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Money Management Apps Become the Consumer’s Must-Have as Prices and Inflation Soar

Public engagement with money management apps has soared by 46 per cent year on year as consumers seek to beat the cost of living crisis.

An analysis of the performance of money management apps over the past two years by app marketing and analytics platform App Radar has revealed that the sector has gained over six million new users in the period between 1 January to 7 June 2022.

That is a 46 per cent increase when compared to the same period in 2021, which saw the sector reach just over four million app downloads. The surge in users shows that consumers are looking for new ways to make their money go further during the cost of living crisis.

Initial results for the second quarter of 2022 showed seven per cent more new users – around 2.8 million – when compared to Q2 2021 – around 2.6 million.

This comes as UK inflation leapt to a 40-year high of nine per cent in April 2022, up from seven per cent in March, and petrol prices saw the biggest daily increase in 17 years on 7 June 2022.

When taking into account potential iOS users, total lifetime downloads for the sector could be around 78 million – or 10 per cent of Europeans.

The analysis by App Radar looked at 16 apps that help users with money management in three areas: banking apps with money tracking functionality, apps that help with saving and budgeting, and deal comparison apps.

The fastest-growing apps in the banking area, in terms of Google Play store downloads for the year to date, were: Revolut with 3.8 million new users, Monzo with 584,000 and the recently launched Chase UK app with 401,000 new users.

In the savings and budgeting area, Plum came in top place with 131,000 new users, followed by Snoop with 122,000 and Moneybox with 72,000.

In the deal comparison sector, Money Supermarket came in first place with 75,000 new users, followed by Confused with 44,000 and Raisin with 14,000.

Revolut, Monzo and Monese were the top three apps in terms of lifetime Google Play downloads (as of 7 June 2022) at 20.9 million, 4.6 million and 3.6 million downloads respectively.

Silvio Peruci, managing director at App Radar
Silvio Peruci

Recognising how the rising cost of living has caused consumers to reevaluate how they’re managing their money, Silvio Peruci, managing director at App Radar, said: “Budgeting and tracking your spending has never been more valuable.

“While consumers cannot control inflation and rising prices, they can control how they spend money. Thankfully, innovation in the money management sector is ripe, especially ever since the introduction of open banking in 2018.

“It has never been easier to track your expenses, budget and compare deals. While this is not a solution to the cost of living crisis, it can provide some much-needed help.

“Fintech is a competitive app market. Startups are disrupting the area, but we also have traditional banks catching up with consumers’ needs – and the latter has the user base for user acquisition, as the recently launched Chase UK app has shown.

“Innovation in functionality and ease of use are very important for consumers, but what is as important as development for this sector is marketing – and those that manage to prioritise both will emerge as market leaders in 2022.”

Author

  • Tyler is a fintech journalist with specific interests in online banking and emerging AI technologies. He began his career writing with a plethora of national and international publications.

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