5 Best Alternatives to Monarch Money

Monarch Money isn’t zero-based like most budgeting apps. Instead, it focuses on flexibility and allows its users to easily adjust their budget according to their current financial situation.

To achieve this, it allows users to track both their expenses and savings across multiple accounts. So if you’re a forward-thinking person who values an easy-to-use and flexible personal finance management app, then Monarch Money is ideal for you.

But if you’re reading this, then you probably have cold feet. So let us show you your other options before locking in your choice.

How Much Does Monarch Money Cost?

Unlike Rocket Money, Empower, and EveryDollar, Monarch Money doesn’t have any free features.

Monarch Money costs $14.99 per month or $99.99 per year. Going for the annual package will save you $79.89 a year or $6.66 every month.

So to get the most bang for your buck, you should first figure out whether or not Monarch Money is a good fit for you. If you dip your toes in with the monthly payment option, then you’re essentially losing $6.66 every month.

Monarch Money offers new users a 7-day free trial. So give it a try and if you decide that it’s a great fit, the best choice is to go all in with the annual payment option.

What are Monarch Money’s Features?

The amount of features that Monarch Money has is staggering. But then again, it should be packed with features considering its price point. Here are all the main features of Monarch Money:

1. Flexible Budgeting Tools
2. Financial Goals Tracking
3. Net Worth Tracking
4. Investment Tracking
5. Built-in Collaboration Tools
6. Customizable Spending Reports
7. Recurring Bills Calendar
8. Transactions List
9. AI Assistant

Among the specific features under these categories, the standouts are:

• Customizable Rules for Categories. This means that you can automatically categorize your spending based on transaction names, vendors, or even the amount spent.
• Account Syncing via MX, Plaid, and Finicity. One of the biggest issues with budgeting apps right now is the overreliance on Plaid connections. Monarch employs two other data aggregators to circumvent this issue.
• Group-level Budgeting. Being able to group multiple spending categories together allows you to reduce the complexity of your budgets. This, in turn, makes it easier to plan and adjust your spending on the fly.
• Cashflow Visualization. Seeing where your money goes can give you valuable insight into your current spending habits. Knowing where you are in your financial journey allows you to make the appropriate adjustments for the sake of achieving your goals.

How to Solve Connection Issues with Monarch Money

If you have an account or two that just won’t connect to Monarch Money, then all you need to do is switch data aggregators. To do this, just follow these steps:

1. Sign in to Monarch Money
2. Click Add Account
3. Search for Institution
4. Click on ‘Having issues with the options above?’ link at the bottom
5. Select a different Connection

1.  Monarch Money vs Cushion

Cushion allows you to track your bills and buy now and pay later (BNPL) loans using the Cushion App.

Cushion AI currently has one plan:

• AutoPilot costs $4.95 per month

AutoPilot allows users to track all of their recurring payments in one dashboard and sync all of their due dates to their calendars if they want to.

2. Monarch Money vs Empower

Empower beats Monarch Money in terms of Net Worth Tracking and Investment Tracking since you can use these features in Empower for free!

However, despite offering free expense tracking, Empower can’t hold a candle to Monarch Money’s comprehensive and flexible budgeting features.

So, if you just want to track your net worth and investments, then Empower is a great alternative to Monarch Money. But if you’re in this for the budgeting tools, then Monarch Money is the clear winner despite not having free features.

3. Monarch Money vs Rocket Money

Rocket Money and Monarch go toe-to-toe in terms of the number of features. However, Rocket Money is the clear winner when it comes to price.

Rocket Money Premium costs $6.00 to $12.00 per month. This price goes down to $4.00 per month if you choose the annual package. This makes Rocket Money’s lowest annual price 52% cheaper than Monarch’s.

Rocket Money also has a free version that provides the following services:

• Subscription Management
• Account Linking
• Balance Alerts
• Expense Tracking
• Credit Score Tracking

Now before you make the switch, Rocket Money comes with one big caveat. And that is its reliance on Plaid for 100% of its connections.

So give Rocket Money a try first and check if you can successfully connect all of your accounts. If not, then it’s probably better to stick to Monarch.

Related article: 5 Best Budgeting Apps Like Rocket Money

4. Monarch Money vs YNAB

YNAB costs almost exactly the same as Monarch Money. They’re also both focused on helping their users optimize their financial planning endeavors. YNAB and Monarch are also some of the few budgeting apps that allow their users to collaborate via shared budgets.

One of their main differences, however, is that YNAB uses zero-based budgeting. So if you prefer zero-based budgeting then YNAB might be a better fit for you.

Another reason to choose YNAB over Monarch Money is its generous free trial. YNAB has a 34-day free trial (1 year for students!), which allows you to truly learn the ins and outs of the app before committing to it.

So in this case, it’s actually best to just try both of them out and then make your decision.

5. Monarch Money vs Neontra

Neontra is a new personal finance management app (PFM) that was launched in December 2023. In terms of costs, Neontra is significantly more affordable than Monarch Money.

Neontra costs $9.00 per month or $75.00 per year. It offers a whopping 45-day free trial which downgrades to the free plan after the trial period. Unfortunately, Neontra’s free plan limits you to one connection so it’s not an option for most people.

Neontra automatically categorizes all of your transactions using the 50/30/20 rule. So, if you’re fond of that budgeting method and you’re willing to take a chance on an up-and-coming PFM, then Neontra is the alternative for you.