Banking Bank Reviews

Best Banking Apps [2026]: Expect More From Mobile

Mobile banking apps are no longer just a "nice bonus." Today, they're essential and expected. The best banking apps should go well beyond giving you easy 24/7 access to your account, and these do.

Updated Feb. 13, 2026
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Mobile banking apps have never been more important. According to a 2025 study by the Morning Consult on behalf of the American Bankers Association, 54% of U.S. consumers primarily use mobile apps to bank, up from 26% in 2017. Some generations, including Gen Z and Millennials, use banking apps even more.

You shouldn't settle for any old banking app, since it's not new and exciting for banks to offer them anymore (and hasn't been for years). You should prioritize banks with excellent mobile apps, because chances are you'll bank from your phone sometimes, no matter what kind of institution you choose.

The best banking apps are exceptionally user-friendly and intuitive, with rich features like chatbot support, automated savings tools, credit-tracking dashboards, and budgeting capabilities. And if a banking app is top-notch, it should get updated often. An app that stays the same will only become outdated.

To get you started, we've rounded up a list of banks with the best mobile apps.

Limited-Time Offer
Financebuzz awards badge
AWARD WINNER Best Online Checking
5.0
info
Learn More on SoFi's secure website, Member FDIC
Bonus Offer
Up to $300 info
Minimum Opening Balance
$0
Monthly Fee
$0
Why We Like It
  • Earn a $50 or $300 bonus with eligible direct deposit1and up to 4.00% APY2 on your money
  • Limited-Time Offer: +0.70% Boost on Savings APY to up to 4.00% for up to 6 months on new accounts. Terms apply.2
  • No account, overdraft, or monthly fees3
  • Get your paycheck up to two days early with direct deposit4
  • Access additional FDIC insurance up to $3 million5
Learn More on SoFi's secure website, Member FDIC

How we rate products

Banks with the best mobile apps compared

Financial institution Best for … Apple App Store rating Google Play rating
Chase Total Checking®

Chase

Solid mobile banking for a brick-and-mortar bank 4.8/5 4.7/5
Chime®

Chime®6

Helpful features for saving more (and spending less) 4.8/5 4.8/5
Bank of America Advantage Banking

Bank of America

Chatbot support 4.8/5 4.6/5
CapitalOne 360 Checking

Capital One

Customer satisfaction 4.9/5 4.5/5
Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo

Safety 4.9/5 4.8/5

Chase

Best for: Solid mobile banking for a brick-and-mortar bank

4.3
info
Learn More on Chase's secure website, Member FDIC
Bonus Offer
$400 info
Minimum Opening Balance
$0
Monthly Fee
$15 or $0 info
Why We Like It
  • Get a $400 bonus when you open a Chase Total Checking® account and make direct deposits totaling $1,000 or more within 90 days of coupon enrollment.7
  • $15 monthly service fee but you have multiple ways to waive it8
  • Over 5,000 in-person branches and more than 15,000 ATMs
  • No overdraft fee if you’re overdrawn by $50 or less at the end of the business day.9
  • Member FDIC
Learn More on Chase's secure website, Member FDIC

App store ratings

App Store rating: 4.8/5 stars (8.8M+ reviews)

Google Play rating: 4.7/5 stars (1.9M+ reviews)

Big, brick-and-mortar banks don't have the best reputation for mobile banking. Often, institutions with large physical presences lag behind smaller, digital-only banks and fintechs in terms of technology. This can be for a host of reasons, but big banking juggernauts often have legacy systems that can take longer and cost more to update. As a result, brick-and-mortar banks may sometimes have pretty lousy mobile banking apps compared to their lighter, online counterparts.

Chase is the largest bank in the U.S. by assets, and its app is incredibly well-rated for its user base. High ratings on more reviews obviously reflect better on the bank than a few good reviews would. Especially for a big bank, Chase provides a top-notch banking experience through its mobile app. It stands out for how easy it is to use and how many valuable features are baked into the interface.

Account numbers, credit monitoring tools, cash back, net worth tracking, spending habits, and more are all right there, front and center, when you log into the app. The navigation is smoother, quicker, and more intuitive than what we've experienced from other banking mobile apps, and you have to do less clicking around to get from one account or service to the next. We won't say that the app reads your mind, but it sure seems to know what people are looking for.

Perspectives
Ben Walker, CEPF, CFEI®
Ben Walker, CEPF, CFEI®
Writer

Ben Walker, CEPF, CFEI®, is credit cards specialist. For over a decade, he's leveraged credit card points and miles to travel the world. His expertise extends to other areas of personal finance — including loans, insurance, investing, and real estate — and you can find his insights on The Washington Post, Debt.com, Yahoo! Finance, and Fox Business.

