EveryDollar Review: App-Based Budgeting and Financial Coaching - Homeowner.com (2024)

There are many types of personal budgets and budgeting apps that can help you get a better grasp on your finances, but if you don’t find one that really fits your needs, you’re not likely to stick with it.

EveryDollar could be the app for you, especially if you follow Dave Ramsey’s teachings and enjoy learning about smart financial strategies for saving, investing, and managing money – regardless of how much you earn. Discover how EveryDollar works, who it’s best for, and how it compares to other popular budgeting apps.

EveryDollar Overview

EveryDollar was launched in 2015 by financial guru Dave Ramsey’s personal finance company, Ramsey Solutions. For decades, Ramsey has shared with his followers the importance of creating a budget and living within that budget to build financial wealth, and he’s even released software to help people do just that. EveryDollar is the more modern version of that software, giving people a more convenient way to stay on top of their finances and budget without needing to be tied to their computers and spreadsheets.

Highlights

Type of Personal Budget: Zero-based budgeting
Best For: Financial coaching from experts
Cost: $17.99/month or $79.99/year
Free Trial: Yes
Links to Accounts: Yes; Bank accounts
Apple App Store Rating: 4.7/5
Google Play Rating: 3.5/5

EveryDollar uses Ramsey’s most touted budgeting tactic, zero-based budgeting, which requires users to make a plan for every incoming dollar they have. Since its founding, EveryDollar has grown to include more features than just budget creation, such as bill due date reminders, custom budget reports, live Q&A sessions with financial experts, and split transactions, making it a full-fledged financial app.

Today, EveryDollar has helped more than 10 million users track their finances and build workable budgets.

Why We Like EveryDollar

The EveryDollar app helps you understand the motivation behind your spending. While many budgeting apps are excellent at what they do – help you save, track spending, create savings goals, and monitor your finances – they don’t always target financial habits.

EveryDollar is part of the Dave Ramsey family, and you can expect many of Ramsey’s teachings to carry over into the app. This is good news for those who want to learn more about their current financial habits and ways they can transition into healthier spending habits for a more sound financial future. Whether you’re entirely new to budgeting or have a lot of experience, EveryDollar has something to offer.

Who Is EveryDollar Best For?

EveryDollar is best for anyone who wants to learn how to spend less money by making a plan for their income using the zero-based budgeting method. EveryDollar helps you organize your income and expenses in a way that makes sense for you while guiding you in creating spending categories, savings goals, and plans for future-proofing your finances.

EveryDollar is also one of the best budgeting apps for people who want to improve their financial literacy. Whether you’d like to learn more about smart investing, how to budget for retirement, or how to stop spending emotionally, you can get advice from real financial experts with the Premium plan.

Pricing & Plans

Sign up for EveryDollar for free to try the app before buying. The free version is limited, though, only giving you access to monthly budget creation, savings funds, and a few other basic features.

Upgrading to Premium will give you all the features of EveryDollar, including custom reports, financial goal setting and tracking, bank account connections and transaction syncing, paycheck planning, bill due date reminders, and group financial coaching calls. Premium costs $17.99 per month, but you can save more than $130 a year by paying for an annual plan for just $79.99.

How EveryDollar Works

EveryDollar is relatively easy to use from the start, as it’s designed for any level of budgeter to understand. Still, it could be helpful to know how it all works if you’re comparing it with other budgeting apps to decide whether it’s the one you want to download.

Getting Started with EveryDollar

After downloading EveryDollar and signing up for an account, you can connect your financial accounts immediately. EveryDollar only makes this available with a Premium account, so you must subscribe if you want to make connections. The app works with dozens of popular banks, including Bank of America, Chime, Citibank, Chase, Wells Fargo, and Huntington Bank.

Once your accounts are connected, EveryDollar begins pulling your bank transactions into your EveryDollar account so you can track spending and income. However, if you ever want to stop automatically syncing your bank transactions, you can turn off the feature in the app’s settings. You can also delete and add bank accounts at any time by visiting your “Accounts” page in the app.

Occasionally, you may experience disconnections from your bank, which are often the result of temporary outages. Check the bank connection status page to view your bank’s uptime and see if there are any known issues or connection errors with your bank.

Creating a Budget Using EveryDollar

Now, you can begin creating your budget with EveryDollar. The app lets you browse transactions and delete any that you don’t want included in your budget, if necessary.

EveryDollar shows you a “Planned” amount, which is the money you expect to receive in income for the month. Try to make this as close as possible to your typical income, as it’s the amount you’ll use to plan your budget. Be sure to include any non-work income, too, like a tax refund or cash from online sales.

Then, you can create categories that various transactions may fall into, like Donations, Food, or Entertainment. Move money from your Planned section to each category to create the budget you’ll follow for the month. When new transactions within those categories show up, they’ll automatically deduct Planned money from those categories to help you track your spending.

Financial Coaching and Resources with EveryDollar

EveryDollar offers financial resources and coaching to Premium subscribers. Articles and guides to help you invest and plan your income and expenses are available within the app for you to read anytime.

To use your Premium group coaching feature, you’ll need to sign into the website using your EveryDollar credentials after using the app to find the group you’d like to join. Then, view the schedule for that group and choose a day and time that works best for you. Group calls happen during weekdays from 8 am to 5 pm CT.

How To Sign Up for EveryDollar

Create an account on EveryDollar’s website to sign up for the free version or jump straight into a paid Premium account. You can also download the app on Google Play or the App Store to sign up using your mobile device.

How To Contact EveryDollar Support

The primary way to get support for your EveryDollar account is to use the online help center, where you’ll find instructions and guides for common issues or questions about the app. This section can help you if you have a billing question, need help setting up your budget, want to learn how to connect your bank accounts, and more.

If your question isn’t answered in the help center, you can submit a request for additional help using the link at the top of the help center page. This pops up a chatbot where you can ask your question and have someone from the team reach out when they’re available.

How To Cancel EveryDollar

If you signed up for EveryDollar directly through the website or using a credit card on the app, you can visit your account settings on the website or app to find the Manage Subscriptions section. Then, turn the auto-renew feature off. You’ll have access to EveryDollar until your subscription renewal date, at which point your account will close unless you renew it manually.

You also have the option of signing up through Google Play or the App Store. If you subscribed this way, you’ll need to find your subscription in your app store account to cancel it.

How Does EveryDollar Compare?

Some budgeting apps don’t offer a free version, but EveryDollar does. Although it’s limited, it does let you do some basic things with the app to see if you like how it works. You’ll also get lots of financial resources and the opportunity to enter group calls with financial experts as a Premium EveryDollar user, something other apps don’t offer.

One thing lacking from EveryDollar is its inability to automatically categorize your transactions like YNAB, PocketGuard, and other options do. You can categorize them yourself, but it can take some time to do.

Is EveryDollar Worth It?

If you’re looking for guidance with financial management, EveryDollar could be the right choice for you. It’s relatively easy to set up and make a plan for all incoming cash, even if you’re new to budgeting. However, there are other apps that categorize transactions for you, so the manual categorization of EveryDollar could be a dealbreaker for some.

Fortunately, you can try EveryDollar for free to see some of its basic features before signing up for a subscription.