A money saving app does one of four jobs. It finds charges you forgot you were paying, moves small amounts into savings before you can spend them, pays you back for shopping you already do, or covers a short week so you skip an overdraft. Most are free. The paid ones start at about $3 a month, so each one has to save you more than it costs.
Three questions sort them fast. Where does your money leak: subscriptions and bills, everyday spending, or never getting around to saving? Will you pay a monthly price for a tool, or does it have to be free? And do you want the app to move money for you, or just show you the numbers? Tap the line that sounds like you.
The prices, offers and limits in the 15 write-ups below were read on each app’s own site, help center, sign-up page or app store listing. Where a company does not publish a number, we say so instead of guessing.
Apps that find money in your budget
Start here if you are not sure where your money goes. These four connect to your accounts and show you the leaks. One of them will also cancel the subscriptions it finds.
1. Rocket Money
Best for finding subscriptions you forgot
A quick way to see what you are wasting.
Rocket Money finds your subscriptions and puts every recurring charge in one list. The free plan covers subscription tracking, budgeting and bill reminders. Premium adds the part most people want: it cancels subscriptions for you.
Upgrade only if you want it to cancel things for you.
2. Monarch Money
Best for a full budget you will stick with
A full budget app, if you will pay for one.
Monarch Money builds a budget that fits how you really spend, turns it into reports you can read at a glance and tracks your savings and debt goals. There is no free plan, only a 7-day trial. The prices here are for Core, its standard plan.
Use code MONARCHVIP on the annual Core plan to pay $49.99 for the first year.
3. Simplifi by Quicken
Best for knowing what is safe to spend
A cheaper budget that looks ahead.
Simplifi by Quicken gives you a spending plan that adapts as you spend, so you see what is safe to spend for the rest of the month instead of a list of what is already gone. It also tracks investments and projects your cash flow.
You are not charged until the trial ends.
4. Empower
Best free tool for net worth and retirement
Free, and best once you have some savings.
Empower is a free dashboard for budgeting, cash flow and net worth, with a Retirement Planner that scores how ready you are and lets you run different scenarios. The link opens the sign-up for the free planner.
Sign-up takes a name, email and mobile number.
Apps that save money automatically
If the problem is that you never move money to savings, let an app do it. These two take small amounts on a schedule you set once. Both charge a monthly price, so check the math in each card.
5. Acorns
Best for saving without thinking about it
Saving you never have to remember.
Acorns rounds up your everyday purchases and invests the spare change in a diversified portfolio picked for you. Set a recurring investment of $5 or more a day, week or month and it runs on its own. Open an account through this link and you get a $20 bonus after your first recurring investment goes through.
The $20 bonus comes after your first successful recurring investment.
6. Qapital
Best for saving toward a specific goal
Good at goals, but you pay to save.
Qapital is built around set-and-forget saving. You pick what you are saving for and it moves money toward it automatically, on your own or with a partner. Every plan costs money after the 30-day trial, so it has to save you more than $36 a year to be worth it.
Our review covers what each plan includes and how to cancel.
Cash back apps that pay you for spending you already do
These six cost nothing. Two pay cash back when you buy gas, groceries or things online, two pay points for surveys, one pays points for your receipts, and one tries coupon codes for you at checkout. None will change your budget on its own. Together they take the edge off bills you were paying anyway.
7. Upside
Best for cash back on gas and groceries
Money back on gas you were buying anyway.
Upside pays cash back when you buy gas, groceries or a meal at a participating location. You claim an offer in the app before you pay, pay with your usual card and the cash back lands in your account. It stacks on top of credit card and fuel rewards.
Cash out to your bank account, PayPal or a gift card.
8. Rakuten
Best for cash back on online shopping
Turn it on once and forget it.
Rakuten gives you a percentage back when you start a purchase through it at more than 3,500 stores. Rakuten says it has paid members more than $4.6 billion in cash back since 1999.
Make $50 in qualifying purchases through Rakuten in your first 90 days to earn the $50 bonus.
9. Swagbucks
Best for earning gift cards in spare minutes
Slow, but it pays for time you were wasting.
Swagbucks pays points for taking surveys. You tell it about yourself, it invites you to surveys that fit, and you trade the points for gift cards. It is less a savings tool than a way to cover small purchases without touching your budget.
Free to join, and you choose which surveys to take.
10. Fetch
Best for turning receipts into gift cards
A few seconds per receipt.
Fetch gives you points for snapping a photo of your receipts, and you trade the points for gift cards. It works on purchases you are already making, so there is nothing to change about how you shop.
Free to download.
11. MyPoints
Best for a quick first reward
The same idea, with a faster start.
MyPoints pays points for surveys, shopping, watching videos and reading emails. New members earn $5 for taking five surveys, and shopping through it earns up to 25 points per dollar at top retailers.
