The Salary Calculator

As we enter a new financial year, it’s always worth doing a spring clean of your finances to see where you’re at, plan ahead, and save – if that’s on your agenda. This is where budgeting apps come in. These days, there are so many to choose from, with each offering a range of different features perfect for accommodating people’s varying needs.

This week, at The Salary Calculator, we’ll walk you through the following:

• How to find the best budgeting app for you,
• How a budgeting app can benefit you,
• Some of the best apps on the market right now.

How to evaluate which is the best budgeting app for you

When you’re determining the best budgeting app for you, there are a number of factors that you’ll want to consider; for example, first and foremost, it’s important to check that the app is available on your device – so check whether it’s available on App Store (for iOS) or Google Play (for Android).

Another consideration is whether or not the app is free, or offers a free trial. Luckily, the majority of the best apps on the market are entirely free and offer a wide range of features. However, there are apps that are tiered and only offer users certain features based on their subscription level.

An incredibly important feature of an app, especially when you’re providing personal information and, in some cases, access and syncing to your bank accounts, is security. In such situations, assurance that your data is protected is of utmost importance. Check to see if the app is FCA regulated, whether there’s multi-factor authentication to prove your identity, and encryption.

Customisability is also a key consideration, and having the option to make a budgeting app work for you, and add your own spending, budgeting, and saving categories can really help you get in control of your finances.

How can budgeting apps benefit you?

Budgeting has a whole raft of benefits, including giving you insight into your spending habits. This is especially true with apps that have a more visual element and include graphs and charts. Seeing this data organised into clear categories can really help break down the numbers.

Once you have a snapshot of your spending habits, this can give you the power to identify areas where you could be overspending and, subsequently, help you create a savings plan. Savings plans can have a wide range of different applications, whether it’s wanting to save for a holiday, a new course, or even more long-term goals, like saving for the deposit on your first house, or creating a retirement fund.

Another element of this could be creating an emergency fund, which can act as a parachute when facing financially difficult times.

What are some of the best budgeting apps?

Below, we’ll walk you through some of the best budgeting apps on offer.

Money Dashboard – This app is award-winning and stole the title of ‘best personal finance app” in 2017, 2018, 2020 and 2021. It allows you to categorise your transactions automatically and is also highly customisable and comprehensive. Another plus is that it is very visual, with graphs and charts that help break down your income and expenditure easily. It also has an income and expenditure prediction function and is totally free with no premium features.

Some of the drawbacks are that it’s not the easiest budgeting app to set up, and it takes a fair bit of input to personalise and categorise.

Plum – Plum is similar to Money Dashboard, but instead utilises its AI function to calculate how much you can afford to save, based on your previous spending habits. Further to this, based on its analysis of your data, it also makes recommendations for how to save.

It does, however, have tiered membership, all offering different features, which are as follows:

• Plum Basic – free
• Plum Plus – £2.99 a month
• Plum Pro – £4.99 a month
• Plum Premium – £9.99 a month

With all premium tiers, customers also have the option of a free 30-day trial.

It’s also important to note that there are different pockets where you keep your funds. The primary pocket offers instant access to your funds but does not pay any interest and is also not protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). Easy Access pockets are FSCS protected, but also require you to give one day’s notice for withdrawal of funds and pay interest. With premium accounts, you can also access higher interest.

Hyperjar – This app is often highlighted as a go-to for couples and families and is a budgeting app with a twist. With this app, you use a prepaid card, which you load your money onto. From there, via the app, you assign money to different jars which you label. A useful feature is that you can even auto-link shops to the jars and use those jars to pay when you visit a particular store.

When abroad, you can use this for purchasing goods and services with no foreign transaction fees applied.

Any money that you load onto your cards is managed by Modulr FS Limited, an authorised Electronic Money Institution which is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, but your money is not covered by the FSCS. Another drawback is that you can’t make ATM withdrawals with this app.

Cleo – Cleo targets the younger generation and has been dubbed the Gen Z super app. It’s a money management app that uses an AI chatbot as a financial assistant. It tracks your spending patterns, helps you manage your budget, and recommends amounts to save in your Cleo Wallet.

Unlike some of the other apps on our list, it’s simple and straightforward to set up; that said, the free version of the app is considerably more limited than some of the other free apps on our list.

Its premium versions include:

• Cleo+ which costs £5.99 and comes with an overdraft service that’s interest-free and must be paid back within 3 to 28 days and also offers cashback.
• Cleo Builder, on the other hand, is a much pricier version, at £14.99 per month, and primarily functions to improve your credit score.

Emma – Like some of the other apps we’ve listed, Emma uses open banking to connect and combine all your bank accounts, investments and credit cards. This means that you can get a snapshot of all your spending in one place. One of the key free features of Emma is that it allows you to identify all of your different subscriptions, even the ones that you’ve forgotten about.

You can also enter your payday date and set a monthly budget and it offers a fee tracker and savings advice. This is another app which is easy to set up and navigate, which is a huge plus for those who don’t feel particularly tech-savvy, but there are some drawbacks. The Emma app doesn’t work with all banks, for example; compatible banks include:

• American Express,
• Barclays,
• First Direct,
• Lloyds,
• Nationwide,
• NatWest,
• TSB,
• Revolut,
• Starling Bank,
• Monzo.

Additionally, the app doesn’t offer users a day-by-day or month-by-month comparison, so it isn’t as comprehensive as other apps.

Likewise, as with some of the other apps on our list, you won’t be able to access some of the features without premium subscriptions:

• Emma Basic is free,
• Emma Plus is £4.99 per month,
• Emma Pro is £9.99 per month,
• Emma Ultimate is £14.99 per month.