Money saving websites are an integral tool to help you stretch your monthly budget and focus your spending on what you value. They let you save money at your favorite stores, put money into savings, and more.
If you want to lower your bills, our guide shares the top money saving apps to use to keep more cash in your pocket.
Table of Contents
Top Apps that Help You Save Money
Cutting costs is an essential part of improving your financial health. Apps and websites make it simple to save money on anything with minimal effort.
As a preview, here are the leading choices to consider.
| App | Best For |
|---|---|
| Capital One Shopping | Active coupon codes |
| Ibotta | Saving money at the grocery store |
| Chime | Reducing bank fees |
| Acorns | Saving spare change |
Here are the best websites that help you save money.
1. Capital One Shopping
Capital One Shopping is a free browser extension that helps you save money online. It does this in a variety of ways but primarily allows you to identify active coupon codes when shopping online.
When you add products to your online shopping cart, the app searches the internet for promo codes or better deals at other stores.
If they find one, they apply it to your item or send you to the other retailer to purchase.
They even have an app you can use when shopping on the go. Other features include:
- Universal product search
- Price drop alerts
- Loyalty credits
- Trending deals
Cost: Free
Pros: Helps you find active coupon codes, loyalty credits can be used to redeem gift cards
Cons: No cash back option
Read our review of the Capital One Shopping extension here to learn more.
The Honey app works similarly, read our review of the Honey Extension to learn about that app.
2. Ibotta
Coupon clipping is a popular way to reduce your expenses. However, not everyone likes to clip coupons, or you may prefer using your phone to save.
If that’s the case for you, Ibotta is a fantastic app to help you save money. The app works primarily as a tool to save money on groceries.
You simply scan receipts once you finish your shopping. The app then locates available cash back rebates and applies those to your account.
Additionally, you can use the app to look for rebates before you go to the store to help you earn cash back. It also works with over 300 online retailers to get rebates on your shopping.
Cost: Free
Pros: $5 back after your first purchase, can cash out once you reach a $20 balance
Cons: Generic items have low rebates
Read our review of the Ibotta app here to learn more.
3. Chime
Cash back sites aren’t the only way to save money online. Chime is another terrific tool to use to manage your money and reduce expenses.
Chime is a financial app that works to keep more money in your pocket. It has no monthly fees and offers a nationwide network of 60,000+ fee-free ATMs for you to use.
The institution helps you increase your savings in a variety of ways, including:
- Rounding up purchases and putting the balance in your Chime savings account
- Free bill pay
- Splitting the bill, which lets you divide bills when you are out with friends
- Two days advanced access to your paychecks when direct deposited into your checking account
Chime is only available online and doesn’t have physical branches.
Cost: No monthly fees
Pros: Fee-free ATM network, tons of features
Cons: Online only
Read our review of Chime here to learn more.
4. Truebill
If you’re like our family, life is busy. This makes it easy to overlook negotiating bills or canceling services you no longer use.
Ultimately, that leaves money on the table that could go to other needs.
Truebill is a helpful resource to alleviate that problem. When you sign up for a free account, Truebill goes to work to find opportunities to cut costs.
If the app identifies a bill to cut or a service you don’t use, it acts on your behalf to reduce costs. It also monitors any subscriptions you sign up for to ensure they don’t automatically renew without your knowledge.
Cost: Free
Pros: Automates negotiation, helps you find services you don’t use and cuts those expenses
Cons: Keeps 40 percent of any savings they earn for you
Read our review of Truebill here to learn more.
5. Acorns
Automatic savings apps can be an easy way to grow your emergency fund or increase your savings. Acorns is an investment app that connects with your debit card to do just that.
As you make purchases, it rounds up each one and deposits it into your Acorns account. You then use those funds to invest in a goals-based portfolio of your choosing.
The app offers exchange-traded funds (ETFs) from Vanguard and BlackRock to create your portfolio. This is a great way to use your spare change and grow it for the future.
Acorns also has a variety of other investment-related accounts to help you save for future needs.
Cost: $1 per month
Pros: Invests your spare change, lots of tools to help you grow your money
Cons: It’s not free
Read our review of Acorns here to learn more.
6. Rakuten
Rakuten, formerly known as Ebates, is a helpful app to use if you want to save money shopping online.
Unlike Capital One Shopping, Rakuten doesn’t look for coupon codes. Instead, it helps you earn rewards in the form of rebates.
As opposed to going directly to Target’s website, for example, you shop through the Rakuten platform. They partner with Target, and you get a cash rebate on your total bill.
