The Best Monarch Money Alternative for Notion, Airtable & Google Sheets in 2025

Why I Cancelled My Monarch Money Subscription

I'll be honest: I was a Monarch Money superfan for almost a year.

The interface is genuinely beautiful. The investment tracking works flawlessly. The joint account features are perfect for couples. I recommended it to friends, wrote about it on Reddit, and even defended it in Twitter arguments about budgeting apps.

Then I checked my credit card statement and realized I'd paid $180 for an app I hadn't opened in six weeks.

The problem wasn't Monarch Money. The problem was that my entire life already lived in Notion. My tasks, my goals, my projects, my reading list, my content calendar—everything was in one place. Except my finances, which required opening a completely separate app, logging in, remembering what I was doing, and context-switching every time.

That friction killed my budgeting habit. And I kept paying for it anyway.

If any of this sounds familiar, you're not alone. In this guide, I'll break down exactly how Monarch Money and BankSync compare, who should use each one, and how I built a better budget system for half the price.

Monarch Money vs BankSync: Full Feature Comparison

Let's cut to the chase. Here's how these two tools actually stack up across the features that matter most:

The Real Cost Difference: $96/Year Adds Up

Let's talk money, since that's literally what we're trying to manage better.

What Monarch Money Does Exceptionally Well

Before I explain why I switched, let me be clear: Monarch Money is a genuinely excellent product. If I didn't already live in Notion, I'd probably still be using it. Here's what they do better than almost anyone:

The Problem: Yet Another App You Won't Use

Here's the uncomfortable reality many of us face:

You've spent years building out your Notion workspace. Or perfecting your Airtable bases. Or creating Google Sheets dashboards you're genuinely proud of. Your brain is trained to think in those tools. Your workflows live there. Your habits are built around them.

Adding Monarch Money—or any standalone budgeting app—means:

• Another app to remember to open
• Another interface to learn and navigate
• Another subscription to manage and pay for
• Your financial data completely siloed from everything else
• Context switching every time you want to check your budget

This is the "app fatigue" problem, and it's why so many people sign up for budgeting apps, use them for a month, then slowly stop opening them while continuing to pay.

"The best budget system isn't the one with the most features. It's the one you actually use consistently."

The Alternative: Bank Data in Your Existing Tools

BankSync takes a fundamentally different approach. Instead of being another budgeting app, it's a data connector. It takes your bank transactions, account balances, and investment data and syncs them directly to the tools you already use:

You build the budget. You design the dashboard. You decide what matters. The result? Your finances live alongside your projects, goals, and life systems—all in one place.

What I Built After Switching (My Actual Setup)

Here's exactly what my Notion finance system looks like after six months of using BankSync:

1. Transactions Database (Auto-Synced)

Every transaction from all my accounts automatically appears as a new entry. I didn't have to do anything—BankSync handles this completely. Each transaction includes:

• Date, amount, and merchant name
• Account it came from (checking, credit card, etc.)
• Category (I use Notion AI to auto-categorize based on my history)
• Custom tags I've added (tax-deductible, business expense, etc.)

2. Monthly Budget Dashboard

I created a simple dashboard page that shows:

• Spending by category this month (rollup formula)
• Budget vs actual for each category
• Progress bars showing how close I am to budget limits
• Quick links to recent transactions in each category

3. Net Worth Tracker

BankSync also syncs account balances, so I have a simple page that shows:

• Total cash across all accounts
• Investment account values
• Credit card debt (negative)
• Total net worth calculation
• Month-over-month change

4. Goals Integration

This is the part that Monarch Money can't do. Because my finances are in Notion, I can:

• Link savings goals to actual account balances
• See how purchases affect my savings targets
• Tag transactions as related to specific projects
• Create custom views for tax prep, trip budgets, etc.

Who Should Stick with Monarch Money

I'm not here to trash Monarch Money. It's genuinely excellent for certain people. You should probably stick with it if:

Who Should Switch to BankSync

BankSync is the better choice if:

Frequently Asked Questions

The Bottom Line: Which Should You Choose?

Here's my honest take after using both:

Monarch Money is the better standalone budgeting app. If you just want something that works out of the box, has a polished mobile experience, and includes built-in guidance—Monarch Money is excellent. It's expensive, but it's worth it for the right person.

BankSync is the better choice if you already have a productivity system. If you live in Notion, use Google Sheets daily, or have built workflows in Airtable—BankSync lets you bring your finances into those tools instead of adding another app to your life.

The best budget system isn't the prettiest or most feature-rich. It's the one you actually use. For me, that meant moving my finances into the tools I was already using every day—and saving $96/year in the process.

No credit card required. Cancel anytime. Your data stays in your tools even if you stop using BankSync.