Don’t Let Your Budget Control You:

Review of the Best Free Online Budgeting Tools

 

 

Are you aware of how much money you spend on goods? According to the recent statistics, 50% of American homes are barely making ends meet while the other half is fearful about their current financial situation. But why is the home budget such an issue?

 

If we count that about 157 million people in America have a credit card debt to pay off and add 44 million students sinking into student loans to it, it’s no surprise that many experience budget-related anxieties and worry about the future.

 

However, there is a solution to every problem, and for this one, it hides in the numerous advantages of free online budget tools. Why let your budget control you, when you can manage your daily expenses and plan a safe future? Still, you need to know which tool is best for getting out of the financial rut, so take peek at the best free online budgeting tools.

 

Best Online Budget Management Software

 

There are many free budget tools online to assist with finances and control spending. These applications can provide a better picture of your overall earnings and payments to make it easier for you to save some money and make the most of every paycheck. So, here is a small review of the most popular budget apps on the market today to help you find a perfect fit for you.

 

4.      Personal Capital

 

 

This budget platform has over 1.4 million users, and Personal Capital helps them track around $350 billion in overall assets. The app is free to sign up for, though for a $0, 89% fee one can get some basic financial guidance to better manage their budget.

 

On the other hand, in order to use all the free services Personal Capital has to offer, users have to link their financial accounts to the app interface. After doing so, the accounts will be regularly updated while providing tools for:

 

● Income information;

● Overlook on spending;

● Net worth;

● Holdings;

● Gainers and losers;

 

Despite the fact the software uses algorithms combined with a human advising factor, the reality is that this platform is better suited to those with large account balances and it might not be the best tool for regular people who are trying to actually save a few dollars. As we can see, the app’s main focus is on net worth and unless you pay a small fee, it might get hard to manage the account balance.

 

3.   Mint

 

 

We can’t talk about budgeting without talking about the Mint budget tracking tool. This is one of the more famous free online budgeting tools and it’s easy to use. Sounds perfect, but is it?

When signing up and taking a first look, it all seems great and actually helpful. A simple financial program with over 15 million happy users, easy to download, can be used with joint accounts, and it offers free tools such as:

● Income;

●  Spending (food, clothing, entertainment, transport, and other);

● Transactions;

● Credit score;

 

In addition, Mint allows you to change the transactions after you download them. However, after a certain period of usage, users can start to notice the flaws. Firstly, from time to time one will have to personally correct the mistakes of auto-categorization.

 

Secondly, many can experience difficulties with linking accounts and their management. There are additional issues of logging onto the Mint account that leave numerous consumers dissatisfied. The app is not user-friendly and can’t offer the kind of help with the budget that it is supposed to.

 

2.   YNAB

 

 

You Need A Budget and this app is coming to the rescue. YNAB was created by people who had experienced their fair share of financial troubles until they decided it’s enough and produced a useful software tool to help anyone who is dealing with the same issues.

 

Unlike Mint, this platform is user-friendly and offers additional support through free instructions. Regarding the tools, after joining this community, one can get:

 

● User instructions;

● Live online courses;

● Strategy guides;

●     Assistance in long-term budget plans;

● Debt management;

● Control over the finances;

● Teaming up with a budget partner;

 

Although the app is quite beneficial for the proper management and control of available budget means, as it insists on saving a dollar and spending it on a certain purpose, there is a twist to it. YNAB is not exactly free to use and it costs $5 a month, still, the free trial lasts for 34 days.

 

1.       Cubux

 

 

Saving the best of the free budget tools online for last, Cubux is a free application with a sync focused on the common American household and people’s personal finances. The app is mobile-friendly and available for iOS, Android, and Windows smartphones via Google Play, Microsoft, and iPhone store download.

When it comes to the interface, the software offers visually pleasing and highly functional features of budget control and tracking. Apart from a provided demo to catch up on numerous home accounting tools, Cubux offers a number of options:

 

● Automatically schedules transactions;

● Categorize transactions;

● Provide an insight into the monthly budget;

● Annalise incomes and spending;

● Provide budget saving goals;

● Present multiple currencies and exchange rates;

● Connect unlimited amount of accounts;

● Join teams of your choice for a budget saving collaboration;

● Keep you safe with a password and ability to hide any account from other teams;

● Show a total amount of finances on linked accounts;

 

Apart from the features seen on the best free online budgeting tools, and some unique options of its own, Cubux also has an offline feature for users who want to update their settings on their own time. Likewise, there are no ads with this app and the future looks bright with additional features coming soon, such as loans, multiple reports and charts, and the ability to sync with more banks.

 

Surprisingly, Cubux doesn’t have glitches so far and it really ensures smooth overall budget tracking in real-time and with easy-to-use tools.

  

To sum up, you can always download and try one of the free budget tools online and uninstall it if it doesn’t work the way you need it to. Still, there is a difference in apps and their goals. So think carefully and choose based on the provided information.