Readers’ Choice: The Top Tax and Personal Finance Apps for 2024 (2024)

It's not often we get a chance to survey readers on a new topic, but this is a first. In our latest PCMag Readers’ Choice survey, we asked you to rate your satisfaction with four different types of finance tools: tax prep software, personal finance software, digital wallets, and payment apps. There's a vast array available in each category, from huge companies on down—though one brand name (Intuit) happens to own a number of them.

Many of these services are free, but to get the full benefit, you must invest a significant amount of your time. They also have to earn your trust, because all get access to some of your most sensitive data. A breach of one of these products could put your entire financial well-being at risk. Read on to see which products your fellow readers feel are worth the investment, and your confidence.

The Top Tax Prep Software for 2024

FreeTaxUSA wins our inaugural PCMag Readers’ Choice Award for tax prep software. We’ve noted over the years that users often give some slack to more affordable solutions, but the app’s excellent satisfaction ratings cannot be completely attributed to cost. FreeTaxUSA receives the highest satisfaction numbers in our survey for every measure for which it earns enough response. All but one of FreeTaxUSA’s ratings was 9.0 or better on our scale from 0 (extremely dissatisfied) to 10 (extremely satisfied), and the one rating that missed the mark, satisfaction with ease of use (8.9), barely did so.

Is FreeTaxUSA truly free? It can be if all you’re doing is filing federal tax returns. In fact, this year FreeTaxUSA is also our Editors’ Choice for Free Federal Filing. Add-ons include $15 for each state return, plus you can pay to get improved support and other services. These potential fees do not deter respondents’ enthusiasm for satisfaction with cost. FreeTaxUSA’s rating for price is 1.5 points better than the next closest app, H&R Block, and more than two points better than TurboTax and TaxAct.

If you find that your tax needs are too complex for FreeTaxUSA or you require a tool with more handholding, our readers’ pick is Intuit’s TurboTax. TurboTax’s satisfaction ratings are good across the board, except for technical support (6.7) and the aforementioned satisfaction with cost (6.9). The software nabs its highest ratings for satisfaction with federal filing, refund disbursem*nt options, and refund accuracy. TurboTax is a perennial Editors’ Choice in our annual reviews, this year taking the title for Best Overall Tax Experience.

All four products for which we have results earn excellent ratings for refund accuracy. If you’re not using a CPA, you should certainly be using tax software.

For more, read The Best Tax Software.

The Top Personal Finance Software for 2024

The three personal finance products most used by our respondents are all from Intuit. The top-rated of these is Credit Karma, which wins our first-ever PCMag Readers’ Choice award for personal finance software. Credit Karma’s basic proposition is that it will help you keep an eye on your credit, to help you earn as strong a credit score as possible, based on looking at your personal finances.

Credit Karma’s ratings for overall satisfaction and likelihood to recommend—the two most important measures of satisfaction in our surveys—are slightly ahead of Quicken’s ratings. Quicken, a brand that has been around for over 40 years, is a more comprehensive personal finance system to manage all accounts, be it the Deluxe version or the simpler edition called Simplifi.

The lowest-rated service, by far, is Mint, which is no surprise. Intuit announced plans to shut it down last year and if you open the app today it moves all your info over to...Credit Karma.

Credit Karma receives its highest rating for satisfaction with cost/value, nearly two points ahead of Quicken. That’s because Credit Karma is free, making money for Intuit on financial product recommendations when users, for example, open a credit card via a link in the app. Quicken, by contrast, receives one of its lowest ratings for satisfaction with cost/value. Many respondents hate that Quicken has gone to a subscription model.

Not surprisingly, Credit Karma rates highly for satisfaction with credit monitoring. Respondents also say they are satisfied with its setup, ease of use, and reliability. However, the tool falls slightly behind Quicken in satisfaction with financial account integration and budgeting.

For more, read The Best Personal Finance Software.

The Top Digital Wallet for 2024

Digital wallets let you store credit and debit card information on your devices and make payments to vendors or individuals (much like the payment apps below). Generally speaking, they're more secure than paying with physical credit cards (which can be skimmed) or storing credit card information on websites. They also bring some extra convenience to your life, allowing you to pay with a tap of your phone or even your smartwatch. Many wallets can even be used for e-commerce payments through your browser.

Apple Pay wins our PCMag Readers’ Choice Award for digital wallets. Respondents rate it higher than its chief competitor, Google Pay, on a dozen different measures of satisfaction.

Sadly, you cannot choose which of these wallets to use on your phone. Apple Pay will not work on an Android device, and Google Pay is very limited on an iPhone. The two wallets received identical ratings for satisfaction with financial account integration, so fortunately respondents don’t feel institutions have biases towards one platform or the other.

Apple received one of its highest satisfaction ratings for trustworthiness, which is one of the lowest ratings for Google Pay. The largest gulf between the two is in satisfaction with tech support/customer service, where Google is more than a full point behind Apple.

It's worth noting, though, that Google does come out ahead in satisfaction with desktop/web access, likely due in part to the fact that Apple Pay cannot be used on Windows PCs. In contrast, Google Pay works in a browser on Windows and Mac computers. Google Pay is, by the way, our Editors’ Choice app for mobile payments.

The Top Payment App for 2024

Payment apps let you easily send and receive payments from friends as well as pay vendors from your smartphone or computer browser. There’s a lot of overlap with digital wallets here, but in general, these services are free, and don’t limit you to one app. In many situations, your choice of app is defined by who you’re transacting with and what app they have.

Given their druthers, our survey respondents name PayPal as their payment app of choice. The venerable service wins our Readers’ Choice award for payment apps, edging out its chief competitor Zelle in overall satisfaction. It's worth noting, however, that Zelle comes out slightly ahead in likelihood to recommend. Venmo—which PayPal owns—is often considered the cool kid on the block, but it has the lowest ratings of the three services, finishing last on nearly every measure.

PayPal, which lets you link bank accounts and credit cards, gets its highest ratings for satisfaction with paying online. Respondents also prefer it for satisfaction with desktop/mobile access and setup.

Zelle, which was created by several banks to compete with services like PayPal and Venmo, rates better in several areas including satisfaction with cost/value/fees, reliability, security/privacy, trustworthiness, mobile app, and financial account integration. One of Zelle’s strengths is that, since it’s owned by the banks, transfers go right into your accounts. Transfers from the other services take a few days unless you pay a fee for instant gratification.

Venmo is very popular for reimbursing friends and associating the payment with a clever remark since, by default, transactions made through the platform are public. Perhaps due to this openness, Venmo earns by far the lowest rating for satisfaction with security/privacy and trustworthiness.

For more, read The Best Mobile Payment Apps.

Full Results

The PCMag Readers' Choice survey for Tax and Finance Software was in the field from January 8-29, 2024. For more information on how we conduct surveys, read the survey methodology.