The best budgeting app for couples

The Mint app has shut down as of Jan. 1, 2024. For alternatives, check out CNBC Select's ranking of the best budgeting apps.

Whether you and your partner share joint bank or credit card accounts, have your own individual ones or do a blend of the two, managing money with another person in the mix can get overwhelming.

Budgeting apps designed for couples are a good solution, especially if you and your partner are trying to save up for a certain goal like a new car, a mortgage on your first home or a future vacation.

Partners looking for an easy way to track their finances together can look at the Honeydue budgeting app for help. Out of a dozen-plus apps that CNBC Select compared when rating the best budgeting apps of 2021, Honeydue stood out for being the best app for couples.

With Honeydue, each partner can select what accounts they want to add to the app to share with their partner. The app allows you to add your bank accounts, credit cards, loans and investments, so together you both can see everything in one place.

Below, we review the Honeydue budgeting app to give you all the details on its features, including the tools, perks, safety, pricing, availability and ratings so you can decide if it is the right app for you and your partner to manage your money together. (See our methodology for more information on how we choose the best budgeting apps.)

• Budgeting app tools
• Perks
• Safety
• Pricing
• Availability and ratings
• Bottom line

The Honeydue budgeting app makes it easy for you and your partner to get an overall view of your finances together without having to log into a bunch of different accounts.

Honeydue links to loans and investments, as well as tracks you and your partner's spending by linking to your bank accounts and credit cards (whether they are separate accounts or joint accounts). You and your partner can choose what accounts you want to share with the other. The app gives an overview of individual accounts, joint accounts and all accounts so you can toggle between seeing each.

Honeydue will automatically categorize users' expenses, such as "date nights," "home & utilities" and "getting around," but users have the option to customize their own categories.

Honeydue stands out for helping couples manage their money together. You and your partner can track your spending and coordinate bills so that you two are on the same page. There is also an educational blog where you can get advice on managing your finances together.

With bill payment reminders and monthly spending limits that users set up in each category, the app helps couples stay on track and make sure they aren't overspending. If you or your partner are reaching a certain spending limit, you both will be alerted. Partners can also split expenses with each other directly in the app.

As a fun feature, partners can also chat and send emojis to each other through the app. For example, if a recent expense doesn't look familiar to you, you can quickly ask your partner about it or chat about specific bills so to save time talking about it later.

And, as a newer addition, Honeydue is offering its own joint bank account. The account has free ATM access, a debit card for both partners, no monthly fees or minimums and you and your partner's deposits are insured through Sutton Bank, a member FDIC.

Honeydue's security features include data encryption that sends you codes to access your information, Touch ID and multi-factor authentication to confirm your identity.

The Honeydue budgeting app (with all its features) is free to use. There are in-app ads that you'll have to go through, which is common with free apps. There is not an option to upgrade to an ad-free version, whereas some other budgeting apps offer free versions and then a premium ad-free version.

The Honeydue budgeting app is available in the App Store (for iOS) and is compatible with the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. It is also available on Google Play (for Android).

Rating in App Store at time of writing: 4.5 out of 5 (over 6,400 ratings)

Rating on Google Play at time of writing: 4.2 out of 5 (over 1,500 ratings)

Whether you share joint banking accounts with your partner or keep your money separated, the Honeydue budgeting app can help you monitor your daily expenses, savings, loans and investments.

Its chat feature makes it easy to communicate in the app, as well as you both can get reminded about your bills and split expenses with one another.

While Honeydue is best for couples managing their money together, check out our other top-ranked budgeting apps if you're on your own:

• Best overall free app: Mint
• Best app for serious budgeters: You Need A Budget (YNAB)
• Best app for over-spenders: PocketGuard
• Best app for investors: Empower

To determine which budgeting apps offer the best user experience, CNBC Select analyzed over a dozen apps offered by the top companies in this market and looked at their pricing, features, user reviews and ratings.

We narrowed down our ranking by only considering apps that sync transactions from users' bank accounts, come with low (or no) cost to sign up, are easy to use and can be accessed on multiple devices so are accessible and compatible for most.

The five apps we selected for this ranking are either free, offer a free version or have a free trial for users to test out before signing up.

All of the apps in our round-up have a sizable number of user reviews and high ratings. Each app on this list has at least 1,000 reviews in both the App Store (for iOS) and on Google Play (for Android), as well as a rating over 4 stars (out of 5) on both platforms.

Other factors we looked at included apps' security features, user customization and educational tools offered.

Information about PocketGuard has been collected independently by CNBC Select and has not been reviewed or provided by PocketGuard prior to publication.