It can be challenging to sort through the huge list of budgeting apps to find which might work best for you and your family. In this Simplifi vs. Monarch Money review, we’ll examine two of the best budgeting apps available and present their benefits and downsides. 

If you haven’t yet found the right replacement for Mint after it shut down, you’ll find that Simplifi and Monarch have some great features. While both are great choices, there’s probably one that you’ll prefer based on its unique features. Let’s look at each and see if we can determine a winner.

What is Simplifi?

Simplifi is a modern, more user-friendly budgeting and money management app created by Quicken (yes, the same Quicken that has been around for decades!).

The Simplifi app goes beyond simple budgeting to allow you to track investments, set and monitor financial goals, and summarize your entire financial picture.

Simplifi is known for:

• A simple, easy-to-use interface
• Automation to set up your budget as quickly as possible
• Reporting
• Real-time alerts

And you can be sure it’s packed with tons of essential features from one of the oldest Fintech companies. After all, Quicken has over four decades of experience in the personal finance app space.

Simplifi certainly lives up to its name, allowing you to simplify your finances. 

Simplifi is available on the web, as well as for iOS (App Store) and Android (Google Play) mobile devices. Check out our full Simplifi review here.

What is Monarch Money?

Monarch Money is one of the newer money management apps on the scene. Its founders are seasoned startup veterans who have intentionally prioritized the user experience (because we know money management isn’t just about numbers).

Because it’s a newer budgeting app on the scene (launched in late 2020), they are still regularly rolling out new features requested by their audience.

Some of the most prominent features of Monarch include:

• A customizable dashboard
• Budgeting/spending plan
• Investment tracking and monitoring
• Extensive, customizable reports
• A focus on financial goals

Despite being only a few years old, Monarch Money has gained a large following and is highly recommended by financial planners for their clients.

Monarch Money has web-based and mobile apps for iOS (App Store) and Android (Google Play). Check out our full Monarch Money review here.

Simplifi vs. Monarch Money: Round 1 (Best Features)

When you put a budgeting app from one of the oldest Fintech companies against one from an all-star team of startup veterans, you know you’ll get some amazing features to compare.

Simplifi: Best Features

If you’re familiar with Quicken, you know that it likely has the most extensive features of any personal finance app available. Simplifi was intentionally created to have less extensive features, aimed at a younger audience with different needs and preferences. Don’t let that dissuade you, though. Simplifi strikes a good balance between not being overwhelming and allowing you to manage your money quickly and efficiently.

Intuitive and Easy-to-Use

It’s incredibly simple to set up a budget in Simplifi. The app walks you through each step systematically. It’s essentially just a matter of:

1. linking your accounts
2. identifying bills and subscriptions
3. setting your goals
4. adding your monthly spending plan amounts

When it comes to day-to-day use, Simplifi automatically categorizes your transactions, allowing you to simply review them and monitor your spending. They even advertise on their website that you can manage your finances in just 5 minutes per week.

Users who love visuals will appreciate the clean, clear reports that emphasize important information and help you see trends and progress toward your financial goals.

Low Cost

Simplifi is one of the least expensive budgeting apps currently available. While they don’t have a monthly subscription option, an annual subscription is just $47.99/year. They also offer frequent discounts of 25-40%.

Of course, paying $48 is a lot more than free. But, it’s certainly worth just $4/month to avoid pesky advertisements, upsells, and privacy concerns.

Customization

With Simplifi, you can customize the app in many different ways to meet your personal preferences:

• Dashboard overview
• Report filters
• Transaction payees and categories
• Account names
• Spending watchlists and alerts

A unique feature of Simplifi is the option to choose the type of budgeting method that works best for you. So, whether you prefer a traditional, zero-based, or 50/30/20 budget, you can set up your Simplifi budget to accommodate your system.

You can truly make your budget your own with the customization that Simplifi offers its users.

Watchlists

In addition to other real-time alerts that Simplifi offers, you can set up custom watchlists to alert you about specific spending trends or triggers. 

These watchlists can be set up based on budget category, payee, or custom tags that you create. This gives you quick insight when trying to change your spending habits. For example, if you’re frequently overspending on eating out, you can set a watchlist to monitor spending at certain restaurants or by category.

Monarch Money: Best Features

Monarch Money certainly doesn’t lack features, as it’s one of the most robust personal finance apps available to individual users. Their website explains their mission as “help[ing] people lead richer lives by making better financial outcomes available to all.”

Comprehensive

Monarch Money’s best feature just may be the number of features it offers. It’s a comprehensive tool to view your money, not just small pieces of the larger picture. Although, you can certainly manage those smaller pieces in Monarch as well.

