Personal Finance Apps: Origin Financial vs. Monarch Money Comparison

If you're interested in tracking your spending and creating a budget, you might be overwhelmed by the number of apps out there. We get it.

One name that gets thrown around a lot is Monarch Money, so we wanted to break down how Origin Financial and Monarch Money compare: what we share, and what’s different.

While Origin and Monarch both have strong spend tracking and budgeting functions, Origin goes well beyond that by helping users understand their money. That’s because Origin is the industry’s first AI financial advisor, meaning it combines the speed of a Google or ChatGPT response with the expertise of a financial professional and the details of your financial picture to produce hyper-personalized guidance in just a few seconds. Origin’s suite of AI guidance, budgeting, and forecasting features are now part of the deep bench of financial offerings — high-yield cash accounts, no-fee index investing, estate planning, free tax filing, and one-on-one meetings with members of our Certified Financial Planner® team — that make Origin the only truly all-in-one financial management platform.

Let’s dig into the differences between Origin and Monarch a bit more.

Budgeting

Monarch offers two methods of budgeting, but both rely on manual inputs and can be somewhat time-intensive to set up.

Origin’s AI budget builder streamlines that process by analyzing your past spending to instantly create a personalized, realistic budget. You’ll get a clear, data-backed budget recommendation that is fully adjustable and customizable to your lifestyle and goals. And if (and when) life changes,, you can always get a new AI budget recommendation — or build your own manually if you prefer.

Origin also lets you create one-time budgets for holiday or travel-heavy months.

Beyond these larger differences, both Origin and Monarch offer:

Custom categories
Budgeting with your partner under a single membership
Advanced, customizable spending rules
iOS widgets that allow you to view your progress at a glance

Spend Tracking + Cash Flow

Both Origin and Monarch offer spend tracking, which is a crucial part of creating — and sticking to — a realistic budget. Both apps allow you to filter and sort through transactions; split them (so that, for example, you can slot items from a big Target order into different budget categories); edit every detail; and add any relevant notes in a memo section.

Both Origin and Monarch let you know when you’ve got upcoming bills or subscription charges, including credit card payments, and put your recurring subscriptions into one place, so you can keep an eye on just how much you’re spending on a monthly basis.

Monarch also offers spend forecasting, based on your spending habits over previous months; Origin does not.

Advice + Knowledge

This is an area where Origin far outstrips Monarch. Our AI Advisor puts expert-level knowledge at your fingertips at the touch of a button. AI Advisor is basically your personal financial assistant, capable of answering complex financial questions with the rigor of a Certified Financial Planner®. Ask whether you’re saving enough, how to rebalance your portfolio, or what a major life change means for your finances. AI Advisor also brings in the latest news and market trends, to help make each additional conversation all the more contextual, helpful, and actionable.

Instant Insights, another one of our AI-powered features, is available for any number that appears throughout your account. It explains what’s driving change across net worth, spending, investments. It will surface patterns and anomalies the way a seasoned analyst would, giving you context you can act on.

Looking for more in-depth financial planning? Our platform also connects users with CFP® professionals who can address their specific needs and develop financial plans with their specific goals in mind. As an Origin user, you’re always just a few clicks away from scheduling time to meet with a Origin financial planner, who can advise you on home buying, investing, retirement planning, debt repayment, and more.

Monarch offers a lot less on this front. It allows financial professionals joint access to their clients’ accounts (either for free or with financial professionals covering clients’ annual fees), which requires Monarch users to pay for a separate CFP®, as opposed to using Origin’s all-in-one AI financial advisor services.

Investment Tracking

Origin’s investment dashboard gives you a complete, real-time view of your investments across all accounts. You can see the full value of your portfolio; get detailed information on what exactly has changed in your portfolio and why thanks to the Instant Insights button; ask AI Advisor related questions; and more. You can also examine how your portfolio is tracking against the market itself and review how your asset allocation compares to your risk assessment, two features that Monarch also has.

Crucially, Origin lets you drill down into your individual assets on our Holdings tab. There, you can see the number of shares you own in a given product; the total value; and the return in dollars or percentages. We also offer Market Watch, a feature that is basically your on-demand financial markets search engine.

Monarch charts your investment performance, but does not offer additional market information or expertise.

Ways to Invest + Save

Origin wins here, hands down. We offer a cash account with a market-beating interest rate, automated index investing, and stock bundles. (Monarch offers none of these.)

Our automated index investing accounts are managed investment portfolios that put your money in globally diversified stocks and bonds based on your own timetable, goals, and risk preferences. Crucially, these have no asset under management (AUM) fees — unlike most major brokerage firms, which typically charge between 0.25% and 1%. Our subscription fee covers the cost of managing these accounts, so you keep more of the money you earn. With Origin handling trading and rebalancing, these are a simple, super cost-effective way to build your wealth — which we don’t take a cut of.

We also offer stock bundles, packages of individual stocks that focus on a certain objective or theme, like, say, cloud computing or dividend blue chip stocks. Bundles are designed to supplement your core portfolio; save you time (no more scouring forums to find new stocks that might be good investments); and help you discover stocks that interest or intrigue you. Plus, Origin does all the math to make the investment based on the dollar amount you want to invest (rather than the share quantity), eliminating work for you and streamlining the way to a more diversified portfolio.

Net Worth Tracking

Both Origin and Monarch offer net worth tracking, which auto-updates when you connect your accounts and allows you to track your net worth over time.

Both Origin and Monarch have integrations with Zillow and Coinbase, meaning your net worth truly reflects all of your assets.

Origin also offers equity tracking, if you have ever earned equity as part of your compensation package. Our product also simulates different tax scenarios so that you can make fully informed decisions.

Forecasting

Origin’s forecasting feature acts as your AI financial planner, letting you model out the financial impact of major life changes, like getting a new job, having kids, taking a sabbatical, or retiring. With our forecasting tool you can simulate these scenarios before they happen, combining your personal data with advanced modeling to show exactly how choices affect your future.

Monarch only offers spending forecasting, showing how you might stack up against your budget in the coming months.

Estate Planning

Aside from our team of financial planners, one of the things that really sets Origin above is our commitment to helping users navigate the full range of financial matters life throws at you. To fulfill that promise, we offer estate plans (Trusts and Wills), built with the input and supervision of estate lawyers, to ensure that your family and assets are protected.

Our estate plans are valid in all 50 states. A basic will is included in every membership and, if you have an annual membership, you’ll get 30% off a Trust or Full Will.

Monarch does not offer estate planning.

Tax Filing

Origin partners with Column Tax to allow users to file their state and federal taxes for free every year. After all, when all of your money is already in one streamlined place, why not also file taxes there? Our tax filing system is capable of covering high levels of tax complexity; is backed by our maximum refund guarantee; and gives you access to on-demand tax expert support for free.

Monarch does not have tax functionality.

*******

Fundamentally, Monarch is just budgeting and tracking — Origin is so much more. No other app on the market comes close to our status as the first AI financial advisor with an all-in-one financial platform.

We excel at a few other things too…

Responsiveness

At Origin, iterating on our product regularly is a priority for us. When users request specific functionalities, we deliver — quickly. We also have a product advisory council made up of IRL users that gives feedback on each new functionality. On our active Reddit, Origin staff and Origin members are in regular communication. And when it comes to technical support, our customer care team has a one-minute response time on live chat.

Financial Education + Resources

Our newsletter, The Gist, keeps readers informed about economic conditions and educated about personal finance matters that may impact their bottom line. (You can also sign up for it for free at the footer of our homepage.) We take financial education seriously at Origin, and our Resources tab is home to a host of blog posts breaking down some of the more complex elements of financial planning.