Monarch Money is a full budgeting and tracking app, and Rocket Money is built around cutting what you pay every month. Pick Monarch if you want to plan a budget and see all your accounts in one place, with a partner on their own login. Pick Rocket Money if your main goal is finding subscriptions and having someone cancel them or lower your bills for you. Rocket Money has a free plan and works only in the US. Monarch has no free plan, works in the US and Canada, and charges $14.99 a month or $99.99 a year. Everything below comes from each company's own site and help pages, checked in October 2026.
How each one wants you to budget
Monarch offers two budget styles. Flex budgeting splits spending into fixed, flexible and non-monthly groups, so you only have to watch one number: your flexible spending. Category budgeting sets a limit for each category, the way most people picture a budget. Rollovers carry what's left in a category into the next month, which helps with bills that don't come every month.
Rocket Money's budgets are spending limits by category, and it sends an alert when you get close to a limit. Its pricing page lists up to 3 category budgets on the free plan (the same page says two elsewhere) and unlimited categories on Premium.
So Monarch is the one built for planning a month ahead. Rocket Money's budgets are lighter, and the app puts more weight on recurring costs.
Subscriptions, cancelling and bill negotiation
This is where the two differ most.
Rocket Money finds your subscriptions in your transactions, and the free plan lets you see them. On Premium, its Subscription Cancellation Assistant can cancel a subscription for you: you tap Cancel next to it, choose "Cancel This For Me" and fill in a short form. Its help center says some services can't be cancelled this way, in which case the app shows you how to do it yourself, and subscriptions billed through Apple, Google Play, Amazon, Roku or PayPal have to be cancelled on that platform.
Rocket Money also negotiates bills. Its team contacts the provider for bills such as internet, cable, phone and security services and looks for discounts or credits. It says it never changes or downgrades your service without your approval. If it saves you money, the fee is 35% to 60% of the first year's savings, a percentage you choose; if it saves nothing, you pay nothing. Premium+ includes bill negotiation with no fee.
Here's what that fee means with numbers. Say Rocket Money gets your internet bill cut by $20 a month. That's $240 over a year. At 35% you'd pay $84, and at 60% you'd pay $144, so you keep $156 or $96 of the first year's savings. After the first year, all of the savings are yours.
Monarch tracks recurring bills and subscriptions: it finds charges that repeat on a regular schedule and sends a notification three days before one is expected, so you have time to cancel it yourself. We didn't find a cancellation or bill negotiation service on Monarch's pages.
Price as listed in October 2026
- Monarch Money: $14.99 a month or $99.99 a year, with the first week free. No free plan. It has a Plus tier with forecasting and deeper investment tools, and a money-back guarantee.
- Rocket Money: a free plan at $0. Premium is "pay what you think is fair", between $7 and $14 a month, and Rocket Money notes the range can change. Premium+ is $15 a month. New Premium members get a 7-day free trial. Its pages we read list monthly prices only.
Here's a year of each. Monarch paid monthly is $14.99 × 12 = $179.88, or $99.99 paid yearly. Rocket Money Premium is $7 × 12 = $84 at the low end and $14 × 12 = $168 at the high end. Premium+ is $15 × 12 = $180. So Monarch's yearly plan costs more than Rocket Money Premium at the low end and less than at the high end, and Rocket Money's free plan costs nothing.
Rocket Money's free plan covers seeing your subscriptions, basic budgets and bill reminders. Cancellation help, net worth, account sharing, desktop access, manual transactions and CSV export are Premium.
Prices are from Monarch's pricing page, Rocket Money's page on what it costs and Rocket Money's help article on price. They change, so check before you pay.
Sharing with a partner
Monarch's couples page says adding members to your household costs nothing under the same subscription, each partner gets their own login, and everyone in the household can see all the accounts and transactions in it.
Rocket Money's account sharing page says sharing is for two people: you and one partner, each with your own login, under one Premium membership. Both of you can see and manage budgets, subscriptions and transactions across all linked accounts.
If more than two people will use the app, Monarch's pages allow it. For a couple, both work, and on Rocket Money it needs Premium.
Card payments and paybacks on Rocket Money
Credit card payments
Paying your card bill isn't new spending: the purchases on the card already count, so the payment would count them twice. Rocket Money's card payments article says transfers between your accounts are marked Internal Transfers so they don't affect spending or income, and card payments should be in a Credit Card Payment category so your card spending isn't counted twice. If one is missed, you change the category yourself.
Paybacks from friends
Say you pay $120 for dinner on your card and a friend sends you $60 for their half. Your real dining cost is $60.
Rocket Money's shared bills article says a friend's payment for a shared bill shouldn't count as earnings, and that you change its category to the bill's category so the two offset. Work expenses that are paid back go in a Reimbursements category. The article doesn't mention Splitwise or Venmo. In the example, you'd move the friend's $60 into dining so the category shows your $60.
Where each one works
Rocket Money's help center says it's only available to people in the US with US banks. Its phone apps come with every plan, and using it in a web browser is part of Premium.
Monarch's Canada page says it's available in Canada, with a 7-day free trial so you can check your banks connect, and that all prices are billed in US dollars. Monarch runs on the web and has iPhone and Android apps.
If you live in Canada, Monarch is the one of the two whose own pages say it works there. Our post on budget apps in Canada covers what else to check.
Who each one suits
Monarch suits you if:
- you want to plan a budget, not only see what you spent
- you want all your accounts, investments and net worth in one view
- more than one other person will use it, each with their own login
- you live in Canada
Rocket Money suits you if:
- your main goal is finding and cutting subscriptions
- you'd like someone else to cancel subscriptions or negotiate bills
- you want to start on a free plan
- you live in the US and mostly use your phone
For more on Rocket Money's plans, see our post on whether Rocket Money is worth it. For each app next to ours, see our pages on Monarch Money and Rocket Money, or the full list of comparisons.
If you split costs with friends
If a lot of your spending is shared with friends, a partner or roommates, Monio is another option: it connects to Splitwise, matches paybacks to the purchase they were for so only your share counts as spending, and works in the US and Canada, for $7.99 a month or $80 a year.
Questions
What is the difference between Monarch Money and Rocket Money?
Monarch Money is a full budgeting and tracking app, and Rocket Money is built around cutting what you pay every month. Pick Monarch to plan a budget and see all your accounts in one place, and Rocket Money if your main goal is finding subscriptions and having someone cancel them or lower your bills.
How does Monarch Money handle subscriptions?
Monarch tracks recurring bills and subscriptions and sends a notification three days before one is expected, so you have time to cancel it yourself.
Is Rocket Money cheaper than Monarch?
It can be. As listed in October 2026, Rocket Money has a free plan and Premium at $7 to $14 a month, or $84 to $168 a year, while Monarch is $14.99 a month or $99.99 a year with no free plan.
Can more than two people share Monarch or Rocket Money?
Monarch's couples page says adding members to your household costs nothing under the same subscription, each with their own login. Rocket Money's account sharing page says sharing is for two people, you and one partner, under one Premium membership.