Best Budgeting Apps for UK Savers 2024 | Investing Reviews (2024)

Of all the money-saving apps and budgeting apps that I have downloaded and used whilst conducting these reviews, Plum is the one I’ve kept. It does exactly what it says on the tin and has been a very effective tool for saving unnoticeable sums of money, investing, and now budgeting with their Money Maximiser tool.

This does come at a cost however, it is very effective at helping you stay on track and the cost includes a stocks and shares ISA for investing, a high-interest savings account, and an enhanced Cashback rate of +25% when you shop at any of their partner brands.

Pros

• Savings are protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme
• Very quick and easy to open an account and link to your main account
• Effective way to start budgeting and saving

Cons

• High cost to access budgeting features however, this does come with several other features
• Customer service are slow to respond

• Earn interest
• Automated savings and rounding up feature
• Lost money alerting you when you are overpaying on bills
• Unlimited withdrawals
• Multiple pockets for targeted saving
• Invest in a choice of funds
• Gamify your savings with the 52-week challenge
• Goals to set saving targets for each of your pockets
• Cashback when you shop at partner retailers
• Diagnostic reports to analyse spending
• Money maximiser to turn your monthly paycheck into a weekly budget while earning the maximum interest
• Withdraw money easily to your main bank account
• Separate savings account with interest

If you are struggling to manage debt then Emma is a great option. Emma pulls data from all your accounts including credit cards, current accounts, credit accounts, savings, investments, and pensions so it can provide you with a full and detailed picture of where you stand financially.

Emma can help most people save money instantly by identifying and cancelling wasteful subscriptions. The app will also track and categorise your expenses and sync your budgets to payday as well as provide advanced insights into your spending patterns so you can identify where your money is going and make the appropriate adjustments.

Pros

• Quick and easy to sign up
• Daily balances to help you stay on track
• Help manage debt across all your accounts

Cons

• Only supports 30 banks
• No savings function

• Avoid overdrafts
• Find wasteful subscriptions
• View all accounts in one place
• Sync your budgets to payday with advanced insights into spending behaviour
• Set spending limits
• Easy to add a new bank account

• Standard Emma Free
• Emma Plus £41.99 per year
• Emma Pro £83.99 per year

As with Plum and Emma, Money Dashboard uses Open Banking to connect to your bank accounts, credit cards and savings accounts in order to provide a detailed overview of where your money is going.

Unlike Plum and Emma, Money Dashboard is completely free and able to connect to every major UK bank. Where Money Dashboard shine is by helping you understand how your spending habits have changed over time, organising your transactions into categories and allowing you to set multiple budgets so you can save for one-off events.

This option does require a little more input from the user in the form of setting your budget so if you want a totally hands-off approach this won’t be your best option.

Pros

• Free even for features that other apps charge for
• Available on desktop
• Highly customisable

Cons

• Requires user input especially on set up
• No view of pending transactions
• Can be a little clunky to use

• Split transactions
• Transfer money between your accounts in one app
• Custom categories for personalising how your spending is organised
• Spending history and analysis
• Warnings when your balance is getting too low to pay upcoming bills
• Set budget goals
• Budget from payday to payday
• Predicted balance
• View balance after bills

If your finances are slightly more complicated than the average person then you may benefit more from the personal finance app, Moneyhub. Like the other platforms, Moneyhub connects to all your accounts including bank accounts, investment accounts, credit cards, and savings accounts in order to provide valuable insights to help you budget effectively.

Where Moneyhub stands out from the competition is that they also offer human financial advice. This makes them ideal for people with multiple financial accounts and for couples who are looking to combine their wealth.

Pros

• Powerful spending insights and excellent budgeting tools
• Access to human financial advisors
• Very quick and easy to sign up

Cons

• There are free budgeting apps that offer a lot of these features
• Users have experienced technical difficulties

• Spending analysis
• Custom categories for transactions
• Ability to split transactions into more than one category
• Spending goals and budgets
• Nudges on your current position for your budget
• Transfer money between linked accounts
• Manage direct debits
• Connect to a financial advisor
• Forcast feature to help plan for the future

• First six months completely free of charge
• £0.99 a month or £9.99 per annum

Snoop claim that they can save the average household £1,500 a year simply by connecting all your financial accounts in one place, helping you keep to budgets and suggesting areas where you can potentially save money and cancel wasteful subscriptions.

Snoop will suggest alternatives to household bills such as utilities, broadband, insurance and mortgage providers which is perfect for busy households that don’t have time to find the best bargains. Snoop can also help you find a better interest rate on your savings and categorise your spending so you can make instant savings.

Pros

• Free to use
• Quick and easy to install
• Could help you save money in minutes

Cons

• Some features found on other apps are missing
• Snoop do sell customer data however this never includes personal information

• Spending sorter to help you understand where your money is going
• Payment hub to give an overview of upcoming bills
• Discount code finder
• Energy checker to help identify cheaper suppliers
• Spending summaries
• Money-saving scanner with sales and offers
• Mobile and broadband checker
• Card checker
• Insurance checker
• Look ahead
• Mortgage manager