Bilance

Best budgeting apps in Europe (2026)

Mihkel Vetemaa

Founder & CEO · · Updated

Facts last verified:

Bilance is our overall pick for Europe: it connects your bank accounts across the EU/EEA, does the categorising for you, and has a built-in AI chat that answers questions about your own money. We make Bilance, so that ranking is ours to defend; the criteria and sources are below, and where another app is the better choice, we say so. Wallet by BudgetBakers and Spendee are the strongest all-round alternatives. If you want a strict budgeting method and accept more manual work, YNAB is the best-known choice. If you only use Apple devices, Buddy and MoneyWiz are worth considering. Strong local options exist in Germany (Finanzguru), France (Bankin’) and Spain (Fintonic). The rest of this page explains how we compared them, with a source and a date behind every fact.

How we compared, and who is writing this

We make Bilance, so read this page knowing that. Here is how we tried to stay fair:

  • Open criteria. We compare European bank coverage, automatic categorisation, subscriptions and recurring payments, budgets, net worth, sharing for couples, and platforms. Working with European banks is weighted first, because this page is for people who bank in Europe.
  • Sourced facts only. Every fact in the table links to the vendor’s own official page, checked on the date shown at the top of this page. Where we could not verify a point from a vendor’s published pages, the table shows a dash. A dash means “not verified”, not “proven absent”. We do not fill gaps with guesses.
  • The selection is editorial. The criteria are open, but which apps made this page is our judgment, guided by those criteria. There is no secret score.
  • No prices. App store prices differ by country for every app here, including ours, so a printed price would be wrong for many readers. We describe each app’s pricing model instead, and you should check the exact price in the app for your country.
  • Competitors’ strengths are named. Where another app does something better than Bilance, this page says so.

One more note: every app that syncs European banks, including Bilance, depends on the quality of each bank’s own interface, so sync reliability varies by bank and provider.

The comparison at a glance

Pricing modelEuropean bank syncAutomatic categorisationSharing for couplesPlatforms
BilancePaid; no permanent free tier [1]2,300+ banks across the EU/EEA [1]Yes — most transactions, learnsTwo people, chosen bank accountsiOS, Android [1]
Wallet by BudgetBakersFree tier; sync needs Premium [1] [2]15,000+ worldwide; no EU count [1]Yes — learns; rules can override [1]Owner pays; per-member permissions [1]iOS, Android, web (limited) [1]
SpendeeFree tier (1 wallet); sync needs Premium [1]2,500+ providers; all EU listed [1]Premium only; not for direct-API banks [1]Manual wallets only; guests free [1]iPhone, Android, web [1]
YNABPaid only (USD) [1]18 markets, selected banks [1]Payee memory; manual-first [1]Up to 6 people [1]iOS, Android, web [1]
BuddyPremium sub; free limits not published [1]Yes; coverage not published [1]Mentioned in terms; not documented [1]Shared budgets + Split settlement [1]Apple only; Android/web not verified [1] [2]
MoneyWizPaid; sync needs Premium [1]EEA via Salt Edge; Premium only [1] [2] [3]Apple-first (iPhone, iPad, Mac) [1]
Toshl FinanceYes — official APIs where available [1]iOS, Android, web [1]
Bankin'FR, UK, ES, DE, NL; 350 institutions [1]Yes [1]
FinanzguruDE + AT; 3,000+ banks claimed [1] [2]
FintonicFree (marketplace-funded) [1]Spain [1]
MonefyNo — manual entry (its listing) [1]No — manual [1]Android; Drive/Dropbox device sync [1]

Numbered links open the official page each claim was checked against (on 2026-08-12). A dash means we could not verify that point from the vendor's published pages.

Where a vendor publishes little, the dashes show it. That is worth noticing before you subscribe.

The apps, one by one

Bilance

Bilance is our app: a budgeting app made for European banks that connects your accounts automatically and does the categorising for you. It covers 2,300+ banks across the EU/EEA (check yours), categorises most transactions automatically and learns from your corrections, tracks subscriptions and recurring bills on their own screen, and shows budgets, net worth and a full spending overview in 24 languages. Couples can share chosen bank accounts with Shared Finances. It is a paid subscription with no permanent free tier. Most new users start with a full-featured trial; the exact terms are shown in the app before you pay.

