Pros
- Offers collaboration: share with your partner or advisor
- Two budgeting styles: flexible or category budgets
- Tracks investments, net worth, subscriptions, and bills
- Transparent membership model, with occasional discount codes
- Strong security: read-only connections
Cons
- No completely free version beyond a 7-day trial.
- Pricing can seem high for casual users.
- Some features (reporting, rules) only unlock with subscription.
- Not all banks or international accounts may connect reliably
- Some users note lag in transaction sync or reconciling across accounts.
About Monarch
Monarch Money is a personal finance and budgeting app that helps users track spending, net worth, and financial goals. It connects your bank, credit cards, loans, and investment accounts to provide a unified view. It also allows you to set budgets, plan future goals, and share access with partners or advisors. Monarch markets itself as a “membership with benefits” — you get access to all features after subscribing.
The app emphasizes flexibility: you can use category budgets or flex budgets depending on your style. It also supports collaboration — you can invite your spouse, financial planner, or advisor to view or help manage your finances. Monarch is designed to serve both individuals managing their own money and couples or households wanting to coordinate.
Because it does not offer a free tier (beyond trial), Monarch positions itself as a premium tool. Its features, design, and security are built to appeal to users who are serious about financial control and clarity.
What Is Monarch Money?
Monarch Money is a subscription-based money management tool. You link your financial accounts, then Monarch gathers data and categorizes spending and income automatically. You can view your net worth, spending trends, budget progress, and financial goals all in one dashboard.
It supports flex budgeting (you allocate what you want without fixed limits) or category budgeting (you set spending limits by category). It also lets you track and manage recurring subscriptions — cancel what you don’t need.
One distinctive feature is sharing and collaboration: you can add a partner or a finance professional to view and help manage finances, with controlled permissions. You can invite your advisor to view your data without giving them full control.
Monarch’s goal is to replace juggling multiple finance apps by being your central hub: budgeting, goals, net worth, and sharing — all in one place.
How It Works?
Monarch’s workflow is structured to simplify your finances with minimal manual work.
First, you sign up and connect your bank, credit card, loan, and investment accounts. Monarch uses read-only connections, meaning it can view data but not move money. Once accounts are linked, Monarch begins auto-categorizing past and future transactions. It proposes budget categories and rules based on how you spend.
You then choose your budgeting style: flex or category. You set or accept default budgets, goals, and recurring subscriptions to monitor. As new transactions come in, Monarch assigns them automatically (you can adjust rules).
You can invite a partner or advisor to view or assist. Monarch updates your net worth daily as balances change. It also flags subscriptions or bills and lets you cancel them through your accounts when possible.
On goal pages, you can set up savings or debt repayment plans and see projected paths to hitting them. As time goes on, Monarch adjusts projections based on your actual spending and saving behavior.
Monarch Fees
Monarch Money is not free. After a 7-day free trial, you must choose a subscription plan to continue. The main pricing options are:
- $14.99 per month for month-to-month access.
- $99.99 per year for the annual plan, which works out to about $8.33 per month.
They often run promotional discounts — for example, 50% off your first year with a promo code like FORBES50. If you grab that, your first year drops to ~$50.
Monarch does not offer a permanent free tier. All key features — budgets, collaboration, reports, goals — require the subscription. The price covers everything: features, support, security, updates, and collaboration tools.
Customer Support
Good support is crucial in financial software. Monarch offers several support options.
They provide in-app help, email support, and a knowledge base with articles and FAQs. For technical or account issues, users open a ticket and typically get emailed responses. Monarch also publishes release notes and updates regularly, showing active development.
Because Monarch is subscription based, their team is motivated to keep users happy. Many user reviews mention timely responses, especially in onboarding or connection troubleshooting. That said, some users report delays when bank connections break or in rule automation errors.
They don’t advertise live 24/7 chat for all users, but support is good for day-to-day problems and device syncing issues.
Trustworthiness
When your money’s data is on an app, trust matters. Monarch has features that strengthen its trustworthiness.
They connect via read-only bank APIs — they cannot transfer money or make transactions. They also state they never sell your data, and they run the app without advertisements. That reduces conflicts of interest.
Monarch uses bank-level encryption to protect your data. They also disclose security and privacy approaches to users. Because it’s a paid app without ad revenue loops, their incentives align more with keeping user trust than pushing products.
In the app store, Monarch maintains high ratings (around 4.9/5) with tens of thousands of reviews. That shows strong user satisfaction. Some negative reviews point to sync issues or feature gaps, which is typical with finance aggregators trying to support many banks.
Overall, Monarch makes a strong trust case. But any finance app can have connection breakdowns; always use multi-factor authentication and monitor your accounts.
Conclusion
Monarch Money is a well-built, feature-rich budgeting and financial planning app best suited for users who need depth, collaboration, and clarity. Its pricing — $14.99/month or $99.99/year — is on the premium side, but it comes with no hidden costs. The offer to share with a partner or financial advisor at no extra charge is a major plus.
If you want robust features, strong security, and long-term support, Monarch is a top contender. It may not be ideal for casual or budget-only users who don’t want to pay. Also, syncing can falter when banks change APIs, which can cause lag or mismatches.
In short: Monarch Money is ideal if you want to centralize your finances, collaborate with others, and commit to a paid tool. Those who resist subscription apps or want free tools may prefer lighter alternatives. But for serious money managers, Monarch delivers value across budgeting, goal tracking, net worth monitoring, and sharing.