--- title: Allocate vs. Monarch (2026) — the Mint successor vs. a plan for lumpy pay | Allocate AI description: Monarch vs. Allocate: price (including the new Plus tier), bank sync, equity tracking vs. planning around vests, AI assistants, and who each suits. Sources linked. canonical: https://allocateai.io/compare/monarch site: Allocate AI — https://allocateai.io --- # Allocate vs. Monarch Monarch became the default Mint replacement: broad, polished, household-friendly. Allocate is narrower and deeper on one thing — planning around pay that doesn’t arrive as one number. Monarch is the widest view of your money: every account, every holding, a household on one plan, and since 2026 a long-horizon forecast on its Plus tier. Its assistant answers questions. Allocate is built the other way round: the conversation is the product. You say what you want, it writes the plan and proposes the changes, and Workspace and My plan give you things to look at that no tracker has. Broad, shared, and you like exploring, pick Monarch. You want to ask and be answered, pick Allocate. | | Allocate | Monarch | | --- | --- | --- | | **Price** | $25/mo, or $20/mo paid yearly | $14.99/mo or $99.99/yr (Core); Plus $199/yr | | **Free tier** | No | 7-day trial | | **Platforms** | Web, iPhone | Web, iOS, Android (Plus features web-only) | | **Bank sync** | Plaid, included | Plaid, Finicity and MX, included | | **Approach** | Planning in plain language: say what you want, it proposes the plan, you approve | Monthly cash-flow budgeting (flex or category) | | **Variable pay, bonuses, RSUs** | Yes: a bonus, a commission or a vest goes in the plan as expected income and funds the goals it should | Tracks RSU/option grants and vests for net worth; forecasting doesn’t model equity yet; bonuses categorized as income | | **Works before a bank is linked** | Yes | Manual accounts, yes | | **Cash-flow forecast** | Month by month, each goal measured against what comes in | Historical cash flow in Core; long-horizon Forecasting in Plus (web only) | | **Goal planning** | Yes, with a written plan (My plan) you can read | Yes | | **Investment tracking** | Balances and holdings | Yes; Morningstar fund analysis in Plus | | **Net worth** | Yes | Yes | | **Bills & subscriptions** | Detected from your accounts; no negotiation | Recurring tracking; no negotiation | | **AI assistant** | Allo-Bot: 100 messages/mo included, packs from $5 | AI Assistant, answers questions | | **AI can change your plan (with approval)** | Yes | No | | **Shared / household** | No | Included | | **Moves your money** | No | No | > Monarch facts checked September 28, 2026, from Monarch's own pricing and help pages (sources at the end). Prices in US dollars. If something here is out of date, tell us at [support@allocateai.io](mailto:support@allocateai.io) and we'll fix it. ## What Monarch is Monarch (formerly Monarch Money) is a personal-finance tracker built to replace Mint: all accounts in one place, flexible or category budgets, goals, net worth, investment holdings, and a household on a single subscription. In 2026 it added an AI assistant that answers questions about your data, equity tracking for RSU and option grants, and a $199-a-year Plus tier with long-horizon forecasting and Morningstar fund analysis (web only). Core is $14.99 a month or $99.99 a year with a 7-day trial. It raised a $75M Series B in 2025 and runs on web, iOS and Android. ## What Allocate is Allocate is a personal-finance app built so you can plan in plain language. You link your accounts (Plaid), then you talk: *“can I afford a $600 flight in November?”*, *“move the house goal out a year”*, *“what happens if I put $400 more into the 401(k)?”* Allo-Bot answers from your real numbers and, when something should change, stages the change for you to approve. It never moves money. Around the conversation are three things we haven’t seen elsewhere. **My plan** is a written plan — your goals, in order, with what each takes a month and when it lands — that reads like a document, not a dashboard. **Workspace** is a board you build from your own data: pin a card for any number, a note beside it, a sheet with live cells, and ask the guide to break a figure down onto the board. And a **morning brief** tells you what moved and what needs a yes, so you don’t have to go looking. Pay that comes in pieces — a bonus, a commission, a vest — is handled as income in the plan, not a surprise deposit. The point of all of it is that a plan should be liquid. A raise, a move, a baby, a job change, a bad month: you say what changed, and the plan moves — goals re-dated, amounts re-sized, the brief the next morning telling you where things stand. It’s not a budget to keep up; it’s a plan that keeps up with you. One price, US only, web and iPhone. ## Where Monarch is better - **Breadth.** Monarch tracks more kinds of things — manual holdings, fund analysis, business expenses, receipts — and does it well. - **Households.** Partners share one plan with mine/theirs/ours views, included in the price. Allocate is single-user. - **Android.** Monarch runs everywhere; Allocate is web and iPhone. - **Price.** $99.99 a year for Core against Allocate’s $240, though Plus takes it to $199. - **Long-horizon forecasting.** Plus projects to age 90 with life events and side-by-side scenarios. Allocate’s plan is about the next months and years, not retirement modeling. - **Choice of sync provider.** If Plaid struggles with your bank, Monarch lets you switch to Finicity or MX. ## Where Allocate is better - **An assistant that does something.