Shared household budgeting with bank sync, rules and envelope-style rollover
- Envelope
- Expense tracking
- Couples & families
Beacon Budget
Bucket-based budgeting that auto-funds bills and shows a free-to-spend figure.
Research-based review, not hands-on testing. Last researched .
Overview
Beacon Budget (formerly DAS Budget) is a bank-linked bucket/envelope-style app. You create buckets for bills and goals, attach each to a funding schedule tied to paydays, and the app sets money aside automatically and calculates what is left to spend. It supports individual and joint budgets and runs on iOS, Android and web.
Best for: Paycheck-driven households, including couples, that want bills and goals funded automatically from linked accounts.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Automatic bucket funding on paydays keeps bill money set aside without manual transfers
- Free-to-spend number is recalculated on open, showing money not committed to buckets
- Joint budgets for couples are a core feature, included in both plans
- Round-up goals, transaction rules and split transactions listed in release notes
- App Store rating 4.5 from about 140 ratings
Cons
- Paid only after a 30-day trial; the app itself is not usable free long-term
- Bank connections are capped (3 institutions on Essentials, 10 on Premium)
- Website describes bank-sync-driven workflow ('no manual entry'); manual transaction entry is not confirmed
- App Store in-app purchase list shows older per-institution prices ($3.99 and up), which disagrees with the website's tiers
- Small user community and limited independent reviews
Features
- Envelope budgeting included
- Automatic bank sync included
- Manual transaction entry not confirmed not confirmed
- Goal tracking included
- Debt payoff tools not confirmed not confirmed
- Investment tracking not confirmed not confirmed
- Bill reminders included
- Reports & charts included
- Multi-currency not confirmed not confirmed
- Shared / household budgets included
- Separate logins for shared budgets not confirmed not confirmed
Buckets, funding schedules, free-to-spend, joint budgets, round-up goals, credit card integration, transaction rules, reports, push notifications, referral rewards
Our review
Short version
Beacon Budget (formerly DAS Budget) is a bank-linked bucket/envelope-style app. You create buckets for bills and goals, attach each to a funding schedule tied to paydays, and the app sets money aside automatically and calculates what is left to spend. It supports individual and joint budgets and runs on iOS, Android and web.
Quick profile, not a full review. Built on 2026-09-29 from the vendor site, store listings and public sources. No hands-on testing: I did not sign up, start a trial or connect a bank.
Cost
- Essentials $4.99/mo (3 institutions); Premium $8.99/mo (10 institutions)
- Essentials $44.99/yr; Premium $79.99/yr
- Trial: 30 days free, then paid; cancel via app store
Not confirmed
Founding year; Manual entry; Data import/export; Android store listing and rating; Multi-currency; Debt payoff, investment tracking.
Notes
Website pricing ($4.99/$8.99 monthly) differs from older App Store in-app purchase items ($3.99 Standard, $6.99+ Premium per institution). Website used for pricing; store listing suggests plans were recently redesigned.
Ratings are set separately against a shared rubric.