Parents searching for an allowance app usually want one of two things: a way to track money for younger kids, or a spending card with guardrails for older ones. Most apps do one or the other. A few try to do both and end up mediocre at each.
This is a comparison of the main options, sorted by what they're built for.
The three types of allowance apps
Allowance apps fall into three categories. Knowing which type you need makes the choice obvious.
Kids debit card apps — Greenlight, GoHenry, BusyKid. Real money moves from your account to theirs. Kids get a physical or virtual card and spend it at real stores. Parents set category limits, get spending alerts, and control how much gets loaded.
Family ledger apps — Bank of Parents. No card, no real money moves. You stay the bank. Your child has a virtual account showing their balance, transaction history, and savings goals. You log a transaction when they spend something real. The money stays with you.
Chore reward apps — Homey, similar tools. Task management with an allowance attached. More about chore tracking than financial literacy. Kids earn points for tasks, redeem them for rewards. Useful for habit-building, not for teaching how money works.
Kids debit card apps
Greenlight
The market leader. Kids get a Mastercard debit card, parents set spending limits by category (restaurants, games, clothing), and the app tracks spending in real time. You fund a wallet balance that transfers to the card when your child spends.
Monthly fee: $5.99 for the basic plan, up to $14.98 for premium.
Good for: kids 10 and up ready to spend money on their own at stores and online.
Watch out for: real money moves. If your kid blows their balance on something impulsive, that money is gone. The controls help, but mistakes still carry real consequences. Some families want that. For younger kids, it's often too much too fast.
GoHenry
Similar to Greenlight. Kids get a debit card, parents fund it and set limits. GoHenry puts more emphasis on financial literacy content inside the app — short lessons and quizzes alongside the spending features.
Monthly fee: $4.99 per child.
Good for: same demographic as Greenlight. The in-app lessons make it more education-focused if that matters to you.
Watch out for: real money, real card, real fees. Same caveats as Greenlight.
BusyKid
Adds an investing angle. Kids can direct a portion of their allowance into a brokerage account, which sets it apart from the other card apps.
Monthly fee: $4 per family, not per child — useful if you have multiple kids.
Good for: older kids (12+) whose parents want to introduce investing alongside everyday spending.
Watch out for: more complexity than most families need for younger children. The investing feature requires more parent involvement to use meaningfully.
Family ledger apps
Bank of Parents
No card. No real money moves. You create accounts for each child, set up recurring allowance deposits that post automatically, and log a transaction when they spend something real. The app tracks their balance, full transaction history, and any savings goals they've set.
Monthly fee: Free.
Good for: kids under 10 building a mental model of money before they spend it on their own. Also useful for families who want to have the money conversations before handing over a card.
Watch out for: no physical card means kids can't buy things independently. For younger kids, that's the point. Teenagers will find it limiting and will eventually need something with more independence.
Real lessons, no real consequences. The concepts stick; the mistakes don't cost anyone anything.
Which type fits your family
Under 10
A ledger app. Kids at this age benefit from understanding what a balance is and watching it change — not from swiping a card independently. Tracking, saving goals, and spending conversations build the foundation.
10 to 13
Either, depending on how much independence you're ready to give. A card app makes sense if your child buys lunch, shops without you, or needs to pay for things on their own. A ledger works well if you're still making most money decisions together.
14 and up
A card app. Real-stakes experience starts to matter at this age, and a debit card with parental controls is a reasonable bridge before a fully independent bank account.
Why start with a ledger
Most kids get their first debit card with no background in how to use it. They don't know what a balance is, they've never tracked their own spending, and the first time money runs out it's a surprise.
A year of ledger experience changes that. A child who's watched a savings goal grow, noticed a transaction, and decided against a purchase because it would drain their account understands money. Handing them a card at that point is a different conversation.
Bank of Parents is free and takes about three minutes to set up. Create accounts for each child, schedule recurring allowances to post automatically, and log transactions as they happen. When they're ready for a card, they'll already know what to do with it.
Set up Bank of Parents free — your first recurring allowance will be running in under 5 minutes.