Best budget apps available in Australia

If you want your money to work for you, apps are an easy way to get started (and keep you on track). They can show you all your money in one place, help you set and reach money goals and even give you different ways to earn more. Here are our top 10 picks based on ratings, features and popularity:

Best budget apps

Pocketbook

Pocketbook gives you a way to see your bank accounts, credit cards and loan accounts in one place. Founded in Australia in 2012, it works with over 80% of Australian banking data, automatically categorises your transactions and lets you set up budgets for anything.

Other features include:

• Budget tracking to help you stay focused on goals
• Bill payment reminders
• Category limits and tracking to help you avoid overspending
• An activity feed with the latest insights on your money

Cost: Free

Compatibility:

• iPhone, iPad, iPod touch (OS 12.0 or later) and Mac computers with an Apple M1 chip and MacOS 11.0 or later
• Android devices (Android 6 or later)

PocketSmith Sidekick

The PocketSmith Sidekick app is great if you have accounts in Australia and overseas because it works with over 12,000 financial institutions around the world.

Founded in New Zealand in 2008, PocketSmith works as a web app or mobile app, with a free version that lets you manually add account details, make up to 12 budgets and get a 6-month projection of your finances. The paid plans give you a lot more scope, including:

• Automatic and manual transaction imports
• Automatic bank feeds
• Automatic categorisation
• 10-year or 30-year finance projections (depending on the plan)

Cost: Free basic plan. Paid plans cost between $8.25 and $21.95 per month.

Compatibility:

• iPhone, iPad, iPod touch (OS 11.0 or later) and Macs with an Apple M1 chip and MacOS 11.0 or later
• Android devices (Android 5 or later)

Goodbudget

This app is based on the envelope budgeting strategy, where you put different amounts of money into envelopes based on what you'll spend it on (e.g. bills, rent and dining). It's a lot easier to see and manage through an app - and more environmentally friendly, too.

Other features include:

• Spending analysis for each envelope, including pie-charts
• Income vs. spending reports
• Progress tracking for paying off debt, saving money or any other goal
• Community support
• Sharable budgets

Cost: Free basic plan, with a paid plan costing US$8 per month or US$70 per year.

Compatibility:

• iPhone, or iPod touch (OS 12.0 or later)
• Android devices (Android 5 or later)

Frollo

Frollo is an Australian fintech best known for providing open banking services to brands like BOQ, REA Group and Volt. Its personal finance app also uses this technology to let you add accounts from different banks and lenders, with similar features to other budget apps.

A highlight is the downloadable "Financial Passport" that shows your income, spending, assets and liabilities for the last 12 months – which could be useful when you're applying for loans or talking to a broker.

Other features include:

• Smart money tips and notifications
• Separate budgets based on goals, with visuals that track your progress
• A dashboard for tracking your net worth

Cost: Free

Compatibility:

• iPhone, iPad, iPod touch (OS 12.0 or later) and Mac computers with an Apple M1 chip and MacOS 11.0 or later
• Android devices (Android 6 or later)

Best investing apps

Raiz

Raiz gives you an easy way to start investing with as little as $5. Launched in 2016, it was one of the first micro-investing apps in Australia and offers 6 standard investment portfolios to suit different risk levels – including one focused on ethical and sustainable options.

Key features include:

• Round-ups for your spending to invest small change
• Recurring investments
• Flexibility to deposit or withdraw funds at any time
• Set savings goals
• Investment-tracking tools and analysis
• A Sapphire portfolio that includes Bitcoin
• Custom portfolios
• Options for super as well

Cost: Free for accounts with a $0 balance. Standard portfolios start from $3.50 per month.

Compatibility:

• iPhone, iPad, iPod touch (OS 12.0 or later) and Mac computers with an Apple M1 chip and MacOS 11.0 or later
• Android devices (Android 5 or later)

Finder Earn

Okay, we might be a bit biased, but this feature of the Finder app gives you a way to earn 4.01% p.a. on your capital, starting from just $25.

It works by converting your Australian dollars into TrueAUD (TAUD) stablecoins, which are lent to Finder in exchange for the 4.01% p.a. return. You can also transfer the capital back to your bank account at any time.

