Most budgeting apps will tell you how much you spent on restaurants last month. Very few will tell you how much of your income you actually kept.

That’s a problem, because your savings rate — the percentage of your income you save — is the single most important number in your financial life. It determines how fast you build wealth. It predicts how many years until you’re financially independent. It’s a more honest picture of your financial health than any category breakdown.

And yet, almost no budgeting app treats it that way.

Why savings rate is the number that matters

Your savings rate tells you something your budget categories can’t: whether your financial life is moving forward.

You can have a perfectly categorized budget — every coffee logged, every Amazon purchase filed — and still be saving nothing. Category-level tracking is useful, but it’s a rearview mirror. Savings rate is your speedometer.

For context:

• A 10% savings rate means roughly 40+ years to financial independence
• A 25% savings rate drops that to around 32 years
• A 50% savings rate gets you there in under 17 years

Those differences are enormous. And yet most apps will happily help you track your latte spending without ever surfacing this number.

What to look for in a budgeting app for savings rate

Before getting to specific apps, here’s what actually matters:

Is savings rate visible on the main dashboard? Not buried in a reports tab — front and center, where you see it every time you open the app.

Does it account for all your savings? Your 401(k) contributions, employer match, HSA contributions, and automatic transfers out of your paycheck are real savings. Most apps either ignore these entirely or require awkward workarounds to track them.

Does it help you set a savings rate target? Seeing your current rate is useful. Being able to compare it against a goal is what drives behavior.

Does it work with manual entry? Automatic import from banks sounds convenient, but it often misses transfers, creates duplicate transactions, and requires ongoing maintenance. For savings rate tracking specifically — where one misclassified transfer can throw your numbers off completely — manual entry gives you more control.

How the major apps handle savings rate

The table isn’t cherry-picked. None of the major budgeting apps surface savings rate as a primary metric. It’s genuinely a gap in the market — and the reason Vermillion was built.

The off-budget savings problem

Here’s something that trips up almost every budgeting app user who cares about savings rate: automatic savings that never touch your checking account don’t show up.

If your 401(k) contribution comes out of your paycheck before it hits your bank, it’s invisible to your budgeting app. Same with your employer match. Same with HSA contributions. Same with automatic transfers on the day you get paid.

These aren’t edge cases — for most people with employer benefits, they represent a huge portion of actual savings.

Vermillion calls these “off-budget savings” and tracks them explicitly. You log them manually (just once per paycheck), and they’re included in your savings rate calculation alongside everything else. It’s the only app in this category that handles this correctly.

What Vermillion does differently

Vermillion was built around a single idea: your savings rate should be the number you see every time you open your budget.

A few things that follow from that:

Savings rate is the dashboard headline. Not your account balances. Not your spending by category. Your savings rate — what percentage of your income you kept this month.

Off-budget savings are first-class citizens. 401(k) contributions, employer matches, HSA contributions, automatic paycheck transfers — you log them, they count. Your savings rate reflects your actual financial picture, not just what flows through your checking account.

Zero-based budgeting, allocation-first. Every dollar gets a job before the month starts. You’re not just reviewing what happened — you’re deciding what will happen.

Manual-first tracking. Not because automation is bad, but because the act of logging a transaction creates awareness that automatic import doesn’t. After a few months of manually entering every transaction, you start to change behavior — not because you’re being told to, but because you can’t ignore the numbers.

Lower price than every major competitor. YNAB, Monarch, and EveryDollar all charge $14–18/month. Vermillion costs less.

Is Vermillion right for you?

Vermillion is a strong fit if:

• You care about your savings rate and want to see it prominently
• You have 401(k), HSA, or other payroll savings you want to include
• You’re comfortable with (or curious about) manual transaction entry
• You want zero-based budgeting without paying YNAB prices

It may not be the best fit if:

• You just want to see transactions flow in, not thoughtfully direct your dollars where they need to go
• You’re primarily looking for investment tracking and net worth management

Try it free

Vermillion has a 30-day free trial — no credit card required. If tracking your savings rate is something you’ve been wanting to do properly, it’s worth spending a few days with it.

Start your free trial →

Have questions about how savings rate tracking works in Vermillion? I answer these in the comments or over on TikTok and Instagram where I post daily budgeting content.