3 budgeting apps you can't ignore

Hey,

It’s Anirban here. Welcome to the first edition of rebranded alivewithad.

In this newsletter I help you manage your finances while you travel the world as a digital nomad. 

Today, I’ll share the 3 best apps for managing your budget while living a nomadic life.

1. Revolut

I came to know about Revolut from Grace. She was on my podcast last week and shared that she uses this tool to manage her finances.

So, I did my research, and here is everything you should know about this app:

Revolut is a financial technology app that offers a wide range of services, including banking, currency exchange, money transfers, budgeting tools, and investment options like stock and cryptocurrency trading.

It was founded in 2015 by Nikolay Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko.

Key features:

• Holding and exchanging over 30 currencies with competitive rates.

• Fee-free spending abroad (up to limits depending on your plan).

• And instant transfers to other Revolut users.

• It also offers virtual and physical debit cards, with security options like freezing your card in-app.

Beyond everyday banking, you can trade stocks starting at $1, buy cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, and use savings vaults with interest rates up to 4.25% APY (for premium plans in the US as of early 2025).

Revolut operates on a tiered subscription model.

The standard plan is free. It offers basic features like limited fee-free ATM withdrawals and currency exchanges up to $1,000 monthly.

And paid plans are:

Plus ($3.99/month), Premium ($9.99/month), and Metal ($16.99/month).

You can access perks like higher limits, travel insurance, cashback, and priority support.

In some regions, an Ultra plan exists with added benefits like phone support, but this varies by country.

User feedback is generally positive, with a 4.3/5 rating on Trustpilot from over 179,000 reviews as of March 2025.

2. Honeydue

If you’re traveling with a partner, this is the best budgeting app you need.

It was launched in 2017 by WalletIQ, Inc. It lets you and your partner sync and track bank accounts, credit cards, loans, and investments in real time.

You can choose what you want to share (like full transaction details or just balances), so it becomes flexible.

The app organizes everything into three views:

• Your individual expenses.

• Your partner’s.

• And a shared “all” section for joint costs like rent or groceries.

Key features:

You can set monthly spending limits by category (e.g., dining, utilities) with alerts when you’re close to overspending, bill reminders to avoid late fees, and automatic expense categorization (plus custom categories if you want).

There’s also an in-app chat with emojis like a thumbs-up or a questioning face to discuss purchases without leaving the app.

You can split expenses and settle up balances directly, which is handy for tracking who owes what. For those wanting a joint account, Honeydue offers one through Sutton Bank (FDIC-insured up to $250,000), with no fees or minimums and debit cards for both partners.

Security-wise, it uses bank-level encryption (256-bit), multi-factor authentication and partners with Plaid to connect to over 10,000 financial institutions across the US, Canada, UK, Spain, and France. It’s mobile-only (iOS and Android), with no web version, and has a clean, minimalist design.

User ratings are 4.5/5 on the App Store (over 6,400 reviews) and 4.2/5 on Google Play (over 1,500 reviews) as of early 2025. Also, it’s free.

3. EveryDollar

I found this app while researching Honeydue. It’s really cool, especially its background.

EveryDollar is designed to help you plan and track every dollar of your income using a zero-based budgeting approach, where your income minus expenses equals zero each month.

It was launched in 2015, It’s built for people who want a straightforward way to follow Ramsey’s “Baby Steps” (e.g., paying off debt, building an emergency fund).

You manually input your income, assign every dollar to categories like housing, food, or debt, and track spending as you go.

Key features: 

In the free tier, you get

• Customizable budget templates

• Unlimited categories

• And drag-and-drop adjustments.

The premium version, now bundled with Ramsey+, costs $129.99/year (as of April 2025)

• Includes bank syncing (via Finicity)

• automatic transaction imports

• and access to Ramsey’s Financial Peace University course.

Both versions show your budget progress with a dashboard of income, planned spending, and what’s left. The app also tracks debt payoff with a simple calculator.

User ratings on iOS is 4.7/5, 56K reviews & on Android 4.5/5, 12K reviews.

It’s so simple for beginners, though it is kinda “overpriced” for basic features. It also doesn’t support complex investments or multiple currencies, so it’s less versatile than Revolut or Honeydue.

Now you know what you need so you can choose the one which suits you best.

Thanks for reading. : )

I will see you next week.

Your nomad,

Anirban.