Free vs. Thrive
BetterBudgets has two plans. Free is a real, usable product — you can build a budget, track it paycheck by paycheck, and use every calculator without paying anything. Thrive unlocks the parts of the app that go deeper.
What Free includes
- ›Basic budget creation
- ›Simple tracking with high-level metrics and charts
- ›Review past budget history
- ›Every financial calculator (a few are US-only; PDF export from Debt Payoff and Amortization needs Thrive)
- ›Accountability metrics and features
- ›Free budgeting guides and resources
That's enough to run a full budget cycle. If you're new to budgeting, start here — Free isn't a trial, and nothing on it expires.
What Thrive adds
- ›Every generated plan — up to five per build
- ›Your whole Archive, not just the three newest, with smart recommendations across them
- ›Advanced tracking techniques
- ›Extensive analytics dashboard
- ›Restore any past budget to Home
- ›Canvas for freehand financial planning
The practical difference
The lists above are the summary. Here's where you'll actually notice it.
You see one plan instead of all of them. This is the big one. The Builder generates a full set of plans at different intensities — typically five, from Minimum Effort to Maximum Effort. On Free, Minimum Effort is unlocked. The others appear with their headline numbers visible but their detail locked, so you can see that a faster path exists without being able to open it.
The Builder has limits. Free takes one income source, rent plus five housing bills, two expenses, and two debts, and bills repeat monthly. Thrive takes up to five income sources, unlimited bills and debts, and every frequency.
Home looks one paycheck ahead. On Free, the upcoming paycheck is shown in full and other paychecks are locked. Coming Up shows the next paycheck only, where Thrive looks three ahead.
Tracking is read-and-tick. You can tick bills off as paid on Free. Editing a bill or paycheck amount, or adding an expense to a paycheck, prompts an upgrade.
The recommendation is locked. The results screen tells you which plan fits your situation, but the reasoning behind it sits behind an upgrade.
The dashboard is trimmed. Free gets the Net Worth chart by month plus core summary tiles. Thrive adds six more charts, the paycheck and year views, and the deeper breakdowns.
The Archive keeps your three newest budgets in reach. Older ones stay saved but locked, and switching a budget to a different plan or pinning it is part of Thrive.
Canvas is entirely locked, and sharing a canvas is gated separately on top of that.
For the complete list of every gate in the app, see What's Included with Thrive.
Pricing
Thrive is a monthly or annual subscription, with annual working out cheaper per month — or, on the web, a one-time lifetime purchase that never renews.
You can subscribe inside the app, where billing goes through the App Store or Google Play, or on the web at a lower price. In the app, the plan screen shows the price where you are. Current web pricing is on the pricing page.
The app is only sold in the countries listed under Region & Currency. If the plan screen says No plans are available in your region, that's what it means.
Which one to start on
Start on Free. Build a budget, run one full pay cycle, and see whether the routine sticks. If it does, the case for Thrive is mostly about wanting to see the more aggressive plans, adjust amounts as you go, and get the deeper analytics — all of which are easier to judge after you've used the app for a few weeks than before.
Upgrading
Tap Upgrade at the top of Settings, or open Settings → Subscription. Details on upgrading, restoring a previous purchase, applying a discount code, and canceling are in Managing Your Subscription.