The couples money and wealth management app Plenty is making membership to its newly revamped budgeting tools free for couples who want to manage their finances together.
The service, accessible through a mobile app and a website, previously cost $120 per year. After opening up membership to be free for all users in January, Plenty saw eightfold user growth between early December 2024 and early February 2025, according to a press release. Plenty has 2,500 registered members on its platform, according to a company representative.
"Every household deserves access to tools that empower better financial decisions together," said Plenty co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Emily Luk. "By making our membership free, we're ensuring that everyone, regardless of financial background, has equal access to premium tools to grow wealth."
Other couples money management apps in the market include Honeydue, Monarch Money, Tandem and You Need A Budget. These apps all have monthly or annual subscription-based revenue models. Honeydue does give free access to its budgeting tools but asks users to give an
Plenty is also designed for couples looking for nontraditional ways to consolidate their finances.
"Many other products that market themselves to couples still make the assumption that every single thing is fully joined," Luk said. "We actually build our entire product experience modeling around two individuals who happen to also have a partnership. Plenty's dual dashboard system is built to support the three ways couples commonly view their money together: largely separate, partially together, or mostly together. That's not a capability that is really built into the other products, where they kind of see it as everything is just all together. I think that's now a minority of today's couples."
Without the regular revenue stream of annual subscription fees, Plenty is shifting toward a wealth management business model where the company charges a
"We make money when our members grow wealthier and we're incentivized to help you save and invest more," Luk said.
Changing revenue incentives by shifting toward an investment advisory approach brings Plenty out of the standard subscription-based budgeting app space and into the sphere of digital wealth management providers.
"There are several success stories in the digital wealth management space including Range, Farther Finance, Origin, etc.," according to Cameron Ventures fintech investor Brian Gong. "Wealth management companies find escape velocity faster than subscription-based business models because incentives are aligned with customers (you grow your wealth, we make more money)."
Luk is anticipating that the shift away from subscriptions will drive growth for the platform. Plenty originally
"We actually do expect, because of the larger growth and customer base, that the investment fees will more than make up for the previous subscription fees," Luk said.
Plenty's new AI-enhanced budgeting platform was built within the last month, according to Luk. New features include separate dashboards for collaborative and individual budgets, AI-enhanced automatic transaction categorization and tagging, and custom categories and tags to organize saving and spending around specific goals such as buying a house or planning a vacation. This platform will be free for any user who signs up for Plenty.
Plenty's investment and wealth management services will be a premium feature for users who wish to use them. The investment arm of the company, Plenty Financial RIA LLC, is an SEC-registered investment advisor. Plenty's investments are also SIPC insured and held in accounts at BNY Mellon Pershing, according to Plenty's website.
"We put a lot of work into becoming a registered investment advisor," Luk said. "We also put a lot of thought into what are the best investment and saving products that we can bring to people. As we think about our product roadmap, we also plan to bring additional products that help people save and invest better."
One of the products Plenty is currently developing is a retirement account consolidation service. Luk said that it would have the same 0.20% fee as the investment products and is slated for a summer 2025 release.
The other product currently in development is an expansion of Plenty's wealth management offerings, specifically into alternative investment options. It is targeted for release in the latter half of 2025, according to Luk.
"This will help people who are eligible to earn a potentially higher return than what you might make in the stock market for that product," Luk said. "That is a product that we would charge a higher amount for. We haven't priced it yet — it's usually a pricier product, but higher returns would more than make up for it."
Plenty markets itself as a platform where couples can organize a budget and act on wealth management goals in the same place.
"What we asked when we first designed the experience was, what are the biggest problems that couples have?" Luk said. "And having information is one piece of the puzzle. The other piece is being able to take action on that information. So one of the big differentiators is that not only can you track your money, understand your money all in one place, we also give you the ability to create a goals based savings plan or investing plan with your partner. Whatever you're not spending, you can now save, and you can actually just move it all into one place right then and there. So really being able to take action is a big part of what makes us different."
Plenty's business model largely hinges on bringing in new users with the free budgeting tools and then collecting revenue from managing a couple's investments.
This incentive model could create a potential conflict of interest when serving couples who are looking for a budget tool but not necessarily an investment advisor, according to certified financial planner and Rocket Dollar co-founder Henry Yoshida.
"The subscription model best aligns with the core use case and needs of people who seek out budgeting apps to give a complete picture of personal finances," Yoshida said. "Investment management is a wholly separate part of personal finance for existing assets, while budgeting concentrates on the regular allocation of funds toward future retirement/college savings/home purchase. I think charging an asset-based fee for the wealth management component of an individual's personal finance is fine as a standalone, but it's not the same thing and may present some of the same potential conflicts from an ad-based model."
For example, Yoshida said, in an asset-based wealth management model, a customer could be steered away from accelerated debt repayment of student loans, mortgages and credit cards in favor of allocating more money to investment accounts that would yield higher revenues to the budget app company.
Moving from a subscription-based model to an assets under management, or AUM, model may be unique to the couples' money management space, but the idea Plenty is implementing has seen success in other fintech spheres.
Alexandra Bono, chief executive officer and founder of the education investment fintech Pelican Invests, said that AUM models are an attractive alternative to subscriptions.
"Subscription fatigue is a growing challenge in consumer finance," Bono said. "Many users are hesitant to add another recurring fee to their budget, especially when they don't see immediate value. In contrast, the AUM model aligns more naturally with the 'set it and forget it' mindset, which feels less like an ongoing expense and more like a long-term financial strategy. Subscription-based financial products can also create misalignment for lower and middle-income families, as recurring fees may feel burdensome, especially when cash flow is unpredictable, making an AUM-based model a more accessible and scalable solution."
Successfully scaling AUM models can be difficult, however, according to Primetime Partners senior associate and venture capital investor James Hueston.
"The subscription model is generally better for early growth," Hueston said. "The wealth management business model is stickier and potentially more lucrative in the long run. However, scaling AUM to be high enough that the usually very low management fees are worthwhile can be very challenging.
"If a company is already struggling with growth in their SaaS business, I'd worry if they could truly meaningfully grow AUM faster through wealth management in a very competitive market. Now, if they already have tens of not hundreds of millions of dollars of AUM and are past the initial scaling phase, then switching to an AUM based model might be better," Hueston said.
Luk sees the potential for investments on the Plenty platform to be on "the higher side," due to the attractiveness of the lower fee and the ability for couples to use money they have already budgeted with the free tools Plenty offers.
"They might have already had some money sitting there that they've built up personally, and they move it into this place for the first time," Luk said. "That's a pretty unique dynamic, where Plenty really becomes the home where couples or families are starting to save and invest. We do also have a very low fee for what we offer, and that was one thing that was really important to us to be able to offer and make possible. That attracts people to use the product, because it's a lower fee than what you might get at other platforms."
