Crypto budgeting · compared
Crypto budgeting apps compared.
Here is the answer before the reasoning. Six well-known apps show your crypto as a balance. As of 28 July 2026, going by each app's own documentation, none of them file a trade, a wallet transfer or a stablecoin invoice as a categorised transaction in your budget. Orla does. That single difference decides whether your monthly report is complete or decorative, and it is also the only thing we are better at, so the rest of this page says plainly where each of the others wins.
How this was checked
Every line below comes from the app's own help pages, not from its landing page and not from a review site, with the URL and the date we read it. Marketing copy and documentation disagree surprisingly often in this category, and the documentation is the one written by the people who have to support the thing. Where a help page simply does not say, we write that it does not say. We would rather look unsure than assert something we did not see.
Lunch Money
The closest thing to a real rival, and it got here years before we did. Its own help page is blunt about the ceiling: automatic syncing covers Coinbase, Kraken and Ethereum, and "crypto wallet transactions are not currently supported in Lunch Money. You may only track the balance of crypto assets at this time", with manual tracking for over 300 coins (support.lunchmoney.app/setup/crypto, read 28.07.2026). So balances yes, transactions no. It is run by a small independent team, it costs less than the venture-funded apps, the rules engine is lovely, and if a clean fiat budget plus a crypto balance is genuinely all you need, go and look at it before you look at us.
Copilot Money
Connects Binance.US, Bitstamp, Coinbase, Gemini and Kraken on iOS, fewer on the web, plus Bitcoin and Ethereum addresses and an xPub for Ledger and Trezor. The help page is about holdings and their value, and it says nothing at all about crypto transactions or categories (help.copilot.money/en/articles/6162313, read 28.07.2026). The same list still carries FTX US, which tells you how often that page gets revised. It remains the best-looking money app on iOS by a distance, and its fiat categorisation is excellent.
Monarch Money
Connects Coinbase directly, refreshes prices every couple of minutes, and files the holdings under a Cryptocurrency asset type in the Investments section. Only Coinbase is named, with more exchanges described as a future plan, and the page does not claim that crypto activity becomes categorised transactions (monarch.com/blog/coinbase-organizing-accounts-rules, read 28.07.2026). Its budgeting, goals and household features are more mature than ours. If your crypto is one Coinbase balance and your real problem is running a family budget, Monarch is the better buy.
YNAB
The most honest of the six, because it never pretended. Crypto goes in as a tracking account, and the guide says it straight: "Since investment funds aren't included in your categories, you don't have to add the accounts in YNAB" (support.ynab.com, Tracking Investment Accounts in YNAB, read 28.07.2026). Out of categories means out of the budget. YNAB's method changes how people spend, which is a bigger claim than anything on this page, and no software here replaces it.
Surplus Budget
Crypto sits next to property and brokerage. Its FAQ describes typing a symbol, a quantity and optionally a wallet address, after which "Surplus will track the live market value" (surplus-budget.com/faq, read 28.07.2026). Prices update, holdings are tracked, nothing becomes a transaction. Fine if what you want is one net worth number in a tidy app.
CoinStats
Different animal, and it comes up in the same searches, so it belongs here. CoinStats is a portfolio tracker: allocation, performance against the market, on-chain distribution, a fee breakdown (help.coinstats.app/en/articles/3621267, read 28.07.2026). Its docs never mention budgets, spending categories or bank accounts, because that is not what it is for. If you want to watch positions all day, it will make you happier than we will. It just cannot tell you what you spent on groceries.
Orla
Exchange trades, deposits and withdrawals arrive as transactions on their accounts, from five exchanges on a read-only key you make yourself. Wallet activity on BTC, EVM chains and TRON arrives the same way. Those rows carry categories, count against budget limits and land in the monthly report beside your rent. A withdrawal to your own wallet is matched to its arriving leg by the on-chain hash and kept out of cashflow, so a 600 dollar move does not read as a 600 dollar spend. A stablecoin invoice is booked as income at that day's rate. Banks connect through open banking in the same ledger.
