SoFi vs Monarch Money: Which to Pick

Pick Monarch Money if you want the budget filled from your spending, goals you can track, receipt line items, and the official connector for Claude or ChatGPT. Pick SoFi if you want the bank account, the cash, and the investments themselves: checking, savings, Vaults, and a brokerage or an automated portfolio, with SoFi Plus as a $10 membership rather than a monthly budget-app bill. The yield, the debit card, and the portfolio are why people open SoFi. The categories, the receipts, and the household dashboard are why they pay for Monarch. FYN (our product) closes this page.

Features and pricing checked October 29, 2026. SoFi figures come from the SoFi Plus page, the rate sheet, the checking page, the automated investing page, and the help articles in Sources. Monarch figures come from Monarch's pricing page. FYN's numbers are from our pricing page. If a figure was not on those pages, the cell says Not documented.

This page is the head-to-head: SoFi or Monarch. The method, before either product, is how to make a budget. If the bill is the only question, that is Monarch Money pricing.

SoFi vs Monarch Money

Disclosure: we build FYN. This page is on FYN's site. The FYN column is the option for a free start, receipt scans, and purchases logged as you pay. Scroll the table sideways on a phone. Prices are US list prices. Monarch recommends checking out on the web rather than in the Apple or Google store. SoFi's automated investing fee is a percent of the assets in that account, so the dollar amount moves with the balance. SoFi Plus is a membership fee, not that percent.

Price, free tier, and trial

SoFi does not publish a budget-app subscription you keep at $0. The SoFi Plus article, updated October 2, 2026, says the membership is $10 a month, and that a year of that fee is $120. The same article says you can only get SoFi Plus by paying that $10. The Plus page says subscribers are billed monthly based on the date you start. The savings rates page says the $10 fee is billed every 30 calendar days. The rate sheet says you stay on Plus rates by paying the subscription fee every 30 calendar days. Those are the same membership. They are not a second yearly plan with its own checkout.

Checking and savings are a different bill. The checking page and the joint account page, read October 29, 2026, say SoFi does not charge account, service, or maintenance fees. Both pages say SoFi does charge transaction fees for outgoing wire transfers, instant transfers, and global remittance transfers, and both point at the bank fee sheet. A dollar amount for those transaction fees was not on the checking page or the joint page, so this post does not print one. "No account fees" is not a sentence about the investing wrap fee or the $10 membership.

Automated investing is the percent. The automated investing page says the fee is 0.25% of account value, and that brokerage costs are billed separately. The wrap brochure dated March 27, 2026 says clients pay 0.25% a year on each account in the program, monthly in arrears, and that the fee is not charged on the cash allocation, which is generally 1% of the portfolio. The same brochure says the program does not impose a minimum account size. It does set a $1 minimum on a mutual fund trade and, generally, a $50 threshold before cash is invested. ETF expense ratios are extra. The brochure says SoFi Wealth's affiliates can earn management fees on SoFi-branded ETFs if a fee waiver is not in place.

The dollar comparison is arithmetic from that 0.25% rate, not an example SoFi prints. 0.25% of $10,000 is $25 a year. 0.25% of $100,000 is $250 a year. Twelve months of the $10 Plus fee is $120, which is the figure the October 2 article already prints. The wrap percent and the $10 membership can both apply if you pay for Plus and also hold an automated account.

The brokerage fee schedule linked from the App Store is titled Fee Schedule_V38 (update for October 1). On October 29, 2026 that PDF did not yield selectable text, so this post does not quote a commission from it. The App Store says you can trade stocks and ETFs, that other fees apply, and that fractional shares start at $5.

Monarch has no free plan. On October 29, 2026 the pricing page showed Core at $14.99 a month or $99.99 a year, displayed as $8.33 a month when billed yearly. Plus was $199.99 a year, displayed as $16.67 a month. The page's structured data says those prices are in US dollars, plus tax where it applies. Both plan cards say a free 7-day trial, then the plan price, and that a payment method is required. Cancel in settings before the trial ends. The FAQ also offers a no-questions-asked money-back guarantee and does not say how long that window is. The full bill, including the current discount, is on Monarch Money pricing.

On October 29, 2026 the Monarch pricing page showed code WELCOME for 30% off Core for one year. The page says the discount is for new users only, valid for the annual Core plan only, cannot be combined with other offers, and may expire or be deactivated at any time.

