What Prism did, and why its users are still looking
Prism was a free app that pulled bills straight from your billers (the electric company, the card issuer, the phone carrier), showed every due date in one list and let you pay them from your bank account. It shut down in February 2024. Every bill its users tracked had to be re-entered somewhere else, and searches for "Prism bill pay" and "Prism bill tracker" are still running because people never found a like-for-like replacement.
The honest reason: the "pay from one app" half of Prism was expensive to run, and nobody offers it free any more. The tracking half is easy to replace, and it's the part that stops late fees. So the useful question is which kind of tracker suits you, and where your payments should live instead.
The options at a glance
Features and plans change often, and some apps differ by country: confirm the details on each app's own store listing before you subscribe.
1. Bill Organizer: private, free, on every device
Bill Organizer (on the App Store as "Smart Bill Organizer & Tracker", on Google Play as "Monthly Bill Tracker & Planner") is ours, so weigh this accordingly. It tracks bills you type in once: name, amount, due date and how it repeats. It reminds you the day of, 1, 3 or 7 days before, shows what's due this week and what's left to pay this month, and rolls repeating bills forward when you mark them paid. There's no account and no bank login. The same list works in the online bill tracker on a computer, and 57 calculators are built in.
Good for: people who left Prism because they didn't want a bank connection anyway, families sharing one list on a computer, anyone who wants it free. Not for: paying bills inside the app. The app is free with ads, and everything free stays free. Optional Bill Organizer Pro removes ads and adds all themes, the "Due this week" home-screen widget, full backup & restore, CSV export, up to 3 reminders per bill, spending insights: try it free for 7 days, then $2.99 a month or $14.99 a year, or pay $24.99 once for lifetime Pro (US prices).
2. Rocket Money: if you want everything pulled in automatically
Rocket Money links your bank and card accounts, finds recurring charges and subscriptions on its own, and shows upcoming bills from your transaction history. Its premium tier adds features such as subscription cancellation help, and it offers a bill negotiation service that keeps a share of what it saves you. Good for: people who are comfortable linking accounts and want subscriptions found for them. Watch for:bank connections that drop and need re-linking, and the negotiation fee.
3. Chronicle: a polished manual tracker for Apple devices
Chronicle is a bill organizer for iPhone, iPad and Mac. Like Bill Organizer it works from bills you enter, with reminders and a clean timeline. The free tier is limited; a subscription unlocks the rest. Good for: Apple-only households who like a native Mac app. Not for:Android or Windows users.
4. TimelyBills: reminders plus a budget
TimelyBills combines bill reminders with budgeting and optional bank sync, on iPhone, Android and the web, with a premium plan for the extras. Good for: people who want a light budget next to their bills. Watch for: a busier interface than a pure bill tracker.
5 and 6. Monarch Money and YNAB: full budgeting apps
Both are complete budgeting systems rather than bill trackers. They track every transaction, plan spending by category and show upcoming bills as part of the budget. Both are paid after a free trial. Good for: people ready to budget every dollar. Overkill for:people who only need to stop missing due dates.
7 and 8. The "pay" half: your bank's bill pay, or doxo
Prism's pay button is the hardest part to replace. The closest free option is the bill pay in your own bank's app: add each biller once, then schedule one-off or repeating payments. Paying straight from the biller's site with autopay works too. doxo pays many billers from one app, but some payment methods carry a fee, so read its pricing before you move every bill to it.
How to move from Prism to a new tracker in 20 minutes
- List every bill. Prism's list is gone, so rebuild it from two months of bank and card statements. The list of monthly bills is a checklist of the categories people forget.
- Add them to one tracker with amount, due date and repeat. In Bill Organizer, 38 common bills are one tap each.
- Decide how each bill gets paid: autopay for fixed bills (rent, loans, insurance), a reminder plus a manual payment for bills that change (electric, cards).
- Set reminders 1–3 days before each due date, so there's time to move money if needed.
- Check it once a week. The bill payment checklist is a five-minute routine for that.
The best bill tracker app for you: which one to pick
- You want it free and private: Bill Organizer, or a bill tracker spreadsheet if you live in Excel.
- You want accounts linked and subscriptions found for you: Rocket Money.
- You're all-Apple and want a Mac app: Chronicle.
- You want a full budget: YNAB or Monarch Money.
- You mainly miss Prism's pay button: your bank's bill pay, plus any tracker for reminders.
Still deciding between an app, a spreadsheet and paper? This comparison walks through each, and the bill management app guide lists the features worth paying for.