You may occasionally find coupons, but it’s primarily an online deals site to get cash back on purchases. Rakuten works with over 2,500 retailers, and you can earn up to 40 percent back on purchases.
Cost: Free
Pros: Easy to use to earn rebates, get up to 40 percent cashback
Cons: Rebates are only paid out quarterly
7. Fetch Rewards
If you like coupon apps, Fetch Rewards is another tool to use to find money saving deals. The app works a lot like Ibotta.
You go to the store and make your purchases. Once you’re done, you take a picture of the receipt with your phone. Then, the app locates available rebates.
*Related: Want other choices to save money shopping? Here’s our guide on the best free coupon sites to use to save money.*
You can redeem earnings once you reach $10 (10,000 points), unlike the $20 threshold with Ibotta. Unfortunately, you can currently only redeem your earnings via gift cards to popular retailers.
Cost: Free
Pros: Easy way to get rebates on your purchases, you earn 3,000 points with the code FETCH2K
Cons: Earnings can only be redeemed for gift cards
Read our review of Fetch Rewards here to learn more.
8. Tiller
If staying on top of your spending is a challenge, Tiller is another helpful budgeting app that assists in managing your money.
Many people struggle with keeping tabs on their spending. Tiller solves that problem for you by connecting to your bank account and putting all of your transactions into a Google Sheet.
From there, you can identify areas where you can spend less so you can keep more money in your pocket. While you can do this manually, automating it makes it much simpler to manage.
Cost: $79 per year, after a 30-day free trial
Pros: Automates tracking your spending, lets you see how you’re spending your money
Cons: You must pay to use the service
9. Trim
Trim is a bill negotiation app that works similar to Truebill but with some tweaks. It connects to your bank account, then goes to work to analyze your spending.
The app will cancel any services or subscriptions it finds that you don’t use. They will verify with you that it’s ok to act before proceeding.
Additionally, Trim negotiates lower prices on services you want to keep.
It even includes a debt payoff calculator for those who are actively attacking debt.
This service is free to use, but they keep 33 percent of any savings they earn for you. If you opt for the premium tier, it includes access to a high-yield savings account and daily transaction monitoring.
Trim Premium costs $99 per year.
Cost: Free, but they keep 33 percent of any earned savings
Pros: Easy to use, financial management tools like debt payoff calculator and budget assistance
Cons: No mobile app, you sacrifice 33 percent of savings
Read our review of Trim here to learn more.
10. Steady
Saving money is great, but there’s a limit to the amount of cutbacks you can make. Sometimes it’s not a spending problem you may have, but an earning issue.
If you need to pair earning more money with finding good deals and discounts, Steady is an awesome app to use. Steady helps you find side hustles in your area and directs you to real jobs that you qualify for.
The app takes it a step further by allowing you to monitor the money you earn via those side hustles.
Better yet, it helps you identify potential tax deductions you are eligible for when working as an independent contractor.
Cost: Free
Pros: Great way to find side gigs, potential to earn sign-up bonuses for some jobs
Cons: You must apply for each job
11. Swagbucks
Swagbucks is one of the best websites to help you save money. It works a lot like Rakuten to help you earn cash rebates by shopping through its online portal at over 2,800 participating retailers.
That is just one way to save money with Swagbucks. The platform is a get-paid-to site that pays you to perform various tasks, including:
- Taking short surveys
- Watching sponsored videos
- Completing short tasks
- Using their search engine
You earn SB points for each task you complete, which you can redeem for cash or gift cards to popular retailers. Rewards are redeemable once you reach a $5 balance.
Cost: Free
Pros: Easy way to save and earn money, can start using as young as 13
Cons: Many tasks aren’t lucrative
Read our review of Swagbucks here to learn more.
12. RebatesMe
RebatesMe is another helpful deal site that lets you earn rebates on your online shopping. The site partners with over 4,000 retailers to pass savings onto customers.
Like Rakuten, you go to the RebatesMe platform to start shopping. If you prefer to shop on your phone, it also has an app you can use.
Once you reach a $10 balance, you can redeem earnings via cash or gift card.
Cost: Free
Pros: $30 promo to open a new account (must accumulate $10 in cashback to earn), easy to use
Cons: $4.99 monthly fee if you have 12 months of account inactivity
13. Simplifi
Not all money saving websites or apps help you find great deals on items you purchase. However, there are online tools that can still be a good way to reduce spending.
Simplifi, by Quicken, is one such tool. This is a budgeting app that helps you create a spending plan for your money.
It also lets you create watchlists to monitor your spending so that it doesn’t get out of control.
