These are the two apps people land on after Mint, they're within about five dollars a year of each other, and both are genuinely good. Which makes the choice feel harder than it is.
It usually isn't. One question settles it for most people, and it isn't about features.
We make a different kind of finance app, so we're not a neutral party — but we're also not competing for this decision in the way you'd expect. Read on with that in mind.
#The quick answer
| Monarch | Copilot | |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | Web, iOS, Android | iOS and macOS only |
| Household sharing | Yes — two logins, one budget | No |
| Bank sync | Automatic (aggregator) | Automatic (Plaid) |
| Interface | Good, functional | Excellent |
| Auto-categorisation | Decent, needs correcting | Smarter, still needs correcting |
| Investments | Tracked | Tracked |
| Price at last check | ~$14.99/mo, ~$99.99/yr | ~$13/mo, ~$95/yr |
| Free tier | No (trial) | No (trial) |
Prices and platform support move; check both sites before you commit.
#The question that actually decides it
Is everyone who'll touch this budget on Apple hardware?
If no — someone has an Android phone, someone works on a Windows laptop — then Copilot isn't a candidate. It's iOS and macOS only. That's not a knock on it; it's a deliberate choice that's part of why the app is as good as it is. But it ends the comparison.
If yes, and it's just you, Copilot is probably the one you'll enjoy more.
If yes, but there are two of you sharing money, Monarch wins anyway — see below.
Everything after this point only matters if you're still genuinely undecided.
#Where Copilot is better
The interface. This sounds like a soft advantage and it isn't. A finance app you find pleasant to open is one you'll actually open, and most people's real failure mode with budgeting tools is abandonment, not picking the wrong feature set.
Copilot is fast, native, thoughtfully designed, and the automatic categorisation makes fewer stupid mistakes than most. The month-in-review flows are nice. It feels like software someone cared about.
#Where Monarch is better
Two people, one budget. Monarch supports a household properly: separate logins, shared finances, both of you seeing the same picture. Copilot doesn't do this. If you're managing money with a partner, this is usually decisive on its own, and it's the single most common reason people pick Monarch.
It runs everywhere. Web, iOS, Android. You're not locked to one hardware ecosystem, and you won't have to migrate if you switch phones.
Flexibility. More configurable categories, rules and reporting. It's the more "adjustable" of the two, at some cost in polish.
#What they share, including the part people don't think about
Both connect to your bank through a data aggregator — Copilot uses Plaid; Monarch uses aggregator infrastructure too. You hand over your online-banking credentials (or an OAuth token at better banks), and a third party holds a standing connection to your accounts so transactions appear automatically.
That's the industry norm, it works, and most people are fine with it. But it's worth naming as a shared property rather than a neutral background fact, because it's the one thing neither app lets you opt out of. If it's the part that bothers you, you're not choosing between these two — you're looking for a different category of tool entirely.
Both also need ongoing correction. Automatic categorisation is good, not solved, in both. Budget a few minutes a month for fixing miscategorised transactions in either.
#If neither fits
Two situations where the answer is "neither":
You don't want an aggregator holding your bank login. Then you want a file-based tool — one that reads statements or exports you download yourself. Pare (ours) does that, and so do Actual Budget and a few others. The trade is real: you do about ten to thirty minutes of work a month, and your data lags by a few days. Some people find that disqualifying, which is fair.
You want to change your spending, not just see it. Neither of these is really built for that. YNAB is — it's envelope budgeting, a genuinely different method with a real learning curve. We wrote about why that's a different paradigm rather than a competing product.
#The honest summary
Same price, both good, and the decision is almost never close once you answer two questions:
- Android or Windows anywhere in the picture? → Monarch.
- Sharing the budget with a partner? → Monarch.
- Neither, and you're on Apple? → Copilot, and you'll probably like it.
If you're still torn after that, take the trials. They're short, and a week of actually using each one will tell you more than any comparison table — including this one.