Rocket Money 2025 Review: CNET’s pick for the best budgeting app

Wondering which budget app you should use? Rocket money should be at the top of your consideration list.

Rocket Money (formerly Truebill) was CNET’s 2024 Editors’ Choice pick for best budgeting app. It is affordable, user-friendly and contains a number of valuable features. It also offers some unique benefits, such as subscription cancellation and bill negotiation. There is a free and a premium version, with the premium version costing $6 per month.

Here’s what you need to know to decide if rocket money is right for you.

How does Rocket Money work?

The Rocket Money budgeting app connects to your bank accounts to track your income and expenses. It can automatically classify your transactions into separate categories, such as groceries or housing, to take some of the legwork out of the budget. You can also edit individual transactions and create rules for ordering future transactions.

Rocket Money lets you set spending goals and shows you how much you’ve spent so far in each category. You can adjust your budget at any time to account for unexpected expenses.

The free version of Rocket Money is limited, but it offers basic budgeting features like expense tracking that may be enough for some users. The paid version, which costs $6 to $12 per month, offers advanced features like custom budget categories, automated savings and credit reports, and net worth tracking.

What we like

• Affordable price: Rocket Money Premium costs $6 to $12 per month. How much you pay is up to you and you will enjoy the same features regardless of the amount you choose.
• Easy to use: Rocket Money’s mobile app and online platform are both intuitive to use. The information is presented in a clean, easy-to-understand way that tells you what you need to know without overwhelming you.
• Many announcements: You can choose to receive a wide variety of notifications to stay on top of your finances, from bill increase notifications and bank charges to identity theft and credit score notifications.
• Savings goals: Rocket Money Premium offers a smart savings account to make putting money away easier. You can set savings goals and schedule regular automatic transfers to this account. Smart Savings accounts are held by an FDIC-insured partner bank, so your money is safe up to $250,000 per account holder.
• Credit score and net worth tracking: Rocket Money Premium offers credit score viewing and credit report and net worth trackers. (The free version only offers viewing of credit scores.)
• Negotiation of the draft law: Rocket Money also offers an invoice negotiation service that is available to both free and paid users. Rocket contacts your service providers — like your cell phone or Internet provider — so you can try to lower your bill. You’ll pay a fee if they succeed, but it might be worth it if you hate haggling with customer service reps.

What we didn’t like

• The free version is limited: You may be able to get away with using the free version of Rocket Money, but it’s pretty simple. If you want features like custom budget categories, you’ll need to pay for premium membership.
• There is no debt repayment plan: Some budgeting apps, like PocketGuard, offer debt repayment planning to help you reduce your debt load. The rocket does not. You can link your credit card accounts to monitor your balances, but that’s about it.
• There are no investment vehicles: You can link your investment accounts to Rocket Money and view your balances, but if you want help with investment planning, you’re better off with an app like Empower, which provides tools to evaluate and adjust your strategy.
• Traditional budgeting approach: Rocket Money uses a basic budgeting method: You set your budget categories and spending goals in advance, and you can change them from month to month. This strategy may not work for everyone. If you want a more granular approach to your budget or need help managing your expenses, you may be better served by zero-based budgeting apps like EveryDollar and YNAB or Goodbudget’s envelope method.
• Invoice negotiation fees: If Rocket Money’s bill negotiation service is successful, you’ll pay them 30% to 60% of your first year’s savings (you choose your percentage). You can contact your service providers yourself and save on this cost.

Is Rocket Money Safe?

Yes, the Rocket Money app is generally safe. It uses 256-bit encryption — the same encryption many banks use — and partners with the Plaid payment network to connect to your accounts instead of storing your login information. That said, your financial data can still be at risk if your phone is ever lost or stolen, so you should know how to remotely wipe your phone in this case.

Who is Rocket Money best suited for?

Rocket Money provides all the essentials you need to create and maintain a budget. It’s accessible to a wide range of budgets, easy to use and the premium subscription is affordable.

Because of this, we found Rocket Money to be a solid replacement for Mint, the popular budgeting app that disappeared in March 2024.

Alternative to Rocket Money app

Rocket Money offers something for everyone, but it’s not the only budgeting app on the market. You can explore your options by checking out our roundup of the best budget apps.

Finally crush your budget goals with Rocket Money.

The details

CNET editors pick the winner for the best budget app

More budget tips: