Rocket Money vs. Simplifi [2024]: Which is the Better Budgeting Tool? (2024)

Rocket Money and Simplifi are two great budgeting apps that you can use to manage your money and finances. They both have a range of features that can help you keep track of your spending.

When comparing Rocket Money versus Simplifi, the best app for you depends on the functionalities you need. Simplifi is a user-friendly budgeting tool that can help you see where you spend your money. However, Rocket Money may be a better choice if you need more features to help cut your bills, manage your subscriptions, and save money.

Key takeaways

Rocket Money vs. Simplifi comparison

Our verdict

While Simplifi costs $2.99 per month (billed annually), it doesn’t offer as many features as Rocket Money’s premium subscription, which starts at $4 per month, which is a negligible difference for a better value. It goes beyond simple budgeting features to offer help lowering your bills, cutting extraneous costs, and saving you money. Plus, Rocket Money helps you save for a rainy day with its automatic savings plan.

How does Rocket Money work?

Rocket Money is a financial management app that helps you budget and cut expenses. It assists you in canceling unwanted subscriptions, negotiating lower bills, and getting refunds on overdrafts and late fees.

Rocket Money was previously known as Truebill until it was acquired by Rocket Companies, owner of Rocket Mortgage and Rocket Loans, in 2021.

Like most personal finance apps available today, Rocket Money can connect to your financial accounts, including loans and bank accounts. This can help you track your spending and budget your money. Rocket Money has a free budgeting app version that offers these tracking features.

But if you want to access features like subscription cancellations, automatic savings, and overdraft and late fee refund requests, you need to pay for a premium subscription. The app lets you name your price between $4 and $12 per month.

Visit Rocket Money

… Or read our Rocket Money review.

How does Simplifi work?

Simplifi is a relatively new budgeting app from Quicken that enables users to track their spending and set goals for budgeting and saving money.

As the name implies, Simplifi offers a more simplified way of managing your finances by giving you an overall picture of where your money is going each month. Simplifi connects to over 14,000 financial institutions, so you can use it to track your checking and savings accounts as well as your credit card spending and investment accounts.

Each transaction is categorized, and you can create custom categories. You can also set limits for your planned spending in a certain category. For example, if you want to spend $400 on groceries for the month, you can set this limit in Simplifi, and it will notify you when you get close to it.

Simplifi costs $2.99 per month, billed annually

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… Or read our Simplifi review.

Rocket Money vs. Simplifi: What both companies excel at

If you want to know how to manage your money, track your spending, and save on your bills, both Rocket Money and Simplifi can help. Both programs connect to thousands of financial institutions like banks, credit unions, and credit cards to monitor your income and spending.

Both Rocket Money and Simplifi also have budgeting features to help you set financial goals and keep track of where your money is going. And when you link your assets and liabilities to your Rocket Money or Simplifi account, both apps will show your net worth.

5 important differences between Rocket Money and Simplifi

Although Rocket Money and Simplifi do have their similarities, the two programs also have some significant differences. Let’s break down the five main differences between Rocket Money versus Simplifi to get a true sense of the better app for you.

1. Cost

Rocket Money offers a free version, and Simplifi doesn’t.

However, to use Rocket Money's strengths, such as automated savings and subscription cancellations, you need to pay for a premium subscription. This subscription costs between $4 and $12 per month. Rocket Money also charges you 30% to 60% of any money it saves you on your bills.

Winner: Rocket Money would be the winner if cost is your main concern. Nothing is cheaper than free, and with Rocket Money’s free version, you get access to basic budgeting tools.

2. Overall features

Rocket Money goes beyond budgeting and expense tracking to offer more advanced features. While Simplifi is a simple, easy-to-use budgeting tool, it doesn’t offer as many features as Rocket Money's paid version.

Rocket Money can help you with various things that Simplifi can’t, such as canceling subscriptions, negotiating bills, and automating your savings plan.

Winner: Rocket Money wins in this category since it offers more functionality than Simplifi. However, you need to have the premium version to access these features.

3. Bill negotiation

The premium version of Rocket Money can help you save money on your bills. For example, it can help with bills people don’t think to renegotiate to get a better price and save money.

