Monarch Money

Monarch Money is a subscription personal finance app that combines budgeting, spending tracking, investment and net worth monitoring, and goal planning in one dashboard. It rose to prominence after Intuit shut down Mint in early 2024, and Monarch publishes a Mint comparison page aimed at people who want a polished all-in-one view rather than a single-purpose budgeting tool. It links to banks, credit cards, loans, and investment accounts (primarily through Plaid and additional aggregators), then auto-categorizes transactions so you can follow cash flow, budgets, and total net worth over time. It is built for individuals and couples who want a shared financial picture; household access for two people is included in the base plan. It runs on the web, iOS and Android. On pricing, as read on Monarch's pricing page on October 14, 2026: the standard Core plan is $14.99 per month or $99.99 per year (about $8.33 per month when billed annually). Monarch also has a higher Plus tier at $199.99 per year (about $16.67 per month; the page shows an annual price only), aimed at power users and investors, layering deeper investment reporting, more advanced planning and scenario tools, and priority support on top of Core. A free 7-day trial is available with a payment method required, and Monarch advertises a no-questions-asked money-back guarantee. The pricing page also lists code WELCOME for 30% off the annual Core plan for one year (new users only; it may expire at any time). Strengths: flexible budgeting (both traditional category budgets and a Flex approach that groups fixed, non-monthly, and flexible spending), solid goal tracking, and couples features. Honest limitations: it is a paid app with no free tier, and the most frequent complaint is bank-connection reliability. Because it leans on Plaid, large national banks tend to sync well while some credit unions, smaller regional banks, and most non-US institutions reconnect often or are unsupported. Investment performance data can also be incomplete, and the monthly budgeting model fits predictable income better than highly variable freelance income.