PocketSmith has excellent forecasting, a free plan capped at 2 accounts and 12 budgets, and paid tiers above that. Budgi gives every feature away free and never asks for your bank login. Here's how they compare.
PocketSmith is a powerful tool, especially for cash flow forecasting and calendar views, and its paid plans can pull your accounts in automatically. But it's a New Zealand product adapted for Australia, and the features that matter sit behind a monthly fee. Budgi is free — every feature, including the AI coach, super optimiser, scenario planner and debt strategies. The trade-off is that Budgi doesn't connect to your bank at all: you export a CSV from your internet banking and upload it, and the AI categorises it from there. That's a two-minute habit each month, and it works with every Australian bank.
Competitor details checked against each provider’s own published information on 25 September 2026. Features and pricing change often — check with the provider before deciding. Tell us if something is out of date.
PocketSmith's calendar-based cash flow forecasting is best-in-class. If you want to see a 6-month cash flow projection or model what happens if your income drops, PocketSmith excels. You can schedule income and expenses months into the future, giving a clear picture of your financial runway. Its paid plans also offer automatic bank feeds, so transactions arrive without you doing anything — Budgi has nothing like that. And it has a strong international community and a long track record: it's been around since 2008 and has refined its forecasting tools over many years.
Everything in Budgi is free — the AI coach, the super optimiser, the scenario planner, the debt payoff strategies. There are no tiers to upgrade to and no trial to expire, where PocketSmith charges monthly for the comparable plans. The Australian detail runs deeper too: HECS-HELP repayment thresholds, superannuation with contributions tax and the concessional cap, and current ATO tax brackets, rather than a general international tool bent to fit. And because Budgi works from a CSV you export yourself, there's no CDR consent, no accredited data recipient holding a copy of your banking data, and no ongoing read access to your accounts. The cost of that is the upload: it's manual, it's on you, and it's about two minutes a month.
Yes. Every feature is free — the AI coach, super optimiser, scenario planner, debt payoff strategies and net worth tracking. No paid tiers, no trial to expire, no credit card.
One way: you export a CSV from your internet banking and upload it, and Budgi's AI categorises every transaction. There's no bank feed and no open banking connection, so it's a two-minute habit each month rather than something that updates on its own. The upside is it works with any Australian bank, and Budgi never touches your bank login.
Yes. PocketSmith's paid plans can bring Australian accounts in automatically through a third-party aggregator, while its cheaper plans have historically relied on manual CSV import. Budgi is manual CSV import for everyone — on every feature, at no cost.
If automatic feeds and multi-month calendar forecasting are what you need, it earns its keep. But it's a paid product — roughly $11–18 AUD/month at time of writing — where Budgi gives away its full feature set.
Budgi shows upcoming bills, budget burn rates and what-if scenarios through the scenario planner. Advanced multi-month calendar forecasting like PocketSmith's is on the roadmap.
If you want automatic bank feeds and calendar forecasting and don't mind paying monthly, PocketSmith. If you'd rather pay nothing, keep your bank logins to yourself, and get HECS-HELP repayments, super with contributions tax and the concessional cap, and ATO tax brackets modelled properly, Budgi — provided you're happy to upload a CSV each month.
AI coaching, super and HECS-HELP modelling, debt strategies — all free. Export a CSV from any Australian bank, upload it, and the AI does the categorising.
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