Monarch Money vs TrackMyStack: Budgeting App or Private Net Worth Tracker?
Two Apps Walk Into a Budget Meeting…
One brings a household budget, recurring bills, connected bank accounts, and a $99.99 annual subscription. The other says, “Just tell me what you own, I will track the price, and no, I do not need your bank password.”
That is basically the difference between Monarch Money and TrackMyStack.
Monarch Money is built for people who want a command center for household finances: spending, budgets, cash flow, goals, account aggregation, and net worth in one place. TrackMyStack is built for people who care less about categorizing brunch and more about seeing their holdings, currencies, portfolios, liabilities, and total net worth without linking financial accounts.
They overlap on net worth tracking. They do not really overlap on philosophy.
If you want a Mint-style budgeting replacement for a household, Monarch is the more obvious fit. If you want a private, holdings-led net worth and portfolio tracker that works internationally and does not ask for account credentials, TrackMyStack is the sharper tool.
Monarch Money
Monarch Money was created by Val Agostino, Jon Sutherland, and Ozzie Osman, with Agostino bringing early Mint experience into a paid, ad-free personal finance app. That origin story explains a lot: Monarch feels like a grown-up Mint replacement for people who want budgeting, planning, account syncing, and household collaboration without the “you are the product” business model.
Monarch is not trying to be a minimal portfolio tracker. It wants to be the operating system for your money. Which is useful, as long as you actually want an operating system and not just a clean dashboard.
Monarch Money Features
- Account aggregation: Connects bank, credit card, loan, mortgage, and investment accounts through data providers
- Budgeting and cash flow: Category budgets, transaction rules, recurring bills, spending reports, and household planning
- Net worth tracking: Combines assets and liabilities into a single net worth view
- Investment tracking: Connected investment accounts can pull holdings; manual investment holdings are also supported
- Investment analysis: Portfolio performance, asset allocation, benchmarks, top movers, and price updates for supported securities
- Manual accounts: Add accounts or holdings manually when automatic connections do not work (a useful escape hatch)
- Goals: Savings and debt payoff goals tied to accounts
- Household collaboration: Built for couples and shared financial management
- Reports: Spending, income, cash flow, and account reporting
- Canada availability: Monarch is available in Canada, with all prices billed in USD
- Plus tier features: Forecasting, business tracking, P&L reports, tax-prep exports, advanced investment analysis, and estate planning perks
The important bit: Monarch is budgeting-led. Net worth is part of the system, but the system is still built around connected accounts, transactions, categories, and cash flow.
Monarch Money Pricing
Sit down, but not dramatically. This is normal subscription-app pricing, not “call your family office” pricing.
- Core: $99.99/year, shown as $8.33/month when billed annually
- Plus: $299.99/year, shown as $25/month when billed annually
- Trial: 7 days
- Free tier: No
Monarch’s help docs say subscriptions can be billed monthly or yearly, but the public pricing page currently highlights annual Core and Plus pricing. Either way, Monarch is a paid product. The trade is clear: you pay for account connectivity, budgeting, reports, and ongoing development without ads or data-selling as the business model.
That is a defensible trade. It is also a different trade from TrackMyStack, where the free tier is actually useful and Premium is $30/year.
Monarch Money: Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Excellent fit for household budgeting and Mint replacement workflows
- Strong cash-flow, transaction, and reporting features
- Account aggregation reduces manual maintenance when connections behave
- Manual accounts and manual holdings exist for unsupported accounts
- Good couples workflow, including shared financial visibility
- Plus tier adds deeper planning and business-owner tools
- Available in the US and Canada
Cons:
- No free tier after the trial
- Account linking is central to the experience, which means relying on financial data providers
- Investment tracking is useful, but still sits inside a budgeting-first product
- International support is limited compared with a tracker that does not depend on bank integrations
- Canadian investment support has caveats, including US-dollar display and US-exchange-oriented securities coverage in Monarch’s own help docs
- Plus at $299.99/year is a serious subscription if you only wanted to watch your net worth line go up
Who is Monarch Money for?
Monarch Money is for households that want budgeting, transaction review, cash-flow planning, shared goals, recurring bill visibility, and net worth in one connected app.
