Simple, one of the first and most popular Internet-only "neobanks," is being shut down by parent company BBVA US. As a result of the news, Simple users have taken to social media, Reddit megathreads, collaborative spreadsheets, and—of course—a Change.org petition to deal with the fallout. I've spent the last three weeks alongside them, scrambling for a replacement to share with you.

Unfortunately, there really isn't one. Don't get me wrong, many modern banking services have flashy apps, usable websites, and plenty of features—but none of them truly capture the deceptive simplicity of Simple.

What makes Simple good

In a nutshell, Simple offers a somewhat opinionated banking service that is extremely straightforward to use, while packing in a lot of smart features under the hood. Things that I've gotten used to over the years like automatically showing properly-formatted merchant names, remembering edits to categories and transaction names for future transactions, and smartly "borrowing" from your goals to cover over-spending from your Safe-to-Spend balance are core to the experience, but so seamless that I forget they are fairly complex to implement. No potential replacement matches all of those features, let alone every single feature Simple offers beneath its slick surface.

I joined Simple soon after it launched as an invite-only beta in 2012, and it immediately replaced my previous big bank account. My wife joined when we got married, and we managed two individual accounts for a while. When Simple launched Simple Shared, we were first in line—nearly literally; we beta tested it as soon as it was announced. Over the past near-decade, we have come to love and depend on both the features and incredibly straightforward experience of Simple.

For some context on where I'm coming from, here’s how we currently use Simple, and the four things I value most about it:

1. A bank, first and foremost

Technically, Simple—and most online "banks"—will tell you it's a banking service and not explicitly a bank; in Simple's case, BBVA US handles the actual bank side of things. But it was important to us that our online bank operated, well, like a bank. We were interested in a real bank account (with routing and account numbers), with real debit cards (e.g. provided by Visa or Mastercard), designed around being the primary way money comes into and goes out of our life.

This distinction is important in the modern age of "neobanks," where so many are designed around cash advances, cryptocurrencies, retail investing (stonks!), peer-to-peer transactions, merchant-specific perks, and a thousand other things that feel like they distract from the core of what a bank should be: a straightforward place to see your transactions and manage your spending/saving.

Many of these neobanks also lack table-stakes bank features like check deposits, a physical checkbook option, and bill payment. Simple, on the other hand, has steadily added all the bank-like features we've needed to be our one and only bank account while allowing us to live our financial lives as usual.

2. Excellent user experience

Everything from the website, to the notifications and emails sent, to—of course—the stellar mobile app are well designed and well thought out. It's a classic case of deceptively simple, too; other banks have tried to copy the trendy design and typography, but don't seem to be in the same league when it comes to the actual experience. Simple was good when it first came out, and it's been constantly improved and refined over the past decade.

The app is the big one, as it's one of the few banking apps that closely follows native Android and Material Design guidelines while having its own distinct look and feel. It's fast, smooth, and makes it easy to do everything you can possibly do with your account, right in the app. It also supports Android platform features like per-goal widgets, launcher shortcuts, biometrics, notification channels, and the system dark theme—basically a model Android app.

3. Simple Shared + personal accounts

Simple started with personal accounts, but added well-integrated Shared accounts a few years ago. Shared is a bank account with its own dedicated account number (though you don't have to think about that). Its balance, transactions, goals, and expenses are visible to both users, and each person has a designated Shared debit card in addition to their personal debit card.

Simple Shared cards

By default, my wife and I each log into our account and see the Shared account. When one of our Shared cards is used, we both get a push notification with the merchant and amount, and the transaction is tagged with the profile picture of whoever’s card was used. This is where all incoming money (i.e. paychecks) go, and from where the vast majority of debits are made.

Example: You order some home supplies from Target online, using your Shared card. You and your partner both get a push notification with Target.com Your Name: $49.57, and tapping it brings you to the transaction in your Shared account (where you mark it as coming from the Home Supplies goal). Later, you impulse-buy a candy bar and use your Personal card. Only you get a notification with 7-Eleven $1.49, and tapping it brings you to the transaction in your Personal account.

