Money Manager Ex review

Manage your income and expenditure, track your investments and stay within your budget

TechRadar Verdict

If you can forego the automatic downloading of statements and don’t mind lots of manual data entry, Money Manager Ex is an ideal financial tool.

Pros

  • +

    Great budgeting and cashflow forecasts

  • +

    Cross platform and open source

  • +

    Secure and highly customisable

Cons

  • -

    Doesn’t link to online banking

  • -

    Time-consuming to use

Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

Finance software may not be the most existing type you could install on your computer, but it's certainly one of the most useful. Money Manager Ex aims to be simple enough for just about anyone to use, while being powerful enough to keep demanding users happy.

Money Manager Ex

Where to download: http://www.moneymanagerex.org/

Type: Personal finance

Developer: Money Manager Ex

Operating system: Windows, Mac, Linux, Android

Version: 1.3

If you’ve been using a spreadsheet or other financial program to manage your money until now, Money Manager Ex's import feature will get you up and running fairly quickly, but otherwise you have a lengthier manual task ahead of you.

Despite Money Manager Ex allowing for fairly in-depth analysis of your finances, the interface is approachable, and the program rarely feel intimidating – although at times you may feel as though you're building a database from scratch.

Everything in Money Manager Ex is stored in an SQLite database with AES encryption, meaning it's nice and secure, and the support for a range of currencies is useful for anyone with overseas investments.

It's a shame that Money Manager Ex is an entirely offline application. It would be nice if bank statements could be pulled in automatically, or online payment could be made through the program, but sadly this isn't possible.

As it stands, Money Manager Ex is a wonderful halfway house between managing your money in a simple spreadsheet and going all-out with a fully-fledged finance app.

User experience

To get the most out of Money Manager Ex, it's important to stick with it. Getting the initial database set up, while not particularly difficult, can be time consuming, as is the process of creating all of the categories you need to keep things organised.

Once you have this somewhat arduous task out of the way, it's really just a matter of simple maintenance, and the program provides you with a raft of tool to analyze your spending, make predictions for the future. The reporting on offer is impressive, and the ability to run the program from a USB drive means it's easy to take with you and update your finances from another computer if necessary.

Latest updates

The latest version of Money Manager Ex makes a few minor bug fixes, including resolving an issue that caused the search box to stop working in some circumstances. For a full list of changes, see the Money Manger Ex release notes.

You might also like

Sofia Elizabella Wyciślik-Wilson
Freelance writer

Sofia is a tech journalist who's been writing about software, hardware and the web for nearly 25 years – but still looks as youthful as ever! After years writing for magazines, her life moved online and remains fueled by technology, music and nature.

Having written for websites and magazines since 2000, producing a wide range of reviews, guides, tutorials, brochures, newsletters and more, she continues to write for diverse audiences, from computing newbies to advanced users and business clients. Always willing to try something new, she loves sharing new discoveries with others.

Sofia lives and breathes Windows, Android, iOS, macOS and just about anything with a power button, but her particular areas of interest include security, tweaking and privacy. Her other loves include walking, music, her two Malamutes and, of course, her wife and daughter.

You can find her on Twitter and Mastodon.

Read more
AceMoney Lite
AceMoney Lite finance manager review
HomeBank
HomeBank personal accounting review
Moneydance
Moneydance finance management software review
GnuCash
GnuCash accounting software review
Buddi
Buddi budgeting software review
BankTree
BankTree personal finance review
Latest in Software
A super close up image of the Google Gemini app in the Play Store
It's official: Google Assistant will be retired for phones this year, with Gemini taking over
Super Mario Odyssey
ChatGPT is the ultimate gaming tool - here's 4 ways you can use AI to help with your next playthrough
Apple CEO Tim Cook delivers remarks before the start of an Apple event at Apple headquarters on September 09, 2024 in Cupertino, California. Apple held an event to showcase the new iPhone 16, Airpods and Apple Watch models. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
The big Siri Apple Intelligence delay proves that maybe we really don't know Apple at all
AI writer
Coding AI tells developer to write it himself
Google Messages update
Google Messages could soon follow WhatsApp with an upgrade that makes it much easier to join group chats
Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max REVIEW
Apple Intelligence is a fever dream that I bet Apple wishes we could all forget about
Latest in Reviews
WWE 2K25
I've spent days in the ring with WWE 2K25, and it's like a five-star match ruined by the Million Dollar Man
Curaprox Hydrosonic Pro electric toothbrush
Curaprox Hydrosonic Pro review: A powerful seven-mode, Swiss-made sonic brush
Atelier Yumia
I was already sold on Atelier Yumia as an RPG, but I wasn’t expecting it to have my favorite crafting system in all of gaming
Alienware 27 AW2725Q monitor on desk displaying a scene from Cyberpunk 2077
I played games with Alienware's new 27-inch 4K OLED monitor and now I don't want to see another LCD panel
PLAUD NOTE
I tested this AI voice recorder, and now I'll never take meeting notes manually again
SanDisk Extreme PRO with USB4
Testing the new SanDisk Extreme PRO with USB4 SSD proved both challenging and revealing