Why Simple Finance
Every other budgeting app on this page is a subscription built on a connection to your bank. This is the argument for not doing it that way — and the places where they beat us.
No subscription, no trial that expires, no tier that hides the feature you wanted behind another $100.
There is no aggregator holding a login to your accounts, because there is no server of ours for it to send anything to.
On your device and, if you turn sync on, in your own private iCloud. We cannot read it. Support cannot look it up.
Not the website in a window. Sidebar, keyboard shortcuts, multiple windows, and the same on iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch.
Every figure below is each company’s own published information, checked September 2026.
| Simple Finance | YNAB | Monarch | Copilot | Simplifi | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cost per year | Free | $109 | $99.99 | $95 | $47.88 |
| Subscription required | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Transactions sync through the company’s servers | No — your device and your iCloud | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Account with the vendor required | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Native Mac app, not a web page | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
| Apple Watch app | Yes | Yes | — | — | — |
| Business invoicing & mileage built in | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| Rental property tracking | Included | No | Plus plan, $199/yr | No | No |
| Retirement projection with Monte Carlo | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| AI assistant | Yes — runs on your device | None | Yes — on their servers | Yes — on their servers | — |
| Also on Android or in a browser | No — Apple devices only | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
Prices are each company’s published annual rate for a personal plan, checked September 2026; Monarch’s is its Core tier. “Native Mac app” means a real Mac application rather than the site in a browser. Monarch’s rental tracking is on its Plus tier, not Core. — means we could not find it stated in the company’s own material, not that it does not exist. Pricing and features change; check theirs before you decide.
What you give up, honestly. Those apps pull your transactions in automatically because they hold a connection to your bank. Simple Finance does not, so transactions arrive by import — CSV, OFX, QFX, Excel, or a photo of a statement read on device — or by typing the ones that matter.
If a nightly automatic feed is the feature you are buying, one of those is the better app for you, and we would rather say so. If you would rather your bank credentials and your spending history not sit with a third party at all, that is the entire reason this one exists.
These are all good apps. They are built on a different bargain, and for a lot of people that bargain is the right one.
A method as much as an app: zero-based budgeting where every dollar is given a job before the month starts. The teaching material is genuinely good and the following is devoted. It has an Apple Watch app and no AI features at all, which for a lot of people is the point.
It runs in a browser on the Mac rather than as a Mac app, it is a subscription, and your transactions sync through YNAB's servers. If the envelope method is what you are buying, buy it — it is the best expression of that method there is.
The most common Mint replacement. Broad account coverage, forward-looking cash flow, dashboards built for two people to share, and an AI assistant you can ask questions in plain language.
The rental and business tools are on the $199 Plus tier, not the $99.99 one. It is a web app on the Mac, and the AI runs on Monarch's servers, which means your figures do too. If you want one place a couple can both log into from anything, it is the strongest option here.
The closest of the four to this app in feel, and the one we would recommend first if you want the automatic feed. Genuinely native on Mac and iPhone, carefully designed, and widely praised for how well it categorizes transactions on its own.
Still a subscription, still built on a bank connection, and your history still lives on their servers. Apple-only, like this one. If you want automatic categorization in a beautiful native app and the subscription is fine, Copilot is a good buy.
The cheapest of the four and the most conventional. A spending-plan approach from Quicken, who have been doing this longer than anyone, with solid account coverage and a clear monthly view.
Web and mobile only — no Mac app — and the same structure as the others underneath: a subscription, an account with the vendor, and your transactions passing through their systems.
Log it, find it, and see where the month is going.
People who want the whole picture — budgets, net worth, bills, investments, a retirement plan — without handing a third party a standing connection to their bank, and without paying a subscription for the privilege.
If you would rather have transactions appear on their own overnight, and you are comfortable with what that requires, Copilot or Monarch will make you happier than we will. We would rather you knew that now than found out after paying us.
It is free, there is no account to create, and nothing to cancel.