We use our personal accounts as our own pocket money. Simple has easy instant transfer to/from Shared and personal accounts, so part of our budget is a small amount of money that we transfer from Shared into each of our personal accounts with each pay period. We then use our personal balances however we see fit, whether it’s for video games, impulse purchases, personal subscriptions, or saving up for larger items that we don't include in our Shared budget. We also transfer our gift-giving budget for one another (i.e. for birthdays and Christmas) into our personal accounts to avoid spoiling gift purchases. We each have our own personal debit card for this discretionary spending.

4. Goals + Expenses

Goals are where you set aside money (like cash in an envelope) for expected purchases that month, or save up for longer-term expenses (like contributing some money each month to an end-of-the-year Christmas budget). Simple always defaults to showing your Safe-to-Spend balance, which is your account balance minus any Goals or Expenses. Transactions come out of your actual balance (and thus the Safe-to-Spend), but can later be marked as coming out of a Goal.

Example: You have $100 in Safe-to-Spend and $200 in a Groceries goal. You buy $70 worth of groceries, and initially your Safe-to-Spend is reduced to $30 ($100 - $70). At the end of the day, you come back and mark the grocery transaction as coming from your Groceries goal, which returns your Safe-to-Spend to $100 and reduces your Groceries goal to $130 ($200 - $70). If you overspend your Safe-to-Spend (but not the underlying account balance), you get a notice that you've overspent, and Simple seamlessly covers it from your Goals balances. It is kind of confusing to explain, but means there's no risk of declining e.g. a $1,000 rent payment even if there is only $100 in Safe-to-Spend; you can square it up later as long as that money is in your account/Goals somewhere.

My wife and I use a zero-based budget (one where income minus expenses equals zero, and every dollar gets an assigned purpose) with “envelopes” in the form of 31 different Goals. Some of our Goals include Restaurants, Groceries, Home supplies, Auto maintenance, and “sinking funds” (virtual envelopes we add to each month for longer-term expenses) for things like a self-insured vision fund (for contacts or glasses), and smartphone upgrades/replacements.

Expenses are a newer feature of Simple, and they're like automated Goals. They're automatically funded and withdrawn-from buckets of money for expected, recurring things—and they're even pay-period-aware, only setting money aside when your paycheck actually comes in, and manageable based on your pay schedule. You can choose a specific merchant or category to come out of any given Expense.

We have 20 Expenses for things like rent, internet service, and subscriptions like YouTube Music and Disney+. This means we can set and forget these things; the Expense is "filled" when we are paid, and then the transactions automatically come out of the appropriate Expense when we're charged.

Example: You get paid on the 1st and 15th of the month. Disney+ charges you $7 on the 19th. You can set your Disney+ Expense to fill halfway on each payday (so $3.50 each on the 1st and 15th), or fully on one of the paydays (like the 15th). When you're paid, that amount automatically goes into your Expense, meaning you never see it in your Safe-to-Spend. When the 19th comes around, your Disney+ charge automatically comes out of your Disney+ Expense instead of reducing your Safe-to-Spend.

We generally keep our Safe-to-Spend at $50–100 as a buffer for any small, unexpected things. But it is effectively a zero-based budget, and all managed within the Simple app thanks to Goals and Expenses.

How the alternatives stack up

Given how Simple works, I've been searching since the news broke to decide where to go. Here are the top alternatives that have been recommended to me (or that I've found), and how they measure up compared to Simple. Spoiler alert: nothing is quite on the same level—at least not yet.

One Finance

One Finance appears to be the closest to Simple on the surface—well designed, straightforward, and focused just on spending and saving. But it's pretty far behind with features at the moment. On the upside, the One team has been very receptive to Simple converts on social media, is doing its best to explain the transition, and has published roadmaps and discussions of top-requested Simple-like features on the /r/OneFinance subreddit.

  1. ✔️ Designed to be a bank service, nothing else. The default view in the app features your Pockets (an alternative to Simple's Goals) and recent transactions, another tab houses ways to move money (transferring in or out), and another tab shows details including your profile, card information, liked accounts, and statements. It's all very much standard bank stuff, and that's it.
  2. ✔️ Great app design. The One Finance app feels native to Android while also having its own distinctive design. There's no dark theme support at the moment, though. 🙈️
  3. ❓️ Shared Pockets between personal accounts. Instead of a joint Simple Shared account, you can share individual Pockets between multiple people. It's not exactly the same, but it could work as an alternative.
  4. ❓️ Pockets for envelope-style budgeting. Currently, you have to choose which Pocket a card will draw funds from before initiating a transaction, which seems like a huge pain. For online and recurring charges, the idea is that Pockets will get their own virtual card number, but that feature is still in development. Recurring transfers between Pockets—i.e. as an alternative to Simple Expenses—also just started rolling out.
ONE - Mobile Banking Developer: ONE Finance, Inc.
Price: Free
4.7
Download

One sounds really close, and for some, it might be a workable replacement to Simple today. But personally, deciding which Pocket to use before the transaction goes through sounds untenable, so I'll be waiting to see how these features develop before jumping in.