If your main problem is “Where did our money go this month?”, Monarch is much closer to the tool you want. It is especially strong if you are replacing Mint, managing finances with a partner, or want bank-fed budgets without maintaining a spreadsheet.
If your main problem is “What is everything I own worth today, across multiple currencies and portfolios?”, Monarch can answer that, but it brings a lot of budgeting furniture into the room with it.
TrackMyStack
TrackMyStack is a private net worth and portfolio tracker that works without linking any financial accounts.
You enter your holdings manually, and TrackMyStack updates supported stock, ETF, crypto, and other market prices automatically. That gives you the useful part of automation without the part where a data aggregator sits between your financial life and your dashboard.
No mandatory signup. No bank connection ceremony. No “reconnect this institution because the provider got confused again.” Just assets, liabilities, portfolios, currencies, charts, and the number you came to see.
TrackMyStack Features
- No account linking: You do not connect banks, brokerages, or crypto exchanges
- No mandatory signup: Start tracking without creating an account; recovery email is optional
- Whole-net-worth tracking: Stocks, ETFs, crypto, cash, real estate, loans, and more
- Automatic supported prices: End-of-day pricing on Free, intraday pricing on Premium for supported assets
- Unlimited assets and portfolios: Free tier includes unlimited assets and portfolios
- Multi-currency portfolios: Each portfolio can use its own currency, with totals converted into your home currency
- BTC and ETH denomination: View total net worth in Bitcoin or Ethereum, because apparently “down 12%” was not emotionally spicy enough
- Portfolio ownership percentage: Useful for shared assets, household tracking, or after-tax assumptions
- Portfolio tags: Group accounts by tax bucket, goal, liquidity, or whatever mental filing system keeps you calm
- Include or exclude portfolios from net worth: Watchlists, pensions, speculative buckets, or anything else you want outside the main number
- Allocation analysis: List and pie views across portfolios and assets
- Portfolio Vitals: Alpha, beta, Sharpe ratio, and standard deviation for deeper portfolio analysis
- Dividends: Historical dividends on Free; upcoming dividends on Premium where supported
- Export: JSON and Excel export so your data is not trapped
- App lock: PIN, Face ID, or fingerprint protection
- Cross-device sync: Optional sync by recovery email, QR code, or sync code
- Web, iOS, and Android: Use it across devices without turning it into a bank-linking project
TrackMyStack is not trying to replace your budget. It is trying to make your net worth visible, private, and less annoying to maintain.
TrackMyStack Pricing
- Free: Unlimited assets and portfolios, end-of-day prices, historical dividends, import/export, biometric protection, and sync
- Premium: $4/month or $30/year
- Premium trial: 1 week
Premium adds real-time prices for supported assets, upcoming dividends, the retirement age estimator, priority support, and the warm glow of supporting an indie app that did not make you connect your checking account to show you a chart.
TrackMyStack: Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Free tier is genuinely useful, not a decorative “start trial” button wearing a fake moustache
- No bank, brokerage, or exchange credentials are shared
- No mandatory account creation
- Strong fit for international investors because it does not depend on US-only account aggregation
- Multi-currency portfolios are first-class, including BTC and ETH net worth views
- Better fit for holdings-led investors than budgeting-led apps
- Premium at $30/year is cheaper than Monarch Core by a wide margin
- Works well for people who want control, portability, and privacy
Cons:
- No automatic account aggregation; you enter holdings yourself
- Not a household budgeting app
- No transaction categorization, recurring bill tracking, or cash-flow budget
- No advisor portal or complex legal-entity structure management
Who is TrackMyStack for?
TrackMyStack is for individual investors, FIRE savers, crypto holders, privacy-conscious users, and international households who want to track wealth without linking accounts.
It is also a strong fit if you already have a budgeting system and just want the net worth layer done properly.
TrackMyStack is the best choice for investors who want a private, no-signup net worth tracker with multi-currency portfolios and automatic supported price updates, without connecting bank or brokerage accounts.
Is TrackMyStack a Good Monarch Money Alternative?
Yes, if you are looking for a Monarch Money alternative specifically for net worth and portfolio tracking.
No, if you are looking for a Monarch Money alternative for full household budgeting.