Put the two bills next to each other only after you pick the job. Monarch Core is $14.99 a month whether the accounts hold $10,000 or $100,000. SoFi Plus is $10 a month, which is under Core, and it does not include a spending budget. SoFi's 0.25% example is $25 a year at $10,000, which is under Core, and $250 a year at $100,000, which is over Core's $99.99, before ETF expense ratios, and the cash slice of the portfolio is not on that percent. Checking and savings are not on that percent either. A yearly Monarch price has no SoFi twin: the Plus article's $120 is twelve times $10, not a separate $99 software year.

FYN is free to start, with no card. The pricing page lists Pro at $9.99 a month, and that is the plan with bank sync. On a monthly bill, Pro is under Monarch Core's $14.99 and under SoFi Plus at $10. It is a software price, not a percent of assets, and it is not an account you fund. FYN's pricing page does not list a yearly price. A free account does not sync a bank.

Cash

This is the product people mean when they compare SoFi with a budget app and feel the mismatch. Savings is an account. Monarch is a view of accounts you already have.

On October 29, 2026 SoFi's own pages did not print one savings rate. The rate sheet URL rendered a schedule effective May 28, 2026. For a SoFi Plus member with only an individual account, savings there is 4.50% APY on balances up to $20,000 and 3.10% APY on the portion above $20,000. The sheet's own example is a blended 4.22% APY on $25,000. With eligible direct deposit, or with $5,000 in qualifying deposits every 31 days, and without Plus, savings is 3.10% APY. Without those deposits and without Plus, savings is 0.80% APY. Checking is 0.50% APY in every table on that sheet.

A PDF named for October 20, 2026 uses the same table shape and different savings numbers. Plus savings there is 4.70% APY on up to $20,000 and 3.30% on the portion above that. The PDF's example is a blended 4.42% APY on $25,000. Direct deposit or $5,000 in qualifying deposits is 3.30% APY on savings. Standard savings is still 0.80%. Checking is still 0.50%. The Plus page footnote, the October 2 article, and the App Store listing print the 4.70% line and date it October 20, 2026. The checking page prints 3.30% savings APY for members with eligible direct deposit and says those rates are current as of October 20, 2026.

The savings rates page, read the same day, mixes the two. Its Plus block still says 4.50% APY on up to $20,000, and the page says the APYs are accurate as of May 28, 2026. Its high-yield block says 3.30% APY, and a footnote says rates are current as of October 20, 2026. This post does not pick 4.70%, 4.50%, 3.30%, or 3.10% as the rate on every dollar. Use the line that names the offer you are opening, and read the rate sheet the link actually loads.

The rate also depends on how the accounts are held. On both schedules, a Plus member with only an individual account, or only a joint account where one holder pays for Plus, gets the higher tier on up to $20,000 of that savings balance. If both holders pay for Plus and they have only the joint account, the higher tier covers up to $40,000. If the same person has both an individual savings account and a joint savings account, the joint balance can fall to the lower tier on the entire joint balance. The October 20 PDF and the May 28 sheet both spell that out. Do not add the individual cap and the joint cap together.

The checking page says there is no minimum balance. Opening savings also opens checking, and opening checking also opens savings. Deposits are FDIC insured up to $250,000 per depositor for each ownership category. The same page says the SoFi Insured Deposit Program can insure deposits up to $3 million, with conditions, and that SoFi Bank itself does not provide more than $250,000. The App Store lists Savings Vaults for an emergency fund and other savings goals, and instant transfers between checking and savings with no fees. A vault is a slice of the savings account. It is not a grocery limit.

A cash account you open inside Monarch, with an APY printed on the pricing page: Not documented on the pages checked. Core already includes net worth. Plus, at $199.99 a year, adds forecasting and advanced investment analysis on the desktop site. If the job is a free net worth dashboard rather than an account you fund, the closer comparison is Empower vs Monarch Money. If you want the same kind of cash and portfolio on an advisory percent, that comparison is Wealthfront vs Monarch Money. If you want checking at $5 a month or an advisory percent, that comparison is Betterment vs Monarch Money. If you want investing, cash, and a planner on a membership price, that comparison is Origin Money vs Monarch Money.

