Mvelopes Review + Alternatives [2024]

If you’re familiar with the cash envelope budgeting method, which has long been a popular strategy, you might have considered the Mvelopes app. This app was designed to help users save money by offering different plans and features. If you’re curious about how it worked, here’s an overview.

What was Mvelopes?

Mvelopes was a budgeting app offered by Finicity, a financial services company owned by Mastercard. The app was designed to help its users quickly and easily create a personal budgeting plan with the goals of reducing spending, eliminating debt, and learning how to save money. Mvelopes is no longer available to download, but it was available on both iOS and Android devices.

How the Mvelopes app worked

Mvelopes took the classic budgeting strategy of using cash envelopes and translated it into an easy-to-use app.

What is the cash envelope strategy?

The cash envelope strategy involves setting aside multiple envelopes for different budget categories made up of necessary and recurring expenses, including groceries, rent, and monthly subscriptions. You would then put cash into each envelope and use that cash during the month. Once the funds ran out for a category, you’d stop spending or allocate funds from another category.

Envelope budgeting is an excellent strategy for spending less and saving more, but not everyone wants to use cash to pay for things. With a budgeting app that supports the use of envelopes, you can customize a spending plan based on your cash flow and assign funds for different purposes.

Many budget apps support digital envelope budgeting, including EveryDollar, PocketGuard, Monarch Money, and Goodbudget.

How to do it

• Connect financial accounts. If you want your everyday spending to appear in an app automatically, connect your bank accounts and/or credit cards to sync transactions.
• Set a budget. Add your monthly income to your chosen budgeting app and divide all your bills into categories. Be as specific as possible, and include both necessary and non-essential spending. Categories can include groceries, rent/mortgage, dining, saving, household items, clothing, entertainment, and more.
• Track your spending and adjust. You might not realize how much you spend in certain categories until you’ve tracked your spending for a month or two, and it can change often over time as your needs and situation change. As you budget, adjust your categories.

Who was Mvelopes best for?

Mvelopes was best for those learning how to manage money. It might have also made sense to use this now-defunct app if:

• You find it difficult to budget on your own
• You like the envelope budgeting system
• You don’t do many cash transactions

But even when it was available, Mvelopes wasn’t for everyone. Unlike many budgeting apps, it only permitted the use of one budgeting method, and envelope budgeting isn’t right for everyone (including people with irregular income or who might find categories overly restrictive). Apps like YNAB and Quicken Simplifi also provide more money management features beyond just tracking your spending.

Mvelopes fees

Mvelopes had a monthly fee for all of its tiers. There was no free version of the app, and the cost ranged from around $6 to $20 per month.

Mvelopes alternatives

EveryDollar

EveryDollar is a popular alternative to the old Mvelopes app, and it’s the one I’d recommend to most people. This platform is the brainchild of known debt hater Dave Ramsey, who heavily emphasizes getting out of a cycle of living paycheck-to-paycheck by controlling overspending. The EveryDollar budgeting app is all about seeing how you really spend and being honest — and strict — with yourself about the best uses for your cash.

This app uses the zero-based budgeting system, which is almost identical to envelope budgeting, except you focus on giving every dollar a job — whether that’s saving, getting out of debt, paying your bills, etc. — according to your goals. Essentially, you work backward from your paycheck until every dollar is used wisely rather than forward until you reach a spending cap. It lets you be intentional with all your money, so you’re not left with extra to spend.

To learn more, check out our EveryDollar review.

YNAB

YNAB is a budgeting app with a subscription plan on a monthly or annual basis. New users are estimated to save more than $600 in their first two months and more than $6,000 in their first year. YNAB is accessible from a computer or mobile device and lets you set financial goals to help you stay on top of your budget. Because you can connect your bank to the YNAB app, it’s easy to track your non-cash spending.

YNAB will be a better choice for you if you’re looking for an app with real-time bank syncing, goal setting, and net worth reporting. Like EveryDollar, YNAB uses zero-based budgeting, and the app’s four-rule budgeting method is built on planning, planning, and more planning.

Learn more in our YNAB review.

Goodbudget

Goodbudget is another envelope budgeting app that is very similar to Mvelopes. It features budgeting software strictly centered around the envelope budgeting system that can be synced to iPhone and Android devices. It also features debt tracking, which allows you to see your payoff progress and exactly when you’ll be debt-free. With a premium plan, you can create unlimited envelopes and sync your bank account.

Goodbudget is the best alternative for people who are missing Mvelopes, as it features the same budgeting system for free with a similarly priced premium tier at $10 a month. Although it doesn’t offer financial coaching, it does have free budgeting courses available on its website.

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