Loam vs Monarch Money: a private Monarch alternative

Monarch Money is a full-featured budgeting app for the US and Canada that links your bank accounts and keeps your data on its servers. Loam works in any country and any currency, and puts its effort into where your wealth is heading, with no bank login and no account.

Feature by feature

	Loam	Monarch
Price
Price	$30 a year or $3 a month	Core $99.99 a year or $14.99 a month; Plus $199.99 a year
Free trial	30 days, no payment details needed	7 days
Free plan	No, the trial is the free part	No
Ads	None	None in the app
Privacy and your data
Account required	None, not even an email	Yes, with an email
Bank login	Never	Yes, through Plaid, MX or Finicity; manual accounts optional
Where your data lives	On your phone, plus your own iCloud or Google device backup	Monarch’s cloud servers
AI and your finances	Never sees your finances. Only a bank text format Loam has never seen goes out, until Loam learns its pattern	Its AI Assistant sends your transaction data to outside AI models
Analytics and tracking	None	Google Analytics and advertising partner cookies
App lock	Face ID, Touch ID or fingerprint	Not advertised
Export	CSV or JSON	CSV of transactions and balances
Getting transactions in
Bank sync	No, by design	Yes, the core of the app
Bank text messages	Yes, read on the phone. Automatic on Android; a Shortcut on iPhone	No
Manual entry	Yes	Yes, plus CSV import
Voice entry	Siri, without opening the app	Not advertised
Receipt scanning	No	Yes, scanned or emailed and matched
Categorising	Merchant rules you set, suggested once you file a shop by hand twice	Automatic, plus your own rules
What it tracks
Credit cards	Yes, with statements and installment plans	Yes; statement balance and due date via Bill Sync
Deposits and CDs	Yes: interest payouts, floating rates and maturity	As plain linked or manual accounts
Stocks and ETFs	Yes, with average cost and gain	Yes, linked or manual, live prices
Crypto	Yes, priced for you	Yes, Coinbase link or manual
Gold and silver	Gold by karat and silver by fineness, priced off spot	Manual valuables only
Property	Yes	Yes, Zillow estimate or manual
Loans and mortgages	Mortgages, loans and installment plans	Yes, with pay-down goals
Currencies	80, and totals also readable in a steadier one, such as USD	US and Canadian dollars only, no conversion
Planning
Budgets	Monthly category budgets, tagged needs or wants	Flex or category budgets, with rollovers
Spending insights	Per category, five months back, with what to do	Cash flow and custom reports
Net worth over time	No; the forecast looks forward instead	Yes
Long-term forecast	5, 10 or 20 years of your deposits and investments, with your own return per holding	Retirement and net worth forecasting, Plus only
Inflation-adjusted view	Consumer prices, monetary debasement and currency devaluation, filled in for you	In today’s dollars, Plus only
Runway	Yes: months of your budget the assets you choose would cover	No
Savings goals	No goals; a monthly savings target and savings rate	Yes, save-up and pay-down goals
Recurring charges	Spots monthly charges, their yearly cost and when one goes up	Yes, bills and subscriptions
Everyday use
Apps	iPhone and Android	iPhone, iPad and Android
Web app	No	Yes, full web app
Sharing with a partner	No	Yes, household members included
Notifications	None, ever	Push and email alerts
Languages	English and Arabic	English
Where it works	Anywhere, with banks that text in English or Arabic	US and Canada

Which should you pick?

Monarch is stronger at	Loam is stronger at
Automatic sync from US and Canadian banks, cards and brokerages. A full web app, with household members sharing one subscription. Automatic home values from Zillow and crypto balances from Coinbase. Receipt scanning and savings goals, plus retirement forecasting on Plus.	Works in 80 currencies, and can read your totals in a steadier one such as USD. Monarch is US and Canadian dollars only. A 5 to 20 year forecast of your deposits and investments, included in the one price. Monarch keeps forecasting to its $199.99 Plus plan. Runway: pick the assets you would actually sell and see how many months they cover. No bank login and no account; spending comes from your bank’s texts.

Monarch is stronger at

Loam is stronger at

Automatic sync from US and Canadian banks, cards and brokerages.
A full web app, with household members sharing one subscription.
Automatic home values from Zillow and crypto balances from Coinbase.
Receipt scanning and savings goals, plus retirement forecasting on Plus.

Works in 80 currencies, and can read your totals in a steadier one such as USD. Monarch is US and Canadian dollars only.
A 5 to 20 year forecast of your deposits and investments, included in the one price. Monarch keeps forecasting to its $199.99 Plus plan.
Runway: pick the assets you would actually sell and see how many months they cover.
No bank login and no account; spending comes from your bank’s texts.

Pick Monarch if you live in the US or Canada, want every account synced and share finances with a partner on the web. Pick Loam if you live elsewhere, hold money in more than one currency, or care most about where your wealth is heading.

More comparisons

Try Loam free for 30 days.

In beta now on iPhone and Android. No account, no bank login, no payment details for the trial. Then $30 a year or $3 a month.

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Monarch Money details are taken from its own website and app store listings in September 2026 and may have changed since. Monarch Money is a trademark of its owner; Loam is not affiliated with it.