Checking

SoFi Checking is the spending account, and it is still an account, not a budget. The page, read October 29, 2026, says there is no minimum balance and no account, service, or maintenance fee. Checking earns 0.50% APY on the rate sheet, on the May 28 schedule and on the October 20 PDF. The page says you can get paid up to two days early when the bank receives the direct deposit notice. Overdraft coverage on that page is up to $50 on debit card purchases, and it requires at least $1,000 in eligible direct deposits in a rolling 31-day period. The joint account page describes the same $50 cap and a 30-day evaluation period. Those windows do not match. This post does not pick 30 or 31. In-network ATMs are the Allpoint network of 55,000 or more, with no SoFi fee. Out-of-network ATM fees are not reimbursed.

The direct deposit bonus on the checking page is separate from the APY. New direct deposit, received by December 31, 2027, during a promotion that runs from May 15, 2026 through December 31, 2027: total eligible deposits over the next 25 days of $1,000 to $4,999.99 pay $50, and $5,000 or more pays $400. Under $1,000 pays $0. One bonus per member. On a joint account, the activity counts for the person who opened the account first. SoFi can end the promotion. A grocery budget that fills from debit-card transactions: Not documented on the pages checked.

Member benefits

SoFi Plus is the membership, not the budget. The Plus page, read October 29, 2026, lists a 1% match on eligible cash deposits into non-retirement SoFi Invest accounts. You have to be a Plus member when the deposit lands, and the funds have to stay for five years. Internal transfers and ACAT transfers are excluded from that match. The same page says Plus members can schedule an unlimited number of appointments with a financial planner, subject to availability, and that a member who is not on Plus can schedule one 30-minute appointment. SoFi's estimate of $300 for a planner meeting is its own competitive assessment. It is not a price on an invoice.

The Plus page also prints a $1,000 value illustration, valid as of March 31, 2026, that assumes $20,000 in savings at 4.70% APY, $15,000 of spend on a SoFi credit card, and one extra planner session. The footnote says there is no guarantee you reach any specific value. The October 2 article lists further discounts, including a 0.25% rate discount on personal loans and an extra $500 off a SoFi mortgage origination fee. Read the footnote for the loan you mean. A benefit you do not use does not reduce the $10.

The App Store listing still prints a 1% match on ACAT transfers, up to $5,000,000, for an offer window of September 10 to September 30, 2026. That window had closed by October 29, 2026. This post does not treat it as an open offer. It is not the same thing as the Plus 1% match on eligible cash deposits.

Investing

The automated page describes a portfolio SoFi Wealth assigns from a questionnaire, then rebalances. The wrap fee is 0.25%. The brochure says the service is online, for clients who want a limited set of mutual funds and ETFs, and that it is generally not for complex needs. Past performance was not a single figure this post could quote from one agreed page, so this post does not print a return.

Self-directed investing is the account where you pick the stocks and ETFs. The App Store says fractional shares start at $5, and that other fees apply. The fee schedule PDF did not yield a commission line this check could quote. The App Store also names crypto. A separate crypto fee was not in the wrap brochure, so this post does not print one. The Plus page does document a 1% match on eligible crypto buys for Plus members, paid as rewards points, with a lifetime cap of $250,000 in eligible buys and a requirement that Plus stay active through the end of that month.

A brokerage you fund inside Monarch was not on the Monarch pages checked. Monarch's paid plans remain the budget, the household, goals, net worth, and, on Plus, the forecast and the investment analysis.

Budgets and goals

This is the split that should decide the page if the bank account is not the job. SoFi holds the cash and can sort the spending that hits linked accounts. Monarch budgets that spending.

Coach's help article, read October 29, 2026, calls Coach a free product for SoFi and external accounts. It lists a balance dashboard, credit score monitoring, spending and cash flow, debts, an investment breakdown, and home value. SoFi's terms say Coach was formerly Relay. The September 17, 2026 explainer says credit score monitoring, budgeting, and the debt summary are still there, and that the old dashboard is now Coach Insights. That is a tracker. The categories article says you pick a new category from the list, you cannot create your own categories, and you can add custom tags. The spend-tools article describes primary categories and subcategories, a merchant rule, recurring detection, and a CSV export on the web. A category budget, rollovers of unspent spending, or a required zero: Not documented on those articles. If a required zero is the method you want, the closer comparison is YNAB vs Monarch Money, and the difference between an envelope and a zero is on zero-based budgeting.