The app doesn’t necessarily motivate you to save money, but it does provide a lot of resources to help you reduce your monthly bills.
Cost: $39.99 per year, after a 30-day free trial
Pros: Watchlists and spending plans help you improve your finances
Cons: You must pay to use the service
14. Groupon
Groupon is one of the best savings apps to use and a terrific way to lower your entertainment costs. The platform was a forerunner in the daily deal space.
You can purchase anything from discounted movie passes to an affordable vacation package on the site. The site touts the ability to save up to 70 percent off the retail cost of an item.
Visit the “Coupons” section of the site to find promo codes to use on purchases at well-known retailers.
Cost: Free
Pros: Wide variety of savings opportunities, no cost to use
Cons: May not always have something you’re looking for
15. $5 Meal Plan
If you struggle with saving on your grocery needs or meal planning, $5 Meal Plan is an excellent tool to help you manage both. The resource guides you through creating meal plans for your family.
But, it doesn’t stop there. It provides recipes to make the meals and helps you with comparison shopping at the store so that you don’t overspend.
You receive five dinner recipes each week. The service claims you can prepare all of the meals in 20 minutes or less, so it saves you time as well.
Cost: $5 per month, after a 14-day free trial
Pros: Walks you through the entire process of meal planning, helps you save money at the store
Cons: Only provides one lunch and breakfast recipe a week
16. Honey
The Honey app is another tool that helps you find the best prices on items you buy online. Like Capital One Shopping, Honey is a free browser extension that works in the background as you shop online.
When you put items in your shopping cart, it searches for active promo codes and discounts. Then it applies them to your purchase.
Another helpful feature of Honey is that it allows you to see the price history of a product. This is useful if you can wait on an item or believe a better price will arise in the future.
Cost: Free
Pros: Easy to use, works on all major browsers
Cons: Rebates are only redeemable via gift cards
Read our review of the Honey app here to learn more.
17. GasBuddy
Finding cheap gas is an essential part of saving money. As gas prices rise, GasBuddy is one of the best online tools to save money.
The app works with over 150,000 gas stations in the United States. It helps you identify cheap prices near you.
Better yet, if you use their free debit card, you can receive up to $0.25 off per gallon at participating locations.
*Related: Need a cheap place to make copies? Read our guide on the cheapest places to make copies near me to find the best options to save money.*
If you’re a premium member, the discount is up to $0.40 off per gallon.
The app also has a rewards program to help you save on other gas station purchases or earn rewards to apply to your next gas purchase.
Cost: Free, or $9.99 per month for the premium plan
Pros: Trip cost estimator, rewards program to save more at the pump
Cons: Must have premium membership for the best benefits
Should You Only Use Free Money Saving Websites?
It may seem counterintuitive to spend money on a money saving app. The goal is to save more money, so why would you want to spend cash to make that possible?
As with anything in personal finance, it depends on your particular goals. For example, a tool like Tiller may be a great solution if you’re struggling with staying on top of your finances.
If that doesn’t describe you, then spending on the service is not worth it.
Before you use any of these money saving websites, it’s essential to identify your saving and spending habits. This will help you determine what online tools to use.
If they’re free, then terrific. But, if a paid platform delivers increased value, it might be worth using.
Bottom Line
Saving money is a simple way to improve your finances. There’s no need to spend more than you should.
If reducing expenses is a challenge for you, try a few of the apps on our list to make it easier.
What are some ways you like to save money every month?
*Chime is a financial technology company, not a bank. Banking services provided by, and debit card issued by, The Bancorp Bank or Stride Bank, N.A.; Members FDIC.
*Capital One Shopping compensates us when you sign up for Capital One Shopping using the links provided.
We don’t do the Amazon subscription service now because we get better deals by combining coupons and sales. This works because of the infrequency of needing the items. But I see us using it once kids come and maybe even their Mommy & Me service (I think that’s the name).
I love using Morningstar as well. I frequent Fat Wallet too, but mostly for the forums. Sometimes I go into the deals section.
We’ve found the same thing to be true Jon in that some of the subscribe and save deals just aren’t as good of a deal. You really need to do your research on it if you’re looking at something to subscribe to.
I use to order from Retailmenot when I was living in the U.S. I can testify that what you see is exactly what you’re going to get. They also deliver the items pretty quickly.
I use RetailMeNot all the time!
I love Groupon and RetailMeNot. I use both of them all the time! I use retailmenot for coupons and groupon for hair and dental appointments.
We’re the same way, especially with RetailMeNot. It’s my first stop when buying something online.
