Comparison
CrestCast vs ProjectionLab
Almost every money app a UK household meets is a tracker: it reads the past and tidies it up. ProjectionLab is not one of those. It is a planning tool, which makes this a real choice rather than a category error. The difference is the distance each one is pointed at. ProjectionLab simulates a whole life, year by year, and asks when you could retire. CrestCast forecasts a UK household for ten years, day by day, and asks what the decision in front of you does.
| CrestCast | ProjectionLab | |
|---|---|---|
| Main job | Plan a UK household through the next decade: what a decision does to the cash, the debts and the net worth | Simulate a financial future and, in its own words, chart a course toward your best life. Financial independence and retirement sit at the centre of it |
| How far ahead | Ten years, a deliberate cap. There is no setting that extends it | A whole life. Plans carry life expectancy milestones for you and your partner, and the headline question is when you could retire |
| Time resolution | Day by day. Months, quarters and years are added up from the days, so a coarser view cannot disagree with the detail underneath it | Year by year. Its help centre states this plainly, and gives the reason: the simulation stays instant after every change |
| What the forecast produces | Cashflow, profit and loss and net worth as one connected model, plus the month each debt clears | A year-by-year projection with Monte Carlo simulation and historical backtesting on the free tier, and cash-flow projections, withdrawal strategies and tax optimisation on Premium |
| Bank connection | None. You enter what it knows, or import a bank statement CSV | None either. Its help centre says linking financial accounts directly is not supported; third-party plugins can pull balances from Lunch Money, YNAB and Monarch Money |
| UK coverage | Built only for the UK throughout: income tax, National Insurance, student loan plans, and a net worth benchmark against ONS household data | A United Kingdom page and United Kingdom tax presets, with ISAs, workplace pensions and SIPPs as account types. UK tax estimation sits in the Premium tier |
| Household | One subscription covers the household. Your partner logs in as themselves, with joint, personal and household views kept apart and added up | One plan, set up as an individual or as a couple. Separate and joint ownership can be defined for income, assets and expenses, and some yearly summaries carry subtotals by person |
| Price | £7.99/mo or £79.99/yr in pounds, one subscription for the household | Basic $0/yr, Premium $129/yr, Pro $549/yr, priced in US dollars |
| Track record | New. Launched in 2026 | Started in 2021 and shipping steadily since. Its own changelog runs from version 2.1.0 in November 2021 to 4.6.0 in April 2026 |
ProjectionLab's prices, tiers and features correct as at 14/08/2026. Taken from ProjectionLab's own pricing page, United Kingdom page, help centre and changelog. Its prices are set in US dollars, so what a UK card actually pays depends on the rate on the day.
ProjectionLab is a trademark of its owner; this comparison is independent and is not affiliated with or endorsed by ProjectionLab.
Where CrestCast is different
The first difference is the clock. ProjectionLab's help centre answers the month-by-month question directly: at the moment it operates on a year-by-year basis, and the reason it gives is speed, because year-by-year computation is what lets the whole simulation redraw the instant you change something. Across a plan measured in decades that is the right call, and a single day is noise. CrestCast is built on the opposite decision. The day is the unit, and the month, the quarter and the year are added up from the days, so a coarser view can never disagree with the detail underneath it.
That matters for a specific class of question, and it is the class most households actually have. An annual premium leaves on the 16th and payday is the 28th. A bonus lands in the month a school fee is due. A 0% deal ends four days before the balance is cleared. Averaged over a year, none of this exists. Day by day it is the difference between a plan that holds and a fortnight of unplanned overdraft.
The second difference is who the product thinks the user is, and this one is closer than it looks. ProjectionLab is set up as one plan, and you tell it whether you are planning as an individual or as a couple. Since 2022 it has let couples define separate and joint ownership for income, assets and expenses, and it breaks some yearly summaries down by person, so it is not a single-person tool with a spouse bolted on. CrestCast starts from the household instead: both incomes, joint and personal accounts kept apart and then added up, children, and one subscription with a login for each of you. Both of you can open it and see the joint picture, the household picture, or your own.
The third is that CrestCast is UK the whole way down rather than a UK layer over a general model. Income tax and National Insurance, the student loan plans, ISAs and pensions, and a net worth benchmark against ONS household data. The subscription is priced in pounds too, so what you pay does not move with the exchange rate.
And CrestCast can act on the gap between two dates rather than only drawing it. A spare cash waterfall is a rule you write once: hold a minimum in the current account, sweep what is above it into the pots you choose, and if a month comes up short draw the difference back from the savings you name, in the order you name them. The forecast then runs with that rule in force, which is what turns a projection into a plan you could follow.
The same September, with and without a floor rule
Figures shown are the sample profile, not a real household.
Which should you choose?
