Comparing Origin vs. Rocket Money

If you're interested in tracking your spending and creating a budget, you might be overwhelmed by the number of apps out there. We get it. One frequently mentioned budgeting app is Rocket Money, so we wanted to break down how it compares to Origin Financial: what we share and, crucially, where Origin outperforms.

Origin and Rocket Money both have strong spend tracking functions, but Origin goes well beyond that by helping users understand their money with AI-powered insights. That’s because Origin is the industry’s first AI financial advisor, meaning it combines the speed of a Google or ChatGPT response with the expertise of a financial professional and the details of your financial picture to produce hyper-personalized guidance. Origin’s suite of AI guidance, budgeting, and forecasting features are now part of the deep bench of financial offerings — high-yield cash accounts, no-fee index investing, estate planning, free tax filing, and one-on-one meetings with members of our Certified Financial Planner® team — that make Origin the only truly all-in-one financial management platform. 

Rocket Money’s primary services are subscription identification and spend tracking, which are available for free, but users can pay more for premium features like account sharing and subscription cancellation. Let’s dig into the differences between Origin and Rocket Money a bit more. 

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Budgeting: Origin’s AI Budget Builder vs. Rocket Money’s “Watchlist” 

Rocket Money offers thorough spend tracking by categorizing each transaction from your connected accounts and, if you’re a premium user, allowing you to create unlimited custom categories and tags. You can input your own limits for each category, or Rocket Money will automatically input the total you spent in the previous month. It also allows you to put specific categories on a “Watchlist.” It’s a pretty low-commitment, minimal way to budget.

Origin offers a much more streamlined and flexible way: Our AI budget builder analyzes your past spending to instantly create a personalized, realistic budget. You’ll get a clear, data-backed budget recommendation that is fully adjustable and customizable to your lifestyle and goals, with limits based on your existing habits to help you to save more. And if (and when) life changes, you can always get a new AI budget recommendation — or build your own manually if you prefer.

Origin also lets you create one-time budgets for holiday or travel-heavy months. 

Beyond these larger differences, both Origin and Rocket Money offer iOS widgets; Origin’s shows how you’re pacing on your budget for this month, while Rocket Money has a couple of options (transactions, what’s “safe to spend,” or a calendar of upcoming bills). 

Spend Tracking: Origin Gives Added Context

Both Origin and Rocket Money offer spend tracking, which is a crucial part of creating — and sticking to — a realistic budget. Both apps allow you to filter and sort transactions; split them (so that, for example, you can slot items from a big Target order into different budget categories, although Rocket Money only offers this service to premium customers); and add custom tags and notes. 

Origin outperforms Rocket Money by zooming both in and out: Instant Insights, one of our AI-powered features, drills down into each number across your account, explaining how and why it’s changed. Weekly Recaps give you a higher-level view of where your money went each week, revealing insights and trends you might not catch on a daily basis.

Efficient Subscriptions: Rocket Money’s Main Selling Point Is Just One of Origin’s Many Features

Rocket Money’s advertisements emphasize that it will find and lower your subscriptions or repeating bills — and it will. However, if Rocket Money successfully helps you lower a bill, it will also charge you a “negotiation fee” that ranges from 35 to 60% of the annual amount saved. 

Origin keeps you abreast of upcoming bills or subscription charges by visualizing them onto an easy-to-understand calendar, so you know what’s coming up — and what you might want to cancel. The platform also includes links to automatically cancel hundreds of subscriptions.

Origin’s subscription tracking does not promise as much, but we also don’t charge extra for any additional service. 

Financial Advice & Knowledge: Origin Has AI Advisor

This is an area where Origin outstrips Rocket Money. Our AI Advisor puts expert-level knowledge at your fingertips at the touch of a button. AI Advisor is basically your personal financial assistant, capable of answering complex financial questions with the rigor of a Certified Financial Planner®. Ask whether you’re saving enough, how to rebalance your portfolio, or what a major life change means for your finances. AI Advisor also brings in the latest news and market trends, to help make each additional conversation all the more contextual, helpful, and actionable. 

Looking for more in-depth financial planning? Our platform also connects users with CFP® professionals who can address their specific needs and develop financial plans with their specific goals in mind, for an additional fee. As an Origin user, you’re always just a few clicks away from scheduling time to meet with an Origin financial planner, who can advise you on home buying, investing, retirement planning, debt repayment, and more. 

