Best Free Budgeting Apps After Mint Shut Down (2026 Update)
Mint is gone. Find the best free budgeting app in 2026 that actually stays free -- no trials, no paywalls. We tested every Mint alternative so you don't have to.
TL;DR: Mint is dead. Credit Karma absorbed it and killed the budgeting features. Two years later, millions of people are still looking for a replacement. Here are 12 free (or genuinely free-tier) budgeting and finance apps ranked by what they actually offer without paying -- from full-featured dashboards to stripped-down teasers designed to upsell you.
Full disclosure: I built Prospify. I'll be as fair as I can.
Mint Is Gone. The Void Is Still Here.
When Intuit shut down Mint in early 2024 and funneled everyone into Credit Karma, they eliminated the most popular free budgeting app in America. At its peak, Mint had 3.6 million monthly active users who relied on it for transaction tracking, budget categories, bill reminders, and spending insights.
Credit Karma kept some transaction features but gutted the budgeting tools. The Mint refugees scattered. Some paid up for premium apps. Some went back to spreadsheets. Many just... stopped tracking their money entirely.
It's now 2026, and the "best free budgeting app" search is still one of the highest-volume personal finance queries online. People want what Mint gave them: a free way to see all their money in one place, categorize spending, and set basic budgets. They don't want to pay $15/month for it.
Here's an honest look at what's available, what's actually free, and what "free" really means for each app.
How I Evaluated These Apps
Every app on this list was tested for at least two weeks. I connected real bank accounts (or used demo modes where available) and evaluated on five criteria:
- What's actually free? Not the 14-day trial. Not the "free but limited" tier. What can you use indefinitely without paying?
- Bank syncing quality. Does it connect reliably? Does it stay connected? How often do you need to re-authenticate?
- Transaction categorization. Does it auto-categorize accurately, or are you manually fixing every Venmo transaction?
- Budgeting tools. Can you set budgets and track against them in the free tier?
- Unique value. What does this app do that others don't?
The Rankings
1. Prospify -- Best for Credit Card Optimizers
Price: Free (no premium tier, no paywall) Best for: People with multiple credit cards who want to understand what their cards actually cost
| What's free | What's not |
|---|---|
| Full bank syncing via Plaid | Nothing -- everything is free |
| Transaction categorization | |
| True spend calculation (net of credits) | |
| Credit card benefits tracking | |
| Transaction splitting (Splitwise integration) | |
| Authorized user separation | |
| Unbiased card recommendations |
Why it ranks #1 for free: Prospify is genuinely, completely free. No premium tier to upsell you into. No features locked behind a paywall. The entire product -- true spend tracking, benefits monitoring, splitting, card recommendations -- is available to everyone.
The catch: Prospify isn't a traditional budgeting app. It doesn't have zero-based budgeting or cash flow forecasting. It's purpose-built for credit card optimization: understanding your true spend after credits, tracking your card benefits, splitting shared expenses, and knowing which card to use for which purchase. If you carry premium cards and split expenses with friends, it's the best free tool available. If you just want basic budget categories, keep reading.
2. Credit Karma -- Best for Credit Monitoring
Price: Free (ad-supported, affiliate revenue) Best for: Credit score tracking and finding new financial products
| What's free | What's not |
|---|---|
| Credit score (Experian + TransUnion) | - |
| Transaction tracking | - |
| Spending by category | - |
| Net worth overview | - |
| Financial product recommendations | - |
The good: Credit Karma is genuinely free and gives you two credit bureau scores updated weekly. The transaction tracking works, and the spending category breakdowns are functional. If your primary concern is monitoring your credit score and seeing basic spending patterns, it covers the basics.
The bad: Credit Karma is a financial product marketing platform first and a finance dashboard second. The "recommendations" are paid placements. Card suggestions are affiliate-driven, not personalized to your actual spending. The budgeting tools that made Mint useful are gone. And your transaction data is used to target you with product offers.
The verdict: Fine for credit scores. Mediocre for everything else. The Mint features you miss are not coming back.
3. Empower Personal Dashboard -- Best Free Net Worth Tracker
Price: Free dashboard (Empower makes money on wealth management for $100K+ accounts) Best for: Seeing all accounts in one place, including investments
| What's free | What's not |
|---|---|
| Account aggregation (bank, credit, investment) | Wealth management services |
| Net worth tracking | Financial advisor access |
| Spending categorization | - |
| Budget tracking | - |
| Investment fee analyzer | - |
| Retirement planner | - |
The good: Empower (formerly Personal Capital) offers a surprisingly full-featured free dashboard. You get bank syncing, investment tracking, a retirement planner, and an investment fee analyzer -- all free. The net worth view across all account types is one of the best available.
