Monarch Money Alternatives 2026: 5 Free Options
Monarch Money alternatives: Actual Budget, Firefly III, Empower Personal Dashboard, Goodbudget and 3 more. Prices and licenses checked October 25, 2026.
•4 min read•Personal Finance & Investing
Verdict:Monarch Money charges $14.99 a month or $99.99 a year, with a first-week trial and no free plan, so the main reason to leave is cost or wanting your data off someone else's servers. The free exits are Actual Budget, Firefly III, Empower and Goodbudget. Actual Budget (MIT) and Firefly III (AGPL-3.0) are self-hosted, free, and give you full control, but you run the server and you will not get Monarch's managed bank connections; Actual's bank syncing needs a separately billed service. Empower is the free choice if what you care about is net worth and investment tracking, and Goodbudget's free tier handles manual envelopes for two devices. If you want to keep paying, the savings are modest: Copilot is $7.92 a month on Apple devices and web, YNAB's $109 yearly is about $10 above Monarch's, and Rocket Money's Premium is pay-what-you-think-is-fair at typically $7 to $14. The trade-off is automation. Monarch's value is that accounts connect and categories fill in without effort. Every free route here swaps money for either manual entry or a server you maintain. If you share a budget with a partner and do not enjoy admin work, Monarch's price is the cost of that convenience. Leave when you are happy to self-host.
Quick comparison
| Tool | Price | Platforms | Best for | Tested |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Actual Budget | Free (Open-source app you host yourself; the repository lists no paid tier) | Web (self-hosted) | Free self-hosted budgeting | Docs only |
| Firefly III | Free (Open-source personal finance manager you host yourself; no paid tier in the repository) | Web (self-hosted) | Detailed self-hosted tracking | Docs only |
| Empower Personal Dashboard | Free (The dashboard experience and financial tools are free; separate advisory services charge fees based on assets managed) | Web | Free net worth and investment view | Docs only |
| Goodbudget | Free (Free plan: 10 regular and 10 'more' envelopes, 1 account, 2 devices, 1 year of history); paid from $10 per month (Premium; $80 billed annually) | Web, iPhone, Android | Free shared envelope budgeting | Docs only |
| YNAB | Paid from $14.99 per month, billed monthly ($109 per year billed annually; 34-day free trial) | Web | Budgeters who want a method | Docs only |
| Copilot Money | Paid from $7.92 per month ($95 billed yearly; 1-month free trial) | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Web | A cheaper paid app on Apple devices | Docs only |
| Rocket Money | Free (Free plan: subscription tracking, bill negotiation (35% to 60% of first-year savings, only if it succeeds), transaction history, a total budget plus up to two custom categories; mobile app only); paid from $7 per month (Premium, pay-what-you-think-is-fair, typically $7 to $14; Premium+ is $15) | Mobile app | Subscription and bill tracking | Docs only |
| Quicken Simplifi | Paid from $3.99 per month, billed annually ($6.99 also shown) | Web browser, iOS, Android | Personal Finance | Docs only |
Independent comparison. Paid placements are labelled separately; editorial links earn no affiliate commissions. Learn more.
Good fit if
- You want free and will run your own server (Actual Budget is the pick)
- You only need net worth and investments (Empower Personal Dashboard is the pick)
- You want free manual envelopes for two devices (Goodbudget is the pick)
- You want a cheaper paid app (Copilot Money is the pick)
- You want subscription cancelling help too (Rocket Money is the pick)
Not ideal if
- You rely on Monarch Money features or integrations that these tools do not replicate
Monarch Money today: Paid from $14.99 per month, billed monthly ($99.99 per year billed annually) (Monarch Money pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
Why people look for Monarch Money alternatives
Monarch Money has no free tier. Its pricing page lists $14.99 a month or $99.99 a year, says the first week is free, and offers new users 30% off the annual Core plan for a year with a promo code. The FAQ also mentions a separate Plus tier without giving its price, so the full cost is not visible up front. For people who only want to track a few accounts or check a budget now and then, a subscription this size is the main reason to look at cheaper or free budgeting apps.
Actual Budget
Compared with Monarch Money: MIT-licensed, free and self-hosted, against Monarch's $14.99 monthly. You lose Monarch's managed account aggregation and polish, and gain data on your own server; bank sync needs a separately billed service.
Price: Free (Open-source app you host yourself; the repository lists no paid tier) (Actual Budget pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web (self-hosted). MIT (open source).
Project activity: 29.8k GitHub stars · latest release v26.10.0 (Oct 2, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Best for: Free self-hosted budgeting.
Firefly III
Compared with Monarch Money: AGPL-3.0, free personal finance manager you host yourself. It handles accounts, budgets and reports, but has no hosted app and no automatic account linking comparable to Monarch's.