WHY I LIKE THIS APP

I've used the Chase mobile app and online banking for many years with little to no issues. I especially like how fast I'm able to check on my deposit and credit card accounts through the app, as well as send and receive secure messages through my online account. Mobile check deposits are always quick and easy.

Visit Chase | Read our Chase Bank review

Pros
  • Packed with features from credit monitoring and budgeting to investing and redeeming rewards
  • 5,000+ brick-and-mortar branches
Cons
  • Some users complain of slow customer support when they need to call
  • Updates can sometimes introduce bugginess

Chime®

Best for: Helpful features for saving more (and spending less)

Financebuzz awards badge
2026 AWARD WINNER Best Checking for Bad or No Credit
4.9
info
Learn More on Chime's secure website, The Bancorp Bank, N.A. or Stride Bank, N.A.; Members FDIC
Bonus Offer
N/A
Minimum Opening Balance
$0
Monthly Fee
$0
Why We Like It
  • No minimum balance, no monthly service fees10
  • Get your paycheck up to 2 days earlier with direct deposit11
  • Eligible Members can access fee-free overdraft up to $20012
  • 50K+ fee-free ATMs nationwide13
  • Automatic savings helps you grow your money faster14
Learn More on Chime's secure website, The Bancorp Bank, N.A. or Stride Bank, N.A.; Members FDIC

App store ratings

App Store rating: 4.8/5 stars (1.3M+ reviews)

Google Play rating: 4.8/5 stars (985K+ reviews)

We included Chime on this list because, in many ways, its online and mobile banking platforms have raised the bar for modern digital banking. The Chime app is one of the top free financial apps on Google Play and App Store. Chime is a financial technology company known for its monthly-fee-free online banking accounts and feature-packed platform.1510

Chime stands out from the other banking apps because it offers more helpful features, especially related to saving money, making transfers, and stretching your paycheck. You'll see us talk about the Chime Checking account's SpotMe® overdraft16 feature often because it offers one of the highest fee-free overdraft limits we've found. The Chime app is also a great option for getting your paycheck up to two days early and sending instant money transfers without your friends and family needing to sign up for any new accounts.1117

Another feature that makes the Chime mobile app better than others is the option to enroll in automated savings. With Save When I Get Paid,14 you can allocate a percentage of your direct deposit to your high-yield Chime Savings18 account. And with debit card Round Ups,19 Chime will round all of your debit card purchases up to the nearest dollar and send the excess to savings. The Chime Savings account earns 0.75% APY20 on any balance.

Many of the best mobile banking apps like Chime include a feature to automatically send a portion of your paycheck to your savings, but debit card round-ups are rarer. Chime isn't the oldest fintech by any stretch, but many platforms have tried to copy what it's doing with online banking.

Visit Chime Checking | Read our Chime review

Pros
  • Excellent saving, spending tracking, and credit-monitoring tools
  • Features to support healthy habits and help you stretch your paycheck
Cons
  • No in-person branches
  • Chime offers far fewer banking accounts than the other institutions on this list

Bank of America

Best for: Chatbot support

4.8
info
Learn More on Bank of America's secure website, Member FDIC
Bonus Offer
$500
Minimum Opening Balance
$25
Monthly Fee
$0, $4.95, $12, or $25 depending on account
Why We Like It
  • Up to $500 cash offer. Click 'Learn More' for more details
  • Multiple ways to waive the monthly maintenance fee
  • Thousands of ATMs and financial centers
  • 24/7 security with Total Security Protection® and fraud monitoring
  • Bank of America, N.A. Member FDIC
Learn More on Bank of America's secure website, Member FDIC

App store ratings

App Store rating: 4.8/5 stars (5M+ reviews)

Google Play rating: 4.6/5 stars (1.18M+ reviews)

As another one of the largest banks in the U.S., Bank of America offers a wide range of accounts — and a mobile app that does the trick no matter what services you use. We picked it for this list of banks with the best mobile apps because it has a lot going on in a way that doesn't feel overwhelming.

It also has a great chatbot, Erica, that we'd recommend checking out if you're the type of person who likes to get answers with a quick search rather than a phone call or lots of scrolling around in FAQs. Erica was one of the first mobile banking bots out there, and it's (she's?) still one of the most impressive. It's not the same as live chat, but the feature helps get most common questions taken care of quickly and painlessly.

Bank of America is a Member FDIC.

