Keep Above
PocketSmith alternatives, and what each puts on its free tier
PocketSmith prices the forecast by the year. Its own plans page runs six months' projection on the free plan, then ten years, then thirty, then sixty as the price rises, and no other app on this page gates a forward view that way. The others either gate whether there is one at all, or give every user the same one, and one of them charges for the opposite thing. The table sets out what each free tier includes, what a paid tier adds, whether a bank feed is needed, and where each one is sold.
Written and maintained by Manandai Ltd, the company that makes Keep Above. This is our comparison, not an independent review. No app here is scored, rated or ranked. How we compare.
Every competitor cell is taken from that app's own pricing or help pages and quoted where a quote exists. Two vendors name their bank-connection provider in the sentence quoted here; those bullets are paraphrased, because naming connection providers is outside what these pages do. App Store availability is an Apple storefront lookup on the date shown.
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Last verified 22 September 2026What does PocketSmith gate behind a paid tier?
Two things, and the first is unusual enough to be the reason this page exists. PocketSmith's plans page states the length of the forward view as a feature of the plan: six months' projection on Free, ten years on Foundation, thirty on Flourish and sixty on Fortune. The forecast is not gated; its reach is.
The second is the bank feed, and it is worth reading the free plan's own bullets carefully. "Automatic bank feeds" is listed there with a cross beside it while "Manual imports" carries a tick, so the free plan is the manual plan. The paid tiers then meter the feed again by how many banks and how many countries it reaches.
One caution about citing PocketSmith at all: it disagrees with itself in public. Its cash-flow tour page still describes thirty years where the plans page says sixty, and its plans page counts a different number of institutions from its bank-feeds page. This page cites the plans page for the horizon and the bank-feeds page for coverage, and its pricing is geo-detected, so the currency you are shown depends on where you open it.
| What the free tier includes | What a paid tier adds | Is a bank feed needed? | Where it is sold | Source | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BudgetBuddie | A permanent free tier: "Take control of your finances, for free, forever", with the dashboard, budget, money insights, one goal, transactions and accounts. | Bank connections, metered by count across three tiers, and a cash-flow view that its help centre describes as "Forecast up to 12 months ahead from your budget". The forecast is absent from both the free and the entry paid tier. | No. Its free card states "Does not include bank connections." | New Zealand App Store only; listed on Google Play | plans · help centre |
| Buxfer | None. Its FAQ states "We do not offer a free trial", offering a 14-day money-back guarantee instead. | A Forecast feature from the second tier up, described as predicting account balances from past spending. No horizon is stated for it anywhere on the pricing page. | Not required. Statement upload is listed as a core feature on every tier, in Excel, CSV, OFX and QIF. | App Store in New Zealand, Australia, the UK and the US; listed on Google Play | pricing |
| Harbourline | The planner itself, including the thirteen-week bills forecast, with no payment card required and the data kept on the device. | Sync and household features: cloud sync across devices, and household members. The forward view is not part of what you pay for. | There is no bank feed to be needed. Data comes in by CSV import. | No store listing; it runs in a browser | site |
| Keep Above | One budget of any kind, with bill and income tracking, savings goals, the calendar view, and the projection running up to 30 years ahead. | Several budgets side by side, and the rest of the built-in tools. The length of the projection is not a paid feature and is the same on both. | There is no bank connection and there cannot be one. Everything is entered by hand. | App Store in New Zealand, Australia, the UK and the US; listed on Google Play | support |
| Monarch | None. Both plans are paid, each fronted by a seven-day trial that takes a payment method up front. | Its upper tier opens "Everything in Core, plus" and leads with forecasting; the lower tier's own bullets name no forecast of any kind. | Not required. Its help centre documents manual accounts for anything without an online connection. | US App Store only; listed on Google Play | pricing · help centre |
| PocketSmith | A permanent free plan with manual imports, two accounts, twelve budgets and six months' projection. "Automatic bank feeds" is crossed out on that plan. | The reach of the forward view, stated per tier as ten, thirty and sixty years' projection, plus bank feeds metered by how many banks and countries they cover. | Not on the free plan, which runs on manual imports. The feed is what the paid tiers add. | App Store in New Zealand, Australia, the UK and the US; listed on Google Play, as a companion to the web app rather than the product itself | plans · bank feeds |
| Quicken Simplifi | None. There is one Simplifi plan and it is paid. | Nothing is gated within Simplifi, because there is only one tier. Its own feature page states the forward view as "up to a year in advance". | Not required. Its support pages describe adding an account manually where an institution is not supported. | US App Store only; listed on Google Play | pricing · feature page |
| SortMe | None. The way in is a paid trial: "7-day trial for just $1, on either plan." | The cash-flow forecast is on both paid tiers rather than gated between them. The upper tier adds accountant and entity features. | Its pages state nothing either way. The product is built around connected accounts, and CSV import is documented as a route in. | App Store in New Zealand, Australia, the UK and the US; listed on Google Play | pricing |
| Steady | A tier priced "$0 forever", but not open: every call to action on its pricing cards is to join a waitlist. Its bullets are one connected bank, spending and bills views, one goal, one budget and ninety days of history. | A twelve-month cash-flow forecast, which appears only on the paid tier, along with a merged view across banks and unlimited imports. | Its pages state nothing either way. Its free tier's first bullet is connecting a bank, and no sentence describes entering anything by hand. | No store listing; it runs in a browser, and its own site says native apps are in build | site |
| Wallet by BudgetBakers | A free tier the vendor describes in exactly these terms: "a completely free tier for users who prefer manual tracking". | Bank syncing, which it groups under "advanced automation", plus group sharing for a household. | No. Manual tracking is what the free tier is for. | App Store in New Zealand, Australia, the UK and the US; listed on Google Play | product page |
Which of these have a free tier at all?