Price: Free (Open-source personal finance manager you host yourself; no paid tier in the repository) (Firefly III pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web (self-hosted). AGPL-3.0 (open source).
Project activity: 25k GitHub stars · latest release v6.7.9 (Oct 11, 2026) · last commit Oct 26, 2026
Best for: Detailed self-hosted tracking.
Worth knowing: Self-hosted, so you run the server and back up the database yourself. The repository describes it as a personal finances manager.
Empower Personal Dashboard
Compared with Monarch Money: Free dashboard for net worth and investments. Monarch charges for budgeting and sharing; Empower covers the net worth side at no cost, with thinner budgeting.
Price: Free (The dashboard experience and financial tools are free; separate advisory services charge fees based on assets managed) (Empower Personal Dashboard pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
Platforms and license: Web. Proprietary SaaS.
Best for: Free net worth and investment view.
Worth knowing: Reviews describe it as stronger at net worth and investment tracking than at detailed budgeting.
Goodbudget
Compared with Monarch Money: Free plan with 10 regular and 10 extra envelopes, 1 account and 2 devices. Manual envelope budgeting rather than Monarch's automatic feeds, but it shares across devices at no cost.
Price: Free (Free plan: 10 regular and 10 'more' envelopes, 1 account, 2 devices, 1 year of history); paid from $10 per month (Premium; $80 billed annually) (Goodbudget pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
Platforms and license: Web, iPhone, Android. Proprietary SaaS.
Best for: Free shared envelope budgeting.
Worth knowing: Automatic bank sync is US banks only and sits on the paid plan.
YNAB
Compared with Monarch Money: $14.99 a month or $109 a year with a 34-day trial, versus Monarch's $14.99 monthly and $99.99 yearly. Method-driven budgeting; slightly dearer annually.
Price: Paid from $14.99 per month, billed monthly ($109 per year billed annually; 34-day free trial) (YNAB pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
Platforms and license: Web. Proprietary SaaS.
Best for: Budgeters who want a method.
Worth knowing: No ongoing free plan; the trial needs no credit card when you sign up directly.
Copilot Money
Compared with Monarch Money: $7.92 a month or $95 a year with a one-month trial, so cheaper than Monarch monthly. Listed for iPhone, iPad, Mac and web only.
Price: Paid from $7.92 per month ($95 billed yearly; 1-month free trial) (Copilot Money pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
Platforms and license: iPhone, iPad, Mac, Web. Proprietary SaaS.
Best for: A cheaper paid app on Apple devices.
Rocket Money
Compared with Monarch Money: Free plan plus Premium typically $7 to $14 a month, pay what you think is fair. Strong on subscriptions and bills, lighter on budgeting than Monarch.
Price: Free (Free plan: subscription tracking, bill negotiation (35% to 60% of first-year savings, only if it succeeds), transaction history, a total budget plus up to two custom categories; mobile app only); paid from $7 per month (Premium, pay-what-you-think-is-fair, typically $7 to $14; Premium+ is $15) (Rocket Money pricing, checked 2026-10-23).
Platforms and license: Mobile app. Proprietary SaaS.
Best for: Subscription and bill tracking.
Other popular options (paid)
Quicken Simplifi
Compared with Monarch Money: Listed at $3.99 a month billed annually, with $6.99 also shown, against Monarch's $99.99 a year. It renews automatically each year at the then-current price, and its page mentions no free trial.
Price: Paid from $3.99 per month, billed annually ($6.99 also shown) (Quicken Simplifi pricing, checked 2026-10-25).
Which one to pick
- You want free and will run your own server: Actual Budget
- You only need net worth and investments: Empower Personal Dashboard
- You want free manual envelopes for two devices: Goodbudget
- You want a cheaper paid app: Copilot Money
- You want subscription cancelling help too: Rocket Money
Limits of this review
Docs-only for Actual Budget, Firefly III, Empower Personal Dashboard, Goodbudget, YNAB, Copilot Money, Rocket Money: we did not install or run them, so feature claims come from vendor pages and we did not test import from Monarch Money. Vendor prices and free limits change; confirm on the linked pricing page before you buy or migrate.
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Kevin Fan
Kevin Fan is a SaaS founder. He runs Free Instead Of, which tracks free and open-source alternatives to paid software and checks each price and free-plan limit against the vendor's own pages.
Methodology
Based on official pricing and product pages checked between 2026-10-22 and 2026-10-25: Monarch Money, Actual Budget, Firefly III, Empower Personal Dashboard, Goodbudget, YNAB, Copilot Money, Rocket Money, Quicken Simplifi. Prices, free limits and licenses are the figures shown on those pages on those dates. No tool on this page was installed or run. No accounts were created.