Top 10 Essential Finance Apps For 2022

If you’re not using smartphone apps to help you manage your personal finances, then you’re missing out. There are so many great apps out there for finance management; they can help you build a budget, identify places where your spending habits could be improved, and remind you to cancel subscriptions, among other things. Whether you’re an Android fanatic or an iOS devotee, you’ll find plenty of apps to help you with your money, so without further ado, here are the top 10 essential finance apps for 2022. Bear in mind that some of these may or may not be available in your territory based on where you’re located. Let’s get started!

1. Your calculator app

Okay, let’s start with a bit of a cop-out, but it’s still a hugely useful app for everyone who wants to manage their finances. Your calculator app can be a huge help when you’re trying to figure out how much you owe to a lender, for example, or how much you’re thinking of incorporating into your budget. Let’s say you’ve taken out a loan for people on benefits or loans on benefits that providers offer, for example, and you want to calculate how much you can afford to pay beyond minimum repayment. Your calculator app is one of the best apps to help you do that, and what’s more, it’s free (and already on your device)!

2. YNAB (You Need A Budget)

If you’re looking to build a serious budget (which you should be if you want to improve your finances), then there are few options better than You Need A Budget, or YNAB for short. Taking inspiration from the “envelope method”, wherein you allocate a certain amount of money to each “envelope” depending on spending area, YNAB helps you keep track of your spending and control your overall budget. It’s essential for anyone serious about their money.

3. Honeydue

Billed as the “finance app for couples”, Honeydue helps couples manage their money, which is helpful as this can be one of the biggest areas of dispute for even the most harmonious partnerships. You can input shared accounts, keep track of both of your spending, and there’s even a sweet little chat applet built in to help you communicate with one another about money. If you’ve ever fought with your significant other about the monthly budget, Honeydue is for you.

4. PocketGuard

Many of the best finance apps out there can blur into one another due to how similar they are, but PocketGuard manages to find a way to stand out. It allows you to check your “pocket”, which contains spending money you’ve allocated for yourself, thus helping you to differentiate between essential spending and money you can afford to use on frivolities. PocketGuard also has all the usual finance app features; you can make budgets, check subscriptions, and much more.

5. Goodbudget

Another excellent financial management app, Goodbudget has subscriptions available for those who want to take advantage of its pro features, but you can also use the free version, which comes with plenty of functionality. Just like YNAB, Goodbudget is based on the envelope method, so it lets you organise your spending into categories, which is helpful if you’re a visually-minded person. It’s also got a very clean, clear user interface, which is a huge plus.

6. Emma

If you’re a UK customer, Emma is for you. It’s one of the best budgeting apps UK customers can download, and it’s packed with features. Rather unusually for a budgeting app like this, the paid version probably isn’t really worth your money, so you’re better off sticking with the free version, which can help you identify unnecessary subscriptions and tell you where to make savings. Emma doesn’t do anything particularly special, but it does what it does extremely well.

7. Plum

Another great UK choice, Plum is perfect for anyone who wants to enter the world of investment (which really isn’t as daunting as many stockbrokers would want you to believe it is). You can set aside a certain amount of money with Plum, and then you have the choice to either put it into a savings account or invest it. If you choose to invest it, Plum will help you by showing you your options and letting you know how much you’ve made from investment each month.

8. Monzo

Technically speaking, Monzo is a bank, but like many other banks, it’s moving further into the budgeting and finance planning space as well. Monzo has built-in features to help you manage your money better, including spending alerts, trends, and a budget planning feature. You can also create spending pots to help you figure out how much you have to spare each month, and Monzo will even send you notifications the instant you spend money with your debit card.

9. Mint

Mint is probably the most fully-featured budget app on this list. The chances are that if you can’t find a feature on Mint, then you don’t really need it. The app syncs with your bank account, allowing you to update spending in real time, and it shows you detailed analytics regarding things like bill payments and credit utilisation. Though the app can occasionally be a little glitchy, it’s still well worth downloading if you’re looking for the be-all and end-all of finance apps.

10. Money Dashboard

Finally, we have another excellent UK option in the form of Money Dashboard. Again, like many of the other apps on this list, Money Dashboard doesn’t reinvent the wheel; rather, it’s content to offer easy-to-digest pie chart-style looks at your spending, as well as a level of security that you’ll appreciate if you’re (justifiably) paranoid about the safety of your accounts. The amount of stuff you get for free with Money Dashboard is seriously impressive, too.