Monarch's budget help, updated October 22, 2026, offers two types. Flex budgeting is the default: one flexible bucket, plus fixed and non-monthly groups. Category budgeting assigns an amount to each category. The first budget is filled from the average of the last six months, and you can recalculate that later. The budget is monthly cash flow: expected income, then expenses and savings. Monarch says you can still follow an envelope or zero-based style if income equals expenses plus savings. It is not required. Transactions are categorized for you, and you can move money between categories when one runs over. The steps, before you pick a product, are in how to make a budget.

Linking accounts

SoFi is the bank account, and Coach also links accounts you already have. The budget planner page says Coach connects SoFi accounts and external accounts using Plaid. The terms say that if you connect an account, SoFi may obtain the information available on that account, including balances and transactions. A named second provider, and a count of institutions: Not documented on the pages checked. Do not fill that gap with another company's provider list.

Monarch's data-provider article, June 9, 2026, names three providers: Plaid, MX, and Finicity. Monarch suggests the provider with the stronger history for that institution, and you can switch. The same article says connections can still break, and that on an OAuth connection the bank login stays at the bank. The download page limits the product to the United States and Canada. There is no free plan, so the feed sits on Core or Plus.

FYN's bank connection is Plaid, up to 15 accounts, and it is on Pro only. A free account does not sync a bank.

Sharing with a partner

The joint checking and savings page is the bank account for two people. The rate sheet's examples are Member A and Member B. Direct deposit bonus activity on a joint account counts for the primary holder, which the checking page defines as the member who opened the joint account first. A third owner on that bank account: Not documented on the pages checked.

The joint invest article, read October 29, 2026, says you cannot turn an existing invest account into a joint account. You open a new one, and only through Robo investing. The types listed are joint tenants with rights of survivorship, community property, and tenants by entirety. The secondary holder gets an email and finishes setup. A shared spending view, with one budget and no hidden transactions, was not on that article.

Monarch's household article, updated October 20, 2026, invites one or more people onto a single subscription. Each person has a login and can add accounts. The household shares one dashboard and one budget. You cannot hide a bank account or a transaction once someone is invited. Roles are admin (the owner, who manages billing), member, and an optional professional role for an advisor. You cannot invite an email that already has a Monarch account. The Plus article says Plus covers the whole household, the same way Core does.

If the second person must share one spending budget, Monarch documents that on the subscription. SoFi documents a joint bank account, and a separate joint Robo account, and it does not document that shared budget. The app roundup for the household choice is best budget apps for couples. The conversation before you pick a product is how to budget as a couple.

Mobile

The App Store listing, read October 29, 2026, is SoFi: Bank, Invest & Crypto, for iPhone and iPad, requiring iOS 15.2 or later. The compatibility block also lists iPod touch. The download is marked free. The Google Play listing uses the same name. A native Mac app named on its own: Not documented.

Monarch's download page lists web, iPhone, iPad, and Android, in the United States and Canada. The same download page also lists the connector. The Plus article, updated August 31, 2026, says Plus features are on desktop web, with only parts of business tracking on mobile.

Receipts

Monarch's receipt help, updated October 28, 2026, lets you scan or upload a receipt, or forward the email to [email protected]. It reads merchant, amount, and date, and line items when the receipt has them. It can split one receipt across categories. Scanning is documented on the phone, and upload is documented on the web. Those receipts sit inside the paid subscription. There is no free plan to put them on.

A product page or help article that says SoFi reads a purchase receipt, stores a grocery receipt, or pulls line items was not on the pages checked. That cell stays Not documented. What is documented is a debit card, Vaults, and spending categories in Coach.

AI and MCP

Monarch's blog post dated October 21, 2026 says the connector is back after a pause. The help article, updated October 22, 2026, is on Core and Plus. Official clients are Claude, ChatGPT on a paid web plan, Cursor, and Gemini CLI. Read-only is the default. Write access is granted only if the tool asks and you approve. You do not share your Monarch password with the tool. Accounts linked through Finicity are left out, which can include some Fidelity brokerage accounts. Plus members get more weekly usage than Core. The server URL on the help page is https://api.monarch.com/mcp.

