EMOH Pay vs Lunch Money

Is the Lunch Money app good for Canadians?

Yes, Lunch Money is a solid choice for many Canadians. It describes itself as Canadian-built, offers pricing in Canadian dollars, syncs major Canadian institutions through Plaid and handles CAD and USD side by side. It works best for people who enjoy a detailed, desktop-style budgeting workflow and are happy to pay after the 30-day trial.

Its strengths are flexibility and reach. You can set custom budgeting periods such as weekly or bi-weekly, create unlimited categories, build rules that categorize transactions automatically, track recurring expenses on a calendar and run your own queries on spending. Bank sync also covers the US and a dozen European countries, which helps people who hold accounts abroad.

The trade-off is that Lunch Money is web-first by design. New features arrive on the web before the mobile companion app, so if you mainly budget on your phone, test the app during the trial.

Bank sync and multi-currency compared

Both apps use Plaid for read-only bank connections. Lunch Money syncs balances and transactions for chequing, savings and credit card accounts, and balances for lines of credit, loans and investments, in Canada, the US and 12 European countries. EMOH Pay syncs Canadian banks free on every plan; our guide to budgeting apps with bank sync explains how the connection works.

For currencies, Lunch Money supports 160+ and stores the exchange rate for each transaction date. EMOH Pay supports 148 with automatic conversion into your home currency, which covers the CAD, USD and remittance currencies most Canadian households use. Our multi-currency budget app page shows how that works day to day.

If you hold bank accounts in Europe or the US and want them all to sync automatically, Lunch Money has the wider reach. If your accounts are in Canada, both apps cover you.

Which should you choose?

• Choose EMOH Pay if you want a free plan, budget mostly on your phone, share a budget with family, track GST/HST or want receipts, bill tracking and Ask AI in one app.
• Choose Lunch Money if you prefer budgeting on a large screen, want rules, custom periods and a developer API, need bank sync outside Canada or track crypto alongside your accounts.
• Looking for a Lunch Money alternative? EMOH Pay is free to start, so you can run it alongside your trial and compare.

1. List every account you use, including credit cards and any US dollar or foreign accounts.
2. Install EMOH Pay free on iPhone, Android or the web, and start a Lunch Money trial if you are curious.
3. Track the same month of spending in both and set a budget for your two biggest categories.
4. After four weeks, keep the app that gave you an accurate picture with the least effort.