Why Money Monarch Is My Go-To Budgeting App (Review) (2025)

How I Use Monarch Money

I’ve used Monarch since March 2024 to manage over 30 accounts, including credit cards, investments and savings.

It has become a core part of my financial routine.

I switched from Quicken Simplifi because, while it had a decent UI, the monthly budgeting process felt cumbersome.

For example, transactions didn’t automatically link to budgets; I had to manually create separate “spending plans” and assign transactions to them one by one. Monarch’s approach feels much more natural and streamlined.

I also use Empower for investment tracking and analysis, which remains my go-to app for that purpose. However, Empower’s UI for budgeting isn’t great, so the combination of Monarch and Empower works really well for me — Monarch handles day-to-day financial tracking, while Empower excels at analyzing long-term investments.

Here’s how I’m currently using Monarch on a month-to-month basis.

• I primarily use the desktop browser to limit time on my phone. (Managing money feels like a desktop task to me, shaped by years of habits.)
• I customized the dashboard to fit my needs using Monarch’s simple drag-and-drop interface. Users can choose from a variety of widgets, including spending trends, monthly income versus expenses, most recent transactions, recurring expenses, and even investment performance. I focus primarily on tracking income, expenses and savings rates, which provides a clear snapshot of our financial health. While the dashboard also offers a financial goals widget, I don’t use this feature.
• My wife has her own login to access an all-in-one financial dashboard, including investments, net worth and big-picture trends. This avoids the hassle of two-factor authentication on my phone when she logs in. At the end of each month, I send her a business report (I’m self-employed, and a sole income provider) so we can compare the income from the business with our household expenses.

This process takes just 15–30 minutes per month, which is less time than I spent with previous tools.

Unlike Simplifi (which required constant setup) and YNAB (which felt overly time-intensive for our needs), Monarch strikes the right balance by focusing on monitoring and big-picture trends rather than granular budgeting.

As for end-of-year tasks, Monarch has been a powerful tool for saving on taxes. I use it to categorize medical expenses throughout the year, which either go toward HSA reimbursements or qualify as tax deductions when they exceed 7.5% of my income.

Unfortunately, my medical expenses have exceeded this threshold for the past few years, but Monarch helps me easily track and organize these costs. This ensures I capture every eligible deduction, then send a report to my accountant.

Monarch Money Subscription Cost

Monarch requires a subscription.

Details are:

• $14.99 per month or $99.99 per year.
• Save 30% on your first year with the promo code WELCOME.
• There’s no “freemium version,” where you can sample the features long-term without paying anything.

This makes it one of the more expensive budgeting apps on the market. Here’s a comparison table for reference:

How Monarch Compares to Competitors

The landscape of budgeting apps has significantly expanded in recent years. While Mint was the only well-known app for years (because nobody born after 1980 ever considered the Quicken Desktop package), we now have many apps catering to various budget styles and financial situations.

Monarch Money is trying to appeal to those who prefer a broader financial perspective rather than meticulous tracking.

This is highlighted in a new feature called Flex Budgeting, which aims to simplify financial tracking by focusing on a single “flex number” throughout the month. Instead of categorizing every expense, users monitor this one number.

However, for those who prefer alternative budgeting styles, several other options exist, which include:

• YNAB (You Need A Budget). Perfect for those living paycheck to paycheck. It helps you allocate every dollar purposefully. The zero-based budgeting system is best for finding extra money in tight budgets and building savings.
• EveryDollar. Follows Dave Ramsey’s financial principles with straightforward budgeting tools. If you’re working through Ramsey’s Baby Steps or the debt snowball method, this app integrates naturally with those strategies.
• Empower (formerly Personal Capital). Focuses more on wealth management than day-to-day budgeting. Its strengths are investment tracking, portfolio analysis and retirement planning, but they do have free budgeting tools built in. Choose this if you’re more interested in growing wealth than tracking daily expenses.
• Rocket Money. Offers streamlined budgeting with a focus on cutting costs. The free version provides basic budget tracking, while the paid version helps identify and cancel unused subscriptions. It’s ideal if you want basic budget tracking plus help reducing monthly bills.

The Bottom Line

After testing several budgeting apps, I’ve found Monarch Money to best fit my needs, and I plan to stick with it long-term. I’m not actively looking to switch since Monarch effectively handles everything I need, which is more than I can say about Simplifi. However, there are still a few I haven’t tried (next on the list is CoPilot, which has some positive buzz about it).

If you’d like to try Monarch Money yourself, they offer a 30-day free trial and a discount when you use the promo code WELCOME.

While I like and use the app, I encourage you to test it during the trial period to see if it matches your budgeting style.