FRED Economic Data vs Advanced Budget Tracker
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
FRED Economic Data
Access a vast collection of economic data from numerous sources on the go. Visualize trends with custom graphs and easily share insights. Stay updated with the latest economic news and research.
- Access 149,000+ economic data series
- Browse data by category, source, or popularity
- Create custom data graphs
- Store favorite data series
- Share data series and graphs
- Receive economic news and updates
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Take the economy with you wherever you go. The FRED app gets you the economic data you need— anytime, anywhere. Enjoy full access to nearly 149,000 economic data series from 59 regional, national and international sources. The graphs and supporting data are housed on the St. Louis Fed’s signature database—FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Database). The FRED app is perfect for students, financial market professionals, academics and anyone else interested in economic data. What you can do with this app: •browse for data by category, release, source and popularity or search by keywords or series ID; •view and create custom graphs; •store your favorite data series for quick and easy access; •share your favorite data series or graphs via e-mail or post them directly to your Twitter or Facebook account; •and receive the latest news on new data series , updates, and St. Louis Fed economic research. The app is free to download. If you encounter problems or have suggestions for improving our app, please contact us at webmaster@research.stlouisfed.org.
Advanced Budget Tracker
Manage household finances collaboratively with real-time syncing across devices. Clearly distinguish fixed and variable expenses, track spending against budgets, and set savings goals. Visualize trends and receive smart alerts to prevent overspending.
- Family sync for shared budgets
- Fixed and variable cost tracking
- Customizable spending categories
- Savings and investment goal setting
- Budget spreadsheet overview
- Category trend visualization
- Smart budget alerts
- CSV export
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ADVANCED BUDGET TRACKER is a simple, powerful way for families to manage money together — on your iPhone, iPad, and the web, all perfectly in sync. 100% free. No ads, no subscriptions, no in-app purchases, no premium tier — every feature is included for every family, always. Built for households who want clarity without complexity, ADVANCED BUDGET TRACKER separates your Fixed Costs (rent, insurance, subscriptions) from your Variable Costs (groceries, dining, entertainment), so you always know what’s locked in and what’s flexible each month. KEY FEATURES FAMILY SYNC — One shared budget for your whole household, updated in real time across every device and our companion web app at budgetapp.seedtoinvest.com MULTI-CURRENCY — Choose from 14 currencies (USD, EUR, GBP, JPY, CAD, AUD, CHF, NZD, SGD, HKD, SEK, NOK, DKK, KRW) so the app matches your household’s currency FIXED & VARIABLE COSTS — Fixed costs post automatically each month once you’ve had a chance to set things up; variable costs are tracked with day-of-month pacing so you catch overspending early CUSTOM CATEGORIES — Add, rename, and reorder categories to match how your family actually spends SAVINGS & INVESTMENT GOALS — Set a target amount and date for any category and watch your progress build automatically from your transaction history BUDGET SPREADSHEET — See every category, planned vs. actual, at a glance CATEGORY TREND CHARTS — Visualize how each category has moved month to month over the year SMART ALERTS — Get flagged automatically when a category is pacing over budget CSV EXPORT — Download your transaction history any time PRIVATE & SECURE — Your data is tied to your family account and never shared ADVANCED BUDGET TRACKER is completely free — no ads, no upsells, no catches — created by Seed to Invest, LLC as part of our mission to make personal finance education accessible to everyone. Learn more at seedtoinvest.com.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Advanced Budget Tracker at 5.0 against FRED Economic Data's 3.4. Advanced Budget Tracker also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs every 4 months). FRED Economic Data's advantage is ratings volume (90 vs 1) and iOS requirement (14.0 vs 17.6). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Advanced Budget Tracker holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: FRED Economic Data has 90 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
FRED Economic Data ships an update every 4 months, Advanced Budget Tracker every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 6, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | FRED Economic Data | Advanced Budget Tracker |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.4 (90 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 39.6% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 90 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Every 2 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 — better | 17.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 26 MB | 16 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis | Seed to Invest, LLC (AZ) |
Customer experience
FRED Economic Data
Advanced Budget Tracker
Bugs and requests
FRED Economic Data
Reported bugs
78 issues- App is non-functional
- Graph images are cropped
- Graph images are cropped, only top half visible
- Saving photo only saves top half of graph
- Cannot login with Apple account
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- Cannot remove favorites
- Charts are miniscule and unreadable
- Expanding graph axes go off page
- Graphs are off the screen
- Cannot be viewed properly
- Issues with logging in
- Issues with saving data or comparisons
- Chart is cut off at the bottom
- Doesn’t let you scroll through the graph
- Only see half the charts
- Cannot change settings or parameters in horizontal view
- Select years automatically gives projections instead of actual
- Expanded horizontal view bugged out, did not show half of data
- X axis often isn’t visible
- Bad Request: Account Verification Failed
- Full screen view of saved graphs often glitches and does not show full screen
- Cannot view saved dashboards
- Poor search functionality
- Search bar doesn’t narrow down list
- Doesn’t update
- Doesn’t work
- Search is a disaster
- App runs like it's 2005
- App is buggy
- App is buggy again
- Buggy search
- Charts on iPhone in portrait mode is idiotic
- When rotating phone, chart goes from five-year to max chart
- iPhone keyboard screen covers login page
- Thumbnail charts too small to read
- Cannot be used in landscape mode
- Formatted in a huge image that puts axes off the page
- Still inappropriately formatted in landscape
- Text is almost microscopic in landscape
- Stays in portrait mode on iPad
- iPad Pro charts are clipped
- Cannot zoom on graphs
- Graph scale incorrect to the point of obfuscation
- Cannot share blog posts
- Won’t display in landscape
- No value add over the website
- Crashes when attempting to add new series to a graph
- App crashes sometimes when comparing two graphs
- Navigation path to current page is unknown
- App is very buggy
- App crashed when attempting to add a graph
- New version needs months of testing
- Older version was more stable and reliable
- Can’t navigate because of screen layout
- App is broken
- Cannot launch app on iOS
- Issa broken
- Unusable as of this date
- Won’t launch on iOS 11
- App is broken, but can get past splash screen with workaround
- App is currently totally broken and unusable
- Death upon arrival
- Cannot pass the “New Features” page
- “Get Started” button aligned with home touch button
- App cant load
- Cannot get past the “New Features” screen
- “Get Started” link is outside the usable space
- App freezes
- Fails to load on current iOS and iPhone 8
- Can’t make it past preferences screen
- Screen has a “get started” window over the app that doesn’t allow interaction
- App was useful prior to iPhone X, now broken and useless
- Cannot get past the new features page
- Wouldn’t even start
- App takes forever to load
- App showed splash screen and exited
- Crashed a few times
- App gets crash sometimes
Requested features
12 requests- Include widgets for favorites
- Include all web version edit graph features
- Allow saving and sharing in multiple formats (PDF, Excel)
- View saved dashboards
- Use graphing editor tool
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- Add help section with common definitions
- Allow indexing two datasets for comparison
- Add a button for zero-based Y-axis
- Add URL for series on info page
- Ability to add different series to the same graph
- View data in list form as % change
- More detail in descriptions for each data set
Advanced Budget Tracker
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
FRED Economic Data
No in-app purchases
Advanced Budget Tracker
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is FRED Economic Data free?
Is Advanced Budget Tracker free?
Which has better reviews, FRED Economic Data or Advanced Budget Tracker?
Do FRED Economic Data or Advanced Budget Tracker have ads?
Which is updated more often, FRED Economic Data or Advanced Budget Tracker?
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