Choose ProjectionLab if the question is the long one. It runs a whole-life plan with life expectancy milestones for you and your partner, and answers when you could stop working and what the drawdown after that looks like. Its free tier includes Monte Carlo simulation and historical backtesting, which is a serious amount of modelling for nothing, and Premium adds withdrawal strategies, tax optimisation and compare mode. Its UK work is real and recent: its own changelog dates version 4.6.0 to 20/04/2026 with a United Kingdom section adding UFPLS and PCLS pension withdrawal methods for defined contribution pensions, marriage allowance estimation, and improvements to SIPP MPAA and TAA calculations. If retirement modelling is what you are shopping for, that is the tool that sells it, and CrestCast does not.
Choose CrestCast if the question is the near one, and it 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. Which day of the month does the account get tight. Saving two versions of your plan and putting them side by side is the part people come back for, and it works because the model underneath is a full three-way statement rather than a balance curve.
One thing the two products agree on, and it is worth saying because it is unusual: neither connects to your bank. ProjectionLab's help centre states that linking financial accounts directly is not supported, and it offers third-party plugins that pull balances from Lunch Money, YNAB and Monarch Money. CrestCast reads nothing from your accounts either. You enter what it knows, or import a bank statement CSV on your own device. Here is why we built it that way.
Common questions
›Is CrestCast a good ProjectionLab alternative?
It depends which end of your life you are planning. ProjectionLab is built around financial independence and retirement, and it runs a whole-life plan year by year. CrestCast runs ten years, day by day, around the decisions a UK household is making now: the mortgage, the move, one of you going part time, whether to overpay or save. If the question you keep coming back to is when you can stop working, ProjectionLab is pointed at it and CrestCast is not. If the question is what next year does to the joint account, that is the other way round.
›Does ProjectionLab work for UK users?
Yes, and better than a general international tool usually does. It has a dedicated United Kingdom page naming ISAs, workplace pensions and SIPPs as account types, and it offers what it calls United Kingdom tax presets, with UK tax estimation in the Premium tier. Its changelog dates version 4.6.0 to 20/04/2026 and gives it a United Kingdom section: UFPLS and PCLS pension withdrawal methods for defined contribution pensions, marriage allowance estimation, and improvements to SIPP MPAA and TAA calculations. Anything written about its UK support before that date describes a different product. Checked 14/08/2026.
›Does ProjectionLab forecast day by day?
No, and it says so itself. Its help centre answers the question directly: at the moment ProjectionLab operates on a year-by-year basis, and it explains why, which is that year-by-year computation is what keeps the simulation instant after every change. It adds that it is researching shorter time frames. Over a plan measured in decades that is a sound trade, and a single day is noise. It is the wrong resolution for the month a car insurance premium leaves the joint account nine days before payday, which is exactly the sort of thing CrestCast is built to show.
›What does ProjectionLab cost in the UK?
Checked on 14/08/2026, its pricing page showed three tiers, all in US dollars: Basic at $0 a year, Premium at $129 a year, and Pro at $549 a year, the last of which is aimed at advisers and coaches. A UK card pays the exchange rate plus whatever the card issuer adds, so the sterling figure moves with the rate. CrestCast has one plan at £7.99 a month or £79.99 a year, billed in pounds, covering the whole household. Prices change, so check both sites before you decide on cost.
›Which is better for a couple?
ProjectionLab has more couple support than most planning tools. You tell it whether you are planning as an individual or as a couple, separate and joint ownership can be defined for income, assets and expenses, and some yearly summaries carry subtotals by person. That works well when the plan lives in one place and one of you drives it. 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 of you alone. If your partner wants to open the plan themselves and see their own side of it, that is the difference.
›Can I use both?
Some people will, and the split is a natural one. Let ProjectionLab model the long arc, the retirement date and the drawdown that follows it, and use CrestCast for the ten years in front of you, where the answer turns on which day money moves and which account it moves from. They are both planning tools, so they overlap; they are pointed at different distances.
Other comparisons
- CrestCast vs PocketSmith →
The other genuine forecaster here, and the one that projects account balances rather than a household.
- CrestCast vs YNAB →
The envelope budget against the forward forecast, and why they are not the same tool.
- UK money apps compared →
Snoop, Emma, Plum, Monzo, YNAB and PocketSmith on one question: how far ahead does each one look?
- A self-directed alternative to a financial adviser →
What an adviser charges, what they are worth, and where a planning tool is enough.
- Between budgeting apps and retirement apps →
The gap this product sits in, and why the near to mid term is nobody else’s subject.
This is not advice
This comparison is independent and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by ProjectionLab. Details about ProjectionLab come from its own pricing page, United Kingdom page, about page, help centre and changelog, checked on 14/08/2026, and may be out of date by the time you read this. Check ProjectionLab's own site for its current features and pricing. Its prices are set in US dollars, so the sterling cost depends on the exchange rate and on your card issuer. Nothing here is financial advice.
Forecast the ten years in front of you, day by day.
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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