Money management apps flourish as consumers face cost of living crisis

An analysis of the performance of money management apps over the past two years by App Radar has revealed that the sector has gained over five million new Android users in the period 1st January to 7th June 2022.

That is a 46% 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 show 7% more new users (2.8 million) when compared to Q2 2021 (2.6 million). This comes as UK inflation hit a 40 year high of 9% in April 2022, and petrol prices saw the biggest daily increase in 17 years on 7th June 2022.

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

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 (584k) and the recently launched Chase UK (401k).

What the notification says: You’ve spent £20 at TK Maxx

What it actually means: You bought 3 candles and a jar of maple syrup
— Monzo (@monzo) June 7, 2022

In the savings and budgeting area, Plum (131k), Snoop (122k) and Moneybox (72k) added the most users, while in the deal comparison sector, Money Supermarket (75k), Confused (44k) and Raisin (14k) led the pack.

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

Silvio Peruci, Managing Director at App Radar, says: “The cost of living crisis is impacting everyone and a lot of people are now more careful about how they spend their money.”

“Budgeting and tracking your spending has never been more valuable. Inflation is hitting record high figures Europe wide, with increasing prices for petrol, utilities and food.”

“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 have the user base for user acquisition, as the recently launched Chase UK app has shown.”

“Innovation in functionality, 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.”

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