Simplifi doesn’t offer this capability. You can track your subscriptions in Simplifi to see where your money is going, but you must cancel the unwanted ones yourself. The app won’t do it for you.

Winner: Rocket Money comes on top because it does most of the work when negotiating your bills. Keep in mind that Rocket Money charges 30% to 60% of the money it saves for you.

4. Credit score monitoring

Rocket Money can help you monitor your credit score and credit history, but Simplifi doesn’t.

Rocket Money also alerts you in real time to changes that may impact your credit score and provides you with tips that can help improve your score. This can help account for your credit history in your financial planning.

Winner: Rocket Money offers credit score tracking, so it wins this category.

5. Budget categories

With Rocket Money, you get two custom budget categories with the free version and unlimited categories with the premium service. You have to manually add transactions to your custom categories for them to count toward your spending totals.

Simplifi enables you to create an unlimited number of budget categories, and you can create rules to automatically assign these categories when more transactions are loaded.

Say you want to follow a 50/30/20 rule of budgeting, where 50% of your income goes to needs, 30% goes to wants, and 20% goes to savings. You can set those goals in Simplifi and customize the transactions as to what is a need, want, or savings.

Once you’ve set your goals or planned spending, in Simplifi, the program notifies you when you are getting near the spending limits you set.

Winner: Simplifi makes it easier to create and use custom budget categories.

Which budgeting app should you choose?

Deciding between Rocket Money and Simplifi may ultimately come down to their features and costs.

When you should choose Rocket Money

You should use Rocket Money if you need assistance putting money aside in savings, canceling unwanted subscriptions, or negotiating a better rate on some of your bills, like your cell phone or internet service.

Rocket Money lets you name your price, starting at $4 per month, so it doesn’t cost a lot more than Simplifi, but you get more features for your money. Keep in mind that some features may end up costing you more money, such as the bill negotiation feature that costs30% to 60% of the amount you saved.

Overall, Rocket Money helps you:

• Manage subscriptions
• Automatically put money into savings
• Negotiate your bills
• Budget your expenses and income
• Monitor your credit score and history
• Track your net worth

When you should choose Simplifi

You should choose Simplifi if you want a simple, easy-to-use way to track your spending and build and follow a budget. Simplifi is a strong contender when you want robust categorization features and feel that Rocket Money lacks on this front despite its advanced features.

Simplifi costs $2.99 per month (billed annually), putting it in line with the lowest cost of Rocket Money’s premium subscription.

Overall, Simplifi helps you:

• Set savings goals
• Track your budget progress
• Get customized reports on your finances
• Monitor your investments
• Customize your transactions
• Project your cash flow

What factors to consider before choosing

Consider your needs and the type of budgeting help you want when deciding between Rocket Money and Simplifi.

For example, if you need help saving for a rainy day or cutting back on extraneous subscriptions, Rocket Money might be a better option than Simplifi. Rocket Money’s premium subscription offers most of the budgeting functions of Simplifi and then some.

On the other hand, if you’re the kind of person who loves spreadsheets and tracking your income versus expenses to see where your money is going, Simplifi might be the budgeting tool for you.

You should also consider your ability to test the app. For example, Rocket Money offers a free version, so you can play around with the app before you purchase the premium plan. While Simplifi doesn’t offer a free version, they do offer a 30-day money-back guarantee.

FAQ

Rocket Money vs. Simplifi: bottom line

To achieve your financial goals, such as buying a home, getting a new car, or booking a trip to Europe, you may need to budget and manage your finances. Money management apps like Rocket Money and Simplifi can help with this.

Deciding the better app for you depends on what you want out of a budgeting app. Simplifi is a great budgeting app that is easy to use to manage your spending. But if you need a little more help saving money and cutting your expenses, Rocket Money’s premium plan may be the better choice. Besides budgeting, Rocket Money’s premium plan can negotiate lower bills, cancel subscriptions, and transfer money into your savings automatically.

Since you can use Rocket Money for free without the Premium features, you may want to sign up to test out their capabilities and interfaces before you invest in either app. You can also explore similar options, such as SoFi Relay and You Need A Budget (YNAB), in our list of the best budgeting apps.