Other key investing and money features of the Finder app include:

• Crypto trading
• Transaction feeds for your bank accounts
• Automatic categorisation of transactions and bills

Cost: Free

Compatibility:

• iPhone, iPad, iPod touch (OS 12.0 or later) and Mac computers with an Apple M1 chip and MacOS 11.0 or later
• Android devices (Android 5 or later)

eToro

eToro is one of the big names in the investment app space – particularly for social features like CopyTrade, which lets you automatically copy the trades made by top-performing members.

It has $0 fees for US stock trading, and also offers cryptocurrency and CFDs (contracts for difference).

Other features include:

• A virtual portfolio of $100,000 so you can test out features without any risk
• No commission for stocks and ETFs
• Market research, analysis and charts
• Ready-made portfolios
• Crypto (1% fee)

Cost: Free. Notable fees include a $5 withdrawal fee, $10 monthly inactivity fee and conversion fees when you're trading currencies.

Compatibility:

• iPhone, iPad, iPod touch (OS 11.0 or later) and Mac computers with an Apple M1 chip and MacOS 11.0 or later
• Android devices (Android 5.1 or later)

Best money management apps

ATO app

The ATO's official app gives you a way to manage your tax and superannuation from one place. Its popular myDeductions tool lets you easily store receipts and expenses on your device, which you can then upload to the ATO to pre-fill your tax return, or email directly to your accountant.

Other features include:

• See when tax lodgements and payments are due
• Check the status of your tax return once it's been lodged
• View your employment income
• View superannuation details
• Access ATO tools including payment services and tax calculators

Cost: Free

Compatibility:

• iPhone, iPad, iPod touch (OS 13.0 or later)
• Android devices (Android 5 or later)

Beem

Previously known as Beem It, this free app lets you use your phone to send and get money in seconds when you add a Visa or Mastercard. Backed by eftpos, it's incredibly popular and has one of the highest App Store ratings we saw for this guide at the time of writing.

Key features include:

• Pay anyone on Beem using their handle
• Track and split expenses with a group
• Automatically sends requests and reminders to people when you're owed money
• Transfer money between your cards, including between banks
• BPAY payments

You can add up to 5 cards, and get the most features if you add a debit card – including payments to other people. If you add a credit card, you'll be able to use it for gift cards, BPAY and Beem Checkout.

Cost: Free

Compatibility:

• iPhone, iPad, iPod touch (OS 14.0 or later)
• Android devices (Android 6.0 or later)

Splitwise

Splitwise lets you track and pay for shared expenses between two or more people. You can easily add groups to the app and leave comments on expenses, making it handy if you're splitting bills, dinner, transport or anything else.

But keep in mind that you can't make actual payments through the app in Australia – that has to happen through your bank account or PayPal.

Other features include:

• Categorise expenses
• Split expenses by a percentage or chosen amount
• Set up recurring expenses
• Offline mode
• Receipt scanning (Pro version)
• Currency conversion (Pro version)

Cost: Free with in-app purchases from $0.99 to $39.99 (including for the Pro version)

Compatibility:

• iPhone, iPad, iPod touch (OS 12.0 or later)
• Android, but version varies with device (check Google Play on your device for compatibility)

What about my bank's app?

A growing number of bank apps also come with features to help you track your budget, set savings goals and manage your finances, including CommBank, ANZ and NAB apps. In January 2022, Westpac also acquired popular budget app MoneyBrilliant and plans to integrate some key features.

So if you have all your money with one bank, its app could give you enough tools for your budget goals.

Bottom line

If you know what you want to do with your money, you can find an app to help. And if you're not sure what the next financial step is, using a budgeting app can give you a clearer picture to help you figure it out.

Methodology

We chose these apps based on a combination of their features, user ratings and how long they have been on the market. To help narrow down the comparison, we focused on 3 key categories and only selected apps with a rating of at least 3.3 at the time of writing and compatibility with both Apple and Android devices.

The best budget app is one that lets you see all your accounts and money in one place, with tools to make the most of it. With that in mind, we also focused on apps that offered helpful features in the free version, and value-for-money in the paid versions.