I use about 75% of these. I’m also a big fan of the coupons at checkout and price blink browser add ons. They automatically check for promo codes when you’re shopping online so you don’t have to google or anything.
That’s a great way to do it Stefanie – money AND time savings!
I’ve been reading a lot about Personal Capital and will have to check them out. I haven’t heard of many of the other sites so I have this page bookmarked. I do use amazon subscribe and save for one item though. If it’s something you buy regularly and can only get it online I recommend it.
You should check them out Tonya, especially since they’re free. We get a couple of things on the subscribe and save, mainly so I can just avoid Wal-Mart. 🙂
I am going to check out Personal Capital. I have been itching to move to something new. I have been hearing more and more about this one. It is hard to change when you have been using one for soooooo long.
I know, it can be difficult to make that change. I really like it as it allows me to have everything in one place.
Great list of money-saving websites. I will have to look into freecycle. Sounds like an interesting website.
Thanks Michelle! Freecycle is one I’ve been meaning for us to check out, you can’t beat free!
What a great lists of money saving websites ya got there John! Thanks for that.
The only one however that I have used is Freecycle. Since I really don’t buy anything new, I tend to frequent sites like Freecycle, Craigslist and Kijijji. But not before I take a trip to a few local Thrift shops to see if they have what I need. Those are the place I’d rather spend my cash.
Maybe I’m just too old school 🙂
Thanks for the research and take care.
Lyle
I don’t think that’s old school at all Lyle – it’s being smart. 🙂
I wrote a two-part post where I shared a total of 10 sites that help people save money. Surprisingly none of them overlapped with yours (unless I have bad memory). Sites like coupons.com and Pocket your Dollars have literally saved us thousands.
I seem to remember that and I totally overlooked Coupons.com!
Some of these I’ve heard of or used and some I haven’t. I’ll have to check these out next time I’m going to be making a purchase anyway to see if I can same some money. 🙂
Sounds like a plan Kayla – saving is pretty easy through many of these options.
I use retailmenot all the time. I haven’t paid full price for a pizza in years.
Can’t complain about that!
Perhaps I need to up my game. I haven’t heard of most of these. But I am a HUGE believer in Subscribe and Save right now. We are closing in on the end of three years of getting diapers this way – with a couple more to go yet. I think it is the best idea yet. If I scrimped and hunted, I might be able to save a couple cents or even a dollar here or there by combining coupons and sales. But the guaranteed 20% off is worth it to me. Plus I never fear that I’ll need to run out in the middle of the night, in a blizzard, while the kids are sick, Mr. Maroon is out of town… (you get the idea) to buy something as essential as diapers.
Some people automate savings (which is genius, by the way). I automate diapers.
We just started using Subscribe and Save a few months ago for an item or two and really like it. Plus, it helps me avoid Wal-Mart! We discovered it too late for diapers as our youngest is potty training at the moment, but I totally understand where you’re coming from.
Ha ha, I can’t blame you on that one!
For the Canadians out there, I use save.ca,websaver.ca, and the Canadian version of retailmenot and coupons.com.
I think sites like Groupon/Living Social are only money saving sites when it’s something you actually want to buy and there’s a deal on it. I find most of the time, the products and services offered are things I wouldn’t really use, even with a deal.
Sometimes people feel pressured to buy the deal because it’s only on for such a short time and then don’t even end up using it (such as yours truly). I ended up selling one of my groupons to someone else.
That’s a good point on Groupon/Living Social. It has to be a really good deal on something we’d use anyway. We use it for date nights quite a bit as a couple of the restaurants we like commonly have deals through them
Thanks for this comprehensive list. My list only consists of Groupon and Living Social so this list will definitely be bookmarked!
Glad to help!
Thanks, John. You have introduced me to some great websites that I have never used before. I agree that consumerreports.org is well worth the price of admission. I consult it for both small and large purchases (everything from laundry soap to automobiles). Their buying guides are also very useful (and often free to non-subscribers). Thanks again for your excellent recommendations.
Not a problem at all Jason. I really like using Consumer Reports as well, especially for larger purchases – they’re often the first site I go to.
I use Ebates.com. they basically pay you for shopping online. you go to their site and choose the store you would like to buy from and they take you to the site. you get a percentage from your purchase. i highly recommend it to everyone.
These are some great website resources! I already use some, but I plan on checking out some of the others listed.
Definitely use Amazon prime a lot. I can decide to buy something and have it so fast! It’s my go-to for holiday shopping, that and Freeshipping.org since I hate to pay shipping too!