Verdict at a glance
Pick Monzo if
Pick Monzo if you want day-to-day banking with genuinely good in-app spending tools.
How we compared: published fees, account types and review scores for each, verified against the provider’s own price pages.
The short version
Monzo is the better UK primary current account; Revolut is better for FX, travel and holding multiple currencies. Both give you in-app budgeting for their own accounts only, so neither sees your full financial picture.
Why people compare them
The single biggest head-to-head in UK consumer fintech, usually decided on whether you want a UK current account or a travel and multi-currency account.
Price and fit, side by side
| Feature | Monzo | Revolut |
|---|---|---|
| Cheapest paid plan | MonzoFree tier, then £3 per month | RevolutFree tier, then £3.99 per month |
| Free tier | MonzoYes | RevolutYes |
| Billed in pounds | MonzoYes | RevolutYes |
| Best for | MonzoDay to day banking with genuinely good in-app spending tools | RevolutPeople who spend or move money across currencies and travel often |
Where Monzo wins
- A real UK current account with FSCS protection, which no planning tool can offer
- One of the highest rated finance apps in the UK App Store, from an unusually large number of ratings
- The free tier is properly usable, with pots, budgeting and instant spending notifications
Where Revolut wins
- Best in class currency exchange and multi-currency accounts
- Very high App Store rating from over a million UK ratings, an unusually large sample
- The free Standard plan covers everyday spending without any fee
Where both fall short
- Neither models UK pensions or answers the retirement question directly.
- Neither handles ISA allowances or the tax wrapper decisions around them.
- Neither applies UK tax rules to what it shows you.
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 Monzo does for day to day banking with genuinely good in-app spending tools, so if that is the real problem, Monzo is still the better buy. Free plan is £0, no card.
See where you actually stand, free
Track your net worth, assets and a five-year forecast built on your real position, not a guess. Free plan, no card.
See where I standDecided? Here’s the next question.
The verdict on the platform is one question. Whether you’re actually saving enough is another, and Delphina answers it from what you already hold and what you pay in each month.
Free. No card required. About two minutes.
Monzo vs Revolut: common questions
Monzo is £3 per month and Revolut is £3.99 per month. Compare the billing period before the number: an annual price and a monthly price are not the same thing.
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.
Monzo suits day to day banking with genuinely good in-app spending tools. Revolut suits people who spend or move money across currencies and travel often. The one that matches how you already think about money will take less setting up.
Monzo scores 4.9/5 on Apple App Store (GB) from 339,540 ratings. Revolut scores 4.9/5 on Apple App Store (GB) from 1,046,930 ratings. Weigh the volume as well as the score.
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 Monzo does for day to day banking with genuinely good in-app spending tools, so if that is the real need, pick one of these two.