The bad: Empower's business model is wealth management for high-net-worth individuals. The free dashboard exists to funnel you toward their advisory services ($100K minimum). Expect phone calls from advisors after you connect investment accounts. The budgeting features are basic compared to dedicated budgeting apps.
The verdict: Excellent for net worth tracking and investment oversight. Adequate for basic budgeting. Be prepared for the sales calls.
4. PocketGuard -- Best Simple Budget View
Price: Free tier + PocketGuard Plus ($7.99/month or $34.99/year) Best for: Quick "how much can I spend?" answers
| What's free | What's not (Plus) |
|---|---|
| Account syncing | Unlimited budgets |
| "In My Pocket" spending estimate | Debt payoff plans |
| Basic spending categories | Custom categories |
| Bill tracking | Export to CSV |
| 1 budget category | Cash flow reports |
The good: PocketGuard's signature "In My Pocket" number is clever -- it shows income minus bills minus goals minus necessities, giving you a single number for discretionary spending. For people who just want to know "can I afford this?", it's immediate and useful.
The bad: The free tier is limited to one budget category. One. If you want to budget for dining AND groceries AND entertainment, you need Plus. The free tier feels like a demo, not a product.
The verdict: Great concept, but the free tier is too limited for serious budgeting.
5. Goodbudget -- Best for Envelope Budgeting
Price: Free tier (limited envelopes) + Plus ($10/month or $80/year) Best for: Couples who want shared envelope budgeting
| What's free | What's not (Plus) |
|---|---|
| 20 envelope budgets | Unlimited envelopes |
| 1 account | Unlimited accounts |
| 1 year of history | 7 years of history |
| Basic reports | Detailed reports |
| 2 devices | 5 devices |
The good: Goodbudget digitizes the envelope budgeting method. You allocate money to "envelopes" (categories) at the start of each month and spend from them. It's a proven method, and Goodbudget implements it well. Free tier includes 20 envelopes, which is enough for most people.
The bad: No bank syncing in the free tier (or even the paid tier). Every transaction is manual entry. In 2026, this feels archaic. But envelope budgeting purists will argue that manual entry forces mindfulness. Your call.
The verdict: Best free envelope budgeting app if you're willing to enter transactions manually.
6. EveryDollar -- Best for Dave Ramsey Followers
Price: Free tier + Ramsey+ ($59.99/year bundled with Financial Peace University) Best for: People following the Dave Ramsey baby steps
| What's free | What's not (Ramsey+) |
|---|---|
| Zero-based budgeting | Bank syncing |
| Expense tracking (manual) | Transaction auto-import |
| Budget templates | Premium reports |
| Savings fund tracking | Financial Peace content |
The good: EveryDollar's zero-based budgeting is clean and well-designed. Creating a monthly budget takes about 10 minutes. The philosophy is simple: give every dollar a job, track what you spend, adjust next month. If you follow the Ramsey method, this app is purpose-built for you.
The bad: Bank syncing is paid-only. In the free tier, every transaction is manual. For a modern finance app, requiring manual entry in the free tier feels like a deliberate friction tax to push you toward Ramsey+. Also, the Ramsey philosophy is anti-credit-card (he wants you to cut them all up), so if you're a credit card optimizer, the worldview clash is real.
The verdict: Good free budgeting template. Limited without bank syncing.
7. Copilot Money -- Best Design (But Not Free)
Price: 30-day free trial, then $13/month or $95/year Best for: iOS/Mac users who value design and want AI categorization
This one makes the list because people search for it as a Mint alternative, but let's be clear: Copilot is not free. The 30-day trial is generous, but after that, you're paying $95-156/year. I'm including it because it's genuinely well-designed and worth knowing about -- but it doesn't belong in a "free apps" roundup.
If you're willing to pay and you're in the Apple ecosystem, Copilot is one of the best-designed finance apps available. But it's iOS/Mac only, has no web app, and costs more than most competitors.
8. Monarch Money -- Best Full-Featured (But Not Free)
Price: 7-day free trial, then $14.99/month or $99.99/year Best for: Comprehensive budgeting with investment tracking
Like Copilot, Monarch is here because it's frequently recommended as a Mint replacement. And like Copilot, it's not free. $100-180/year is a real cost. Monarch is excellent at budgeting, investment tracking, and household collaboration -- but if you're looking for something free, this isn't it.