The main features include:

• Net Worth Tracking
• Budgeting
• Investments
• Financial Goals

Clarity is essential when it comes to getting your finances in order. Monarch shines when it comes to making your data presentable in a way that allows you to make financial decisions beyond just budgeting or financial account management.

User Experience

It’s clear that Monarch Money sees the value of visuals in a modern personal finance app. You’re able to customize pictures for your financial goals and budget categories and even have customizable emojis to go along with the text.

There are also a variety of ways to visualize your spending and financial data, including this Sankey diagram that is a user favorite:

Not only does Monarch have an amazing user interface, but they understand the value of letting people customize as much as possible. Everyone has different financial goals, which impacts how they want to see and analyze their data.

In Monarch Money, you can customize:

• Budget categories
• Tags
• Financial account names
• Dashboard ordering and components

Making your budget your own, even with these little details, goes a long way in helping you take ownership of your finances and makes it fun as well!

Goal-setting

Goals are front and center in Monarch Money. In the app, your goals don’t just sit there as a side note. After all, budgeting isn’t about spending less, it’s about prioritizing money toward the things that are most important to you.

In Monarch, goals are linked to both the budget and financial accounts. When you set up a financial goal, it automatically sets up a budget category to prompt you to save monthly for that goal.

You also have the option to indicate the financial account that holds the funds for your savings goal. This way, your funds are more than just totals; they represent your goals.

Ability to Collaborate

The ability to share your budget and other financial data is one of the best features of Monarch Money and an essential one for couples. 

Not only is this beneficial for budgeting as a family, but also for sharing information with a financial coach or financial planner. 

Financial advisors can set up a Monarch Money dashboard with their clients and have access to additional tools and demo budgets to help their clients best utilize Monarch Money.

Simplifi vs. Monarch Money: Round 2 (Areas for Improvement)

While both Simplifi and Monarch Money have extensive features and prioritize user functionality and experience, there are a few areas of improvement that are important to note.

Simplifi: Areas for Improvement

Despite being one of the best value budgeting apps, Simplifi has a few drawbacks.

Debt Tracking & Credit Features

If debt paydown and credit tracking are a primary focus for you, you might find Simplifi’s functionality here lacking.

Simplifi doesn’t offer ways to create a debt-paydown plan or see the impact of making additional payments toward your debt. You’ll certainly make progress in paying down debt by being more aware of your spending and tracking your priorities, but it’s not a focus of the Simplifi app.

No Free Trial

Unfortunately, Simplifi doesn’t offer a free trial before you commit to using the app. This, coupled with only having an annual subscription option, can be a downside for many people who aren’t sure whether this is the right app for them. 

However, you can request a full refund within 30 days if it’s not the right solution for you.

Monarch Money: Areas for Improvement

With Monarch Money, there isn’t a lot to complain about. Monarch, as a company, continually makes improvements and has a publicly available roadmap for users to vote on features they want and see upcoming features and their expected release dates. However, there are a few things that may be worth considering.

Cost

Currently, a subscription to Monarch Money will cost you $99.99/annually or $14.99/month. They frequently offer discounts for new users (including the current WELCOME code offer for 30% off to get the price down to $69.99/year for your first year).

The app doesn’t have any advertisements or upsells that free apps have, so in our opinion, it’s worth the cost.

Less Intuitive

Some people report that Monarch Money is less intuitive than other budgeting apps. There’s a lot to navigate in the app, which can overwhelm some users.

However, due to the number of features, reports, and options available in Monarch Money, this tradeoff can be both a plus and a negative, depending on exactly what you’re looking for in a budgeting app.

If you’re just beginning to get your finances under control, there may be features you don’t need or use, so that’s worth considering.

Simplifi vs. Monarch Money: Final Verdict

When we bring Simplifi and Monarch Money head-to-head, we won’t hesitate to say they are both great options with many similar features. When it comes to budgeting options for families, you certainly couldn’t go wrong with either of these!

Both apps will help you monitor your cash flow, see your full financial picture, and track your financial goals–the real reason money is important to you.

However, we think Monarch Money ultimately comes ahead with its intuitive, customizable design that blows other budgeting software out of the water. It has more customization, additional investment features, and a generally better user experience.

If top-notch user experience is what you’re looking for, you won’t find a better app than Monarch Money. If you need a more budget-friendly option and don’t need some of the extra features, Simplifi is certainly worth checking out.

The following chart compares some of the most important things to consider when choosing budgeting software and our vote for whether Monarch Money or Simplifi does it best.

Simplifi vs. Monarch Money Breakdown

What do you think of our Simplifi vs. Monarch Money? Which of these is your favorite budgeting app?

Please let us know in the comments below.

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