N26

N26 is one of the best-looking banking apps on the surface, and like Simple and One, it's seemingly focused on the core bank features I care about. However, it only supports two Spaces—nowhere near equivalent to the unlimited amount of Goals and Expenses in Simple, nor our 31 Goals and 20 Expenses in use.

  1. ✔️ Mostly just bank stuff in its app and website. In the app, the home tab has your balance and quick actions, the Spaces tab shows your envelope-style buckets of money, and the Cards tab shows your debit card information along with account numbers and some account-related actions. There is an Explore tab that shows some cashback perks and other partner offers, but it's pretty limited—and doesn't feel like it's trying to take over the whole app.
  2. ✔️ Great app design. N26 feels native on Android and seems really well thought out. There's an automatic or manual dark theme, plus interesting and innovative features like "discrete mode" where dollar amounts are hidden when you wave your hand over the screen (enabled with the proximity sensor).
  3. ❌️ Joint/shared accounts not supported. As far as I have found, joint accounts aren't even mentioned anywhere in N26's docs nor app. There are instant transfers between N26 users, but no deeper integration of multiple accounts.
  4. ❌️ Spaces limited to two per acccount. While N26 does offer rules for automating Spaces, it's not practical to replace Simple Expenses since Spaces are so limited to begin with.
N26 — Love your bank Developer: N26 GmbH
Price: Free
3.2
Download

If you're looking for a very, very bare-bones personal replacement for Simple, N26 might do it for you. But for anyone using more than two goals or expenses, it's not an option.

Revolut

Revolut was suggested to me more than once, but I think I don't "get" it. It seems to be designed around international travelers and currency conversion, and the fact that there's a bank account tied to all this is coincidental. There is no information on its website or help center about joint/shared accounts, so unfortunately it does not appear to be a viable replacement for Simple Shared.

  1. ❌️ Not a bank service up front. Revolut is designed around international travel, currency conversion, and retail investing. You can dig deep into the app and find an account and routing number, but there is so much going on: a Wealth tab hawking cryptocurrencies alongside savings Vaults, peer-to-peer payments and bill splitting, tons of third-party offers and rewards that opt you into marketing emails and push notifications, travel features like access to airport lounges, and then the near-constant up-sell to pay a monthly fee for a Premium or Metal account with even more features. Frankly, it's all very overwhelming and the polar opposite of Simple's straightforward approach.
  2. ✔️ Extremely polished app and design. While it may be overwhelming with its array of features, Revolut's app is very trendy, relatively well organized, and has plenty of slick and smooth animations that help communicate the spatial design. Automatic and manual dark theme support are here as well.
  3. ❌️ Joint/shared accounts not supported. Revolut does have group savings Vaults and group pay for bills, but those features are not designed to operate like a shared account. Peer-to-peer transfers do help two personal accounts interoperate to a limited extent.
  4. ❓️ Category-based budgeting plus Vaults for expenses and saving. You can set a budget for different categories per-month, and you can transfer money in and out of savings Vaults. However, the categories are really limited and inflexible, and you can't associate a transaction with a Vault; you have to manually transfer money in and out and keep track of it yourself.
Revolut: Spend, Save, Trade Developer: Revolut Ltd
Price: Free
4.5
Download

After initially looking into Revolut, someone pointed out a report of problematic working conditions at Revolut, which lead me to lose interest in pursuing it more. I don't think Revolut is trying to be a drop-in replacement to Simple, but it feels like it's trying to be the everything-money app for world travelers. If that's what you're after, it may be worth a look.

Chime

There's no support for joint/shared accounts here. The company's also in the middle of a class-action lawsuit due to a multi-day outage, which sounds pretty rough and turned me off from spending much time with it or transferring much money in to try it out.

