Comparison
CrestCast vs PocketSmith
Most money apps look backwards. PocketSmith is one of the few that genuinely does not, which makes it the closest thing CrestCast has to a real competitor. The difference is what each one forecasts: PocketSmith projects your account balances forward; CrestCast models the whole household. Which of those answers your question decides this page.
| CrestCast | PocketSmith | |
|---|---|---|
| Main job | Plan a UK household: where the money goes, when debts clear, what a decision does | Forecast your account balances and manage your money, in any country |
| Bank connection | None. You enter what it knows, or import a CSV | Yes. Automatic feeds, in the UK through Salt Edge Open Banking |
| What the forecast is | Cashflow, profit & loss and net worth as one connected model, plus debt clearance dates | Projected account balances, driven by the budgets you assign to each account |
| Forecast horizon | Ten years, a deliberate cap. There is no setting that extends it | Tiered: 6 months free, 10 years Foundation, 30 years Flourish, 60 years Fortune |
| Scenarios | Save whole versions of your plan and compare them side by side | Secondary scenarios per account, switched on and off and stacked together |
| Household | One subscription covers the household. Your partner logs in as themselves, with joint, personal and household views | A collaborator can log in separately with full permissions over your data. For data of their own they need their own account (family members get 40% off a monthly subscription) |
| UK focus | Built only for the UK, including an ONS net worth benchmark | Global tool with multi-currency support. Documents no UK tax, ISA or allowance features |
| Price | £7.99/mo or £79.99/yr, one subscription for the household | Free tier; Foundation £14.95/mo (£9.99 billed annually); Flourish £24.95 (£16.66); Fortune £39.95 (£26.66) |
| Track record | New. Launched in 2026 | Independent and self-funded since 2008, over 382,000 users by its own count |
PocketSmith's prices and tiers correct as at 14/08/2026. Taken from PocketSmith's own plans page, which is also the source for the tiered forecast horizons. Worth knowing that PocketSmith's homepage still quotes thirty years while its plans page and features page say sixty, so if you see the lower figure elsewhere that is where it comes from.
PocketSmith is a trademark of its owner; this comparison is independent and is not affiliated with or endorsed by PocketSmith.
On that horizon row: ten years is a decision rather than a ceiling we ran into. Why we forecast ten years and not thirty sets out what we removed and why, including the cases where a longer horizon really is the better tool.
Where CrestCast is different
The clearest difference is what the word forecast means in each product. PocketSmith forecasts account balances: it takes each account's current balance and pushes it forward using the budgets assigned to that account. CrestCast forecasts the household, as a three-way model: cashflow, profit and loss, and net worth, all reconciling to each other, the way a business would look at itself. That is why CrestCast can tell you the month a debt clears rather than only showing the balance curve that gets there.
The second difference is who the product thinks the user is. PocketSmith is built around one person with accounts, and a partner joins as a collaborator on that person's data. CrestCast is built around a household from the start: both incomes, joint and personal accounts kept apart but added up, children, and one subscription covering all of it. If you have ever tried to plan a mortgage overpayment with a tool that only really understands one of you, that difference is the whole point.
The third is scope. PocketSmith is a global tool, and being global means being generic. CrestCast is UK only, which lets it do things like benchmark your net worth against ONS household data, and it means the product is never balancing a UK decision against the needs of five other countries.
And CrestCast never connects to your bank. You do the typing, and in exchange nothing is read from your accounts, ever. Here is why we built it that way.
What a balance forecast does not produce
Figures shown are the sample profile, not a real household.
Which should you choose?
Choose PocketSmith if you want automatic bank feeds, so transactions arrive and are categorised without typing; if you hold money in more than one currency; if you want file import (OFX, QFX, QIF and CSV) or a public API; if you want a horizon past ten years, which its Flourish and Fortune tiers sell; or if you want a free tier and a track record back to 2008 behind the software.
