Buddy: Budget Planner App 4+

Best budget app EVER!

This is hands down by far the best and most productive app I’ve ever used on the iPhone! Just to be clear, I’ve never wrote a review for any app I’ve ever used since I got an iPhone back in 2011. My wife and I have tried saving and budgeting, I’ve tried mint ive tried rocket I’ve tried the spending app I’ve tried envelope, all of them have their own pros and cons. But when I found this app, I have yet to see any cons! I love that you can either connect you accounts to the app, or type in all the transactions manually. I personally like to type them in manually but everyone’s different, I also love how it allows you to set your budget and you can name everything individually with their own icons and with their own colors. I color coordinate all my bills and food and budget, it cost 24 dollars for the whole year and it is WELL WORTH EVERY PENNY! My wife and I have been able to save and account for every penny, our spending is under control and I love how it has changed our lives financially. If anyone is looking for an app to either track your transactions or set a budget this is hands down the best one there is!!

It’s decent

Update: after using this for almost a week I really don’t like it I’m taking off a star… when I upload all my current bank transactions it tells me my “updated current balance” and I go into my bank account just to double check the balance is correct on Buddy and it’s not… there’s no pending transactions these are transactions that have gone through and Buddy registers that and has all my transactions in my buddy account but for whatever reason it always tells me I have more than what I actually have in my bank…. The transactions also don’t go through on my budget categories… so I say I have $130 to use on my credit card bill… the transaction comes out and on my budget category it still says I have $130 left to spend this month. It just lags horribly and doesn’t stay up to date… I canceled and will be looking for a new app.

It’s good, better than mint because you have more options but when I linked my bank account to make seeing my transactions and just overall budget easier it has some of my transactions actions listed twice and then it mixed up my credit card with my checking account so I had to go in and list my “credit” as “checking” on each transaction and then it doesn’t have an accurate checking balance even though it’s linked to my bank so that’s strange. I went in and manually put my current balance though… I’ll try it because I paid for the month so we’ll see if I like it or it grows on me.

Almost the best replacement for MINT!

I’ve been testing Apps to replace Mint and have not been pleased with the free options (Empower and Piere), but I also hate subscription models, so I’ve narrowed it to the few that offer one-time purchase. Buddy is the most complete (with Wallet, PocketGuard and Spendee being the other similar Apps). Buddy is so close to being the complete package that I’m hopeful their developers will seize the opportunity to attract a huge following of “Mint Refugees” Buddy Pros: iPad App, iOS & Mac Apps!, Mint Import, Wise connects (but not great), manual cash transactions, nice monthly trends, One time purchase (find in iOS for $50), shared user, rollover budget Cons: no multi Currency (the Wise accounts all come through as the same currency!), no split transactions or transaction rules. The later two features should be a given for Expense Apps. The multi currency integration (like Wallet and Spendee) could put Buddy ahead of all the others.

UPDATE: currently you cannot link two different logins from the same institution (example: if your spouse and you have two Credit Card accounts with Chase you CANNOT link both). That’s a big strike against, as most other Apps using Plaid, MX and even Yodlee include this feature with no problem. Developers responded that they’re aware of the shortcoming and hope to add it someday.

Developer Response ,

Thank you for the thorough review! Some of these features you're missing are prioritised highly in our backlog of features to implement. I've taken note of everything you mentioned here, it won't go missed when we plan ahead. ☺️