Five do, and one of those five is not a tier anyone can sign up for today. BudgetBuddie's is "free, forever", Wallet's is the manual-tracking tier, Harbourline's is the planner itself, and PocketSmith's is a permanent plan with manual imports. Steady publishes a tier at "$0 forever" while every button on its pricing cards asks you to join a waitlist.
Four publish none. SortMe's way in is a paid trial at a dollar for seven days. Monarch's two plans are both paid, each behind a seven-day trial that takes a card. Quicken Simplifi has one plan and it is paid. Buxfer is the one that states it outright: "We do not offer a free trial", with a fourteen-day money-back guarantee instead.
A trial and a free tier are different things, and pricing pages blur them constantly, so the table keeps them apart. Nothing here is a judgement about value: a paid-only product can be worth its price and a free tier can be too small to use.
Do any of them work without a bank feed?
Most of them do, and that is not the impression their marketing gives. Wallet's own FAQ says its free tier is "for users who prefer manual tracking". BudgetBuddie's free card says it "Does not include bank connections." Monarch documents manual accounts for anything without an online connection, Quicken Simplifi documents adding an account by hand where an institution is not supported, and Buxfer lists statement upload as a core feature of every tier. PocketSmith's free plan is the manual one by construction.
Two state nothing either way, and that is worth saying rather than guessing at. Neither Steady nor SortMe has a sentence on its site saying a connection is required, and neither has one saying anything can be entered by hand. Both are built around connected accounts. The honest reading is that their pages do not answer the question.
Harbourline has no feed to speak of at all: data goes in by CSV and the site says the information stays on the device. It is also the one that prices this the other way round, which is the next section.
Does anyone charge for the opposite thing?
Harbourline does. Its forward view, a thirteen-week bills forecast, is part of the free planner, and what the paid plan adds is sync across devices and household members. Where PocketSmith's price buys you more years of forecast, Harbourline's buys you a second device.
That inversion is the useful thing to take from this page. "Forecast" on a pricing table can mean a feature that exists, a feature that reaches a certain distance, or a feature that is free while the sharing around it is not, and those three are priced in opposite directions by apps sitting in the same category. Budgeting apps that forecast your balance lists the horizons themselves across a wider set.
Where does Keep Above fit?
Keep Above puts the whole projection on the free plan. One budget of any kind, with bills, income, savings goals and the calendar view, and the projection runs up to 30 years ahead on the free tier and on Premium alike. What Premium adds is several budgets side by side and the rest of the built-in tools, so the length of the forward view is not something you buy.
There is no bank feed, and there cannot be one, so nothing on this page about connections, consent or reconnecting applies to it. Everything comes from what you enter, which is the cost of it: no spending history, nothing captured for you, and no knowledge of your balance until you type it in. Keep Above compared with PocketSmith sets the two out side by side.
Our comparison, not a review. Every fact about another app here is taken from that app's own pages, or from an Apple storefront lookup, on the date shown. Projections described here are conditional on the figures a person enters and on nothing changing. This page takes no account of your circumstances. Nothing here is financial advice.
Keep Above
Enter each bill and your income once, and keep your balance current now and then. Keep Above works out the balance you would need to cover everything coming, and projects your balance and your sinking funds — which it calls reserved funds — forward. No bank connection.
Common questions
Does PocketSmith have a free plan?
Yes, a permanent one. Its plans page lists the free plan with manual imports, two accounts, twelve budgets and six months' projection, and shows "Automatic bank feeds" crossed out on that plan. Bank feeds and a longer projection are what the paid tiers add.
How far ahead does PocketSmith forecast?
It depends on the plan, which is unusual. Its plans page states six months' projection on the free plan, then ten years, thirty years and sixty years as the tiers rise. Note that its cash-flow tour page still says thirty years, so the vendor's own pages disagree.
Which PocketSmith alternatives have a free tier?
BudgetBuddie, Wallet by BudgetBakers, Harbourline and Keep Above each publish one, and Steady publishes a tier at "$0 forever" that is currently waitlisted. Buxfer, Monarch, Quicken Simplifi and SortMe publish none; Monarch and SortMe offer trials that take a payment method.
Do any of these work without connecting a bank?
Several document it. Wallet describes its free tier as being for users who prefer manual tracking, BudgetBuddie's free card says it does not include bank connections, and Monarch, Quicken Simplifi and Buxfer each document a manual or upload route. Steady's and SortMe's pages state nothing either way.
Is there an app where the forecast is free and the sync is paid?
Harbourline is set up that way. Its thirteen-week bills forecast is part of the free planner and what the paid household plan adds is cloud sync and household members. Keep Above is similar in that its projection runs to 30 years on the free tier, with extra budgets behind Premium.