How we compare money apps

Every price, fee, rate, trial, platform, feature and rating comes from an official source: the company's own pricing page, help center or rate page, or the app's App Store listing. For savings and brokerage accounts we also link the public FDIC and SIPC references.

We copy each value the way the official page states it, and we link that page right next to the value. When a page prints its own date, like a rate that's “correct as of” a certain day, we keep that date in the text so you can see both.

For debt payoff apps, we list each payoff method by the name the app's own page uses, such as Debt Snowball or Debt Avalanche, and we treat a “from” price as a starting price, not a plan price we can compare.

If a page stops stating a value, we take it off our page. We never estimate a number or fill a gap from memory.

We publish a comparison only when every fact on it is sourced and current. Each app on the page needs its core facts checked within the freshness window: for budgeting, debt payoff and AI money apps that means price, platforms, bank syncing and an app store rating (or the official page that says the app isn't in the app stores); for savings and banking, the APY, minimums, deposit protection, platforms and rating; for investing apps, the management fee, account minimum, trade commissions, account types, SIPC protection, platforms and rating; and for bank apps, current App Store data and at least 6 features stated by the bank. Until then the page can still be opened from the picker, but search engines don't index it and we don't link to it, and any row an app can't fill is left out instead of being marked unverified.

The screen-by-screen images come from official sources only, and each one shows its source link and the date we saved it. There are three kinds.

App Store and Google Play images are the apps' own marketing. They often sit inside a phone frame with a headline, and they can show sample data and staged layouts. We label them “App Store marketing image” or “Google Play marketing image”. Where a listing image has a clear app screen inside it, we also crop that screen, or one part of it like a category list, so you can compare it more closely. We never redraw or upscale anything.

Help center images come from each app's own support articles, like the article on inviting a partner or splitting a transaction. They show the real screen for one task, so they are often the most useful. Some help articles use animated images; we save a still frame from those. For bank apps we also use app images from the bank's own feature pages, labeled like “From Chase's website”; those are marketing too. Bank of America's help screens include green circles the bank drew to show where to tap.

Our own hands-on screenshots, taken in a real account, will come later and will be labeled as ours. Captions describe only what is visible in an image, not features beyond it.

We show a company's logo when its official press kit or app store listing provides it. When a company's brand guidelines ask for permission first, or limit its logo to press coverage, we show a neutral icon instead and use the company's name. Product names and logos belong to their owners, and showing them doesn't mean those companies endorse Priceless Tay.

Each fact carries the date we checked it, and every comparison shows the date its data is from. A fact older than 30 days stops showing, and a comparison that depends on it is taken out of search and our links until we check it again.

The site applies these windows every time it's built, so a fact that runs past its window comes off the page on its own, even if nobody touches the file. A fact that isn't current also leaves the page's structured data, so search engines never get a stale price from us, and a comparison whose core facts go stale stops being indexed until we check them again.

Each comparison ends with a sources and confidence block. It lists every fact on the page with its source and date, and shows when we last checked.

Rows marked “Differs” are where the official sources say different things. The “Show only differences” switch hides rows where every app says the same thing. A row shows only when every app in the table has a current source for it.

The only label that ranks anything is “Lower price”. It appears only when every app in the table has a current, sourced price for the same billing period, and one price is lower. It's a number, not a recommendation, and a cheaper app isn't always the better fit.

Investing apps charge in different ways, so we show each fee exactly as the company states it. A robo-advisor's yearly advisory fee is a percent of your balance, not a monthly price, so it never gets a “Lower price” label, a cost bar or a price sort. Only a flat subscription, like a plan billed each month, is compared as a price.

App store ratings are a dated snapshot of each store listing, not our score. You can add apps to any comparison and see up to 4 side by side, or open every app in one table and sort it.

This compares features and fees from each company's own pages. It isn't investment advice, and investing involves risk, including loss of money.

Every comparison, alternatives page and review with an investing app shows that note near the top. We list fees, minimums, commissions, account types, fractional shares, automatic investing, managed portfolios and SIPC protection as each company states them. We don't pick a best app, and we never show or predict investment performance or returns.

An app counts as offering an account, like a Roth IRA, a 529 plan or a custodial account for a kid, only when its own page names that account. “IRA (Traditional, Roth, or Rollover)” names both a Roth IRA and a Traditional IRA, and “UGMA/UTMA” names a custodial account. A general line like “IRA account” or “Retirement” doesn't say which kind, so we don't list the app for any type, and we never say “No”. Every listed app shows the exact words its page uses, with the link and the date we checked it, and a dedicated page like apps where you can open a Roth IRA is indexed only once at least 3 apps have a current, sourced match.

Some pages quote people's public reviews and posts. Each quote is word for word, links to where it was posted, and shows its date. We show at most 3 quotes per app, and a quote drops off once it's more than 365 days old.

Comparisons we've written by hand are indexed once we publish them. Comparisons built only from the data are indexed only when both apps have a current, sourced price and at least 4 current, sourced facts. Until then they stay readable but ask search engines not to index them.

For investing apps, the price is the management or subscription fee the company states: a robo or managed portfolio's advisory fee, or a subscription price like Acorns' monthly plans. It has to be current and sourced, like any other price.

A comparison built only from the data is indexed only when both apps are the same kind of app: budgeting apps, debt payoff apps, savings and banking accounts, investing apps or AI money tools. A budgeting app next to a bank account stays readable, and search engines can follow its links, but it asks not to be indexed and stays out of our sitemap. An app counts as more than one kind only when its own site shows it, so Acorns, which offers checking and savings accounts next to investing, also counts as a banking app, and a budgeting app whose own pages describe a debt payoff tool also counts as a debt payoff app.

Investing apps are held to one more rule. Two investing apps side by side are indexed only for the 16 comparisons people search for most, such as Fidelity vs Schwab. Every other investing pair stays readable for you, but asks search engines not to index it.

Some newer apps are indexed only for the comparisons people search for most, such as Honeydue vs YNAB, and their other comparisons stay readable for you but ask search engines not to index them.

An alternatives page is indexed when its main app meets that same rule and at least 3 of the apps it lists meet it too. Fifecta never counts toward that number, because it's our own app.

Views you make yourself keep pointing search engines to the main page. A comparison with apps added, a table sorted or filtered, or the differences switch turned on all keep the main page as the canonical address, and the added or sorted versions ask not to be indexed.

Priceless Tay may earn a commission from some links on this page, and that never changes how we compare apps.

Fifecta is our own app. Taylor Price, who runs Priceless Tay, owns Fifecta, so keep that in mind as you read this comparison. Every comparison that includes Fifecta says so at the top, tables mark it as our app, and Fifecta's facts come from our own Fifecta page.

Prices and rates change. If a fact on any comparison is out of date, tell us what changed and we'll recheck the official page. You can also go back to every comparison.

This is education, not financial advice.