What Rocket Money is
Rocket Money (formerly Truebill, owned by Rocket Companies since 2021) is the app for finding and cutting recurring charges. The free tier links accounts and lists subscriptions; Premium (pay what you think is fair, about $7–$14 a month) adds cancellation, net worth, budgets and automatic savings; Premium+ ($15 a month) adds fee-free bill negotiation and Rowan, an AI agent announced in August 2026 that can cancel subscriptions, renegotiate bills and set up savings transfers by text. On the free and Premium tiers, bill negotiation costs 35–60% of the first year’s savings. It has more than ten million members.
What Allocate is
Allocate is a personal-finance app built so you can plan in plain language. You link your accounts (Plaid), then you talk: “can I afford a $600 flight in November?”, “move the house goal out a year”, “what happens if I put $400 more into the 401(k)?” Allo-Bot answers from your real numbers and, when something should change, stages the change for you to approve. It never moves money.
Around the conversation are three things we haven’t seen elsewhere. My plan is a written plan — your goals, in order, with what each takes a month and when it lands — that reads like a document, not a dashboard. Workspace is a board you build from your own data: pin a card for any number, a note beside it, a sheet with live cells, and ask the guide to break a figure down onto the board. And a morning brief tells you what moved and what needs a yes, so you don’t have to go looking. Pay that comes in pieces — a bonus, a commission, a vest — is handled as income in the plan, not a surprise deposit.
The point of all of it is that a plan should be liquid. A raise, a move, a baby, a job change, a bad month: you say what changed, and the plan moves — goals re-dated, amounts re-sized, the brief the next morning telling you where things stand. It’s not a budget to keep up; it’s a plan that keeps up with you. One price, US only, web and iPhone.
Where Rocket Money is better
- A free tier. Linking accounts and seeing your subscriptions costs nothing. Allocate has no free plan today.
- Cancelling and negotiating. Rocket Money will cancel the gym for you and call your cable company. Allocate does neither.
- Automated savings. It moves money into a partner savings account on a schedule. Allocate never moves money.
- Android and Wear OS.
- An agent that reaches outside the app. Rowan acts on your bills and subscriptions in the world, not just in your plan.
Where Allocate is better
- A plan, in plain words. Rocket Money’s budgeting is two custom categories on the free tier and light on Premium, with no way to enter an upcoming payday. Allocate: say what you want, get a plan, approve the changes.
- Built to change. Rocket Money fixes leaks once. Allocate keeps a plan liquid: when your rent, pay or priorities change, you say so and the plan moves with you.
- My plan and Workspace. A written plan you can read, and a board you build from your own numbers. Rocket Money has neither.
- One price, nothing on the back end. Rocket Money’s most common complaint is negotiation fees — 35–60% of first-year savings, charged after the fact. Allocate charges the subscription and nothing else.
- An assistant that stays inside the line. Rowan acts on your bills in the world. Allo-Bot changes only your plan, only as proposals you approve, and never touches your bank.
- Pay in pieces. No bonus, commission or equity handling in Rocket Money. Allocate treats it as income in the plan.
- A morning brief. What moved, what needs a yes.
Which one should you pick?
- You suspect you’re paying for things you forgot.
- You want someone else to negotiate your bills.
- You want automatic savings transfers.
- You want a free start, or you’re on Android.
- You want a plan, not a cleanup.
- You want to ask questions in plain words and get answers from your own numbers.
- You want one price with nothing charged after the fact.
- Some of your pay is bonus, commission or equity.
Frequently asked questions
How do Rocket Money’s negotiation fees work?
On the free and Premium tiers, if a negotiation succeeds Rocket Money charges 35–60% of the first year’s savings, billed after the fact (with a window to choose installments). Premium+ ($15 a month) waives the fee. Allocate doesn’t negotiate bills and has no fees beyond the subscription.
Does Allocate find subscriptions?
It detects bills and recurring charges from your accounts and puts them in the plan, so you see what they take from each month. It doesn’t cancel them for you.
Can I use both?
Yes, and it’s a reasonable pairing: Rocket Money’s free tier to find leaks, Allocate to plan what’s left. They link the same banks through Plaid.
Does Rocket Money handle bonuses or RSUs?
No. There’s no variable-income, bonus or equity feature, and users note you can’t add an upcoming payday manually.
Which moves my money?
Rocket Money does, for its automated savings feature. Allocate never does; it proposes changes to your plan and you approve them.
Sources
- Rocket Money: how much does it cost
- Rocket Money help: Premium features
- Rocket Money help: bill negotiation charge
- Rocket Money help: what’s in my assets
- Rocket Money FAQ
- Rocket Companies: Rowan announcement
- BBB: Rocket Money complaints
We wrote this comparison. We tried to be fair, and every Rocket Money claim links to where we read it, but we make Allocate, so read it as one side of the argument and try both.