Roqqett Blog

November 6, 2021
Author: Sara Mucciolo

Emma vs Roqqett: Which is best for budgeting?

Discover which financial app, Emma or Roqqett, is better for budgeting.

Quick Summary

  • Roqqett features overview
  • Emma features overview
  • Benefits and Drawbacks
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Congratulations, you are one step closer to becoming the best version of your financial self. If you are reading this blog it’s because you are savvy enough to care about your finances. Now, we all know there are countless money apps out there for you to kickstart your financial journey. But which one is the BEST one? In this blog post, we’ll be comparing two of the most popular Money and Spending insights apps in the space: Emma and Roqqett. Specifically, which one is best for budgeting.


Both Roqqett and Emma leverage the power of Open Banking technology, whereby they bring together all your spending together in one place. This is of course only possible if you agree to connect your different bank and credit card accounts within the respective apps. Once that’s done, you are ready to access all the various benefits the app features have to offer. Let’s deep dive into it shall we?

Roqqett


Although not originally built to be a budgeting app, Roqqett provides the best money insights where you can keep track of your finances and start taking care of your spending habits. What does this entail?


1. Full view of your accounts

Within the “Accounts” tab, Roqqett shows you your Total Balance across all your accounts, as well as  updates in real-time the Current Balance of all your connected accounts. This is especially handy when it comes to budgeting your money and tracking how much money you have all together at any given time.

2. A full list of your transactions and subscriptions


Not only does this allow you to have full visibility of all your spending across your different accounts in real-time, but it saves you precious time by checking the one Roqqett app, as opposed to checking all your individual banking apps.


By also having all your transactions joint in one place, it is easier for you to detect any price changes that can happen over time, such as a phone bill or any subscription plans that may have increased their costs.


3. Automatic transaction categorisation:


Bringing all your spending together isn’t the only thing Roqqett can do. The free app goes a step further by categorising all your transactions for you, automatically! That’s right, you don’t even have to lift a finger. This was built to help you be aware of all your money outgoings and incomings, as well as show you if you're overspending in any or one particular area (like shopping maybe?).


As part of this handy feature, Roqqett also includes an intuitive pie chart that gives you a quick visual overview of your top 5 categories and merchants.⁠ And in true Roqqett style, it fits with the clean and minimalist design of the app, so that you are not overwhelmed by the information being presented.


What better way to budget if not with Roqqett’s handy transaction tracker and categorisation?


4. Re-categorisation of categories


You know how we mentioned how Roqqett automatically categorises your transactions? It does you one better! If you think a certain payment shouldn’t be in a specific category, Roqqett allows you to re-categorise it for free.


For example, if you decide to withdraw cash at an ATM, Roqqett will categorise it as “Cash”. Yet, if you know that cash will be used to buy a coffee, then you can take that transaction and re-categorise it as “Eating out” for example.


Curious to learn more about budgeting different spending categories?


Read our blog post “16 spending categories that will help keep track of your money”  


5. Category Spending Insights


To help you budget better, Roqqett provides smart insights about your spending, specifically how much you spend for each category. Based on how you like to view your spending, Roqqett allows you to filter by date or amount, as well as view your transactions in a 30 day, 3 months or 1 year period.


The insights include useful information such as:


  • Full list of all the transactions within each category


  • Average transaction spend per category (i.e How much you spend on average for Transportation)


  • How much your spending in each category has gone up or down in the last 30 days, 3 months or year⁠


  • A spend breakdown of all the transactions within each category


All these insights will prove useful to you, as they will help guide you in making better budgeting decisions, such as cut back in certain areas.

6. Merchant Spending Insights


Like the Category Spending Insights, Roqqett also gives you the option to view your spending according to “Merchants”. This means you can see how much you spend for each merchant (aka brands, retailers etc..), and like the category view, you can filter by date or amount, as well as view your transactions in a 30 day, 3 months or 1 year period.


Within this view, you can get useful insights such as:


  • Full list of all the transactions per merchant


  • Average transaction spend per merchant (i.e How much you spend on average at Tesco)


  • How much your spending for each merchant has gone up or down in the last 30 days, 3 months or year⁠


  • A spend breakdown to see your top categories within each merchant

7. Receive instant payment notifications and track your balances in real-time.⁠


Finally, to ensure you are always up to date, Roqqett can and will (if you want it to), send you breaking news alerts for your finances. ⁠This includes notifications for: ⁠


  • Your payments⁠ (ie. When you are paid, need to pay or have paid)


  • Your account activity (ie. Daily balance updates and any information about your connected bank accounts)⁠


  • Your reminders ⁠(i.e useful tips & advice to make Roqqett best work for you)


  • New app features & updates ⁠(i.e any exciting changes and improvements)


So what are you waiting for? Kickstart your budgeting journey with Roqqett by downloading the Free App, available both on iOS and Android.

Emma


Like Roqqett, Emma brings all your spending transactions together in its one app, once you sync your different bank accounts. Because we’re here to compare, I would like to point out how Emma is much slower in connecting these accounts than Roqqett, due to their slower Open Banking API provider. Now that’s out the way, let’s drill down into Emma’s budgeting capabilities.


If using their “Free” version, Emma allows you to:


  • Have a full view of your accounts and respective balances


  • Get a weekly report around your spending. Within it, you'll find personalised insights, which are like Roqqett's. These include highlighting your top categories and merchants as well as letting you know whether you’re on track or if you need to cut back in certain areas.


  • Set budgets for each category


  • Sync your budgets to your pay period. Within this, you can check how many days you have left until your next payday, as well as see how much money you have left to spend for each category.


  • Drill down on the spending based on the current week, current pay period, current month, last month, last 6 months or ‘beginning of time’.


  • See a list of all your subscriptions and detect any price changes over time


  • Receive "saving" tips such as recommending you to switch providers


  • Earn cash back on specific branded deals promoted within the app


All of these prove to be very useful, however, if you consider how much more is hiding behind their paywall, you’d reconsider and opt for a better app, which is 100% free (yes, I’m referring to Roqqett).


See, Emma had 2 paid plans, where you can pay £4.99/month for Emma Plus OR £9.99/month for Emma Pro. So what’s actually included in these? See below:


Emma Plus:


  • Better and more Cash back deals


  • Turbo updates


  • Priority Support (Roqqett prioritises everyone #JustSayin)


  • Fraud Detection (surely that should be a given…)


  • True Balance to see your balance before payday


  • Bill reminders


Emma Pro - Same as Plus plan with the added following:


  • Accurate Net-worth


  • Set Savings Goals


  • Custom Categories


  • Offline Accounts


  • Rolling Budgets


  • Exporting of data to excel spreadsheets


  • Advanced Transactions Editing


  • Split, Rename & Amend Transactions


Overall, if you truly want to save and budget your money effectively, you should consider using a FREE app! No need for another subscription, like Emma Pro, when you can have the best money insights with Roqqett!

Explore the Roqqett Range

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