Monarch vs PocketGuard・Budget Planner App

What reviewers actually said

Built only from these 120 real reviews (foreign ones translated). Superscripts jump to the quote here. Apple has no per-review links, so [ref] opens that app's reviews on the App Store.

1. [R2] Monarch 5/5 · US Best budgeting app: I’ve been terrible at keeping up with our transactions and seeing where all our money goes. The categories and roll over ability for each month is flawless. Would definitely recommend. Yes it’s a bit pricey but worth every penny. Quality is fantastic only thing I’d recommend is an offline form to see your budget you have to be connected or have signal to view the app.
2. [R8] Monarch 5/5 · US The best: This helped me get our family finances in order and more importantly, collaborate with my partner on our finances. Amazing app, keep going Monarch!
3. [R9] Monarch 3/5 · US 2 Stars for the iPad App / 4.5 stars for the platform: I absolutely love the platform and experience very issues with syncing but I absolutely hate the iPad app’s unnecessarily reduced capabilities and minimal investment in improving it. Over a year ago I requested that the reporting feature from the web version be brought to the iPad, which at that time was the only major feature missing from the
4. [R11] Monarch 4/5 · US I wish it didn’t auto-categorize: I’ve been using this app for 7 months and love everything except the fact that it automatically categorizes all transactions. Several transactions have been miscategorized and we don’t realize it until months later when looking back. If new transactions could be flagged or marked somehow, this app would be perfect.
5. [R10] Monarch 1/5 · US Locks you out until you’re forced to update: Been a paid user for +2 years. Low signal? Old iOS? You’re out of luck. They will have a giant screen come up that completely locks you out of using the app and the services YOU PAY FOR until you drop everything and go update their app. You’d better hope you’re not on an older iPhone that doesn’t have the latest iOS because they’ll 100% lock you of th
6. [R15] Monarch 3/5 · US If you’re paying off debt, NOT FOR YOU!!: I love everything else about this app. It’s got a great desktop and mobile version, account setup was easy and it’s visually pleasing and easy to navigate. My husband and I can finally both see our complete and up-to-date financial picture in a way we can both appreciate instead of me just tracking in Quicken and printing reports for him that he’ll barely
7. [R17] Monarch 5/5 · US Love it: Best budgeting platform, super easy to use and see all my metrics
8. [R23] Monarch 5/5 · US Look no further: I used to like Mint. Everything else I’ve tried since never satisfied me. There was always things missing or clunky. Until Monarch. It’s literally perfect. I’ve never had a moment where I thought “man it does not do that?” Nope. It does it all and does it in an easy to use and intuitive user interface. Well done. Non reason to look at any other option.
9. [R1] Monarch 2/5 · US No phone support, app freezing: There is no phone number for support and there’s a lot of duplicate like rent. My “July Progress” won’t load. I tried multiple times and researching online how to fix it and i can’t fix it.
10. [R5] Monarch 4/5 · US Good except Schwab connection: Like everything except the connection to Schwab. Fussy, often doesn’t work and takes too much time every few days. Copilot does this much better.
11. [R6] Monarch 3/5 · US Good for spending tracking not for account aggregation: Pretty intuitive for tracking credit card spending across categories and budgeting. Tried using it as an account aggregator to have investment and retirement accounts included and it turned into manual updates every few days. The app can’t distinguish transactions between interest or dividends paid and reinvested. I have to fix it every month
12. [R12] Monarch 3/5 · US Meh-narch: This app is ok, for budgeting but that’s about it. It’s pretty much the reincarnation of mint.com: full of double entered transactions and things that you need to recategorize multiple times before it sticks. Fine for budgeting, but not great for projections which is important to me. God, I wish Intuit hadn’t stopped making quicken.
13. [R3] Monarch 3/5 · US Paywall felt like it’s made to trick me: There are 2 options on the paywall. 1 to start trial and another to continue in app. I thought the start trial was going to open the Apple subscription flow which was very misleading when it didn’t. I don’t like to use non-apple subscriptions in apps as they are harder to manage. It was not clear that “continue in app” would open the apple subscription flow
14. [R7] Monarch 1/5 · US Missing a key feature: Unfortunately I have to update my review. I cancelled my Monarch subscription months ago when they stopped supporting access to my bank. I cancelled again when they sent me a reminder in May. They charged me anyway. I have contacted customer service but received no response. I’m left either no choice but to dispute the charge and replace my card as they clearly intend to kee
15. [R13] Monarch 1/5 · US Es de pago: No puedes obtener prueba sin otorgar información de pago
16. [R22] Monarch 1/5 · US Inaccurate Info: Incorrectly showed holdings and returns (showed losses on strong increase days). Support was very slow to respond and not helpful at all. Cancelled after 6 months for a refund. Look elsewhere and save the headache.
17. [R25] Monarch 1/5 · US Unable to keep accounts synced: I really want to give five stars but can't because they cannot keep accounts synced. When you contact help they ask you to resign in which works 1/4 of the time and the others support responds back with canned messages like are you sure you own the account?? Mean while their sync status page will show issues with the major providers. You can do better.
18. [R37] Monarch 1/5 · US Charged after cancelling, overpriced, basic: I used Monarch for a few days and made a spreadsheet in Excel with help from chatgpt that was far better and cost me nothing. Then when I canceled the subscription before the free trial ended, I was charged anyway. There’s no need to use an app like this. You need to have control of your finances. I like entering each charge because it makes me connect
19. [R61] PocketGuard・Budget Planner App 1/5 · US This app is only free to download: Once downloading the app there is no way around a paywall. Where they want you to sign up for a free trial of their premium services. I just wanted the free plan. Thanks for nothing.
20. [R69] PocketGuard・Budget Planner App 3/5 · US Ok but no free tier. Predatory.: Tried it and enjoyed it, but kept pushing me to pay despite the fact that many apps similar have a free tier. Tried to log back in and didn’t get in unless I paid money. Be upfront about that dude.
21. [R76] PocketGuard・Budget Planner App 1/5 · US Don’t Bother: I never write reviews but I feel like I should warn people since the company won’t. Unless you are willing to pay for a subscription or check your account every day, they will reset everything. After every 24 hours all your data will be gone with no way to get it back. No warning either. Seems a little ridiculous for an app promoting good money habits to make people addicted to looki
22. [R118] PocketGuard・Budget Planner App 1/5 · US nothing about this is free: there are no free options. you literally can’t continue in the app unless you pay. i should not be paying for an app that is made to help me save money.
23. [R20] Monarch 5/5 · US The most pleasant app I have been used after mint shut down: Compared to other apps, it does everything I want. A lot of other apps I used has tiny issues, e.g. Fidelity full view or credit carma. They had issues importing one or two of my accounts such as Morgan Stanley Stock Plan or HSBC. But Monarch does all of them right. Feels so good to see all things again.
24. [R14] Monarch 5/5 · US Great for families: My husband got us started on Monarch and at first I was skeptical. Why are we spending money to track our money, but it has really helped us see where we are spending irresponsibly and then make changes. We are saving for a house so knowing where we can cut costs and see our spending habits is a game changer!
25. [R41] Monarch 5/5 · US Overall great app: I like how two people can upload their own accounts so each person can have ownership, and host the whole picture can also be seen. I like how you can see all transactions that come in. The accounts stay connected for the most part. I’ve been using it for about 8 months now and I like it so far. I do wish there was a way to order the accounts by balance rather than the order the