Short answer: the three best budgeting apps backed by a real Google Sheet are Okane (mobile-first, envelope budgeting, free), Tiller ($79/year, transaction syncing into a sheet you design), and Aspire Budget (free, template-only, no app). Pick Okane if you want envelope budgeting with a phone app and a free tier. Pick Tiller if you want hands-on spreadsheet control plus automatic bank import. Pick Aspire if you live in spreadsheets and don’t need anything else.
If you’ve ever budgeted in Google Sheets, you know the appeal. The spreadsheet is yours. You can fork it, share it, build pivot tables on it, leave it open while you work. The catch is that pure-spreadsheet budgeting falls apart on your phone, and no one wants to type a $4 coffee into row 217 at the register.
The three apps below try to fix that, in different ways.
1. Okane — Envelope Budgeting on Top of a Google Sheet
Price: Free / $5/mo Premium Platforms: Android, iOS Spreadsheet model: Okane copies a template into your Drive on signup. The Sheet is the database — the app reads and writes it.
Okane’s pitch is that the Sheet isn’t a backup or an export. It’s the actual source of truth. Open it in Google Sheets and you see every transaction, every category, every assignment. Edit it there and the changes flow back into the app.
What you get:
- Unlimited envelopes on the free tier (no Goodbudget-style cap)
- Real envelope/zero-based budgeting, not just category tracking
- Couples sharing for free — share the Sheet with your partner, both of you use the app
- Plaid bank sync and on-device AI categorization on the $5/mo Premium tier
Where it falls short: there’s no web app. If you want to budget on a laptop instead of a phone, you’d open the Sheet directly. That’s enough for some people and a dealbreaker for others.
2. Tiller — Spreadsheet-First, Bring Your Own Template
Price: $79/year (free 30-day trial) Platforms: Web (it’s all a Sheet) Spreadsheet model: Tiller imports your bank transactions into a Google Sheet you control. They publish a library of templates; you can also build your own.
Tiller is the right choice if you want to live in a spreadsheet. It’s basically a Plaid pipeline that drops your transactions into a Sheet, and then you do whatever you want with them. Power users build elaborate dashboards. Casual users use Tiller’s prebuilt templates.
The downside: there’s no real mobile experience. Tiller’s app is mostly a viewer. Adding a transaction on your phone is awkward compared to a native app. And $79/year is real money for a service that’s effectively a transaction importer.
3. Aspire Budget — Free Template, No App
Price: Free Platforms: Google Sheets only Spreadsheet model: Download the Aspire template, copy it to your Drive, enter transactions manually.
Aspire is a Google Sheets template, not a service. There’s no automation, no app, no bank sync. It’s a beautifully designed envelope budget that lives entirely in Sheets. If you’re already a spreadsheet person and you don’t want anything to talk to your bank, Aspire is excellent and costs nothing.
The downside is the obvious one: no app and no automation means you’re doing all data entry manually. Some people prefer that level of awareness. Most don’t sustain it.
Quick comparison
| Okane | Tiller | Aspire | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free / $60/yr | $79/yr | Free |
| Mobile app | ✅ | Limited | ❌ |
| Bank sync | Premium (Plaid) | ✅ (Plaid) | ❌ |
| Envelope method | ✅ | DIY in template | ✅ |
| Couples sharing | ✅ free | Shareable Sheet | Shareable Sheet |
| Best for | Phone-first envelope budgeters | Spreadsheet power users | Manual-entry purists |
Which should you actually pick?
If you want envelope budgeting and you mostly track from your phone, Okane. If you want full control of your spreadsheet layout and you don’t mind paying $79 for the bank sync, Tiller. If you’re a spreadsheet purist who wants zero automation, Aspire.
The thing all three have in common — and the reason any of them is worth using — is that your data is in a Google Sheet you own. If the company disappears tomorrow, you still have your budget. That’s the whole point.
Okane is the budgeting app I built. It’s free on iOS and Android, and your budget lives in a Google Sheet you own.