9 Best Budgeting and Savings Apps Every Aussie Needs

The world of finances is incredibly complicated. Many of us don't even learn how to properly manage our finances until after we've moved out of our parent's house, gotten a job, and have to pay bills for ourselves. This time can be incredibly challenging to navigate, and we often don't even know where to start. Luckily, many applications and tools are available today to help you manage your money more effectively. But how can you find the best budget app (Australia-based or global) for your needs?

Realistically, the best app for you may not be the best app for someone else. We each have our own unique needs, and to find the best app, you have to consider what your needs are. This said, looking at some of the best options on the market can be a great way to get started!

Now, without further ado, here are nine of the best budgeting and savings apps for Australians! Keep in mind, as there is no single "best" app since everyone's needs and preferences are different, these are in no particular order.

Labeling itself as a ‘budget tracker for the modern age,’ Goodbudget is an American app also available in Australia. This app is available on both the App Store and Google Play Store.

Goodbudget utilises an older method of budgeting — commonly referred to as the "envelope method." The basic idea of this approach is splitting up your income into different categories (each has an envelope) and using that to dictate how much money you spend on each area of your life. Since Goodbudget is an app for your phone, you obviously do not have to utilise physical envelopes and cash — which makes it much more accessible for people today.

Goodbudget lets you use this traditional (and effective!) budgeting and expense tracking method but in a more modern and environmentally-friendly way. A basic plan with Goodbudget is free, but they also have a paid plan option that offers more features.

Key features of Goodbudget are:

Simple and intuitive app — great for beginners in their savings journey.

Exports data to Microsoft Excel.

Allows you to view your spending by category (virtual envelopes).

Spending analysis for each virtual envelope.

Personalised income and spending reports.

Sync with your bank accounts and expense tracking.

Schedule automatic envelope fills and transactions.

Frollo is an Australian fintech company that is best known for its open banking services for well-known brands like REA Group. However, it also has a personal finance app (available on the App Store and Google Play Store) that uses this same technology and offers features similar to other budgeting apps.

This expense tracker app offers free synchronisation with your bank accounts, loans, credit cards, and investments into a single interface that you can interact with easily. This allows you to better control your finances without worrying about opening several different applications.

Additionally, since 2019, Frollo has been offering their "Frollo Score" feature that provides you with a score of 1-1,000 that illustrates your current financial situation. This score is based on your spending habits, savings, and debts. Frollo has also introduced the "Financial Passport", which provides an extremely easy-to-view overview of your finances — including income, spending, assets, and liabilities.

Key features of Frollo:

Sync all of your Australian bank accounts into a single interface.

Frollo score and Financial Passport features.

Bank-level security.

Personal insights and push notifications.

Customisable savings challenges and goals.

Automatic transaction categorisation.

WeMoney is an application for both Android and Apple products that offer users a "full picture" of their financial health. This app connects all your financial accounts into a single view to easily assess your financial situation and see where you need improvement. This app can connect your savings and transaction accounts, credit cards, loans, share trading accounts, and superannuation funds.

In addition to connecting these areas of your financial health, you can also track your credit score, receive bill reminders, create budgets and goals, and connect with other WeMoney users to receive tips.

This app is free to use and comes with FaceID, fingerprint, and PIN login options for convenience and security.

Key features of WeMoney:

Bill tracking and reminders.

Credit score checking.

Customisable budgets and savings goals.

Subscription cancellation.

Personalised deals and insights.

Easy-to-use interface.

Financial information consolidation.

Circles.Life offers a bit of a different take on helping you to save money. Even if you do not use your phone for budgeting apps, chances are you use it quite a lot. But this doesn't mean you are always using it the same way. The truth is that many phone plans do not offer you the ability to customise and adjust as needed — which means that you can either end up in a situation where you are out of data or you have way too much left over at the end of your month.

Circles.Life is here to change that. With the Circle.Life app, you can easily manage your plan — to add more data, turn data roaming on/off, add international call limits, and more. You can track your usage to see when you are using more data and when you are using less. And finally, you can also manage your past bills and payments and talk to a real person through the live chat whenever you have a question or need a recommendation.

Key features of Circles.Life:

Live chat allows you to talk to a real person in less than 60 seconds.

Bill and payment management features.

Plan management directly from the app.

Usage tracking and easy add-ons if you need them.

Flux is a smartphone application that is designed to make understanding money and personal finances as simple as possible. It is available for both IOS and Android devices. Unfortunately, since many of us do not get educated on the financial intricacies of daily life, we are often left to figure it out on our own as we begin our lives as young adults.

But we don't have to figure everything out alone. An app like Flux can help you to understand your personal financial situation. This tool allows you to understand and monitor your credit score — which is essential for future financial planning.

Key features of Flux:

Credit score monitoring.

Personalised insights about your credit score.

