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Advice / Succeeding at Work / Money

11 Apps To Help You Save Money and Spend Smarter (Who Doesn’t Want That?)

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If you want to be better about your finances, you don’t have to tackle that goal alone—that’s what technology is for!

So, to help sort through the clutter of apps out there, we’re sharing with you 12 of our favorite money management and budgeting tools on Product Hunt. Whether you’re looking to stick to your long-term goals, protect yourself from fraud, or eliminate debt, there’s something on this list for you.




Helps you lower bills, cancel subscriptions, and create a savings account

Clarity Money harnesses the power of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and data science to help you take control of your finances. This app will find and cancel wasteful subscriptions, help you lower your bills, and find you better credit cards (should you decide that having one is the right move for you).

The app will also alert you if you’re overspending in a particular area of your budget. And, for your long-term plans—like going on a summer road trip or buying a new car—you can set aside money in a savings account to save what you need by a self-selected target date. The name says it best—you’ll get all of the financial clarity you’re looking for with this app.




Makes saving easy and automatic

Qapital is an app built around automatic saving—it regularly sets aside small amounts of money you don’t need for bills or day-to-day expenses. You’ve got the flexibility to define particular savings “rules” and “triggers,” such as rounding up the change on each purchase, saving whenever you spend less than your budget, saving when you buy things you’re trying to cut back on, setting aside 30% for taxes every time you get paid (a freelancer necessity!), or saving a fixed amount daily, weekly, or monthly. Basically, it’s never been easier to save.




Makes budgeting easy for individuals, couples, and businesses

Halfdollar is a super simple app that works great regardless of how you earn a living (consistent paycheck, part-time job, freelance work). You can input as many sources of income as you’ve got (which is why it works well for couples and business owners), and easily track what you’re spending money on month to month. This super simple money-in, money-out tool is perfect for anyone who doesn’t want a lot of the frills that come with many budgeting apps.




Monitors your bank account and saves you money

Digit may be one of the simplest money-saving tools you’ll ever use. All you have to do is securely connect your bank account, and Digit will analyze your spending and income to help you put away small amounts of money that you don’t need for your bills or day-to-day expenses. Every few days, money (usually somewhere between $5 to 50) will get transferred from your checking account to a Digit savings account. If you don’t see the money, then you won’t spend it—and this app capitalizes on that behavior to get you to save more of what you earn. Brilliant!




Finds your paid subscriptions and cancels them with one click

Truebill helps you save money on your bills. This app will automatically scan your online statements and identify your subscriptions. You’ll get a monthly report flagging any changes to your subscription fees, and if you decide there’s a service you no longer want or need, you can cancel it with a single click. Whether you forgot to cancel a free trial or you’re still paying for an old subscription that you don’t use anymore, Truebill will catch it so you can save money by changing your plan—or canceling it entirely.




Keeps track of your budget

We love Budgt because it simplifies what can otherwise be a tedious process (managing money—bleh). This app creates a new budget for you every day based on how much you’ve already spent during the month. Just plug in your recurring and one-time expenses, then set your savings goals, and Budgt will tell you how much you have left to spend daily. You can even weigh your budget by day (because let’s be honest, most of us tend to spend more on weekends).




Analyzes your finances by category, person, or location

If you don’t want to connect your bank account to a budget tracking app, Spendee is for you. The app has a beautiful, easy-to-use interface that will make you actually want to track your expenses with it. Since it’s not synced to your bank account or credit cards, you have to manually add in all of your income and expenses. But, if you’re willing to put in the effort and track your spending, this app actually enables you to analyze your spending more accurately than most of the apps out there.

Spendee can go hand-in-hand with some of the other apps on this list. You still have to do the work of figuring out how you want to tweak your spending, but it makes you conscious of where your money is going—and likely, more thoughtful about what you spend money on.




Helps you pay off your debt, save more money, and break the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle

You Need a Budget (YNAB) has been around for a while, but is so well-loved by those who use it, we had to include it. This software is extremely intuitive and easy to use. YNAB goes beyond being just a tool to track your finances, keep on top of bills, and set savings goals. It’s built around a four-step plan:

  1. Give every dollar a “job” in advance
  2. Save for a rainy day
  3. Address overspending before moving into the next month
  4. Live on last month’s income (no more paycheck-to-paycheck nonsense)

If you’re looking for more of a lifestyle change, YNAB is the plan to try.




Tracks and controls your money like a boss

Prosper Daily is a great app choice if you want to view multiple accounts in one place, optimize your finances, and keep track of your credit score. With spend analytics, you can see how you’re spending money by category so you can budget more intelligently over time. You can also see, in one screen, all of your monthly recurring charges.

And perhaps the most important feature is this: You’ll be alerted in real time to any unauthorized or fraudulent charges—the app has flagged more than $75 billion in suspicious charges to date.




Simplifies budgeting

We love the design and simplicity of the Pennies app. You won’t find any complicated charts, graphs, or diagrams here, and you can set up as many budgets as you’d like. You can easily transfer money between budgets with a single click, and this app will keep in sync with your paydays, taking weekends and national holidays into account and automatically updating whenever you get paid. Finally, you can track your financial health easily with the color-coded indicators reminding you how much money you have to spend to stay on track with your financial goals.




Auto-magically finds coupon codes during online checkout

Holy coupon magic! Coupons at Checkout is a simple browser add-on that automatically finds valid coupon codes whenever you hit an online checkout page. This app is seriously worth downloading: It has the potential to save you a ton of money every year—especially if you’re a serial online shopper.



If you can’t get enough options, check out more smart-money apps on Product Hunt.



This article was originally published on Medium. It has been republished here with permission.