Visit Bank of America Advantage Banking | Read our Bank of America Advantage Banking review

Pros
  • More impressive automated and AI-driven features than many banking apps
  • 3,600+ brick-and-mortar branches
Cons
  • Some users complain of poor customer support when they need to call
  • Updates can sometimes introduce bugginess

Capital One

Best for: Customer satisfaction

App store ratings

App Store rating: 4.9/5 stars (10M+ reviews)

Google Play rating: 4.5/5 stars (1.68M+ reviews)

Capital One's mobile app is a thing of legend in digital banking, as much as an app can be legendary. Capital One often ranks highly in independent studies for overall customer satisfaction, and given how few Capital One branches there are, its banking app carries a lot of that weight. In the J.D. Power 2025 U.S. Online Banking Satisfaction Study, Capital One took first place, beating all larger banks. It also placed highest in the 2024 U.S. Banking Mobile App Satisfaction Study.

The Capital One app is better the more you use it and the more accounts you have. It's as great for managing credit card accounts as it is for managing Capital One 360 bank accounts like 360 Checking, 360 Performance Savings, CDs, MONEY Teen Checking, and more. The app is packed with tools and offers that feel helpful, rather than overly busy, from credit monitoring to shopping.

If you do decide to open cards where you bank, and you should consider it, there's no shortage of Capital One credit cards worth having. The app features a clean card dashboard, with your current balance, available credit, scheduled payments, and a "Get your virtual card" button right above the card graphic.

Capital One is a Member FDIC.

Read our Capital One 360 review

Pros
  • High customer satisfaction ratings across many independent studies
  • Standout credit card management and monitoring tools
Cons
  • Very few Capital One branches, in case you want in-person help
  • Capital One's chatbot isn't known for being the best

Our editor's experience
"I've used mobile apps for a lot of banks, including Capital One, Chase, Bank of America, Discover, Citi, TIAA/EverBank, and more. I can confidently say I like Capital One best. It loads snappier than other apps, and the interface is visually appealing and actually helpful. Plus, it seems to be updated often. Recently, I went to check my credit card, and a pop-up asked if I wanted to find and manage my recurring subscriptions before the next charge date." — Lauren Graves, Staff FinanceBuzz Editor

Wells Fargo

Best for: Safety

App store ratings

App Store rating: 4.9/5 stars (10.1M+ reviews)

Google Play rating: 4.8/5 stars (2.82M+ reviews)

Surprised to see another big bank on this list? Well, you shouldn't be, given the resources these institutions can invest in developing their products. Many people compare the Wells Fargo mobile app to the Chase mobile app, and we're inclined to agree. Wells Fargo, however, stands out from many banks for its extremely high customer app ratings and overall safety, thanks to both its institutional stability and its digital safety features, including encryption and two-factor authentication. It isn't the most innovative, but security is more important.

The Wells Fargo banking app wasn't always so good. It's undergone some pretty significant changes in the last few years and gone from an app we wouldn't have wanted to use as often to one we would like to open. It used to be more buggy and bloated than it is now, and the developers seem to stay on top of issues well by rolling out frequent updates and patches (and responses to many reviews). However, some users miss how powerful the previous version was since many features have been stripped away.

Read our Wells Fargo banking review.

Pros
  • Wells Fargo offers 24/7 fraud monitoring and banking customer support
  • 4,100+ brick-and-mortar branches
Cons
  • Updates can sometimes introduce bugginess
  • Fewer features than some apps
  • Wells Fargo doesn't have the best reputation, historically

Today's Top Financial Offers

Make your money work harder with these top picks to maximize your savings.

Bank/Institution APY info Open Account Bonus Offer
Financebuzz awards badge
2026 AWARD WINNER Best Online Checking
5.0
info
4.00
% APY
With $0 min. balanceinfo
Learn More
on SoFi's secure website
Member FDIC
Limited-Time Offer: +0.70% boost on Savings APY to up to 4.00% for up to 6 months on new accounts2 + $50 or $300 Bonus with eligible direct deposit.1 Terms apply.
Financebuzz awards badge
2026 AWARD WINNER Best Savings for Customer Service
5.0
info
3.30
% APY
With $0 min. balance21
Learn More
on American Express' secure website
Member FDIC
-

How to choose the best banking apps

Consider these factors to help you choose the bank with the best mobile app:

Read customer reviews

Be picky about which banking mobile app you go with and read a few reviews from real users to help you decide. While a mobile app rating of 3.5 out of 5 is above average, the best online banks tend to have ratings of 4 out of 5 or better.

Study account benefits

Depending on what type of account you're looking at, you might want to prioritize banks with the best APYs, apps that'll help you build or repair your credit most, minimal checking fees, or something else.