Free to join.
12. Capital One Shopping
Best for automatic coupon codes
Install it and it works in the background.
Capital One Shopping is a free browser tool that applies coupon codes at checkout for you and tells you when the price drops on something you viewed or bought.
Our review covers what it tracks and the alternatives.
Apps that cover a short week
These two are not savings apps. They advance part of your next paycheck with no interest, which can cost less than an overdraft or a payday loan. Use them for a gap, not as a habit, and take the free delivery whenever you can wait.
13. MoneyLion
Best no-interest advance when you are short
Cheaper than an overdraft, if you can wait.
MoneyLion offers Instacash, an advance of up to $500 with no interest, no credit check and no monthly fee. You find out how much you can get when you apply.
MoneyLion tells you how much you can get when you apply.
14. Cleo
Best for a budget you can chat with
A budgeting chatbot with a cash advance attached.
Cleo is an AI money app with personalized budgeting and automatic savings, and its plans include a cash advance with no interest and no credit check. You check what you qualify for with Cleo, on its site or in its app.
Advance amounts depend on your income and are subject to eligibility.
Where to keep the money you save
Every dollar an app frees up needs somewhere to sit, and checking is the wrong place because money in checking gets spent. A separate account that pays interest does two jobs at once.
15. SoFi Checking and Savings
Checking and savings in one app
One home for the money your other apps free up.
SoFi pairs a checking account with a savings account in one app. SoFi lists its current new-account bonus, and how to qualify for it, on its own page.
Bonus terms are set by SoFi and can change.
Want only a savings account? Compare current rates and bonuses in our list of the best high-yield savings accounts.
Compare the 15 money saving apps
Tap a name to jump to the full write-up. Cost is what you pay the app, not what it saves you.
| App | Best for | Cost | Sign-up offer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rocket Money | Finding forgotten subscriptions | $0. Premium is pay what you choose | 7-day Premium trial |
| Monarch Money | A full budget | Core plan: $99.99 a year or $14.99 a month | $49.99 first year with code MONARCHVIP |
| Simplifi | Knowing what is safe to spend | $3.49 a month promotional first-year price, billed annually. $6.99 regular | 7-day free trial |
| Empower | Net worth and retirement | $0 | None |
| Acorns | Saving automatically | $4 to $12 a month | $20 bonus |
| Qapital | Saving toward a goal | $3 to $12 a month | 30-day free trial |
| Upside | Gas and groceries | $0 | Up to 25 cents a gallon on your first fill-up |
| Rakuten | Online shopping | $0 | $50 after $50 in qualifying purchases through Rakuten |
| Swagbucks | Gift cards for surveys | $0 | $10 after a single eligible $25 purchase through Swagbucks |
| Fetch | Receipts | $0 | None on its site |
| MyPoints | A quick first reward | $0 | $5 for taking 5 surveys |
| Capital One Shopping | Coupon codes | $0 | None |
| MoneyLion | A no-interest advance | $0 a month. Fast delivery costs extra | No sign-up bonus. Advance limit of up to $500, which you repay |
| Cleo | Chat-style budgeting | $5.99 to $14.99 a month | No sign-up bonus. Advance limit of $20 to $250, which you repay |
| SoFi | Checking and savings | See SoFi’s site | See SoFi’s page for its current bonus |
What money saving apps cost
Free apps only have to be worth your time. Paid apps have to beat their own price, and a monthly price looks smaller than it is. Here is each paid plan on this page as a yearly number.
| Plan | Per month | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| Acorns Bronze | $4 | $48 |
| Acorns Silver | $8 | $96 |
| Acorns Gold | $12 | $144 |
| Qapital Basic | $3 | $36 |
| Qapital Complete | $8 | $96 |
| Qapital Premier | $12 | $144 |
| Monarch Money Core, monthly plan | $14.99 | $179.88 |
| Monarch Money Core, annual plan | Billed yearly | $99.99 ($49.99 the first year with code MONARCHVIP) |
| Monarch Money Plus, annual plan | Billed yearly | $199.99 |
| Cleo Plus | $5.99 | $71.88 |
| Cleo Pro | $8.99 | $107.88 |
| Cleo Builder | $14.99 | $179.88 |
| Rocket Money Premium | $2.99 to $11.99, the prices on its App Store listing | $35.88 to $143.88 if billed every month |
| Rocket Money Premium+ | $15 plus tax | $180 plus tax |
| Simplifi, promotional first year | $3.49 | About $41.88, billed once. Quicken says the final price can differ |
| Simplifi, regular price | $6.99 | About $83.88, billed once a year |
The test is simple. A $4 a month app costs $48 a year, so it has to save or earn you more than $48. On a $500 balance that is 9.6% of your money. On $5,000 it is 0.96%. The smaller your balance, the more a flat price hurts, which is why a free tool is the right first app for most people.
