Guides

WhenZero vs PocketSmith

The closest thing to a direct rival. Both forecast forward — the differences are price, privacy and what the forecast is for.

Prices and features checked 22 August 2026. Both change — check before you buy.

The short answer

PocketSmith is the only well-known app that shares our thesis: budgets look backwards, and looking forwards is the harder and more useful thing. If you want long-range forecasting with bank connections and you do not mind the price, it is very good and it has been doing this for years.

We are cheaper, we do not connect to your bank, and we are pointed specifically at debt payoff rather than general forecasting.

Price

PocketSmith runs three tiers — Foundation at $9.99 a month, Flourish at $16.66, Fortune at $26.66 — with the forecast horizon and the number of accounts rising as you go up. WhenZero is one tier at $8.99 a month or $69 a year, with the full three-year horizon and unlimited accounts included at the bottom, because there is no top.

The forecast

PocketSmith projects budgets forward over a long horizon and is strong on scenarios and net worth over years. Ours is narrower and more granular: a day-by-day walk over three years that accrues credit card interest daily, applies minimum payments, and sweeps whatever is spare at your debts in the order you choose. The output is a payoff date that moves when you change something.

Bank connections

PocketSmith connects to banks. We deliberately do not — there is no server holding your finances to connect them to. You enter your bills once, or drop in a statement file, which is parsed in your browser with names, addresses and account numbers stripped out before anything is saved.

That is a real trade and worth being honest about: automatic transactions are genuinely convenient, and we do not have them. What you get instead is that there is no account of yours to breach.

Side by side