Suggestions and education on how to improve your credit health.

Education about personal finances and money management.

Access to financial news.

Unlike Flux, WiseList focuses more on money-saving at the checkout. WiseList is an incredibly valuable tool for anyone who is looking to save money where they can. As a budgeting tool, you can use the app to create budgets for your spending. But this is not all you can do with the WiseList app.

This app helps you better manage your bills and groceries so that you can be sure that you are spending only what you need. This can help you save more money and reach any financial goals you may have more quickly. Essentially, for the grocery aspect of WiseList, you can easily compare prices from the two largest Australian supermarkets (Coles and Woolies), so you can be sure you are getting the best price for your groceries.

WiseList can also be a great option for people who find themselves always coming home with way more groceries than they meant to get because things looked so interesting on the end stands. Many of us have this problem, and it is incredibly challenging to save money when we constantly purchase groceries or items we do not need just because they look fun.

This app is available for download on the App Store as well as the Google Play store.

Key features of WiseList:

Compare grocery prices to get the best deal.

Customisable item price alerts.

Bill and grocery management features.

Access to over 100K recipes for creative ways to use up groceries.

Same-day delivery services from both Coles and Woolies stores.

Intuitive app layout.

Streamlined grocery list creation.

Collaborative grocery list creation for sharing lists with friends and family.

Raiz is a micro-investing app that is available on IOS and Google Play. It was formerly known as 'Acorns Australia', and it allows its users to invest in a portfolio of exchange-traded funds. However, just because it is primarily an investment app does not mean it does not offer excellent tools for saving money.

The app's 'My Finance' feature offers detailed insights into your spending habits — such as categorising your spending into food, utilities, etc. — and breaks down your spending monthly.

Some fees are associated with the Raiz app, but it is important to note that these fees are needed only if you are utilising the investment features. If you simply want to use the app's savings feature, it is free.

Key features of Raiz:

Personalised insights into your spending habits — such as categorisation.

Cashback options for spending money with linked brands.

Roundup technology — allows you to save or invest each time you spend through your linked transaction account.

Bank-level security.

Real-time chatbot that can answer your questions — such as "how much did I spend/save last month?"

Push notification tips on saving money that is based on your unique habits.

Spendee is another incredibly helpful budgeting application that is available for both Apple and Android smartphones and can be used globally. It offers a three-step process to help get your money and spending into shape. Step one is to track your spending or cash flow. The application allows you to connect your bank accounts and transactions as well as your e-Wallet.

Once you have everything connected (you will have to input any cash expenses manually), you can move on to step two. This step is understanding your financial habits. This part is where you analyse your spending habits with easy-to-understand graphics and reports. This is where you see where your money is going and whether or not you are spending more than you are making.

Then, finally, you can move on to the last step of Spendee's process: making budgets and setting goals. This is where you will decide how much money you want to spend in each area of your life and how much money you want to save. These goals can change over time, and you will constantly be able to edit and refine them as you continue to use the Spendee application.

Key features of Spendee:

Connecting bank accounts and e-Wallets.

Customisable budgets and savings goals.

Shared wallets are popular among families, couples, and roommates who want to handle their finances together.

Multiple currency support makes Spendee extremely popular for individuals who travel or need to switch between currencies often.

Bill and budget reminders and notifications.

Next up is Pocketsmith. While the other applications mentioned above are free (or at least offer free and paid versions), Pocketsmith requires payment. However, if you have tried many of the apps above and none of them seems to work for you how you wanted them to, Pocketsmith's more comprehensive application may be the right option for you.

Pocketsmith offers a variety of features — such as digital and cash spending projections, personalised labelling, flexible budgeting options, and an easy-to-read dashboard that illustrates your current cash flow and net worth. Pocketsmith is a savings tool for individuals who want detailed and comprehensive financial reports on their spending, savings, and more in a single location. The app also helps you map out (and achieve) a plan that illustrates your path toward your financial goals.

Key features of Pocketsmith:

Secure and encrypted data.

Global support and bank feed from 49 different countries.

No advertisements.

Customisable budgeting and planning tools.

What-if scenarios and forecasting features.

Income and expense reporting, cash-flow statements, and net worth tracking.

Two-factor authentication for security.

Email notifications of financial activity summaries.

As we mentioned before, the bottom line is that the best budgeting or savings app for you is going to depend on what areas you want to impact the most. For example, if you are interested in cutting down on your grocery bill since that is where you notice most of your extra spending is going, then an app like WiseList would be a great choice.

If, however, you are keener on creating an effective budgeting system for all of the areas of your life, you may want to opt for a more inclusive budgeting app like Goodbudget that relies on the classic "envelope method" style of budgeting.

No matter what budgeting, savings, or money management system you decide to use, we hope that this list of the nine best money management apps helps you take control of your finances! For additional tips on saving money, check out this blog!