Comparing Rocket Money vs. Copilot

Key takeaways

• Rocket Money provides in-depth spend tracking, savings and budgeting tools to help users save money and invest in their financial future.

• Rocket Money offers subscription cancellation and bill negotiation services; Copilot Money does not.

• Automated savings tools (Smart Savings and Financial Goals) are included with Rocket Money. Copilot Money doesn’t have a Smart Savings equivalent and utilizes much less automation in its goal-setting system.

• Rocket Money provides helpful credit score updates with historical tracking and alerts for significant events. Copilot does not offer credit score tracking.

• Rocket Money uses a pay-what-you-want model ($7-14/month) versus Copilot Money’s fixed $13/month. Copilot also does not have a free plan after the trial period.

Introduction

Personal finance is more complicated than ever, but the right app can make managing your money surprisingly simple. Two popular options are Rocket Money and Copilot Money, and both promise to help you save more and spend smarter. But while Copilot offers basic tracking features, Rocket Money delivers a more comprehensive, user-friendly experience that does the heavy lifting for you.

Rocket Money gives you a complete financial overview and features designed to put more money back in your pocket. The app tracks your expenses, cancels unwanted subscriptions, negotiates lower bills, and offers practical tools like Smart Savings and Financial Goals. Through these features, Rocket Money has already saved over 2.5 billion dollars for its users.¹ It makes personal finance simple and easy to use.

While Copilot Money tracks your spending and suggests budgets, it lacks the features that actually save you money. No subscription cancellation. No bill negotiation. No automated transfers. Goal-setting is manual, which means you're doing most of the work yourself instead of letting the app handle it for you.

Whether you're financially savvy or a beginner trying to regain control of your money, picking the right app to manage your expenses is a crucial first step. Let's explore what each finance app can offer and find out which one helps you the most in your financial journey.

Subscriptions and bills

Every service seems to come with a subscription these days, and tracking recurring payments has become a real challenge. According to a yearly survey by CNET, the average US adult spends almost $200 on subscriptions they don't even use.

Making matters worse, canceling subscriptions is deliberately difficult. Companies force you through complex websites, long customer service calls, or even require you to cancel in person.

Rocket Money solves this problem by automatically tracking all recurring charges linked to your accounts. You can see exactly what you're spending and receive alerts before charges hit. Premium users can cancel unwanted subscriptions directly in the app with just a few clicks. No phone calls, no tedious chats.

The app goes beyond subscriptions with bill negotiation. Rocket Money's specialists contact providers like cell phone and internet companies to negotiate lower rates on your behalf. As bills creep up year after year, this service brings them back down to competitive rates, often saving users hundreds of dollars annually without any effort required. In fact, 31% of users who link an account lower a bill, cancel a subscription, create a budget, or set a financial goal in their first month with Rocket Money. 

Copilot Money tracks recurring expenses but stops there. It won't cancel subscriptions or negotiate bills for you, leaving you to handle the hassle yourself.

Budgeting features

According to a Bankrate survey, more than one-third of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. Many feel unsure what they can afford daily, let alone how to budget for the future.

Rocket Money tackles this with sophisticated spend tracking that puts you in control. The app automatically categorizes every transaction the moment it posts, sorting expenses into groceries, entertainment, dining, utilities, and more. You get instant visibility into your spending patterns, making it easy to spot trends before setting a budget. The categorization system is fully customizable. Swipe to recategorize any expense or create custom categories that fit your lifestyle. It's gamified and satisfying to use, making it genuinely enjoyable to check in and stay on top of your spending.

Rocket Money also sends spending alerts directly to your phone, so you don't need to constantly check your accounts. You'll get notified when you approach budget limits or risk over-drafting, keeping you one step ahead of financial trouble and allowing you to act at exactly the right time.

The app includes Watchlist, a powerful tool that monitors spending at specific vendors. If you tend to overspend on late-night deliveries or online shopping, add those places to your Watchlist and set spending limits. Rocket Money alerts you before you swipe, giving you a chance to reconsider. You don't need a full budget to use this feature, making it invaluable for anyone who wants to limit particular expenses but doesn't know where to start.

Copilot Money offers AI-based budget suggestions but lacks the direct, hands-on budget tracking that makes Rocket Money so effective. It's a much less interactive and step-based process for users who want a practical approach to budgeting. Copilot also doesn't include helpful features like a bill calendar or customizable watchlists, making it more difficult to map out your finances on a daily basis and take meaningful action.

