Monarch review: an all-in-one money tracker for households

What Monarch is

Monarch is a subscription app for tracking accounts, budgeting and planning across web, iOS and Android. Its homepage describes connecting bank accounts, credit cards, loans, real estate and investments, says it syncs with multiple data providers covering more than 13,000 institutions, and emphasizes inviting a partner to budget together.

Its FAQ says Monarch is currently available only in the US and Canada and recommends connecting accounts in USD or CAD. That is the first filter: readers elsewhere should look at tools with wider bank and currency coverage.

This review is research from official Monarch pages and help articles read on 29 October 2026, not hands-on testing. We have not tested connections, investment data or exports.

Pricing and the Core and Plus tiers

Monarch now has two tiers. Plus, per its help center, adds features for more complex finances: forecasting of net worth and cash flow, business tracking, gains and losses with tax lot details, and a complimentary will through Trust and Will that Monarch values at $299. The help page says Plus features are currently available on desktop and Plus covers the whole household, like Core.

Promotions exist, but the discounts article says codes apply only to Core plans bought directly on Monarch's website, not to Plus, monthly plans or app store subscriptions, and cannot be combined.

Budgeting modes: flex or category

Monarch offers two budgeting styles. The help center calls flex budgeting the default: expenses are grouped into three buckets, Fixed, Non-monthly and Flex, so you mainly watch one flexible spending number. Category budgeting assigns specific amounts to each category, closer to a traditional budget. Monarch says it tries to pre-fill budget amounts from your last six months of spending.

Its budgeting page describes rollovers that carry a leftover amount in a category into the next month, which helps with non-monthly costs. Note what is not claimed: none of the pages we read describe a requirement to assign every dollar before spending it. If you want that discipline, read our YNAB review and zero-based budgeting guide.

Investments, property and net worth

Monarch's investments article says connected brokerage, IRA and 401k accounts bring in holdings from the institution, that you can add manual holdings, and that prices and history come from Financial Modeling Prep; if a ticker is not supported there, pricing and performance may be inaccurate. The tracking page lists stocks, mutual funds, 401ks, ETFs and crypto, and a net worth chart over time.

For physical assets, the help center describes automatic valuation through Zillow for real estate and VinAudit for vehicles, both US-only and not supported in Canada, with manual entry for anything else. Our net worth tracker guide compares this with Lunch Money and PocketSmith.

Recurring bills, export and security

Recurring: the help center says Monarch scans newly synced transactions to detect recurring items and shows bills and subscriptions on a calendar or list, with an option to search for recurring merchants on demand.

Export: CSV downloads of transactions and balance history are available on the web for one account or all accounts. Monarch recommends 5,000 transactions or fewer per download and says your history remains downloadable after a subscription or trial ends.

Security and privacy: the security page says Monarch has read-only access, does not see or store login credentials, and is ad-free. Multi-factor authentication with an authenticator app is set up on the web. The privacy policy says Monarch will never sell your financial data and names Plaid, Finicity, MX and Spinwheel as account connection providers. Deleting an account requires cancelling the subscription first, and the help center notes some information may be kept as described in the privacy policy's data retention section.

Who it fits and who should skip it

Questions to settle during the free week

• Do all your institutions connect, including the 401k and any credit union? Check holdings, not just balances.
• Which budgeting mode do you and your partner actually use after a week, flex or category?
• Does recurring detection find your real subscriptions? Compare against a statement.
• Do you need Plus forecasting, or does Core's budget and cash flow view cover you?
• Download a CSV of transactions and balances before deciding, so you know the exit works.
• Turn on multi-factor authentication, and if you plan not to stay, cancel at least 24 hours before the trial ends.