FlashFi vs Monarch Money: Budgeting App or Global Portfolio Tracker?

Disclosure: FlashFi is a competitor to the products mentioned.

Disclosure: FlashFi is a competitor. This is our honest assessment based on publicly available information.

TL;DR¶

Choose Monarch Money if you live in the US (or Canada), want a combined budgeting and investment tracking app, and value automatic bank connections and household collaboration.

Choose FlashFi if you live abroad, hold assets in multiple currencies, or need a portfolio tracker that works regardless of where your bank accounts are located.

Monarch is a polished personal finance app that does budgeting and investment tracking well for North American users. FlashFi is a specialized multi-currency portfolio tracker built for people whose financial lives span multiple countries and currencies.

Quick Comparison¶

What Is Monarch Money?¶

Monarch Money is a personal finance app that combines budgeting, spending tracking, investment monitoring, and net worth tracking in one platform. It was founded in 2018 by Val Agostino — notably, Mint’s first product manager — alongside Jon Sutherland and Ozzie Osman.

When Intuit shut down Mint in early 2024, millions of users needed a new home for their financial data. Monarch was well-positioned to absorb them, and its subscriber base surged dramatically. The company raised $75 million at an $850 million valuation, making it one of the largest consumer fintech rounds that year. Monarch offered Mint users a direct data import path, preserving their transaction history.

The app connects to over 13,000 financial institutions via Plaid, automatically importing transactions, balances, and investment positions. It offers two budgeting approaches — category-based budgeting (allocate specific amounts to each spending category) and flex budgeting (set an overall spending target and let the categories flex). Features like spending alerts, rollover balances, custom categories, and Sankey diagrams for cash flow visualization make it one of the more capable budgeting apps on the market.

Monarch also includes investment tracking. It pulls in brokerage accounts and displays portfolio performance, asset allocation, gains and losses, and market trends. It is not as deep as dedicated investment tools — there is no retirement modeling, Monte Carlo simulation, or fee analysis — but for someone who wants budgeting and investment tracking in one app, it covers the basics.

A standout feature is household collaboration. You can invite a partner or financial advisor at no additional cost. Each person gets their own login, but you share the same data. For US couples managing joint finances, this is a practical feature that most competitors charge extra for.

What Is FlashFi?¶

FlashFi is a multi-currency portfolio tracker designed for digital nomads, expats, and international investors. It tracks stocks, ETFs, crypto, cash accounts, and debt across any currency, converting everything to your chosen home currency using real-time exchange rates via the Tiingo API.

FlashFi uses manual entry rather than automated bank connections. You add your holdings — ticker, shares, purchase price, currency — and FlashFi pulls live market data to keep values current. Cash accounts, debt, and savings are tracked manually with their respective currencies.

Two tiers: Operator at $12/month for core multi-currency tracking, and Apex at $39/month for advanced portfolio analytics.

Where Monarch Money Wins¶

Monarch does several things well that FlashFi does not attempt.

Budgeting Is Monarch’s Core Strength¶

Monarch was built as a budgeting app first, and it shows. Automatic transaction import, customizable spending categories, flexible or category-based budgeting, spending alerts, rollover balances, and detailed spending reports — this is a mature, well-designed budgeting system.

FlashFi does not offer budgeting. It is a portfolio and net worth tracker, not a spending tracker. If you need to know where your money goes each month, Monarch answers that question and FlashFi does not.

Automatic Account Connections¶

Monarch connects to over 13,000 financial institutions through Plaid. Link your checking account, and transactions flow in automatically. Link your brokerage, and holdings are updated in real time. Link your credit cards, and spending is categorized without manual input.

This is a genuine convenience advantage. FlashFi requires you to manually add and update your non-market positions. For someone with a dozen accounts, automatic aggregation saves meaningful time each month.

Household and Partner Collaboration¶

Monarch lets you invite a partner, family member, or financial advisor to share your financial data. Each person gets their own login credentials, but you see the same unified picture. This is included at no extra cost — you do not pay per user.

