Someone once said, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail”.
So after I’ve failed to manage my finances, I decided that something needs to be done about my spending habits. Thus, I turned to expense tracking apps in order to help me better manage my personal finances, lest I spend all of my salary on food delivery and online shopping.
After experimenting with various expense trackers for a week, I’ve finally found the best free apps available for both the PlayStore and Apple Store. Without further ado, here are 10 of the best expense tracker apps for everyone.
Best Expense Tracker Apps for Personal Finance
1. Spendee
Spendee a great household budget planner to control income and expenses. Whether you’re a student or working adult anyone can make good use of this app to track expenses. By linking your credit card and bank account to your Spendee account, you will be able to have better control over your personal finances.
The Spendee app also has charts and graphs which are extremely helpful in visualising your expenditure against your income. In all, Spendee is a great free expense tracker app for anyone who wants a fuss-free experience when it comes to tracking personal finance.
2. Pocket Expense with Sync
Pocket Expense has some of the best features when it comes to free expense tracker apps. The ability to link to multiple bank accounts even in the free version already gives it an edge over the other free expense tracker apps. While this feature is usually prominent in paid versions of expense tracker apps, Pocket Expense is one of the few that offers the service for free.
Furthermore, Pocket Expense also keeps track of your bills to ensure that you will never miss a payment date again! But not it does have its downsides. Users will have to pay to unlock features like unlimited transactions, or otherwise be forced to regularly remove and edit their past expenses to make way for newer records.
3. Expensify
While Expensify is more suitable for corporate situations, it is still worth a mention as one of the best expense tracker apps. As an employee, it is easy to file claims via the Expensify app. And for employers, all employees using the same email domain are linked to the same account, allowing seamless tracking of claims and transactions extremely convenient.
The incredible SmartScan feature for receipts also means users don’t have to manually key in every transaction. Through my personal experience, submitting claims and getting reimbursements are often hassle-free, even as a beginner. The Expensify concierge also helps new users with the step-by-step instructions on how to use and navigate the app.
4. Household Account Book
If adorable cartoons are what you’re into then this free app will get you saving money in no time. The cartoon aesthetics of Household Account Book is vibrant and caters to a younger audience, making it encouraging for children to save.
The adorable app is a great respite from the usual monochromatic expense tracker apps and made managing my finance much more enjoyable and bearable. The features are pretty limited but that’s not a huge problem as this app was more for easy management of finances.
5. Budget Calculator (My Budget)
If you’re in need of a monthly household expense tracker, then Budget Calculator pretty much fits the bill. Transactions are limited to a monthly basis and users are not able to keep track of their daily expenses. This might seem like a bad thing, but for families that simply want a basic monthly tracker, Budget Calculator provides an accurate analysis of how the family’s expenditure.
However, this expense tracker is rather niche, making it tough to track detailed daily spendings. If you’re a frequent traveller, this app will not be the best option as there is no option to change currency.
6. Monny
If you’re new to using such financial management apps, Monny is a great place to start. The fun and engaging pop-up challenges encourages users to save and creates a habit to cumulate savings.
A one-time upgrade fee grants you access to the premium version with all the extra features. But if you’re just looking for a free and reliable expense tracker app, the free and basic of Monny will more than fulfill your financial needs.
7. Zenmoney
Probably the smartest app here, Zenmoney is able to automatically make transaction entries based on incoming text messages. Furthermore, the app encourages saving by showing how much money you have saved using the app and if you would like to transfer that amount to your savings account.
The apps ability to predict future expenses based on your spending habits is also rather impressive. Of course, you should use that as the rough guide and adjust your finances accordingly rather than blindly following the app’s advice.
Either way, Zenmoney is a great overall financial tracker for personal and family use.
8. Money Lover
Money Lover is pretty much all you will ever need in an expense tracker app. It is packed with features and allows users to link their credit card and various accounts including crypto-currency (if you’re into that kind of thing). The security is also top-notch which includes a fingerprint recognition feature should your phone support it. It has all the useful functions: multiple accounts and currencies, budgeting and a savings planner.
Overall, there isn’t much to complain about Money Lover and anyone using it for personal finances will be very satisfied.
9. TouchStyle
TouchStyle was created by the local Islamic bank Bank Rakyat to help its users manage their expenses effectively. The dashboard gives a near overview of monthly expenses and the remaining budget a user has. The app also has a savings trackers and graph chart that gives the user a sense of his/her monthly expenses.
Of course, Bank Rakyat customers will benefit the most out of this app. With exclusive features like showing the nearest ATM and Bank Rakyat e-banking, the average user will not be able to take full advantage of this expense tracker’s features.
Unfortunately, the app’s user interface isn’t as optimised as the rest on this list and can be a little buggy at times.
10. My Tabung
My Tabung is another local expense tracker app developed in Malaysia. But unlike TouchStyle, this app targets a more general audience instead of users of Bank Negara Malaysia alone. It provides advice and tips for saving, which will be good for those who want to manage their personal finance better. There’s also a budgeting feature and an analysis of the month’s savings in the form of a pie chart.
However, the spending categories are rather limited as it is designed for household and personal expense tracking purposes. Users who are looking for an expense tracker app to meticulously sort their expenses may need to look elsewhere.
That concludes our list of the 10 best expense tracker apps that will help you to manage your finances better! We hope you will find this useful and let us know of any other expense tracker apps that will work wonders for us!