If you’re looking for the best budgeting apps for families – look no further than BusyKid! We’ll help break down the features, the fees, the security, and more to give you the best household budget app.

Let’s take a closer look at budgeting apps, how they work, how they help with personal finance and more.

What Is a Family Budget App?

A family budgeting app is an app designed to help you streamline the saving, spending, and investing choices you make. When you put all of your financial goals and commitments into an app, you can have a greater overview of your choices and habits. What’s more, you can see what you’re doing right and where there’s room for improvement.

Family budgeting apps can provide you with additional functionality, like setting goals and tracking cash flow across multiple accounts. Not only that, but you can connect your app with your debit card or credit card to provide a more transparent and holistic view of your finances.

Depending on the app or apps you choose, you’ll find that most have a specific approach when it comes to budgeting. However, others might address budgeting in more broad terms, allowing you to customize them based on your needs and the needs of your family.

Paid vs Free Budgeting Apps for Families

In your quest to find the best budgeting apps for families, you’ll probably see that many paid apps have free versions. Of course, those free versions tend to have fewer features and opportunities for customization.

That said, most paid budgeting apps allow you to sync with unlimited bank accounts and create unlimited budgets. What’s more, all should allow for multi-user collaboration so that the entire family can access or have insight into the same budget.

Then, depending on the budgeting app, it might also have advanced charts, forecasts, and reports. That way, you could track your spending and savings in great detail. But more on that soon.

Pros and Cons of Budgeting Apps

When it comes to even the best budgeting apps for families, there are going to be some benefits and drawbacks for users. However, at the end of the day, as long as they’re helping you manage your money better and improve your personal finance habits – they’re doing their job.

That said, one of the biggest pros of budgeting apps for families is that they make saving more fun. Having a tool that’s entertaining and engaging is going to be key when getting your kids interested in personal finance.

Also, the right budgeting app will have proper accounting software to save you time on crunching numbers. But perhaps the biggest benefit of all is that budgeting apps are usually very user-friendly and easy to use. They’re going to allow you to take charge of your finances and establish better money management habits.

Now turning to the other side of the coin, you should know that not all apps were created equally. Oftentimes, depending on your and your family’s needs, one app might not have all the features you need. Moreover, having too many features can be overwhelming at times, especially if you have younger kids who want to use the app.

What Makes the Best Budgeting Apps for Families

If you want to find the best budgeting apps for Androids or iPhones, you’re going to have to take a closer look inside. Let’s examine what you should be looking for and how to distinguish apps on the app store one from another.

Features

Every budgeting app has its own unique set of benefits and features. That’s why it would make most sense to test a few different ones to see which one would fit your needs best. 

If you’ve used any sort of banking app or finance software before, you might have a better understanding of the features you’re looking for. However, if you haven’t, note that most leading budgeting apps for families on Google Play or the Apple Store include:

• Connecting financial accounts and debit card and/or credit card
• Receiving notifications of upcoming bill payments
• Designing budgets
• Tracking your credit score
• Tracking your spending
• Setting up financial goals

Security

The security of your personal and banking information is incredibly important and should be at the top of your priorities. Even though most apps have some levels of security, some are more sophisticated and advanced than others.

When trying to find the best budgeting app for your family, look into the level of security encryption of each app. Also, look for multi-factor authentication, 256-bit encryption, and anything else that will protect your data.

Customer Service

If you run into an issue with your budgeting app, customer service is going to be vital. So when choosing one, look at what customer service options they offer and check out reviews from other users to get more insight into their experiences.

Fees

As you’ll see, the best budgeting apps for couples and families differ in their costs. Even though many are free or offer a free version, you often get what you pay for. If the app can improve your personal finances and have a positive impact on your goals and savings, it might be well worth the investment.

Best Budgeting Apps for Families

Now, let’s take a closer look at the apps with the best household budget software and why they’re so popular with families worldwide. 

BusyKid

BusyKid is one of the best budgeting apps for families out there because it’s easy to use while encouraging the entire family to earn, save, donate, and invest. Some of the most popular BusyKid features include:

• Chores and allowances, which can be set by age
• Investing and donating
• Paying bonuses
• Parental approvals
• History activity
• BusyPay

There are also a variety of additional features that make budgeting and goal-planning easier for the whole family.

In addition to the plethora of features, families can take advantage of the BusyKid Debit Card*. With the card, parents can give children financial freedom, convenience, and security while having oversight of the spending, saving, and planning.

You can download the BusyKid app from the Apple Store or Google Play and try it for a full month for free.

Rocket Money

Rocket Money is a great budgeting app for those who want to monitor subscriptions and streamline the way they pay their bills. The app will negotiate bills on your behalf to try and cut down on your spending.

What’s more, the Rocket Money app has full budgeting capabilities and is free to use, but has Premium memberships from $3–$12 per month.

Mint

Mint has some pretty high ratings in the Apple Store, as well as Google Play, and seems pretty popular among families worldwide. It has some of the best home accounting software, it’s free and allows users to get a better grasp on their personal finances. The app allows users to sync checking and savings, loans, bills, investments, and even credit cards.

Mint will track your expenses and put them into budget categories, which can be personalized. However, it might not be the best choice for you if you’re looking to be more hands-on with your budgeting.

Alternatives to the Best Budgeting Apps for Families

If you’re not ready to commit to an app, you might want to look into some alternatives. 

Budgeting or Accounting Software

With some sort of budgeting, finance, or accounting software that you can download for your computer, you can do most if not more things in terms of your personal finance goals. 

Spreadsheet Budgeting

You can also use a simple spreadsheet to keep track of expenses, investments, and more. Using programs like Excel or Google Sheets will allow you to customize the way you want to budget. However, it does require regular maintenance and can be a bit tricky to put together.

Cash Envelope Budgeting

With cash envelope budgeting, you can take out cash and put it into categorized and designed envelopes or folders. That will allow you to keep a stricter budget cap for yourself.

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* BusyKid Debit Card is issued by MVB Bank, Inc., Member FDIC, pursuant to a license from Visa®️ USA Inc. Cliq® is registered ISO/MSP of MVB Bank, Inc. All cardholders funds are insured by the FDIC in accordance with the FDIC’s applicable terms and conditions. For more information about your card terms and conditions including the VISA Zero Liability policy go here. Cliq®️️ is registered ISO/MSP of MVB Bank, Inc.