Best Monarch Money Alternative in 2025 (Free Options Compared)

Monarch Money is a polished personal finance app — but at $14.99/month ($99.99/year), it's one of the priciest budgeting tools on the market. If you're looking for the same features without the subscription, you have solid options in 2025.

This guide covers the best Monarch Money alternatives — free and paid — with an honest feature-by-feature comparison.

What Makes Monarch Money Good (And Expensive)

Monarch Money launched in 2021 as a replacement for the discontinued Mint. It offers:

• Bank account syncing (via Plaid)
• Budget tracking with rollover budgets
• Net worth tracking across all accounts
• Investment portfolio view
• Goal tracking
• Collaborative budgets (shared with a partner)
• Clean, modern interface

The problem: $14.99/month is $180/year just to track your spending. For most people, free alternatives cover 90% of the same ground.

Best Free Monarch Money Alternatives

1. PenniesTrack — Best Free Overall Alternative

Cost: Free forever (Pro at $5.99/mo for AI features)

PenniesTrack covers everything Monarch does except bank syncing — and it does so completely free. Instead of connecting your bank (which requires sharing your login credentials), you import transactions via CSV export from your bank or enter them manually.

What you get for free:

• Unlimited transactions and accounts
• Budget tracking with visual progress bars and overspending alerts
• Net worth chart and 12-month trend
• Savings goals with progress tracking
• Debt payoff planner (avalanche and snowball)
• Recurring bills and subscription tracker
• Monthly and yearly spending reports
• Multi-currency support (works worldwide)
• AI Budget Advisor (1 free insight/month, 50/month on Pro)

The key difference from Monarch: no automatic bank sync, but no $15/month fee either. For most people who check their finances weekly, CSV import or manual entry takes under 5 minutes.

Try PenniesTrack free →

2. Copilot Money — Best for Apple Users (Paid)

Cost: $13/month or $95/year

Copilot is iOS and macOS only. It has a beautiful interface and strong automatic categorization. But it's nearly as expensive as Monarch and only works on Apple devices.

Best for: iPhone/Mac users who want polished automatic tracking and don't mind paying.

3. Goodbudget — Best for Envelope Budgeting (Free Tier)

Cost: Free (10 envelopes) or $10/month

Goodbudget uses the envelope budgeting method — you allocate money into virtual envelopes before spending. No bank sync; manual entry only.

Best for: Couples who want to budget together; envelope budgeting fans.

4. Empower Personal Dashboard — Best for Investments (Free)

Cost: Free (upsells wealth management services)

Empower (formerly Personal Capital) is strong for investment tracking and net worth. The budgeting features are basic. The free version is a lead-gen tool for their wealth management services.

Best for: People with significant investment portfolios who want a free net worth dashboard.

Feature Comparison Table

Who Should Switch From Monarch Money?

Switch to PenniesTrack if:

• You want all the core budgeting features for free
• You don't need automatic bank sync
• You travel or live outside the US
• You want a debt payoff planner included at no cost

Stick with Monarch if:

• Automatic bank sync is non-negotiable for you
• You use the collaborative budget feature with a partner
• You have investments you want to track in the same app

The Bottom Line

Monarch Money is a quality app, but $180/year is hard to justify when free alternatives like PenniesTrack cover budgeting, net worth tracking, debt payoff, and bills at zero cost. The main trade-off is manual transaction entry vs. automatic sync — a 5-minute weekly habit vs. $15/month.

Start tracking your money free with PenniesTrack →