Saving for college is difficult, especially in today’s world. Add the rising college costs to the mix and your family finds it hard to save enough money to pay for college. It can be done, but it requires a commitment and the tools to make it happen.

First, there’s the question of “How much do you need to save for college?” SavingforCollege.com provides an informative infographic walking your through the planning stage step-by-step. It might be shocking for some parents, but knowing what you need can help you plan.

Following are 7 college savings apps that can help you plan for the future:

1. College Save

If you have a smartphone or tablet, you now have a unique way to reach and teach your kids about the basics of saving for college. Small Steps, Big Dreams is a series of fun, interactive games and financial lessons designed to engage your kids and inspire them to be money-smart. The Small Steps, Big Dreams program is made up of three mobile applications for specific age rangers and is designed to make the overwhelming concept of saving for higher education manageable.

2. UPromise

Over a decade ago, Upromise was launched based on the philosophy that everyone should be able to afford a college education. Today, with millions of members, Upromise is helping make that a reality for many Americans. Memberscreate a college savings service that harnesses the purchasing power of parents, extended family, family, and students to make it easier to pay for college. They direct their spending to Upromise partners—including more than 950 online stores, 10,000+ restaurants, grocery and drugstore items—and earn money for college. Thus far, members have earned $850,000,000 and counting for college with their everyday spending

3. College Savings App

With the TIAA-CREF College Savings Planner, you can keep track of your college savings goals wherever you are. Use the College Savings Planner to model your college funding goals and how you plan to help meet them. With the College Savings Planner you can explore: where you are now with college savings; your projected college savings; how much college could cost in your timeframe; what you’ll probably need to invest to meet college costs; and setting a realistic, achievable action plan

4. collegeFund

Planning college savings is not an easy job. Many factors come into play: such as the cost of college education (tuition, room and board, other mandatory fees, books and computers), the award of scholarships, the financial aid, and so on. CollegeFund app is trying to help the parents (sometimes grandparents, and/or other family members if they are willing to chip in) to plan their kids’ college savings account. Given a set of input: current annual college cost, current savings, how much you plan to save annually, your kid’s current age, the age starting college, the age of graduating, the calculator will return how much the annual income you can expect from the college saving account vs. the future annual college cost (Coverage Ratio), and how much you have saved toward achieving the goal (Saving progress).

5. CollegeSavings

College Savings is an innovative App, which visually shows the projected cost of college in the future. College Savings illustrated the future value of savings using the current lump sum and monthly savings plan. College Savings shows the potential shortfall amount needed to cover the total cost of college. In addition it also illustrates any surplus amount remaining after covering the future cost of college. By adjusting the input, you can estimate the amount of lump sum and regular monthly savings that is required to cover the costs of your desired college.

6. College Saving Wiz

The COLLEGE SAVING WIZ app will help you with SETTING GOALS for college attendance; CALCULATING the estimated costs with inflation; CALCULATING monthly/yearly savings needs; and TIPS on ways to save and cut costs! Don’t worry if you don’t know the actual tuition costs or even the college your child may attend. Our app provides convenient average costs for you to use based on the College Board annual survey of college pricing for tuition/fees, room/board, books/supplies, transportation and expenses for Public in-state, Public out-of-state and Private Colleges. You just input some basic information and COLLEGE SAVING WIZ will calculate the goal amount you must save each period, adjusting for inflation.

7. Saving4College

With the TIAA-CREF Saving4College Savings Planner, you can keep track of your college savings goals wherever you are. Use the Saving4College Savings Planner to model your college funding goals and how you plan to help meet them.With the Saving4College Savings Planner you can explore: where you are now with college savings; your projected college ; how much college could cost in your timeframe; what you’ll probably need to invest to meet college costs; and setting a realistic, achievable action plan.