SoFi's Coach action page, dated September 17, 2026, says Coach can open a vault, set up a transfer, open checking and savings, or turn on credit score monitoring from the chat, and that you review and approve the action first. That is SoFi's own chat inside the SoFi app. An official connector, with a SoFi server URL and an OAuth screen for Claude or ChatGPT, was not on the pages checked. That cell stays Not documented. Do not treat a third-party server that mentions SoFi as SoFi's connector.

The practical split: Monarch documents a connector you authorize, read-only unless you allow write, and it leaves out Finicity-linked accounts. SoFi documents a chat that can prepare a SoFi action after you approve it. SoFi's checked pages do not document the external connector.

Who should pick Monarch, and who should pick SoFi

Pick Monarch if you want the app to categorize spending, goals, receipt line items, or an official connector for Claude or ChatGPT that can see the linked accounts. Core is the right tier for cash flow, a budget seeded from the last six months, goals, net worth, receipts, and a household where nobody hides an account. Pay for Plus only if you want forecasting or the deeper investment tools, and plan to use them on the desktop site. The trial is a week, and the plan card says a payment method is required, so decide before it rolls into $99.99 or $14.99. Whether that price is worth the dashboard is on Is Monarch Money worth it?. The Monarch pages checked do not show a free plan, a brokerage you fund in the app, or a cash APY.

Pick SoFi if the job is the checking, the savings, and the portfolio, not the spending categories. Checking and savings have no account fee. Checking is 0.50% APY on both rate schedules. Savings is where the pages disagree: the rate sheet URL still showed the May 28, 2026 schedule (Plus 4.50% up to $20,000, then 3.10%; direct deposit savings 3.10%; standard 0.80%), and the October 20 PDF, the Plus page, and the App Store showed 4.70% and 3.30%. Plus is $10 a month. Automated investing is 0.25%, with no account-size minimum in the March 27, 2026 brochure, and with the fee off the cash slice. The limits are the ones on SoFi's own pages: there is no category spending limit, Vaults are savings buckets, a joint invest account has to be a new Robo account, the rate pages do not match, and an official connector was not on the pages checked.

If neither of these two fits, the wider list is Monarch Money alternatives. The narrower grid, written as FYN next to Monarch, is FYN vs Monarch.

Failure modes

SoFi fails when you wanted a monthly budget filled from spending. Coach tracks categories. Vaults sort savings. Neither page describes a grocery limit. It fails when you wanted one flat software price at every balance. Plus is $10 a month, which is under Monarch Core's $14.99. At the 0.25% rate, $100,000 is $250 a year, which is over Core's $99.99, before ETF expense ratios, and the cash slice is excluded from that percent. It fails when you treat 4.70% or 4.50% as the rate on every savings dollar. The legal rate-sheet URL loaded the May 28 schedule. The October 20 PDF and the Plus page loaded 4.70% and 3.30%. Joint balances can sit on the lower tier. It fails when you read "no account fees" as "no fees": the checking page names wire, instant-transfer, and remittance fees, and the wrap brochure names a 0.25% advisory fee. It fails when you wanted a partner spending dashboard without a joint account, or a joint holder added to an invest account you already have. It fails if you needed a third owner, a purchase receipt to become line items, or an official connector for Claude or ChatGPT. It fails if you treat the App Store's ACAT match as open on October 29, 2026. That listing dates the window September 10 to September 30, 2026.

Monarch fails when you wanted a checking account, a savings account, or a managed portfolio in the same login. There is no free plan. The trial is 7 days, a payment method is required, and then Core is $14.99 a month or $99.99 a year. Flex can look accurate while spending does not change, because the app does not make you fill a category before you spend. Connections can still break, which Monarch's own article says. You cannot hide an account from someone you invited, and you cannot invite an email that already has a Monarch account. Finicity-linked accounts are left out of the connector, so an assistant can miss a brokerage. Plus tools are on the desktop site. And the WELCOME code is annual Core only, for new users, and the page says it can expire.

Where FYN fits

FYN is our product, and it is last because the job is the record of the purchase. A photo of the receipt and an emailed receipt share one monthly count: 20 a month on Free, 200 a month on Pro. Apple Pay and Google Wallet purchases are logged as you pay, on Free and on Pro. The limits below are the ones on the pricing page.