For US-based couples managing money together, this is a practical feature. You can maintain separate bank accounts while still having a shared view of the household’s complete financial position. FlashFi does not currently offer multi-user or household features.

Transaction Categorization and Reporting¶

Monarch automatically categorizes transactions and offers detailed reporting — spending by category, income vs. expenses over time, recurring transaction detection, and the popular Sankey diagram for visualizing cash flow. Custom rules let you override categorization for specific merchants.

FlashFi is investment-focused and does not track individual transactions from bank accounts or categorize spending.

Native Mobile Apps¶

Monarch offers native iOS, Android, and iPad apps alongside its web interface. FlashFi is currently a web application. For users who want to check their finances on their phone throughout the day, Monarch’s mobile experience is more polished.

Pricing on the Annual Plan¶

Monarch’s annual plan works out to $8.33/month — less than FlashFi’s $12/month Operator tier. If you are paying annually and the tool fits your needs, Monarch is the cheaper option. Even the monthly plan at $14.99 is in a similar range to FlashFi’s Operator tier.

Where FlashFi Wins¶

Multi-Currency Is Not an Afterthought — It Is the Foundation¶

This is the deal-breaker for international users. Monarch recommends connecting only USD or CAD accounts. If you connect an account denominated in another currency, Monarch treats the foreign number as if it were dollars. A balance of 10,000 Japanese yen displays as $10,000. An account with 5,000 British pounds and another with 5,000 US dollars show a combined total of $10,000, as if the currencies were identical.

There is no currency conversion, no FX rate tracking, and no way to accurately represent a multi-currency financial picture within Monarch.

FlashFi handles this natively. Every holding and account has an explicit currency. Real-time FX rates convert everything to your chosen home currency. When exchange rates move, your net worth updates accordingly. If you hold EUR, GBP, THB, and USD simultaneously, FlashFi shows you what it all adds up to — accurately.

Works Outside North America¶

Monarch is available in the US and Canada. If you live in Portugal, Thailand, Germany, Japan, or anywhere else, you cannot connect local financial institutions. Your foreign bank accounts, local brokerages, and overseas pensions are invisible.

FlashFi uses manual entry, which means geography is irrelevant. A Thai bank account, a UK ISA, an Australian superannuation fund, a Singapore brokerage — all trackable. The tradeoff is manual data entry, but the alternative for international users is not automatic entry — it is having no tool at all.

Built for International Investors From Day One¶

FlashFi’s entire data model assumes that a single user might hold assets in five different currencies across accounts in three different countries. This is not a bolt-on feature; it is the core architecture. Currency conversion, multi-country holdings, and global net worth calculation are first-class concerns.

Monarch’s architecture assumes a single-currency (USD or CAD) user in North America. International support would require fundamental changes to how the app processes and displays financial data.

No Bank Credential Sharing¶

Monarch requires you to share bank credentials via Plaid to function. Plaid connects in read-only mode with bank-level encryption, and Monarch states they do not sell user data. But you are still granting a third party access to your complete transaction history across all linked accounts.

FlashFi uses manual entry exclusively. You never share bank credentials with FlashFi or any third-party aggregator. You enter what you choose to enter, and nothing more. For privacy-conscious users — and many expats dealing with complex multi-country tax situations have good reason to be cautious about data sharing — this is a meaningful difference.

Investment Tracking Depth¶

While Monarch includes investment tracking, it is secondary to budgeting. You can see portfolio performance and asset allocation, but there is no deep analysis — no sector breakdown of individual holdings, no cost-basis tracking at the transaction level, no multi-currency gain/loss calculation.

FlashFi is investment-first. It tracks individual buy and sell transactions with dates, prices, and currencies. It shows portfolio allocation by ticker, asset type, and sector. It calculates unrealized gains in your home currency, accounting for both asset price changes and FX movements.

