Honest comparison
Piggey vs PocketGuard
The "In My Pocket" app — boils your finances down to one spendable number, behind a bank link and a $74.99/yr Plus tier.
TL;DR
PocketGuard's pitch is radical simplicity: one number that says what's safe to spend. Nice idea — but the free tier is thin, the useful features live in Plus ($74.99/yr), and it all requires bank linking. Piggey is similarly anti-complexity but goes the other direction: full AI-built clarity on where money goes, free to start, no bank login.
At a glance
| Piggey | PocketGuard | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free, or $16/mo Pro — first month free | Plus: $12.99/mo or $74.99/yr |
| Free plan | Yes — a real one, forever | Yes — heavily limited |
| Bank login | Never. Import a CSV — your credentials stay at your bank | Required |
| Budgeting required | None required | Simplified — the "In My Pocket" number |
| AI categorization | Automatic — AI tags your whole history at once | Automatic, basic |
| Subscription detection | Yes (Pro) — flags the charges worth cancelling | Yes |
| AI assistant | Penny — ask anything about your money in plain English | No |
| Setup time | ~5 minutes | ~15 minutes |
| Platforms | Any browser | iOS, Android, web |
| Privacy | No bank credentials, no data selling | Bank linking via aggregators |
The real differences
One number vs. the whole story
PocketGuard compresses your finances into "safe to spend." Useful guardrail — but when the number looks wrong, you can't ask it why. Piggey keeps the simplicity (open the dashboard, see where money went) but every number expands: tap a category, see merchants; ask Penny "why was March so expensive?" and get an answer.
Free tier honesty
PocketGuard's free tier caps categories and features hard enough that reviews regularly call it a trial in disguise. Piggey's free plan is the actual product: CSV import, unlimited AI categorization, trends. Pro adds power (Penny, subscription detection, reports) — it doesn't un-cripple the base.
Where PocketGuard shines
- One-number simplicity is genuinely clever
- Decent recurring-bill detection
- Lower price than the premium suites
- Has an actual free tier
Where PocketGuard falls short
- Free tier is restrictive enough to be a demo
- Requires bank linking
- Categorization is basic and needs cleanup
- Insights are shallow past the headline number
Pick PocketGuard if…
People who chronically overspend and want one guardrail number — "you have $214 safe to spend" — and are fine with bank linking to get it.
Pick Piggey if…
People who want to understand their spending, not just cap it. Piggey's AI shows the full picture — categories, trends, subscriptions, and Penny for questions — without bank credentials and with a free tier that's actually usable.
Switching is easy
Export CSVs from your bank, import to Piggey, done. The AI categorization replaces PocketGuard's tagging, and the trends views replace the In-My-Pocket math with something you can actually interrogate.
Try Piggey freeFrequently asked questions
Is Piggey simpler than PocketGuard?
Differently simple. PocketGuard gives you one spendable number; Piggey gives you an automatically-organized picture of where money actually went, plus Penny to answer questions in plain English. Neither requires budgeting work.
Does Piggey have something like "In My Pocket"?
Not as a single headline number — Piggey focuses on where money goes (categories, trends, recurring charges) rather than spend-limiting. If you want a hard guardrail number, PocketGuard does that better; if you want understanding, Piggey does.