Wallet by BudgetBakers

A mature app from Prague with a very wide feature set. Bank sync requires its paid Premium plan, and its shared groups give the owner four access levels to set per member. It also tracks investments and offers CSV import on the web, which Bilance does not have. Trade-offs: budgets and planned payments are not available in its web app, and recurring payments are scheduled by hand rather than detected automatically. Full comparison: Bilance vs Wallet.

Spendee

Also from Prague, with a clear interface and wallets for banks, e-wallets and crypto services. Its bank selector lists every EU country. Bank sync and automatic categorisation require Premium, scheduled transactions work only in manual cash wallets, and connected bank wallets cannot be shared with a partner. There is no dedicated net-worth feature. Its shared manual wallets are free for invited guests, which is a nice touch for simple shared expenses. Full comparison: Bilance vs Spendee.

YNAB

The best-known strict method in budgeting. YNAB teaches zero-based budgeting: give every euro a job, supported by extensive courses, videos and an active community. Sharing covers up to six people under one subscription. For Europeans the trade-offs are real: direct bank import covers 18 European markets with selected banks only, imported transactions typically appear within 24 to 72 hours by YNAB’s own documentation, the app is English-only, and it is priced in US dollars. Its 34-day direct-signup trial needs no card. Full comparison: Bilance vs YNAB.

Buddy

A Swedish app with a friendly design, flexible custom budgets and a strong shared-budget workflow, including settlement calculations for who owes whom. It is built for Apple devices: iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch, plus Apple-silicon Mac and Apple Vision compatibility; we could not verify an Android or web product. Buddy does not publish its bank coverage, its free-tier limits or a current trial duration, so you have to test your own bank inside the app. Full comparison: Bilance vs Buddy.

MoneyWiz

A veteran personal-finance manager for Apple devices with deep reporting, investments and multi-currency support. European bank sync is real, runs through Salt Edge under PSD2, and requires its Premium tier. Its “40,000 banks” marketing figure combines several global providers, so treat it as a worldwide number, not a European one, and check your bank during the trial.

Toshl Finance

A long-standing European app and a regulated account-information provider in Slovenia. It supports automatic bank connections, using official APIs where the bank offers one; connection and authentication mechanics vary by bank. iOS, Android and web.

Bankin’, Finanzguru and Fintonic

Three strong regional choices. Bankin’ serves France plus the UK, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands with automatic categorisation. Finanzguru is a widely used German-language app for Germany and Austria and is particularly good at tracking contracts and subscriptions. Fintonic is Spain’s aggregator; the app is free and the company earns money through its marketplace of loans and insurance, which is a different business model from a subscription app, and worth understanding before you rely on it.

Monefy

The manual option. Monefy is positioned as a manual expense tracker: its official listing describes no bank-connection feature, and you enter each expense yourself in a fast, simple interface. If you want automation, it is the wrong tool. If you actively prefer typing each expense to granting bank access, it is one of the most popular ways to do exactly that.

Apps you may have heard of that do not fit

  • Monarch Money and Copilot Money are US-only. Goodbudget’s automatic bank sync also covers US banks only, though the app itself can be used manually anywhere.
  • In the UK, Emma and Snoop are well-regarded local options built around UK banks.
  • Actual Budget is open-source and self-hosted; European bank sync requires running your own server and is documented as experimental, with syncs triggered manually.
  • Linxo remains a known name in France, and Finary tracks wealth and investments first, with budgeting attached.

Frequently asked questions

Are these apps safe to connect to my bank?

European open banking under PSD2 gives an app read-only access: it can see transactions and balances, but it cannot move money, and you approve the connection at your own bank. Each syncing app in the table names its connection provider, with a link to the official page, so check the vendor’s own security information before connecting. We explain how to judge any app on this in is bank sync safe?.

Which budgeting apps have a free tier?

Wallet and Spendee offer free tiers for manual tracking; in both, bank sync requires a paid plan. Fintonic is free and earns through financial products instead. Monefy is a manual tracker. Bilance and YNAB are paid subscriptions with trials. Details and sources are in the table above.

Try Bilance

Connect your bank accounts and let Bilance do the categorising — set up in about 2 minutes.