Saving automations

For many people, saving for a down payment on a home or the potential of retirement feel less achievable every day. Based on a study by Goldman Sachs, 42% of younger working Americans claim to not have savings after paying their base expenses. Rocket Money combats this problem with intelligent tools that make savings easy to start and manage, even when money feels tight. One of Rocket Money's features is Financial Goals, which includes the Smart Savings tool. Smart Savings analyzes your income and spending patterns to find the right moments in the month to set aside small amounts that won't affect your most vital expenses. The app then automatically moves that cash to a separate savings goal, so you're saving cash without lifting a finger. You maintain complete control and can adjust or cancel transfers at any time.² ³

While Smart Savings operates for you in the background, you can use Rocket Money's Financial Goals to actively save for particular purchases. For example, if you want to go on a trip to Europe with friends next summer, you can create that goal in the app. You set the target amount and when you want to reach it, and Rocket Money shows you a target completion date and how much to save each month. You can customize the amount and frequency of deposits, track your progress with a visual graph and savings history, and view what percentage of your income goes toward your goals. The app keeps you motivated with milestone badges as you progress, and you can adjust your goal at any time. This creates a realistic and tangible path to achieve long-term goals that may have seemed out of reach before.

Copilot Money’s lack of savings tools and automation as a whole showcase how it functions better for tracking but less for taking action for the user. It does not offer automated transfers like Smart Savings, leaving you to set up and maintain those savings yourself. And while you can set up goals in the app, it is a significantly more manual experience, putting the labor on you to manage the goals and review their progress.

Net worth tracking features

Net worth represents your current financial situation at its most core definition - what you own versus what you owe - and being able to track that number is the first step to growing it.

Rocket Money and Copilot Money both provide ways to track your net worth, but they take different approaches. Rocket Money takes all of your financial accounts, investments and other funds that make up your net worth and organizes them into one easy-to-use dashboard. You can see your wealth grow or spot trends in real time, and utilize that data in line with other financial goals in the app.

Copilot Money also tracks your net worth but does not integrate it with savings goals, credit score or other features. This renders it an isolated tool, leaving you to multitask it alongside other Copilot Money features instead of using it as part of a general budgeting system.

Credit score tracking

Your credit score is a single number that banks, landlords, and other institutions use to evaluate your financial health. Rocket Money includes credit score tracking as a core feature, maintaining a visual timeline that lets you monitor progress over months or years. You can view a full credit breakdown anytime to see exactly what events have shaped your score.

Credit tracking in Rocket Money isn't a standalone tool. It integrates seamlessly with everything else in the app, so you can monitor your credit score alongside net worth, bill payments, and spending in one place. When your score changes significantly, Rocket Money sends push notifications to your phone, keeping you informed without having to check manually.

Copilot Money doesn't track credit scores. If you want to monitor your credit, you'll need a separate app, which means juggling multiple platforms instead of managing everything in one place.

Why Rocket Money is the Budgeting App for You

After comparing features, the difference is clear. Rocket Money has saved users over 2.5 billion dollars¹ through tools that actively work for you: canceling subscriptions with a few clicks, negotiating bills on your behalf, and automating savings so you're building wealth without thinking about it.

Where Copilot Money stops at tracking and suggestions, Rocket Money takes action. It doesn't just show you where your money goes. It helps you keep more of it. The combination of proactive spending alerts, customizable tools like Watchlist for monitoring specific vendors, integrated credit score tracking with visual timelines, and automated categorization creates an experience that adapts to your life rather than adding to your workload.

Copilot Money tracks expenses and offers budget suggestions, but it lacks subscription cancellation, bill negotiation, Smart Savings, automated transfers, and credit score tracking. These missing features mean you're left managing the difficult tasks yourself.

If you want an app that does more than observe your finances, one that genuinely helps you save money and reach your goals, Rocket Money delivers. It's designed for people ready to take control without spending hours doing it manually.

1. $2.5 billion in savings represents savings from bill negotiations after fees, subscription cancellations on an annualized basis, and deposits in smart savings. The total represents a gross figure and may not reflect the net savings of individual members. This calculation is based on internal data and has not been independently verified.
2. Rocket Money is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided by nbkc bank, Member FDIC.
3. By utilizing the services, your beneficial funds may be held at nbkc bank (“Bank”) in an omnibus custodial account (“Omnibus Account”). In its ordinary course of business, Bank may deposit your funds into a network of other FDIC-insured depository institutions (each a “Network Bank” and together, the “Network Banks”) through a deposit network program administered by a third-party service provider (“Deposit Network Administrator”) and held in custody by a third-party custodian (the “Custodian Bank”) (a “Deposit Network Service”). To facilitate the placement of these funds, you appoint nbkc bank as your agent with respect to the Deposit Network Service, further authorizing nbkc bank to appoint a Deposit Network Administrator. At any given time, all, none or a portion of the funds deposited into your Omnibus Account may be placed into a Deposit Network Service and held beneficially in your name at Network Banks. You are not required or permitted to take any action with respect to the Deposit Network Services. The use of the Deposit Network Services will not create a direct relationship between you and: (i) any of the Network Banks, (ii) the Deposit Network Administrator or (iii) the Custodian Bank. The Deposit Network Administrator, as agent of Bank, maintains records of the balance of each depositor beneficially held at each Network Bank.