Kemback vs Rocket Money

The verdict

Choose Rocket Money if your main goal is finding and cutting recurring charges with as little effort as possible: it syncs with your bank, tracks subscriptions, and can negotiate some bills for you, charging a share of the savings only if it saves you money. It lives on your phone, and its free tier is a real starting point.

Choose Kemback if you want a full budget and register for the household: envelope or category budgets, reconciliation, private accounts, and roles for each person, free and on the web. The trade-off: Kemback doesn’t negotiate bills, and you import bank files until its Plus plan brings sync.

Who Rocket Money is for

Rocket Money is built around recurring spending. It connects to your accounts through Plaid, finds your subscriptions and upcoming bills, and offers bill negotiation, for a fee of 35 to 60% of the first year’s savings, charged only if it saves you money (there’s no fee on Premium+). The free tier on mobile includes subscription tracking, bill negotiation, upcoming bills, a total budget and up to two custom category budgets.

Premium is priced on a sliding scale, typically $7 to $14 a month, and adds real-time sync, the web app and CSV export. Premium+ is $15 a month. Rocket Money runs on iPhone and Android, works with US banks, and lets two people share one Premium membership.

Who Kemback is for

Kemback is for people who want to plan where the money goes, not just watch the recurring part. The Free plan has unlimited accounts and transactions, a register with splits, transfers and statement reconciliation, rules that rename payees and set categories, a review inbox, safe to spend, a 90-day projected balance, savings goals, and net worth and spending reports by category, payee or tag.

It covers bills too. Bills and recurring transactions sit on a calendar, Kemback warns you when a bill or subscription goes up, and alerts and a weekly summary email keep you current without opening the app.

Watching bills versus negotiating them

Both apps help you see what you pay every month. The difference is what happens next. Rocket Money can negotiate some bills for you, for a fee when it saves you money. Kemback tells you when a price has gone up and leaves the call to you; our guide to negotiating internet, phone and insurance covers what to say. If you’d rather never phone a provider, Rocket Money has the edge.

A full budget, not two categories

Rocket Money’s free tier budgets with a total plus up to two custom category budgets. Kemback’s Free plan gives you a whole budget in either of two modes. In category mode you set a monthly plan for every category. In envelope mode every dollar of income is assigned before you spend it. You can switch at any time without losing anything.

Privacy and how each is paid for

Rocket Money says it doesn’t accept payment in exchange for your personal information or financial data, and its privacy notice says it shares data for its own marketing and with affiliates such as Rocket Mortgage. Kemback is paid for by its plans: no ads, no selling of data, and it never asks for or stores your bank password. See how Kemback protects your data.

Moving from Rocket Money to Kemback

Rocket Money’s CSV export is a Premium feature, so export before you cancel:

1. In Rocket Money, export your transactions as a CSV file. If the file covers several accounts, split it by account in a spreadsheet first.
2. Create a free Kemback account.
3. Import each CSV file into its account. Kemback’s column mapper lets you say once which columns hold the date, amount, payee and memo.
4. Categories don’t come across in a CSV import, so add rules that set them. Then add your bills and subscriptions, and check each balance against your bank.

From then on, download OFX, QFX or CSV files from your bank; Kemback skips anything it has already seen.

Bottom line

Rocket Money is the stronger choice for automatic sync and having someone else negotiate your bills. Kemback is the stronger choice for a complete free budget, a reconcilable register and a household with private accounts. Sync is coming with Kemback Plus, which isn’t on sale yet; there’s a waitlist on the pricing page.

Questions

Is Kemback a free Rocket Money alternative?

For budgeting and bill tracking, yes. Kemback's Free plan has no time limit and includes envelope or category budgets, bills and recurring transactions on a calendar, reports, rules, import and export. It doesn't negotiate bills or sync with your bank yet, both of which Rocket Money does.

Does Kemback negotiate my bills or cancel subscriptions?

No. Kemback shows your bills and recurring transactions on a calendar and warns you when a bill or subscription goes up, so you can call the company or cancel it yourself.

Can I bring my Rocket Money history to Kemback?

Yes, if you have Premium, which includes exporting transactions as CSV. Import the file into Kemback, matching the date, amount, payee and memo columns once with the column mapper. Categories don't come across in a CSV import, so rules fill them in.

Can I use Kemback on a computer?

Yes. Kemback runs in any browser at kemback.com on the Free plan, and there's an iPhone app in beta. Android and Windows apps are in development.

Can my partner and I share Kemback?

Yes. The Free plan covers a household of two, each with their own sign-in, shared and private accounts, and roles such as editor or viewer. Plus is planned for up to six people.