** Monarch’s AI answers questions and, by its own description, takes no actions. Allo-Bot answers and then stages the change — a goal resized, a contribution moved, a bill added — for you to approve. *“Can I afford the Tahoe trip?”* gets a number and, if the answer is “not without moving something,” the move. - **Built to change.** Monarch’s forecast is a scenario you set up on the web. Allocate’s plan moves when your life does: *“I got a raise, put half of it toward the house”* re-sizes the goals and the next brief tells you where things stand. - **My plan.** Monarch has goals on a screen. Allocate has a written plan: goals in order, what each takes, when it lands, what changed. It reads like something a planner would hand you. - **Workspace.** Monarch’s reports are Monarch’s. A Workspace board is yours: cards for the numbers you care about, notes, live sheets, and a guide that breaks a figure down onto the board when you ask. - **Equity in the plan, not just on the chart.** Monarch’s equity tracking records grants and vests for net worth; its forecasting docs say equity compensation isn’t supported yet. In Allocate the expected vest is income: it can fund a goal, and the goal is measured against it. - **A morning brief.** A short written note each day about what moved and what needs a yes, instead of a dashboard to remember to open. - **Useful in the first hour.** Monarch’s most repeated complaint is that seven days isn’t enough to set up. Allocate plans from your setup estimate before a bank is linked. ## Which one should you pick? **Pick Monarch if** - You share money with a partner. - You want the widest possible view: holdings, funds, business, receipts. - You want retirement-horizon forecasting with scenarios. - You’re on Android. **Pick Allocate if** - You want to ask questions in plain words and get a plan back. - You want a written plan and a board of your own, not only reports. - You want an assistant that can act, with your approval. - Some of your pay is bonus, commission or equity, and you want it in the plan. ## Frequently asked questions ### Monarch has equity tracking now. Isn’t that the same thing? It’s tracking: you enter the grant and vesting terms and Monarch shows vested and unvested value on your net worth. Monarch’s own forecasting docs say equity compensation isn’t supported in forecasting yet. Allocate uses the expected vest as income in the plan — it can fund a goal, and the goal is measured against it. ### Does Allocate have a household mode? Not today. Allocate is one person’s accounts and plan. If you and a partner run one budget together, Monarch is the better fit for that. ### Which AI assistant is more capable? They do different jobs. Monarch’s answers questions about your data. Allo-Bot answers questions and can propose changes to your plan — move a goal, size a contribution — which you approve or decline. Neither moves money. ### What does Monarch Plus add, and does Allocate have an equivalent? Plus ($199 a year, annual only, web only) adds long-horizon forecasting with life events and scenarios, and Morningstar fund analysis. Allocate’s plan measures your goals month by month against what comes in; it doesn’t model to age 90. ### Which is cheaper? Monarch Core: $99.99 a year or $14.99 a month; Plus: $199 a year. Allocate: $240 a year ($20 a month paid yearly) or $25 monthly, with 100 Allo-Bot messages a month included. ## Sources - [Monarch pricing](https://www.monarch.com/pricing) - [Monarch Plus (blog)](https://www.monarch.com/blog/monarch-plus) - [Monarch help: Plus tier](https://help.monarch.com/hc/en-us/articles/48349699981972-Monarch-Plus-Tier) - [Monarch help: Forecasting](https://help.monarch.com/hc/en-us/articles/48344305092244-Forecasting-in-Monarch) - [Monarch help: Equity tracking](https://help.monarch.com/hc/en-us/articles/44216543664788-Equity-Tracking) - [Monarch help: data providers](https://help.monarch.com/hc/en-us/articles/33707613533972-Understanding-Data-Providers-and-Connections) - [Monarch winter release (AI assistant, equity tracking)](https://www.monarch.com/blog/winter-release) - [Monarch what’s new](https://www.monarch.com/whats-new) - [Monarch Series B](https://www.monarch.com/blog/series-b) We wrote this comparison. We tried to be fair, and every Monarch claim links to where we read it, but we make Allocate, so read it as one side of the argument and try both. ## More comparisons - [Allocate vs. YNAB](https://allocateai.io/compare/ynab) — Zero-based envelopes vs. a plan sized to what comes in - [Allocate vs. Copilot Money](https://allocateai.io/compare/copilot) — Design-first tracking on Apple vs. a plan that answers - [Allocate vs. Rocket Money](https://allocateai.io/compare/rocket-money) — Cancel subscriptions and negotiate bills vs. plan your income - [Allocate vs. Quicken Simplifi](https://allocateai.io/compare/simplifi) — The low-cost spending plan vs. a planner for pay in pieces - [Allocate vs. Mint](https://allocateai.io/compare/mint-alternative) — Mint shut down in 2024 — what replaces it, and when Allocate is the answer **Try it with your own numbers.** Sign up, tell Allocate what you take home, and it starts planning before a bank is linked. Link one when you're ready. [Get started](https://app.allocateai.io/signup) [Watch the tour](https://allocateai.io/demo) --- Allocate AI is a budgeting and financial-planning app: link your accounts, say what you want in plain words, and it writes the plan and stages every change for your approval. Read more at https://allocateai.io or see all pages in https://allocateai.io/llms.txt.