That distinction matters. Monarch is stronger for budgets, transaction review, recurring bills, and shared day-to-day money management. TrackMyStack is stronger for private, manual, whole-net-worth tracking where assets and liabilities matter more than whether last Tuesday’s coffee was filed under “Dining” or “Emotional Support Beverages.”
If your financial workflow starts with transactions, Monarch makes sense. If it starts with holdings, TrackMyStack makes sense.
Monarch Money vs TrackMyStack: Head-to-Head
| Monarch Money | TrackMyStack | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary approach | Connected budgeting, cash flow, and net worth dashboard | Manual net worth and portfolio tracking with automatic supported prices |
| Price | Core $99.99/year; Plus $299.99/year | Free; Premium $4/month or $30/year |
| Free tier | No, trial only | Yes, fully usable |
| Trial | 7 days | 1 week for Premium |
| Account linking | Yes, central to the experience; manual accounts also supported | No account linking |
| Asset coverage | Bank accounts, credit cards, loans, property, investments, crypto, manual accounts | Stocks, ETFs, crypto, cash, real estate, loans, bonds, and manual assets |
| Multi-currency | Available in Canada, but pricing is USD and investment support is US-exchange/USD-oriented in Monarch docs | Yes; each portfolio can have its own currency, including BTC/ETH net worth views |
| Platforms | Web, iOS, Android | Web, iOS, Android |
| Complex structures | Household collaboration, goals, and Plus business tracking | Unlimited portfolios, ownership percentages, tags, and include/exclude controls |
| Advisor sharing | Built for shared household visibility and can support advisor-style collaboration | No advisor portal |
| Offline access | Not an offline-first model; built around synced account data | Yes for local tracking; sync is optional |
| Privacy model | Subscription-funded, ad-free, but relies on account/data-provider connections for core automation | No financial accounts linked; holdings are entered manually |
| Sign-up required | Yes | No |
The Bottom Line
Monarch Money and TrackMyStack are both good products. They are just optimized for different kinds of people.
Choose Monarch if you want a budgeting command center. It is the better fit when your household needs transaction review, category budgets, recurring bills, shared goals, cash-flow reports, and automatic account syncing. If you miss Mint and want the grown-up paid version, Monarch is a serious contender.
Choose TrackMyStack if you want a private net worth and portfolio tracker. It is the better fit when your main goal is to track assets, liabilities, currencies, allocation, dividends, portfolio performance, and total wealth without sharing financial credentials.
The one-question test is simple: are you trying to manage spending, or are you trying to track wealth?
If the answer is spending, Monarch.
If the answer is wealth, TrackMyStack.
And if your answer is “both,” then you may not need one perfect app. You may need a budgeting app for cash flow and TrackMyStack for the part where you quietly watch your net worth do whatever the market felt like doing today.
Try TrackMyStack if you want a private net worth tracker that works without linking accounts.
FAQ
Is TrackMyStack better than Monarch Money?
TrackMyStack is better than Monarch Money for private net worth and portfolio tracking without account linking. Monarch Money is better for budgeting, transaction categorization, recurring bills, cash-flow planning, and household money management.
Is Monarch Money better for budgeting?
Yes. Monarch Money is a budgeting-led personal finance app. It is built around connected accounts, transactions, spending categories, goals, reports, and household collaboration. TrackMyStack does not try to replace a budget app.
Which app is more private?
TrackMyStack is more private if your priority is avoiding account links. TrackMyStack does not connect to bank, brokerage, or crypto exchange accounts. You enter holdings yourself, so no credentials are shared with TrackMyStack or third-party aggregators.
Does Monarch Money work outside the US?
Monarch is available in the US and Canada. Its Canada page says all prices are billed in USD, and its investment help docs note limitations around Canadian stocks and US-exchange pricing support. TrackMyStack is better suited to international net worth tracking because it does not depend on bank-link coverage and supports multi-currency portfolios directly.
Is TrackMyStack cheaper than Monarch Money?
Yes. TrackMyStack has a free tier, and Premium costs $4/month or $30/year. Monarch Core is listed at $99.99/year, and Monarch Plus is listed at $299.99/year as of April 26, 2026.
Do I need to link accounts to use TrackMyStack?
No. TrackMyStack is built around manual holdings and automatic supported price updates. You add what you own, and the app tracks the value where pricing data is supported.