Monarch Money Review: A Couple-Friendly Budgeting App That Helps Track Shared Finances
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Monarch Money is a sleek, user-friendly budgeting app designed with couples in mind. Available on both mobile and desktop, it allows you to manage personal and shared accounts, track bills, monitor spending, and set goals — all in one place. No more juggling spreadsheets, apps, and bank tabs.
As someone used to tracking our family’s spending in a shared Google spreadsheet, I was intrigued. My husband and I tested Monarch Money for a month to see if it could help us take more control of our household expenses. Spoiler: It helped — but not without some drawbacks.
Why We Tried Monarch
We’ve been trying to reduce our family expenses. Our typical process — putting groceries, gas, and entertainment on a shared credit card and hoping we don’t exceed our spending threshold — just wasn’t cutting it.
Monarch’s collaborative features and flexible budgeting tools caught our attention. It felt like a natural fit for a couple looking to align financially. We decided to give the premium-only app a real-world test.
How Much Does Monarch Cost?
Unlike many budgeting apps, Monarch doesn’t offer a free version. You can test it for seven days, but that may not be enough time to decide if it’s the right fit.
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Monthly plan: $14.99
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Annual plan: $99.99 (equals $8.33/month)
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Promotions: Sign up through Monarch’s website (not an app store) to save 30% off your first year.
There are no ads or tiered memberships — one flat fee unlocks all features. The company also emphasizes strong data privacy and does not sell your financial data, which is a major plus.
Getting Started with Monarch
I used my laptop to sign up, connect our accounts, and invite my husband. We linked our checking and savings accounts, credit cards, car loan, 529 plans for the kids, and even retail cards like Target and Old Navy. Setup was smooth — autofill helped with passwords — though we couldn’t connect our mortgage account.
You can rename accounts to make things easier to track.
Budgeting: Flex vs. Category
After setup, we had to choose a budgeting style:
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Flex budget: Focuses on variable expenses (groceries, gas, dining out) while separating fixed costs (mortgage, utilities).
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Category budget: Traditional budgeting where every dollar is assigned to a category.
We went with category budgeting since it mirrored our spreadsheet method. That ended up being a mistake (more on that later).
Shared Tracking Tools for Couples
Monarch is clearly built for couples. The home dashboard shows a combined view of your household finances. You can tag each expense by person, set shared goals (like a vacation fund or emergency savings), and even monitor both partners’ credit scores.
Worried about surprises? Monarch allows private expenses (great for gifts or surprises), marked by a small eye icon.
What I Liked About Monarch
✅ Month-in-review report
At the end of our test month, Monarch showed us where our money went. Top categories? Mortgage, a new refrigerator (shopping), HVAC repair (home improvement), and groceries.
The report included cash flow trends and a clear net worth breakdown.
✅ Visual spending reports
The reports feature is perfect for visual learners. You can select a time frame, see what categories dominate your spending, and drill down to individual transactions.
✅ Financial visibility
I loved having access to parts of our financial life I didn’t previously track — like the kids’ 529 accounts. No more asking my husband for updates; now it’s all in one place.
Downsides of Monarch
⚠️ Payment alerts were confusing
Sometimes paying a bill looked like a store refund, which was misleading.
⚠️ Syncing problems
As the month went on, several accounts paused syncing due to two-factor authentication. That could be an ongoing frustration.
⚠️ No support for savings “buckets”
We use savings buckets in our joint high-yield savings account (e.g., for travel, repairs, emergencies), but Monarch doesn’t reflect these divisions.
⚠️ Customizing categories felt clunky
Monarch offers many default categories, and it can be customized — but the process isn’t intuitive. I had to research how to create a separate category just for Costco, where purchases often span groceries, household goods, and baby supplies.
Was Monarch Worth It?
It depends on your needs.
Monarch is well-designed, modern, and great for couples. It helped my husband and me talk more openly about money and develop better financial habits.
That said, it wasn’t perfect for us. The category system didn’t fit our spending style. Too many expenses didn’t fit neatly into a predefined category, and setting up custom categories was tedious.
Midway through the month, we switched to flex budgeting, which made more sense for how we think about money. This flexibility — switching budget types even mid-month — is a valuable feature.
Monarch is also evolving. A new retail sync extension allows you to split and reassign Amazon or Target purchases, so everything doesn’t default to “shopping.” That’s a big win for detail-focused budgeters.
Ultimately, while we may go back to our trusty spreadsheet, Monarch helped us take a closer look at our finances and sparked valuable conversations.
What Do Redditors Think of Monarch?
To get a broader sense of how Monarch compares to other budgeting tools, we analyzed Reddit threads. While user experiences are anonymous and unverifiable, common themes emerged:
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A modern middle ground: Redditors say Monarch offers a cleaner, more intuitive experience than YNAB and better transaction categorization than Quicken Simplifi.
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Not perfect for investing: Some users note it lacks robust investment tracking.
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Better than free tools: While pricier, Monarch is seen as more reliable and polished than free budgeting apps.
CreditVana’s Take on Monarch
CreditVana’s editorial team reviewed Monarch due to its strong ratings in both app stores:
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Apple App Store: 4.9 stars (54.9K reviews)
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Google Play: 4.7 stars (13.7K reviews)
We signed up for a paid subscription and tested the app over a full month, using both desktop and mobile, to assess its budgeting tools, account syncing, and collaborative features.
