Best Personal Finance Apps

How to read this category

These are consumer financial products, and the listings here are deliberately narrower than elsewhere on the site. We state what a product does, what it charges, and how it is regulated. We do not suggest which one suits your circumstances, because that depends on facts about you that a directory cannot know — and because financial advice is a regulated activity we are not licensed to provide.

The four groups differ in what they do with your money. Budgeting and expense tools read your accounts and categorise spending; they hold no funds. Investing and robo-advisory services do hold funds and invest them on your behalf, and are regulated accordingly. Transfer and banking services move money, often across currencies. Credit and savings tools cover deposit accounts and credit monitoring.

Cost structures vary by group and are not comparable across them. Budgeting tools generally charge a flat subscription. Robo-advisors typically charge an annual percentage of assets, which is a different kind of number entirely — a percentage that sounds small is a recurring charge against your balance. Transfer services charge a spread on the exchange rate, a fixed fee, or both, and the rate spread is frequently the larger cost while being the less visible one. Savings rates change with central bank rates and are the fastest-moving figure on this site.

Before opening any account, confirm the current terms with the provider directly. Verify deposit protection and its limits in your country, confirm the fee schedule, and check the rate — every figure in this category moves, and ours carries the date we last checked it. Nothing here is a recommendation to buy, hold, or sell any financial product.