I have potentially 15 years to retirement so I am in that frantic stage when I fear I might not have enough. To that end I intend to switch from a passive miser wrt spending to an active planner with expenses and incomes.
I also have a different timescale for income vs outgoings. I use DDs a lot so I have a fixed day for outgoings (different for different things due to various reasons related to the company it is going to and their systems or the time of the month it got set up). My work income is not on a monthly basis. So it leads to periods where I get surprised by just how much as accumulated in my current account, then I get a shock when it suddenly drops as I have two outgoing dates in one income period. Thia I have covered in the beginnings of a spreadsheet but TBH I haven't found a satisfactory way to account for the income vs outgoings mismatch yet.
So I have found a few apps that are UK based and use the open banking standards. This means they match and in some cases passes the security standards of your online banking app. Also they are covered by the banking regulations to some degree. One actually is covered by your bank's cover IIRC in that if a data breach somehow causes the money to go out of your account then the bank's fraud cover comes into play. Either way the FCA has control over them regulation wise. Also, the way they handle separation of identification details and financial details. Plus the way they are read only not read write. As in cannot change the account balance say through sending money somewhere, unless you agree to it and they only deal with recognised 3rd parties where your money could go to. Those are the ones who take on the risk just like you would find if say an insurance company's data got hacked and you lost money somehow that way. In fact 3rd party companies who contact you via your permission on the apps are probably the types of companies you would find for yourselves anduse for yourselves too.
Snoop is more about finding ways to reduce costs and without going to full premium option you cannot really do anything with the pay timescale side. It does have the best features to reduce expenditure though. Also it does not have the ability to change the timescale of pay and hence the monitoring and budgeting cycle timescale.
Emma is better at customising a categorising your transactions in the banks and other financial accounts. That is if you pay for it. So it seems to use the app for my needs I would need £5.99 in subscriptions a month or about 75% if the total monthly subsciptions per year if I pay one yearly fee. Might be worth it IF it gives me a better level of financial control. I feel I can put more into higher interest rate accounts and perhaps increase AVCs on my company pension. I do not have the level of control to feel comfortable with the income vs outgoings timescales without something to see the whole picture. For example I could easily end up making more than the subscription in a year from making the money work harder. I could also save a lot more on outgoings when I know more about where it is all going. Spreadsheets can do that but I never had the time or patience to fully realise the control (lunar versus calendar timescales and other reasons).
Then there is the old Moneyhub app which is now part of WPS but using Moneyhub workings (with recent additions that improves the service apparenyly). This is a full service financial app which charges IIRC £1.49 per month flat rate (or save paying annually) after a trial period of course. This offers the full analysis of the other two and covers every financial accout you could have (pensions, shares, bank current / savings, ISAs, LISAs, etc. Plus you can deal in shares through it (or at least buy them regularly through it). It also offers access to WPS's financial advisors and services. So you can use their comparison services (to get exclusive deals too apparently although too cynical to fall for that) and their financial advice services. Supposed to have a good rep too.
I think I will try the Emma app free trial and the snoop free trial. IF I find Emma is useful I think I may go to a monthly subscription and annual one to save money after I have a better feel for how I use it and keep up that habit. On top of this I will use the basic Snoop app for free. Emma has too many restrictions to use their free version but I need the higher one anyway or not bother. Snoop has a much better free version that will do enought of what that app does best (better than the others), which is to reduce costs through helping you find better alternatives. or to find where you can get the biggest saving for the least pain (cost cutting that is). The premium just gives a slightly less effective version of the premium Emma which costs the same. So perhaps pay for Emma and then free Snoop. Obviously stopping one or both if I do not see a benefit from it.
It seems there are options out there IF you need to see it all in one place, but none of them is best in all aspects so you have to compromise on one feature set over another. The key thing is it is at least as safe as having individual banking apps or online portal accounts. It is also a lot better at analysis than most people can manage with a home written excel spreadsheet. I don't have the patience to do a spreadsheet that will do what i want / need. At least not to my satisfaction. My partner has one for our joint household expenses and one for her own. It is one of her hobbies to check on her numerous bank accounts!! I cannot understand that personally. I must admit I do have a thing for analysis apps anyway. Beats designing a spreadsheet from scratch to get to the same point or not even close to it, IMHO of course. I do think some people find creating a good spreadsheet as good as a hobby!!