Rocket Money Review: A Budgeting App That’s Actually Easy to Use
I signed up for Rocket Money to see if it lived up to the hype, and I’ve got some thoughts — the good, the annoying, and what it actually does well.
🔍 What is Rocket Money?
Rocket Money is a personal finance app designed to help you manage your money better — it tracks your spending, keeps up with subscriptions, and shows you where your money’s going with graphs and charts that are actually easy to understand.
💸 Pricing (and Why It’s a Little Weird)
Here’s how it works:
- First 7 days: Free trial of the premium version
- After that: You choose what you want to pay, anywhere from $6 to $13/month
- Cancel? You don’t lose access — it just drops down to a free version
One thing I didn’t love: you can’t just choose the free version from the beginning. You have to sign up for the paid one, then cancel to get the free account. It would be much better to put the choice up front. I hate when apps or sites make it difficult to cancel or downgrade memberships. If the product is good, and this one is, than the options should be right up front and visible. If you stand behind your product make is open and easy.
🧠 What’s the Difference Between Free and Paid?
Honestly, I didn’t notice a huge difference between them. The free version still gives you:
- A clean, easy-to-read dashboard
- Your full transaction history
- Spending categories and budget tracking
- Graphs that show exactly where your money’s going
- Recurring payments detection
- The ability to track and cancel subscriptions
The paid version supposedly includes things like premium chat support and automatic savings, but if you’re just looking to get a grip on your money, the free version might be all you need.
🧾 Linking Accounts & Setup
Linking bank accounts is super easy, and once you’re in, the dashboard lays everything out clearly. I’ve used a lot of finance apps, and this one didn’t take much learning — the budget tool is especially quick to set up.
You can even scroll through your past transactions and spot trends at a glance. It really does help you be more aware of what you’re spending money on.
The only issue I had, and this is probably with my bank, is the account kept dropping and I had to re-link. I assume this is because it’s a small local bank. The larger bank I use I didn’t have that issue with.
⚖️ My Honest Take
What I liked:
- Very easy to set up and navigate
- Dashboard and graphs are clean and readable
- Helps track and manage subscriptions
- Free version is still useful
- Getting the choice of what to pay a month. I can’t think of any other site that does that.
What I didn’t:
- Can’t choose free from the start — feels like a trap
- Not a ton of difference between free and paid (so the paid version feels overpriced unless you really want the extras). Not really a big issue honestly. The site has to generate revenue so that’s expected.
✅ Should You Try It?
If you’re trying to get your finances in order, yes — at least give the free trial a shot. Just don’t forget to cancel if you don’t want to pay, or you’ll get charged whatever you picked when signing up.
It’s a solid tool, especially for tracking where your money goes each month. If you’re trying to get out of debt, curb unnecessary spending, or just stop getting hit by random subscriptions, it’s worth checking out.
“A budget is telling your money where to go instead of wondering where it went.” – Dave Ramsey