How we rank

The short version

• We read each price, fee and rate from the provider’s own page and record the date.
• Each category has one calculator. We run it on a stated reference profile, and the result sets the order.
• Anything a provider does not publish stays blank. We never estimate it, and a figure with a missing fee ranks after every fully published one.
• Providers cannot pay to be listed higher, and paying to be evaluated does not change the arithmetic.

Where the figures come from

Figures come from the provider’s own pricing page, fee schedule, rate table or account terms, read on the date shown on each list. We do not copy figures from other comparison sites, aggregators or press coverage. Each product heading links to the page its figures came from.

Some pages refuse automated reading or only draw their prices with scripts. We do not try to get around that. Those providers appear under “Not included yet” with the reason, until someone confirms the figures by hand.

For regulated products we also record who holds the money or issues the product, as the provider states it: the FDIC-insured partner bank or the bank itself in the US, and the FCA-authorised firm, its reference number and whether FSCS deposit protection or e-money safeguarding applies in the UK.

Reference profiles

Each list is ordered for one stated customer. Change the calculator inputs on any page to see the order for yours. The profiles are:

• Invoicing & accounting: Lowest figure a month first. US profile: two people with logins, 12 clients and 15 invoices a month averaging $800. UK profile: a sole trader with two logins, 12 clients and 15 invoices a month averaging £800.
• Payroll: Lowest figure a month first. US profile: five employees paid every month. UK profile: five employees paid every month.
• Business bank accounts: Lowest figure a month first. US profile: a $5,000 typical balance, one outgoing domestic wire a month and no cash deposits. UK profile: £4,000 paid in a month, 20 payments out and no cash deposits.
• Expense cards: Lowest figure a month first. US profile: five cardholders spending $5,000 a month, 10% of it in other currencies. UK profile: five cardholders spending £5,000 a month, 10% of it in other currencies.
• Neobanks: Lowest figure a month first. US profile: $200 of card spending abroad, one out-of-network ATM withdrawal and one cash deposit a month. UK profile: £200 of card spending abroad a month.
• Sending money abroad: US profile: an illustrative $500 transfer (example numbers, not a quote). UK profile: an illustrative £500 transfer (example numbers, not a quote).
• Investing apps: Lowest figure a year first. US profile: $10,000 invested and four trades a year. UK profile: £10,000 in a stocks and shares ISA and four trades a year.
• Tax apps: Lowest figure per return first. US profile: one federal return with freelance income and $60,000 adjusted gross income (state return priced separately). UK profile: one Self Assessment return with £35,000 of self-employment income, below the 2026 Making Tax Digital threshold.
• Budgeting apps: US profile: an illustrative $4,000 of monthly take-home pay. UK profile: an illustrative £2,500 of monthly take-home pay.
• Credit builders: US profile: a $1,000 credit-builder loan at 15.61% APR over 48 months (an illustration, not a quote; an APR already includes the lender’s fees). UK profile: an illustrative £500 over 12 months with no interest or fees.
• Savings accounts: Highest figure interest earned first. US profile: $10,000 left untouched for 12 months at the published APY. UK profile: £10,000 left untouched for 12 months at the published AER, including any first-year bonus.

Reference profiles use regular list prices. Introductory discounts are shown next to each product but left out of the ranking because they end. Prices exclude sales tax and VAT unless a provider only publishes tax-inclusive prices, which the list then says.

Ties, gaps and unranked entries

Products whose figure is fully published rank first, cheapest first. A product whose figure leaves out a fee it does not publish ranks after all of them, with a note saying which fee is missing, because a gap must never look like a saving. Equal figures are ordered alphabetically. A product that publishes no price fitting the profile, such as one priced on request, is listed below the ranked entries with a dash in place of a rank.

Remittance is the exception. Transfer prices change by corridor, amount and minute, and most providers show them only in a live quote. That list compares how each provider prices and discloses a transfer, in alphabetical order, and the calculator works out the true cost of any quote you are given.

What we do not claim

We have not opened every account or run every app in this comparison, and we do not write as if we had. Descriptions summarise the providers’ own documents. We do not forecast rates, prices or returns, and we do not say what any reader should choose.

Keeping it current

Comparisons are re-read before every update, and the date on the page moves only when the figures were actually re-read. Savings rates and transfer pricing move fastest, so those lists carry the most prominent dates. If you spot a figure that has changed, the corrections page says how to tell us and how fixes are logged.