Choose CrestCast if the thing you actually want to answer is a household question. Can we afford the bigger house. What happens to us if one of us goes part time. When is the mortgage actually gone, and would overpaying beat saving. Comparing two versions of your plan side by side is the part people come back for.
Common questions
›Is CrestCast a good PocketSmith alternative?
For a UK household that wants to plan, yes. For someone who wants their transactions pulled in automatically, no. PocketSmith is a genuine forecaster and it has bank feeds; CrestCast does not connect to any account, so you enter what it knows or import a CSV. The trade is a UK-only, household-shaped plan against a global, bank-connected one. If automatic feeds are the reason you are looking, stay with PocketSmith.
›Does PocketSmith work with UK banks?
Yes. PocketSmith connects to UK banks through Salt Edge, an FCA-registered aggregator, using Open Banking, and it says it reaches over 12,000 institutions worldwide. How many banks you can connect depends on your plan: 2 accounts on the free tier, 6 banks from one country on Foundation, 18 on Flourish, unlimited on Fortune. CrestCast has no bank connection at all, which is a deliberate design choice.
›How does PocketSmith forecasting differ from CrestCast forecasting?
PocketSmith projects the balance of each account forward from its current actual balance, using the budgets you assign to that account. Its own documentation notes the forecast graph shows daily balances for about three months ahead and weekly balances beyond that. CrestCast models the household as one connected picture instead: a cashflow forecast, a profit and loss, and a net worth statement that all reconcile to each other, with debt clearance dates falling out of the same model. One answers "what will this account hold on that date", the other answers "what will this household be worth, and when is the mortgage gone".
›What does PocketSmith cost in the UK?
PocketSmith bills UK customers in pounds, and says so plainly in its own documentation: subscriptions are charged in GBP for users in the United Kingdom. Checked on 14/08/2026, its plans page showed a free tier, Foundation at £14.95 a month or £9.99 a month billed annually, Flourish at £24.95 or £16.66, and Fortune at £39.95 or £26.66. One thing worth knowing before you sign up from the wrong place: PocketSmith sets your billing currency from the country associated with your account at sign-up, and its documentation says changing that country from within settings is not possible. CrestCast has one plan, £7.99 a month or £79.99 a year, covering the whole household. Prices change, so check both sites before you decide on cost.
›Which is better for a couple?
It depends on how you want to keep your money. PocketSmith lets you invite a collaborator who logs in separately and, in its own words, has full permissions and can do everything you can, which works well if you genuinely share everything. If you each want your own picture as well as the shared one, you are into two accounts, and whether that costs anything depends on whether the free tier is enough for the second person. CrestCast is built the other way round: one subscription, two logins, and a standing line between joint money and each person’s own, so you can look at the household, the joint accounts, or either partner alone.
›Can I use both?
Some people will, and it is a reasonable setup. Let PocketSmith pull your transactions in and tell you what actually happened, and use CrestCast to model the decisions ahead of you. They overlap on forecasting, but they are pointed at different questions.
Other comparisons
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A bank-connected app for couples, next to a household forecaster that connects to nothing.
- CrestCast vs Money Dashboard →
Money Dashboard closed in 2023. What UK users lost, and what replaces which part of it.
- Moneyhub alternatives →
Moneyhub has closed its consumer app. How to split aggregation from planning now.
- A self-directed alternative to a financial adviser →
What an adviser charges, what they are worth, and where a planning tool is enough.
This is not advice
This comparison is independent and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by PocketSmith. Details about PocketSmith come from its own public site, plans page and Learn Center, checked on 14/08/2026, and may be out of date by the time you read this. Check PocketSmith's own site for its current features and pricing. User numbers quoted are PocketSmith's own published figure. Nothing here is financial advice.
Forecast the household, not just the account.
CrestCast turns both incomes, the joint bills, the mortgage and the kids into one cashflow, profit and loss and net worth forecast, so you can see what a decision does before you make it.
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