Investment Tracking: Origin Offers Insight & Guidance 

Rocket Money offers educational resources for long-term financial planning, and helps users save. But when it comes to actual portfolio tracking, Rocket Money’s got nothing on Origin.

Origin’s investment dashboard gives you a complete, real-time view of your investments across all accounts. You can see the full value of your portfolio; get detailed AI-powered summaries on what exactly has changed in your portfolio and why, thanks to the Instant Insights button; ask AI Advisor related questions; and more. AI Advisor also brings real-time news updates into its advice and observations, so you don’t just get the what re: what’s happening in your portfolio, you get the why. 

Crucially, Origin lets you drill down into your individual assets on our Holdings tab. There, you can see the number of shares you own in a given product; the total value; and the return in dollars or percentages. We also offer Market Watch, a feature that is basically your on-demand financial markets search engine. 

Ways to Invest & Save: Origin’s Got Multiple Options 

Origin wins here, again. We offer a high-yield cash account with a competitive interest rate and fee-free automated index investing. Our managed portfolios put your money in globally diversified stocks and bonds based on your own timetable, goals, and risk preferences. Crucially, these have no fees — unlike most major brokerage firms, which typically charge between 0.25% and 1% — so you keep more of the money you earn. With Origin handling trading and rebalancing, these are a simple, super cost-effective way to build your wealth.

Rocket Money does not offer cash accounts or investment opportunities.

Partner Access: Origin’s 2-in-1 Accounts vs. Rocket Money’s Single Shared View

Rocket Money offers partner access as a premium feature; when you add it on to your account, you can share your login with your partner and track your spending together. That’s about as far as it goes. 

Origin’s partner features offer a much deeper understanding of your shared finances, giving you the ability to toggle between partner profiles or to view your information together. That’s three views (partner A, partner B, and together) for the price of one.

Net Worth: Origin’s Advanced Tracker vs. Rocket Money’s Simplified One

Both Origin and Rocket Money offer net worth tracking, which auto-updates when you connect your accounts and allows you to track your net worth over time. 

Origin also has integrations with Zillow and Coinbase, meaning your net worth on Origin reflects myriad asset classes. 

Origin also offers equity tracking, if you have ever earned equity as part of your compensation package. Our product also simulates different tax scenarios so that you can make fully informed decisions. 

Powerful Features Only Origin Has: Forecasting, Estate Planning, Tax Filing 

• Origin’s forecasting feature acts as your AI financial planner, letting you model out the financial impact of major life changes, like getting a new job, having kids, taking a sabbatical, or retiring. 
• We offer estate plan documents (Trusts and Wills) that are built with the input and supervision of estate lawyers to ensure that your family and assets are protected (though we are not a law firm and do not provide legal advice). Valid estate plans can be generated for all 50 states, and a basic will is included in every membership.
• Origin partners with April Tax to provide free state and federal tax filing as part of every membership. Our tax filing system is capable of covering high levels of tax complexity; is backed by our maximum refund guarantee; and gives you access to on-demand tax expert support for free. (Terms apply.)

Rocket Money does not offer forecasting, estate planning, or tax functions.

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Fundamentally, Rocket Money is just subscription management and tracking — Origin is so much more. No other app on the market comes close to our status as the first AI financial advisor with an all-in-one financial platform. We excel at a few other things too… 

Responsiveness

At Origin, iterating on our product regularly is a priority for us. When users request specific functionalities, we deliver — quickly. We also have a product advisory council made up of IRL users that gives feedback on each new functionality. On our active Reddit, Origin staff and Origin members are in regular communication. And when it comes to technical support, our customer care team responds within just a few minutes on live chat. 

Financial Education & Resources 

At Origin, our newsletter, The Gist, keeps readers informed about economic conditions and educated about personal finance matters that may impact their bottom line. (You can also sign up for it for free at the footer of our homepage.) We take financial education seriously at Origin, and our Resources tab is home to a host of blog posts breaking down some of the more complex elements of financial planning. 

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Ready to see why Origin outpaces Rocket Money? Try the first AI financial advisor that helps you track, plan, and grow — all in one app. Get started today.