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Free budget apps: what you actually get for zero dollars
A budgeting app is paid for by you, by ads, or by data and offers, and working out which one you are using is the real buying decision. Our free tier includes up to 12 envelopes, 3 of the 6 themes, the home-screen and lock-screen widget with all 5 faces, and 2 of the 6 share-card styles with a watermark, and it shows a banner ad. Plus removes the ads and adds unlimited envelopes, all themes, widget styling and Excel and PDF export.
The three ways free gets paid for
There is no fourth way. Either you pay, which means a subscription or a one-time purchase and the company's incentive is that you keep finding it useful. Or advertisers pay, which means an ad slot and some device-level information going to the ad network, and the company's incentive is that you open it often. Or the app is paid by data and by referring you to financial products, which means recommendations that may be selected for the referral rather than for you. All three can be honest and all three can be run badly. The question worth asking is not whether an app is free but which of these three it is, because that tells you what its incentives will do to it over the next two years.
Exactly what our free tier is
We make this app, so here are the specifics rather than adjectives. Free gives you up to 12 envelopes, and envelopes you already created are never taken away if you were on Plus and stopped, the cap only refuses new ones. Three of the six themes, including the default. The home-screen and lock-screen widget, including all five of its faces, because putting your balance where you can see it is core budgeting rather than a premium extra. Two of the six share-card styles, with a small watermark on what you export. And a banner ad supplied by Google AdMob. Every number in the app is readable forever on free. Nothing you enter gets locked behind a wall later.
Exactly what Plus adds, and costs
Six things: no ads anywhere, unlimited envelopes, the three premium themes, every widget style and accent colour, all six share-card styles without the watermark, and Excel and PDF export with summary, ledger and monthly views. That is the complete list. Current Plus pricing lives on our comparison page rather than here, so it cannot go stale in a page nobody remembers to update; the App Store listing is always authoritative. Lifetime is a one-time purchase and carries no trial, because a trial on a one-shot purchase would not mean anything. The App Store listing is the authority on current pricing, so check it there rather than trusting a marketing page, including this one.
If your requirement is zero dollars forever
Then say so and choose accordingly, because there are real options and we would rather point you at them than sell you a trial you will cancel. A spreadsheet is free, permanent, more flexible than any app, and covered at /vs/budget-spreadsheet. Open-source local-first tools are free if you are willing to run the server, covered at /vs/actual-budget. Paper costs a notebook, covered at /vs/paper-budget-planner. And your bank's own budgeting tool is free and already installed, covered at /vs/bank-app-budgeting-tools. Each of those has a genuine cost that is not money, respectively a laptop, maintenance, coverage of online spending, and the bank's categories rather than yours. Pick the cost you would rather pay.
Why 12 envelopes is a product, not a demo
We recommend six to ten envelopes to almost everyone, and argue it at /guides/how-many-envelopes-should-i-have, because more envelopes means less money in each, which means constant reallocating, which is how people stop logging. The free cap sits at twelve, above the range we actually think you should be in and above the default set the app starts you with. So the honest position is that a free user is not running a crippled version of the method. They are running the method, with an ad. The ceiling is real and you can meet it, but you should probably not want to, and if you are at twenty envelopes the problem you have is not a paywall.
The envelope change to make
Before you compare any prices, do this: write down the six to ten categories where your money actually goes, using last month rather than your intentions, and check that the free tier of whatever you are considering covers that count. Most people discover their real list is shorter than they assumed, and that the paid tier they were about to buy solves a problem they do not have. Then run it for one pay cycle on free. If the ad genuinely bothers you or you hit the ceiling with envelopes you are still using in week four, you have an evidence-based reason to upgrade. That is a much better basis than a comparison table, ours included.
Common questions
What is the catch with free budgeting apps?
There is always a payer, so identify them. If there are ads, the ad network receives device-level information such as an advertising identifier and general details about your device, though in our case never your envelopes, transactions, amounts, notes or photos. If the app recommends financial products, ask whether those recommendations are paid placements. If the app is free with no ads and no products, ask what happens when the funding runs out, because a budgeting tool that shuts down takes your history with it. None of these is disqualifying. Not knowing which one applies is the problem.
Is the free version of Envelope Budget just a trial?
No. Free is a tier rather than a countdown: up to 12 envelopes, three themes, the widget with all five faces, two share-card styles, and a banner ad, with no expiry. The 7-day free trial is a separate thing, attached to the annual Plus plan, and it exists so you can see the paid tier before paying for it. Trial users and Plus subscribers see no ads. If you never subscribe, the app keeps working and every number you have entered stays readable.
Do you sell my data?
No. We do not sell or rent personal information, and there is no bank connection anywhere in the app, so we never receive credentials, account numbers, card numbers or balances from any institution. Your money data lives on the device unless you turn on backup. The free tier does serve a banner ad, and to do that Google receives your device's advertising identifier along with general information such as device type and approximate location, never your financial data. On iOS you are asked once whether the app may track you across other companies' apps, and declining still shows ads, just not personalized ones. The full detail is at /privacy.
Run this budget on your phone
Envelope Budget puts these envelopes in your pocket. Assign every amount, log spending as it happens, and see what is actually left.
Get Envelope BudgetiPhone · manual entry, no bank connection · 7-day free trial