with couples and young professionals in Canada. YNAB charges a small fee, but makes up for it with its online workshops, tutorials and personal support that will help take your money management skills to the next level.
2. Mint
Well-rounded and established personal finance tool.
Cost: Free
Mint is created by Intuit, the software company responsible for QuickBooks and TurboTax, so it’s no surprise that this budgeting app is one of the best in Canada on the market.
Mint allows you to link your existing accounts, track your investments, set alerts, and manage your bills
Its sleek dashboard gives you a quick overview of your financial data, which gets automatically updated each time you log on.
Mint also allows you to create your own customized categories and considers your income and spending amount to create a personalized budget for each of your spending categories. No wonder this app continues to help Canadians stop living paycheque to paycheque.
3. Moka (previously Mylo)
Automatically rounds up your purchases and invests your spare change.
Cost: $3/month for automatic saving; $15/month for a full-service 360 account
Moka isn’t a traditional budgeting app, but this Montreal-based company made it to our list of best personal finance apps because of its serious investment chops. This app automatically rounds up the cost of your purchases to the nearest dollar and invests the difference in a low-cost ETF for you.
How it works:
Say, for example, you spend $2.10 on a coffee. Moka will automatically round your purchase up to $3.00 and deposit the remaining $0.90 from your purchase directly into your ETF investment fund. Basically, it’s like you are getting richer on your coffee break and that is something we can really get behind.
4. PocketGuard
Prevents overspending and helps lower your bills.
Cost: Free
PocketGuard is designed to help you take control of your personal finances by showing you how much you are actually spending. The budgeting app is one of the best because it allows you to sync all your accounts and predicts how much discretionary income you will have after paying your bills.
While PocketGuard may not have as many features as some of the other budgeting apps, one of our favorite features is their “Lower Your Bills” tool, which analyzes your reoccurring bill payments and makes recommendations for ways to increase your savings.
5. Goodbudget
Budget tracking tool that uses the traditional envelope-budgeting strategy.
Cost: Free or $7/month for plus version
Goodbudget allows you to create spending categories, using the traditional envelope budgeting strategy or basket approach to budgeting. You decide how much you want to fund each category, helping you build good budgeting habits. It also allows you to sync your accounts with family members, save for big expenses, or pay down debt and it will track your spending.
6. Honeydue
Helps you get on the same financial page as your partner.
Cost: Free
It’s no secret that finances can put a strain on relationships. Honeydue is designed to help Canadian couples share the details of each other’s personal bank accounts, credit cards, loans and investments. Don’t worry, each partner can determine what information they would like to share, but the idea is that you can work together to manage your finances as a team and, hopefully, cut down on some of the arguments over money.
7. Wally
Makes it easy to track foreign currency exchange.
Cost: Free
Do you love to travel to different countries or have financial accounts in multiple currencies or countries? If so, then Wally could be the best budgeting software app for you.
Wally tracks over 200+ foreign currencies and helps you easily convert your transactions. With over 15,000 banks available in 70 countries, Wally enables you to sync and manage all your foreign accounts in one place.
8. Your Current Personal Bank’s App
Don’t overlook your personal bank’s potential budgeting capabilities. These days, Canadian financial institutions are making significant investments into their digital services and that includes adding and improving budgeting features on their apps.
All of Canada’s Big 5 banks have tons of budgeting tools and personal finance features. Working with your own banks’ app makes is quick and simple for you to monitor your accounts, handle transfers, pay bills and seamlessly access investment funds.
I have accounts with a few Canadian online banks, including Tangerine and WealthSimple, but even my local credit union’s app has integrated some fantastic budgeting features into their app.
9. Moola
Moola is a free app that enables you to buy (and give) eGift cards to nearly 200 retailers across Canada. With bonuses and a built-in savings calculator, Moola is the best budgeting app to help you track your spending and save on all your everyday needs such as gas, grocery, and dining out, as well as one-off purchases such as hotels, furniture, clothing, and more.
Only want to spend $500 on groceries this month, $200 on dining out, and $100 on entertainment?
By using giftcards and buying them at a discount with Moola, you can buy set amounts at the retailers you shop at each week (or month) to stay within your budget.
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