Greenlight and GoHenry are undoubtedly two of the best kids’ banking apps in the market. Both have strong parental controls, financial literacy features and a wide age acceptance range. There’s really no wrong answer, but Greenlight has a little more to offer and is cheaper for larger families.
Both apps offer similar features, but Greenlight squeaks by with a win in terms of the additional features available with the most basic plan.
Greenlight
GoHenry
Free trial
Yes, 30-day free trial
Yes, 60-day free trial through Finder
Store- and category-level parental controls
Yes
No
Custom spending limits
Yes
Yes
Educational quizzes and game
Yes
Yes
Chore assignment and allowance tracking
Yes
Yes
Custom debit card design
Yes
Yes
Investing features
Yes, when you upgrade
Yes
Credit building
Coming Soon
No
Savings rewards for kids
Yes
No
$0 ATM withdrawals
Yes
Yes
Multiple plans
Yes
Yes
Free replacement debit card
No
Yes
The similarities
Greenlight and GoHenry are frontrunners among other kids’ debit cards. Both are full of features, including educational games and financial literacy quizzes to teach your children good money habits. Both apps also offer customizable debit cards for an extra cost, no ATM withdrawal fees, free transfers from parents to kids, chore tracking and more.
Both charge the same monthly fee for their most basic plans: $4.99 per month. Neither app offers a free plan, but both offer a free trial, so you can try before you buy.
Which card is worth the cost?
If you have multiple kids, Greenlight is the clear choice in terms of cost. All its plans allow up to five kids, starting at $4.99 per month. GoHenry’s Basic plan is $4.99 monthly and only allows you to add one child. Its Family plan is $9.98 monthly and allows up to four kids.
As for features, the only perk included in GoHenry’s more expensive Family plan is the ability to add more children. Greenlight’s more expensive plans — Max and Infinity — offer extra perks, such as cashback rewards, purchase protection and identity theft monitoring.
Which one’s safer?
Both Greenlight and GoHenry’s accounts are FDIC-insured up to $250,000. But if you’re looking for some extra protection, Greenlight is the winner.
If you’re fine with spending $9.98 to $14.98 per month for Greenlight, you can get identity theft, phone and purchase protections — features you won’t find with GoHenry.
Greenlight Infinity costs $14.98 per month, but you can get three additional safety features: Family location sharing, SOS alerts and crash detection, in which your app automatically dispatches 911.
GoHenry vs. Greenlight: Which one’s better?
Factoring in just the benefits of the basic plans between Greenlight and GoHenry, Greenlight wins.
Greenlight has more features, allows up to five kids and lets parents set store- and category-level spending controls. Kids can also earn a 1% savings reward per year on balances up to $5,000 per family. Greenlight is also working on a new credit card, called the Family Cash Card, that would allow parents to add their kids as authorized users so they can build a credit history before they’re 18 years old.
Alternatives to GoHenry and Greenlight
Both Greenlight and GoHenry have an unavoidable monthly fee. If you need a free kids’ card, plenty of options are available.
Chase First Banking. Powered by Greenlight, Chase First Banking has no opening deposit requirement or monthly fees. It requires parents to have a Chase checking account to open, but it comes with spending monitoring, chores and allowances, savings goals and more. It’s for kids aged six and up.
Step. A free secured card for teens and kids, Step has no age requirements and no monthly or overdraft fees. It’s a secured card that works like a debit card, comes with savings and cashback rewards, offers financial literacy education and lets teens build credit history. But unlike Greenlight and GoHenry, it doesn’t have chore features.
Current. Another free option, Current teen banking is designed for teens aged 13 and up. With no monthly fees, chore and allowances features, savings goals and round-ups, it’s a powerful option that’s free to open and maintain. However, it requires a parent to open a regular Current account to manage the teen account, but that’s also free.
Bethany Hickey is a personal finance writer at Finder, specializing in banking, lending, insurance, and crypto.
Bethany’s expertise in personal finance has garnered recognition from esteemed media outlets, such as Nasdaq, MSN, Yahoo Finance, GOBankingRates, SuperMoney, AOL and Newsweek. Her articles offer practical financial strategies to Americans, empowering them to make decisions that meet their financial goals. Her past work includes articles on generational spending and saving habits, lending, budgeting and managing debt.
Before joining Finder, she was a content manager where she wrote hundreds of articles and news pieces on auto financing and credit repair for CarsDirect, Auto Credit Express and The Car Connection, among others.
Bethany holds a BA in English from the University of Michigan-Flint, and was poetry editor for the university’s Qua Literary and Fine Arts Magazine.
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