Who Should Choose Monarch Money¶

Monarch is the right choice if:

• You live in the US or Canada and your accounts are at North American institutions
• Budgeting and spending tracking are your primary needs
• You want automatic transaction import and categorization (minimal manual work)
• You manage finances jointly with a partner and want household collaboration
• You prefer an all-in-one app for budgeting, spending, and basic investment tracking
• You want native mobile apps for on-the-go access
• Cost is a factor and you prefer a lower annual price point

Monarch is particularly well-suited for US couples who want to merge their financial picture without sharing passwords or manually reconciling accounts. The household collaboration feature is genuinely useful and rare among competitors at this price point.

If you are coming from Mint and need a replacement that preserves your transaction history and category setup, Monarch is the most natural transition — it was designed specifically to absorb Mint’s user base.

Who Should Choose FlashFi¶

FlashFi is the right choice if:

• You live outside the US and Canada, or you move between countries
• You hold assets denominated in multiple currencies
• You have accounts at financial institutions that Plaid does not support
• Your primary need is investment and net worth tracking, not budgeting
• You want accurate multi-currency net worth calculations with real-time FX rates
• You prefer not to share bank credentials with any third party
• You are a US expat whose financial life has expanded beyond American institutions

The manual entry requirement is a real cost in time and convenience. But for someone with a Thai savings account, a European brokerage, and US retirement accounts, the choice is not between manual entry and automatic entry — it is between manual entry and not tracking at all. Monarch cannot see those international accounts.

The Overlap Problem¶

Monarch and FlashFi serve different primary needs with minimal overlap:

If you are a US-based person who wants to budget and casually track investments, Monarch is the better fit. If you are an international person who needs to know what their assets are worth across multiple currencies, FlashFi is the only option that works.

The Expat Scenario¶

Consider a Canadian who relocated to Berlin for work. Their financial picture:

• TD Canada Trust checking account (CAD)
• Wealthsimple TFSA (CAD)
• Deutsche Bank checking account (EUR)
• Trade Republic brokerage with European ETFs (EUR)
• Wise multi-currency account (CAD, EUR, USD)
• Bitcoin on Kraken (purchased in EUR)

With Monarch: The TD and Wealthsimple accounts might connect (Monarch expanded to Canada). The Deutsche Bank account, Trade Republic brokerage, and Wise multi-currency account are invisible. Any EUR balances that do appear are treated as if they were CAD, producing wildly inaccurate totals. You see perhaps 30% of your actual financial picture.

With FlashFi: Every account is tracked in its native currency. CAD holdings stay in CAD, EUR holdings stay in EUR, and Bitcoin is priced in your chosen home currency. The net worth total reflects actual exchange rates between CAD and EUR. When the euro strengthens against the Canadian dollar, you see the impact immediately.

Can You Use Both?¶

If you are a US or Canadian expat, using both tools can make sense. Monarch handles the day-to-day budgeting and spending tracking for your North American accounts — automatic transaction import, spending categories, monthly budget targets. FlashFi handles the investment and net worth tracking across all your accounts globally — every currency, every country, one accurate total.

The overlap is small. Monarch tells you where your money goes. FlashFi tells you what your money is worth.

A Note on Mint Refugees¶

If you landed on this page because you are looking for a Mint replacement, the decision depends on your situation. If you are US-based and want the closest Mint equivalent with better features, Monarch is the clear successor — it was built by Mint’s first product manager, it imported Mint user data directly, and it covers budgeting, spending tracking, and basic investment monitoring.

If you left the US and Mint stopped being useful because it could not handle your international accounts, FlashFi solves the problem Mint never could. Mint, like Monarch, was built for a single-currency, single-country financial life.

The Bottom Line¶

Monarch Money is a strong personal finance app for North American users who want budgeting and investment tracking under one roof. The automatic account connections, household collaboration, and spending analysis are polished features backed by a company with serious funding and a large user base.

But Monarch was built for the same single-country, single-currency assumption that most US fintech products share. If your financial life has outgrown that assumption — if you earn in one currency, invest in another, and hold savings in a third — Monarch cannot give you an accurate picture.

FlashFi costs more than Monarch’s annual plan and requires more manual effort. What you get is a tool that accurately represents a multi-currency, multi-country financial life. For the growing number of people working and investing across borders, that accuracy is worth paying for.

Try FlashFi — Start Tracking

By David Brougham