Some great apps and tools to help you manage your money

Last updated: August 2026

To build good financial habits, you need an app that shows you two things:

• A clear view of all your recent transactions (so you can see where your money's really going).
• A snapshot of your current balances (bank accounts, investments, debts, savings).

And you want a system that keeps this data up to date without stealing your entire weekend (ideally, by automatically syncing the data securely with your financial institutions) or selling you random shit you don't need.

Some people like a spreadsheet (I’ve even made one for you to download here). Others prefer an app that does the heavy lifting. You do you. Either way, you need a way to see your money clearly.

The very irritating thing is that most “Best Money App” lists you'll find online are written like the rest of the world outside the United States doesn’t exist. Mint, Monarch Money, Rocket Money and Quicken are fine and dandy if you live in Delaware. Much less useful if you're sitting in Durban or Delhi.

So I’ve made you a better list. Whether you’re in South Africa, the UK, or you've got pots of money all over the world like a wanderlust leprechaun, these apps will actually work for you.

🌍 Best global apps

All of these apps work globally and let you track accounts from most places in the world (useful if you've ended up with pockets of money in different countries). They all offer manual entry if you prefer to update your data yourself. The main difference is how well they support automatic syncing with banks and investment platforms from different countries.

I’ve indicated how well each platform covers South African institutions specifically (I'm South African), but even if the auto-sync isn't available for your country, you can still use any of these apps by entering the data manually.

🥇 My favourites are Finwise and Lunch Money, but take a look and see which one will be best for your individual needs.

If you're looking for more advanced wealth management tools, I personally use Kubera and love it to bits. It's expensive though.

🇿🇦 Best South African apps

Tjommas, the best option right now is Finwise, which costs about R160 a month. It's a global app but built by two South Africans, with excellent coverage of local banks and investment platforms. Privacy, check, security, check. It's not perfect (Discovery Bank and Momentum accounts tend to give trouble) but it's the best all-rounder at the moment . Or take a look at Lunch Money if you're happy to manually upload your bank transactions once a month.

Auto-sync coverage of South African banks is spotty. Kubera has the best coverage across Sub-Saharan Africa overall, for instance they offer Standard Bank, FNB, Nedbank Eswatini, ABSA Ghana etc., but Kubera is more of a wealth-management app than a spending tracker. Buxfer and Pocketsmith support most major South African banks. But if you're willing to use CSV uploads, you can use basically any tool from the Global Apps list.

Vault22 (which used to be 22seven) used to be a fantastic free South African-only option, but it's become pretty convoluted and strange now, and their data policy is iffy. I don't recommend it any more.

Most regular banking apps offer day-to-day budgeting these days (Capitec's and Discovery Bank's are both pretty good), but you can’t keep track of other things (like your investments or debts) with them. They're not a bad place to start.

Other useful South African money apps

• Debtbusters: trustworthy debt counsellors.
• Clearscore: check your credit score, for free.
• Pokkitscore: build your credit score using a savings account.
• Wise: simply the best way to send money around the world.
• Shyft: an app that lets you buy, store and send foreign currency. Not as good as Wise.
• Mama Money: a cheap and easy way to send cash to other countries in Africa.
• Karri: an easy way to manage small payments to your kid’s school.
• EasyEquities: my fave South African investment platform. See this page for a roundup of other good SA investing platforms.
• Splitwise: an app to help you keep track of money that your friends and family owe you. Very useful if you’re sharing expenses amongst a whole group of friends, like on a holiday.
• Price Check: before you buy something, quickly check whether there’s another store that’s selling it for cheaper. The app has a barcode scanner so you can search for stuff really easily when you’re in the shop.
• Luno and VALR: the easiest places to buy and sell cryptocurrencies in South Africa, if you’re into that.
• Naked Insurance: affordable, transparent household and car insurance.
• Pineapple Insurance: another option for simple, affordable car and household insurance.
• TaxTim: makes doing your tax return a little bit simpler.

🇬🇧 Best apps for the United Kingdom

Open Banking is the shit, guys! Luckily for you, this means that you have lots to choose from when it comes to spending trackers.

Great UK-centric apps to help you wrangle and track your spending

• Snoop: savings nudges and budgeting tools
• Emma: smart insights about your spending.
• Cleo: a chat-based AI that will help you budget, save and track your spending.

Or try any of the apps listed under "Global" above.

A lot of banking apps (like Monzo's and Revolut's) allow you to track some other savings and investments directly in your transactional app.

UK apps for investing and saving

• Hargreaves Lansdown: the #1 UK investing platform; a great place to start for most people.
• Trading212: commission-free stocks and shares ISA.
• Chip: an app that helps you save for goals.
• Plum: a simple chatbot style investment app that has some cute money management features in it too. Good for beginners.
• InteractiveInvestor: a full-featured investment platform.
• Freetrade: simple interface and quick setup.
• Wealthify: risk-based investments backed by Aviva.
• Moneybox: for ISAs and LISAs.
• Moneyfarm: simple managed portfolios.

Personally, I invest directly through Vanguard.