Look into customer service

Especially if you do a lot of your banking from your phone, it's important to be able to get help when and how you need it. Many mobile banking apps offer helpful support features like live chat or automated chatbots to help you get or find answers to questions quickly, while others only offer phone, email, or secure message support.

Consider product/account variety

It's often more convenient to use multiple services from the same bank, so it's worth checking to see if a financial institution offers all the different products you need. You'll often be able to see and manage all of these from one mobile banking app.

Check for budgeting, credit, and net worth tools

A good banking app will let you dig deeper than just your bank accounts and balances, with reporting on broader aspects of your finances, like your credit, net worth, debt, and more. For example, many mobile banking apps have their own credit monitoring tools now to show you changes to your credit just about as soon as they're posted to your file.

What about mobile check deposit?
For anyone who enjoys mobile banking, mobile check deposit is a must. That said, this is commonplace in mobile banking apps today, so you shouldn't have a hard time finding it.

Banking apps that didn't make our list

SoFi®

Even though we feel strongly that SoFi has something truly special in its SoFi Checking and Savings account, we couldn't include SoFi in our top five banks with the best mobile app because it does get more negative reviews on Google Play. With a rating of 4.1 out of 5 stars for Android users, its overall rating was on the lower side for this analysis.

However, it's worth noting that some user complaints aren't really based on the app itself despite being featured on the mobile app's review page. For example, one (who shall remain nameless) reported direct deposit issues not related to the app. Others, though, have valid and relevant gripes, like saying that the app's design is busy.

SoFi is a Member FDIC. It offers up to $250,000 of standard FDIC insurance for applicable accounts.5

Read our full SoFi® review.

5.0
info
Financebuzz awards badge
AWARD WINNER Best Online Checking
SoFi Checking & Savings - Earn Up to $300 When You Set Up Direct Deposit
Limited-Time Offer: Earn a $50 or $300 bonus with eligible direct deposit and up to 4.00% APY on Savings (3.30% APY1with +0.70% APY Boost) for up to 6 Months on new accounts. Terms Apply.2 FDIC Insured.5
Learn More

Varo

Although Varo's mobile app ratings speak for themselves, and the online bank no doubt offers a great mobile banking experience, we didn't include it in the top mobile banking apps because it has far fewer ratings and downloads overall compared to the others on this list.

All that said, we'd still confidently recommend Varo to anyone looking for fee-free banking, since that's where this digital institution shines. It's also a particularly good choice if you've struggled with bad credit and/or are looking for second-chance checking since it caters to both of these crowds better than most.

Read our full Varo review.

4.8
info
Bank of America Advantage Banking
Up to $500 cash offer. Click ‘Learn More' for more details. Bank of America, N.A. Member FDIC.
Learn More

4.3
info
Enjoy $400 as a new Chase checking customer
When you open a new Chase Total Checking® account with qualifying activities.22 FDIC Insured. Offer valid through 4/15/2026.
Learn More

5.0
info
Financebuzz awards badge
AWARD WINNER Best Online Checking
SoFi Checking & Savings - Earn Up to $300 When You Set Up Direct Deposit
Limited-Time Offer: Earn a $50 or $300 bonus with eligible direct deposit and up to 4.00% APY on Savings (3.30% APY1with +0.70% APY Boost) for up to 6 Months on new accounts. Terms Apply.2 FDIC Insured.5
Learn More

4.6
info
Use Cash App As Your All-in-One Financial Services Platform
Bank23 without all the fees—save, send, and spend your money the way you want.24 Get paid up to 2 days early – up to 2 days earlier than most banks25
Download Cash App

FAQs

What bank is best for mobile deposit?

These banks provide fast and free mobile check deposit:

  • Chase: Funds are typically available by the next business day.
  • Bank of America: Funds are typically available by the next business day.
  • Capital One: Funds are typically available by the next business day.

Bottom line

Big banks and online or hybrid banks alike can offer high-quality mobile banking experiences. In fact, many banking apps today don't just get the job done, but introduce features you didn't realize you needed or wanted on mobile. Some banks with the best mobile apps based on our analysis and customer reviews include Chase, Chime, Bank of America, Capital One, and Wells Fargo.

These mobile banking apps stand out for being more intuitive and user-friendly than others, and their user ratings back that up.

If these companies and banks aren't right for you, explore our list of the best banks.

Learn More
5.0
info
Financebuzz awards badge
AWARD WINNER Best Online Checking
High APY of up to 4.00% on Savings (3.30% APY1 with +0.70% APY Boost) for up to 6 Months on new accounts. Terms Apply.2
Paycheck access up to 2 days early with direct deposit4
No monthly maintenance or overdraft fees3
Streamlined savings and savings goals with Vaults
Access to a large ATM network26