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 Overview
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 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.
Premium Plan with a 7-day free-trial, then $14.99 per month or $99.99 annually
- Link bank accounts
- Create unlimited budgets and make customizable categories
- Track individual savings goals
- Graphs and charts that track your spending and savings
- No free plan
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
- Can get 50% off your first year with code LOVE50 (Offer expires 2/28/25)
- Over 13,000 bank accounts available to be linked
- Infinite savings goals
- Automatic transaction categorization
- Monthly budget creation
- Mobile app and website options
- Can add collaborators at no extra cost
- Graphs and charts for data visualization
Monarch Money Cons
- No free version
- Expensive subscription
- Geared toward traditional budgets
- Limited customer service
Budgeting with Monarch Money
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 Fees
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.
Right now you can get 50% off your first year with code LOVE50 (Offer expires 2/28/25).
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 also uses various third-party companies, like Plaid, Fincity, and MX, to connect information from financial institutions.
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.
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, but Monarch Money offers free trial.
Quicken Simplifi no longer offers a 30-day free trial. However, Quicken does offer a 30-day money back guarantee. If you're dissatisfied with Quicken Simplifi after using it, you can contact support within 30 days for a full refund.
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.
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
In 2024, Monarch Money had a beta feature called Monarch AI Assistant, but it's no longer being offered to new customers.
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.