The free plan does not expire and does not ask for a card. It includes 1 household member. Pro is $9.99 a month, with unlimited household members on Pro. Everyone shares the plan's limits. A shared member can be an owner, a member, or view-only. Bank sync is Pro only, via Plaid, up to 15 accounts. A free account does not sync a bank. Ask FYN is 20 questions a month on Free and 500 on Pro. The same page lists read-only MCP calls so assistants such as Claude and ChatGPT can read your FYN data. They do not get a bank password. The free plan includes 500 of those calls a day, and Pro includes 10,000. Monarch also publishes a connector. FYN is not the only one.

The pricing page lists an autopilot budget on Free and Pro. An investment account, a cash APY, a checking account, and an advisory fee are not listed there. The household row is: 1 on Free, unlimited on Pro. On a monthly bill, Pro at $9.99 is the plan with bank sync, under Monarch Core's $14.99 and under SoFi Plus at $10. It is a software price, not a percent of a portfolio. FYN is free to start.

FAQ

Sources

Checked October 29, 2026. Vendor claims in the table and the FAQ point at these pages. A cell that says Not documented was not on the pages that loaded that day. SoFi's rate sheet URL and the October 20 PDF do not match. Both are listed.

• Rate sheet URL, rates effective May 28, 2026. Plus savings 4.50% and 3.10%, direct deposit savings 3.10%, standard savings 0.80%, checking 0.50%, and the $25,000 blended example of 4.22%: Banking rate sheet.
• PDF named for October 20, 2026. Plus savings 4.70% and 3.30%, direct deposit savings 3.30%, standard savings 0.80%, checking 0.50%, and the $25,000 blended example of 4.42%: October 20, 2026 rate sheet (PDF).
• Savings rates page. Plus block at 4.50% dated May 28, 2026, and a 3.30% footnote dated October 20, 2026: Savings account rates.
• SoFi Plus at $10, the 4.70% footnote dated October 20, 2026, the 1% invest match, and unlimited planner appointments: SoFi Plus.
• $10 a month, $120 over a year, and Plus only by paying. Updated October 2, 2026: How much is a SoFi Plus subscription?.
• Checking, no account fees, transaction fees named, 3.30% savings with direct deposit as of October 20, 2026, the direct deposit bonus, and overdraft coverage: Checking.
• Joint checking and savings, no account fees, and a 30-day overdraft window: Joint bank account.
• Automated investing, 0.25% of account value: Automated investing.
• Wrap brochure, March 27, 2026. The 0.25% fee, no account-size minimum, the $1 mutual fund trade, and the $50 cash threshold: Wrap fee program brochure.
• Brokerage fee schedule. The file title is Fee Schedule_V38 (update for October 1). The body did not yield a commission line this check could quote: Invest fee schedule (PDF).
• Coach, a free product for balances, spending, credit, debt, investments, and home value: What is SoFi Coach?.
• Coach was Relay. September 17, 2026: Coach and the older Relay feature.
• Categories from a list, no custom categories, custom tags: Transaction categories.
• Spend categories, merchant rules, recurring detection, and CSV export: Spend categories and tools.
• External accounts through Plaid: Coach budget planner.
• Coach can prepare an action you approve. September 17, 2026: Can SoFi Coach take action for me?.
• Joint Robo accounts, and no conversion of an existing account: Joint Invest account.
• iPhone and iPad listing. Download marked free. iOS 15.2 or later. Plus APY and the closed ACAT window: SoFi on the App Store.
• Android listing: SoFi on Google Play.
• Monarch pricing, trial, Plus price, and the WELCOME code: monarch.com/pricing.
• Platforms, United States and Canada: monarch.com/download.
• Plus features, desktop, household coverage, and the 7-day trial. August 31, 2026: Monarch Plus tier.
• Budget, flex and category, six-month average. Updated October 22, 2026: Creating your budget.
• Households. Updated October 20, 2026: Monarch for couples and households.
• Bank connections. June 9, 2026: Data providers and connections.
• Receipts, line items, and email forwarding. Updated October 28, 2026: Importing receipts.
• Connector restored. October 21, 2026: Bring your money into the conversation with the Monarch MCP.
• Monarch connector, read-only unless you allow write. Updated October 22, 2026: MCP connector.
• FYN plan limits: fyn.fyi/pricing.