And the parts where we lose
Only five exchanges connect: Binance, Bybit, OKX, Kraken, Coinbase. Everything else is a CSV or a photo of a statement. Bitcoin addresses cannot be verified by signature yet. There is no DeFi beyond Aave lending, no brokerage, no property, no vehicles. There is no App Store or Google Play listing, so it installs from the browser. Live bank and exchange sync is on the paid plans, which means the free tier is not the product this page describes. Every one of those is a real reason to pick something else.
The question that sorts the category in one line
Ask any of them: when I sell 0.25 ETH on Binance, what shows up in my monthly report? "Your net worth changed" means the crypto is a price ticker. "Nothing, that is an investment account" means it is furniture. The answer you want is dull and specific. A trade is not income, so it should not inflate the month. A withdrawal to your own wallet is not spending. A client paying 900 USDT is income, in the same line as a salary. The fee is an expense, small, and still belongs somewhere. Four behaviours, four answers. Treat all four as "balance changed" and the budget is wrong in four directions at once.
- Lunch Money
- No. Balances only, by their help page. Coinbase, Kraken, Ethereum sync, 300 plus coins manual
- Copilot Money
- Not documented. Holdings and value on five exchanges plus BTC, ETH and xPub
- Monarch Money
- Not documented. Coinbase only, filed under Investments
- YNAB
- No. A tracking account sits outside your categories, by their own guide
- Surplus Budget
- No. Symbol, quantity, optional address, live market value
- CoinStats
- No budgets at all. Portfolio analytics, allocation, fees
- Orla
- Yes. Exchange and wallet activity becomes categorised rows in the same ledger as the bank
- Bank plus crypto in one budget
- Orla. Lunch Money, Copilot and Monarch connect banks, but the crypto stays a balance
- Self transfers netted out
- Orla pairs the two legs by on-chain hash and keeps them out of cashflow
- Year end capital gains
- Orla, FIFO by lot in your base currency. Koinly is deeper: 800 plus integrations, FIFO, LIFO, HIFO, ACB
- Sources
- Each app's own help pages, linked in the section above, read 28 July 2026
What is the best budgeting app that supports crypto?
It depends on what "supports" has to mean. If a balance on the net worth screen is enough, Lunch Money and Copilot are both excellent and cheaper than most. If crypto has to behave like money you spent and earned, with categories, budget limits and a monthly report, Orla is the one doing that today, on the evidence of every help page linked above.
Is there an app that tracks bank accounts and crypto together?
Several track them on one screen. Only Orla files them in one ledger, so a card payment and a wallet transfer sit in the same month with the same categories. Banks connect through read-only open banking, exchanges through a read-only API key, wallets by address.
What is a good Lunch Money alternative for crypto transactions?
Orla, and the reason is narrow. Lunch Money says in its own docs that it tracks crypto balances and not wallet transactions. If that is exactly the gap you hit, this is the swap. If you hit no gap, stay where you are. Lunch Money is a good app and switching budgeting software costs a weekend.
How do I budget if I get paid in USDT?
Book the payment as income on the day it lands, at that day's rate in the currency you actually live in, then budget normally. Two things catch people out: moving your own coins between your own wallets is not income or spending, and selling a stablecoin can still produce a small gain if your base currency is not the dollar. There is a page on that.
Do I still need Koinly?
If your tax year is complicated, yes. Koinly covers 800 plus integrations and several cost basis methods. Orla's tax center does FIFO by lot in your base currency, with income and deductible expenses from the same ledger, and every screen says informational rather than tax advice.
Do you update this page when the others change?
Yes, and the date on each claim is there so you can catch us if we don't. If a help page here has moved on and this page has not, tell us at [email protected] and it gets fixed.
Connect one exchange and check the claim yourself.
A read-only key, about four minutes, and the trades land in your month.