  1. ✔️ Designed to be a bank service, primarily. The Home tab shows your balance and recent transactions, a Move Money tab houses transfers, a Pay Friends tab handles peer-to-peer payments, and the ATM Map helps you find places to withdraw cash.
  2. ❓️ Decent app that I didn't spend much time with (see above). It seems well laid out, but doesn't feel entirely at home on Android design-wise. And with no dark theme support, it's blindingly white all the time.
  3. ❌️ Joint/shared accounts not supported. Chime says it's aware of the feature request, and is working on a solution to address shared banking. Peer-to-peer transfers between Chime users could help, but don't work like a shared account with a shared balance and list of transactions.
  4. ❌️ No envelope budgeting. Chime offers a Spending and a Savings account, but no envelope-style budgeting tools to replace Simple Goals or Expenses.
Chime – Mobile Banking Developer: Chime
Price: Free
4.5
Download

Chime might work for an individual account without budgeting needs, but it just seems too feature-limited for me.

Qube

Qube looks interesting, and is based around envelope-style budgeting like Simple, but it is still in beta. Qube Couples, an alternative to Simple Shared, has not launched yet.

  1. ✔️ Designed to be a bank service. Qube only features checking and saving bank-related things in the app. Refreshingly, there are no retail investments, special offers, or cryptocurrencies vying for attention.
  2. ❌️ Not a fan of the app over all. The Qube app somehow seems simultaneously dated and over-designed; it almost feels like an iOS port, as the design patterns don't seem at home on Android. There's also no dark theme support.
  3. ❌️ Qube Couples is not available. It's a shared account solution in the works according to their website, but is not available yet—which you don't find out until after you start the signup process.
  4. ❓️ Qubes for budgeting. They appear to be some sort of envelope-like system using virtual card numbers, but aren't as seamless as Simple's Goals or Expenses since they seem to operate as individual accounts.

Qube looks like it could be a contender someday, but I would not recommend it in its current beta state; there are just too many base features missing.

Others considered

These options were recommended to me or came up in my search for a replacement, but haven't launched yet or didn't meet the bar for me to actually sign up and try them out.

  • Peer-to-peer apps like Cash App or Venmo could replace Simple as a secondary bank account, or for an individual's pocket money alongside a more full-featured bank. Because they're focused on peer-to-peer payments and lack almost all of the "real bank" features, I would not suggest them for recurring payments or a primary bank account.
  • Ally was frequently suggested, but frankly it's a bit overwhelming to me; it feels like a traditional bank with lots of online features, but is not on the same level of straightforward design as these other options.
  • Current looks nice, but there is no joint account support, so I did not look into it very much.
  • Dave was suggested to me by a few people, but it seems focused on cash advances and side hustles which aren't appealing to me at all. There is also no information on its site about shared/joint accounts or anything like Simple Goals.
  • Varo was another repeat suggestion, but again, there are no shared/joint accounts.
  • Qapital came up in my search, but it charges $3/month for basic savings features, $6/month for a debit card and investment features, and $12/month for the Master plan with Money Missions and early access to new features. I didn't sign up just to try it out, so I don't feel comfortable judging it alongside the options I did experience.
  • Monzo was highly recommended by friends in Europe, but it has not yet properly debuted in the US; it's on an invite wait-list system. From what I've heard, the US launch is fairly limited feature-wise when compared to Simple.
  • Google Pay Plex. Google's upcoming "Plex" banking service has not yet launched. Perhaps it will be worth a look when it goes live later this year.
  • Credit unions were mentioned a few times, but nearly every local credit union has the same decade-old-looking mobile app and doesn't support anything quite like Simple Goals or Expenses.
  • Over-the-top budgeting tools like Mint and YNAB were mentioned a few times, but they do not offer the same level of integration and simplicity as having Goals or Pockets built into your bank account.

Should you just stick with Simple/BBVA?

Simple announced that accounts will eventually be transitioned over to the BBVA US app and be serviced like any other account. Honestly, holding onto your Simple account as long as possible might be the best solution for now; your debit cards, bank account and routing numbers, and protected accounts will all continue to work the same for the time being. Once Simple or BBVA US announce a timeline and details for the transition, it will be easier to make a decision—and by then, maybe one of these replacements will have matured and caught up with Simple.