More money apps worth knowing
These are not savings apps, but they help with the bigger picture: your credit, your debt and your investments.
| App | What it is | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| Credit Karma | Credit scores and reports | Free credit scores and credit reports, so you can see what a lender sees before you apply for anything. |
| Credit Sesame | Credit score | Shows your credit score right away and refreshes it daily for free. Read our Credit Sesame review. |
| Robinhood | Stock trading app | Join through an invite link, link your bank and you get a stock reward worth $5 to $200. Nearly everyone gets $5. See how the free stock works or our Robinhood review. |
| SoFi Invest | Investing app | SoFi says Active Investing starts at $5. |
| Fidelity | Full brokerage | $0 commissions for online U.S. stock and ETF trades, and no minimum to open an account. |
| SoFi personal loans | Debt consolidation | If card interest is eating what you save, one fixed loan can replace several card balances. Current rates and terms are on SoFi’s page. |
| SoFi student loan refinancing | Student loans | Refinancing can change your rate or your term. Check SoFi’s page for what it offers now. |
For the full lists, see the best investment apps and the best debt payoff apps.
Before you link your bank account
An app is not a bank. The FDIC says it plainly: nonbank companies are never FDIC-insured themselves. Your money is only eligible for coverage once the company deposits it in an FDIC-insured bank and other conditions are met, and that coverage protects you if the bank fails, not if the app company does.
So before you keep real money in any app, find the name of the bank behind it and look that bank up in the FDIC’s BankFind tool. Two examples from this page: Acorns says its checking accounts are FDIC-insured up to $250,000 through Lincoln Savings Bank or nbkc bank and that securities in its investment accounts are protected up to $500,000 by SIPC. Cleo says it is a financial technology company, not a bank, with banking services provided by Thread Bank, Member FDIC.
Neither kind of protection covers an investment that goes down in value. Money you need for rent or groceries this month belongs in an insured bank account, not in an investing app.
How we chose these apps
We started with the apps this page already recommended and checked each one on its own site. Apps that have shut down or that we could not verify came off the list. For the rest, we read the price, the sign-up offer and the main limits on the company’s own pricing page, help center, sign-up page or app store listing.
The groups follow the job each app does, because that is how you should pick one. Inside each group, the app that fits the most people comes first. Every yearly cost and example on this page is arithmetic you can check.
Money saving apps FAQ
It depends on where your money leaks. If it is subscriptions and bills, start with Rocket Money, because the free plan lists every recurring charge it finds. If you never get around to saving, Acorns rounds up your purchases and invests the change, from $4 a month. If you just want money back on gas and groceries, Upside is free. Pick the one that matches your biggest leak before you add a second.
Most cash back apps are. Upside, Rakuten, Swagbucks, Fetch, MyPoints and Capital One Shopping cost nothing, and Rocket Money and Empower have free versions. The ones that charge are Acorns ($4 to $12 a month), Qapital ($3 to $12 a month), Cleo ($5.99 to $14.99 a month), Simplifi ($3.49 a month as a promotional first-year price, $6.99 regular) and Monarch Money (its Core plan is $99.99 a year). A paid app is worth it only if it saves you more than it costs in a year.
Acorns does it with Round-Ups: each purchase is rounded up and the spare change is invested, and you can add a recurring investment from $5. Qapital moves money toward a goal automatically, from $3 a month after a 30-day trial. The free version of the same idea is a recurring transfer from checking to savings on payday, which most banks let you set up at no charge.
They can be, but an app is not a bank. The FDIC says nonbank companies are never FDIC-insured themselves. Your money is only eligible for coverage after the company deposits it in an FDIC-insured bank and other conditions are met, and that coverage does not protect you if the app company itself fails. Before you keep money in an app, find the name of its partner bank and confirm it in the FDIC’s BankFind tool.
Yes, in small amounts. Upside says frequent users average $255 in their first year, and Rakuten says it has paid members more than $4.6 billion since 1999. You earn only on purchases you make through the app, so the trick is to use it for spending you already planned and not to buy more to earn more.
Save $27.40 every day for a year and you end up with $10,001, because 27.40 times 365 is 10,001. It is the daily version of a $10,000 savings goal. If that number is too big, a money saving challenge with a smaller target uses the same idea.
CIT Bank lists 3.75% APY on Platinum Savings balances of $5,000 or more. At that rate, $10,000 earns $375 in a year. At the 0.37% national savings rate in the FDIC’s national rate table, the same $10,000 earns about $37. Rates change, so check the current APY before you open an account.
Three months is about 13 weeks, so you need $384.62 a week. If you are paid every two weeks, that is six paychecks of $833.34. Apps help at the edges by cutting bills and adding cash back, but a target that size mostly comes from your paycheck, so set the transfer for the morning you are paid.