9. Simplifi by Quicken -- Decent But Paid
Price: $47.88/year (no free tier, 30-day trial) Best for: People who want automated spending plans
Simplifi tries to be the modern, simplified version of Quicken. The spending plan feature automatically calculates how much you can safely spend based on your income and upcoming bills. No free tier -- just a 30-day trial. For $48/year it's one of the cheaper paid options, but still not free.
10. YNAB -- Best Methodology (But Expensive)
Price: 34-day free trial, then $14.99/month or $109/year (free for students) Best for: Serious budgeters willing to learn the system
YNAB has a cult following for good reason. The "give every dollar a job" methodology genuinely changes how people relate to money. But at $109-180/year, it's the most expensive app on this list. The student discount (completely free with a .edu email) is legitimately generous, though. If you're a student, YNAB is the best deal in personal finance.
11. Rocket Money -- Free-ish
Price: Free tier + Premium ($6-14/month, pay-what-you-want) Best for: Subscription cancellation and bill negotiation
Rocket Money's free tier lets you see your subscriptions and basic spending. The premium tier unlocks bill negotiation (they call your providers and negotiate lower rates), cancellation services, and full spending insights. If you're paying $120/month for cable and internet, Rocket Money's negotiation might save you $300-500/year -- worth the premium cost. But the free tier is a teaser, not a product.
12. Google Sheets / Notion -- Best for Control Freaks
Price: Free Best for: People who want complete customization
The spreadsheet. The ultimate free budgeting tool. Templates are everywhere (I personally like the r/personalfinance community templates and Tiller Money's free starter sheet). You get complete control over every category, calculation, and visualization. The downside: no bank syncing, no automation, and you need to actually maintain it. Weekly. Forever.
Notion budgeting templates have gotten popular in the last two years as a more visual alternative to spreadsheets. Same trade-off: beautiful, customizable, completely manual.
The Honest Matrix
| App | Actually Free? | Bank Syncing | Budgeting | Credit Card Optimization | Splitting |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prospify | Yes | Yes | Basic | Yes | Yes |
| Credit Karma | Yes (ad-supported) | Yes | No | No | No |
| Empower | Yes (upsells advisory) | Yes | Basic | No | No |
| PocketGuard | Partially (1 budget) | Yes | Limited free | No | No |
| Goodbudget | Partially (20 envelopes) | No (manual) | Yes | No | No |
| EveryDollar | Partially (no sync) | No (manual free) | Yes | No | No |
| Copilot | No (30-day trial) | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Monarch | No (7-day trial) | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Simplifi | No (30-day trial) | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| YNAB | No (34-day trial) | Yes | Excellent | No | No |
| Rocket Money | Partially | Yes | Limited free | No | No |
| Spreadsheets | Yes | No | DIY | DIY | DIY |
What Mint Had That Nothing Fully Replaces
Let's be honest about what we lost:
- Free bank syncing + budgeting + bill reminders in one app. No single free app does all three as well as Mint did.
- The sheer scale. Mint's categorization improved because millions of users trained it. Newer apps are still building that corpus.
- No upsell pressure. Mint's ads were annoying but avoidable. Modern "free" apps are more aggressive about pushing premium.
The closest free replacement is a combination: Credit Karma for credit scores, Empower for net worth, and Prospify for credit card optimization. That's three apps to replace one. Not ideal, but each one is best-in-class at its specific function.
My Recommendation
If you carry premium credit cards and split expenses: Use Prospify. It's free, it's purpose-built for card optimization, and it does things no other app offers (true spend, benefits tracking, splitting).
If you need serious budgeting: Pay for YNAB or Monarch. The free options for budgeting are all compromised. If budgeting is your primary goal and you're willing to pay, the paid apps are meaningfully better.
If you just want to see your money in one place: Empower's free dashboard is the most feature-rich free option for account aggregation and net worth tracking.
If you want credit scores: Credit Karma. It's the best free credit monitoring, even if the product recommendations are biased.
If you want to do it yourself: Google Sheets. Always free. Always customizable. Always tedious.
The Mint-shaped hole in the market is real, and no single free app fills it completely. But the right combination of free tools gets you 90% of the way there without paying $15/month to anyone.
Try Prospify free at prospify.app
Found a free budgeting app I missed? Using a creative combination of tools? Share your setup on Twitter/X -- I'm always updating this list.