I have tried a lot of budgeting apps. Most of them are either too complicated (you need to manually categorize every transaction) or too simplistic (they just show you a pie chart and tell you to spend less). A few are genuinely useful and actually changed how I handle money. All of these are free — or at least have a free tier that does everything most people need.

Rocket Money for subscription tracking

Rocket Money (formerly Truebill) connects to your bank account and automatically identifies recurring subscriptions. It shows you a list of everything you are paying for monthly, how much, and when the next charge hits. The killer feature is that it can cancel subscriptions for you — you click a button and they handle the cancellation process. Some subscription cancellations still require a phone call (looking at you, gym memberships), but for most streaming and app subscriptions it works.

The free version does subscription tracking and cancellation. The premium version adds things like bill negotiation and a net worth tracker, but you do not need those.

Empower for net worth tracking

Empower (formerly Personal Capital) is the best free tool for seeing your entire financial picture in one place — checking, savings, investments, retirement accounts, credit cards, mortgage. It updates automatically and shows your net worth over time. The retirement planner is genuinely good — you can model different scenarios and see if you are on track. The company does pitch their advisory services, but you can ignore that and just use the free tools forever.

Splitwise for shared expenses

If you live with roommates or split costs with a partner, Splitwise is basically essential. You enter who paid for what and it tracks who owes whom. At the end of the month you settle the difference instead of Venmo-ing back and forth for every grocery run. The free version handles unlimited expenses and groups.

Your bank’s app

Most bank apps now have built-in budgeting features that do eighty percent of what the separate apps do — spending categorization, trend charts, bill reminders. Before downloading anything, check what your bank already offers. You might not need another app at all.

None of these apps will magically make you rich. But they remove the friction of tracking money, and removing friction is half the battle.