The short version
Emma is the live product and the practical answer here; Money Dashboard's consumer service is no longer the tool it was. Anyone migrating should check that whatever they pick actually models pensions, not just current accounts.
Why people compare them
Money Dashboard was the UK aggregator most people started with, and Emma is where they went when it closed its consumer app.
Price and fit, side by side
| Feature | Emma | Money Dashboard |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest paid plan | EmmaFree tier, then £4.99 per month | Money DashboardNot published |
| Free tier | EmmaYes | Money DashboardNo |
| Billed in pounds | EmmaYes | Money DashboardYes |
| Best for | EmmaPeople who want to see where their money went and cancel forgotten subscriptions | Money DashboardNobody, now. If you are here looking for it, you need a replacement rather than a comparison |
Where Emma wins
- A real free tier that covers the basics
- Built for the UK, with UK bank connections through Open Banking
- Good at surfacing wasted subscriptions and recurring charges
Where Money Dashboard wins
- For years it was the default free UK account aggregator, and it did that job well
- It was genuinely UK-first at a time when most rivals were American
- It gave users a window to export their transaction history to CSV before shutdown
Where both fall short
- Both are built US-first, so UK users pay in dollars and work around US assumptions.
If neither is quite right
If what you actually want is the retirement answer rather than a better dashboard, that is the gap Delphina was built for: UK pensions, ISAs and tax, projected to the age you want to stop. It does not do the job Emma does for people who want to see where their money went and cancel forgotten subscriptions, so if that is the real problem, Emma is still the better buy. Free plan is £0, no card.
Emma vs Money Dashboard: common questions
You can, and some people do, because they solve different halves of the problem. It does mean paying for both, so add the two annual figures together before deciding.
Judge it on billing currency, Open Banking coverage and whether ISAs and pensions are handled. Check each one against those three points, because a tool that scores well elsewhere can still be a poor fit in the UK.
Emma suits people who want to see where their money went and cancel forgotten subscriptions. Money Dashboard suits nobody, now. if you are here looking for it, you need a replacement rather than a comparison. The one that matches how you already think about money will take less setting up.
Delphina covers the gap both leave, which is UK pensions, ISAs and tax projected forward to retirement. The trade-off is that it does not do the job Emma does for people who want to see where their money went and cancel forgotten subscriptions, so if that is the real need, pick one of these two.