Written by the team behind Bucketize, one of the tools below — so this list ranks by fit rather than pretending neutrality, discloses the conflict, and includes the cases where a competitor is the better buy. Prices are from vendor pages or procurement data, and "contact us" is labeled as what it is.
| Tool | Best for | Pricing |
|---|---|---|
| Bucketizeours | Teams where many owners share one budget — companies, agencies, nonprofits | Free to start; paid plans per organization |
| Budgyt | Multi-department P&L budgeting with deep accounting integrations | ~$399–499/month reported entry, per-department, quoted after demo |
| Martus | Nonprofits, churches, and schools on Sage Intacct or Blackbaud | Published: Essentials from $6,650/yr plus $3,500–7,500 implementation |
| PlanGuru | Small businesses and the accountants who advise them | Published tiers from roughly $99/month |
| Vena | Mid-market companies that want budgeting inside a full Excel-native FP&A suite | Quote-only; first years commonly near six figures with implementation (Vendr) |
| Cube | Spreadsheet-first teams adding structure without leaving Excel or Sheets | Published tiers; lower entry than enterprise suites |
| QuickBooks Online (budgets) | Very small teams that just need a budget next to the books | Included with QuickBooks Online plans |
| Anaplan | Enterprises where budgeting is one thread of connected planning | Quote-only; ~$115k/yr median reported (Vendr) |
How this list works: Grouped by who the tool serves best. We included the tools that actually appear in buyer shortlists and review-site categories, kept every description defensible to the vendor's own team, and marked our own entry. Figures marked "reported" come from Vendr transaction data; published prices come from the vendors' pricing pages as of September 2026.
Teams where many owners share one budget — companies, agencies, nonprofits
A budget is a tree of buckets; each department, program, or sub-organization owns a branch, and roll-ups, variance, bills, and accruals are live at every level. Free to start with Excel import, so the evaluation costs nothing. Not the pick if you need deep two-way GL sync today or payroll-driven personnel budgeting. Disclosure: this is our product.
Pricing: Free to start; paid plans per organization
Multi-department P&L budgeting with deep accounting integrations
A mature, well-reviewed (G2 4.8) department-budgeting platform with broad two-way GL sync — QuickBooks, Xero, Sage Intacct, NetSuite — plus payroll budgeting with grant allocation. Priced per department, demo-gated, with setup and training fees; multi-currency and approvals are paid add-ons.
Pricing: ~$399–499/month reported entry, per-department, quoted after demo
Nonprofits, churches, and schools on Sage Intacct or Blackbaud
Vendor-guided budgeting and reporting on top of nonprofit accounting systems, with a real personnel-budgeting module and transaction-level drill-down through the GL. Users are sold in five-packs and implementation is a paid, guided project — the right shape for finance offices that want to be led.
Pricing: Published: Essentials from $6,650/yr plus $3,500–7,500 implementation
Small businesses and the accountants who advise them
Budgeting, forecasting, and analytics aimed squarely at SMBs and advisory accountants, at the lowest published price point in the category. Desktop-era roots show in the interface, but the price-to-capability ratio for a small company is hard to argue with.
Pricing: Published tiers from roughly $99/month
Mid-market companies that want budgeting inside a full Excel-native FP&A suite
Budgeting is one module of a deep platform that also does consolidations, close, and workforce planning. Buy it for the suite, not for budgeting alone — the implementation is consultant-led and the pricing is enterprise.
Pricing: Quote-only; first years commonly near six figures with implementation (Vendr)
Spreadsheet-first teams adding structure without leaving Excel or Sheets
Connects cloud structure to your existing spreadsheets rather than replacing them. A pragmatic middle step for teams whose budget lives in a workbook that mostly works.
Pricing: Published tiers; lower entry than enterprise suites
Very small teams that just need a budget next to the books
If the whole budget is one owner and a dozen lines, the budgeting inside your accounting system may be all you need — and nonprofits get it cheaply through TechSoup. Teams outgrow it the moment several people need to own and edit their own numbers.
Pricing: Included with QuickBooks Online plans
Enterprises where budgeting is one thread of connected planning
The most capable planning platform on this list and the biggest commitment: certified model builders, partner implementations, and six-figure medians. The right call when budgets, supply chain, and workforce plans must live in one governed model.
Pricing: Quote-only; ~$115k/yr median reported (Vendr)
For shared budgets with many owners, Bucketize (our product, free to start). For department P&L budgeting with deep GL sync, Budgyt. For nonprofits on Sage Intacct or Blackbaud, Martus. For small businesses on a budget, PlanGuru. For enterprises planning across functions, Anaplan or Vena. The honest answer depends on how many people need to own a piece of the budget.
Full-featured free tiers are rare in this category. Bucketize is free to start with self-serve signup and Excel import (disclosure: it's ours). QuickBooks Online includes basic budgets with the accounting plan you may already pay for. Most other tools in the category offer demos or trials rather than a free tier.
If you run Sage Intacct or Blackbaud and want a vendor-led rollout, Martus has earned its nonprofit base. If program owners should manage their own budgets directly and you want to start free, Bucketize models programs and grants as tree branches with per-owner delegation. Very small nonprofits often start with QuickBooks via TechSoup and move up when several people need to edit the budget.
Everyone who owns a number. The category's quiet failure mode is buying a tool only the finance team logs into, then re-collecting everyone else's numbers by spreadsheet anyway. Check each tool's seat model: some price per user or in user packs, some cap editors by tier, and some (including ours) let every budget owner work in the tool without seat counting.
Bucketize is free to start — import your budget and judge it with your own numbers before any sales conversation.