GoHenry alternatives in the UK: free bank cards, cheaper cards, and no card

• —GoHenry’s UK Everyday plan is £3.99 a month per child with one month free, for ages 6 to 18; two children cost about £96 a year.
• —Four free cards, each needing the parent to bank there: Starling Under 16s, Monzo Under 16s, HyperJar and Revolut <18.
• —Cheaper subscriptions: NatWest Rooster Money at £1.99 a month or £19.99 a year, free for NatWest, RBS and Ulster Bank customers; nimbl at about £2.67 a month as reported by comparison sites.
• —No card: Rooster Money’s Virtual Tracker is free, and CapKin keeps a child’s pocket money inside the family budget with parent approval.
• —Barclays announced on 12 June 2026 that it is acquiring GoHenry’s UK business of around 500,000 children; it says the brand and app will stay.

What GoHenry costs, and who will own it

GoHenry’s UK pricing page, read on 19 October 2026, lists the Everyday plan at £3.99 a month per child with one month free, a standard card included and personalised designs from £4.99. Accounts are for children aged 6 to 18, and from 13 the account adds Apple Pay. Two children on the entry plan cost about £96 a year; over the twelve years between six and eighteen, one child on Everyday costs about £575 at today’s price. For that a family gets a prepaid debit card, chores and tasks, parental controls and GoHenry’s Money Missions lessons.

The ownership is changing. On 12 June 2026 Barclays announced it is acquiring GoHenry’s UK business from Acorns, which bought the company in 2023 and runs the US side as Acorns Early. Completion is expected in the fourth quarter of 2026, subject to regulatory approval; GoHenry serves around 500,000 children in the UK, and Barclays says it will keep the brand and the standalone app. Both companies say nothing changes for existing customers. For a parent choosing now, the two best-known independent pocket money apps in the UK, GoHenry and Rooster Money, both belong to high-street banks.

GoHenry alternatives at a glance

Every price is from the provider’s own page or store listing: Rooster Money, Starling, HyperJar and Revolut were read on 8 October 2026, GoHenry and Monzo on 19 October 2026. nimbl publishes its price inside the app, so its figure is as reported by Wise and other comparison sites and is marked as such.

Free cards from a bank the parent already uses

The free GoHenry alternatives are bank products, and each is free on the same condition: the parent banks there. Starling’s Under 16s card, for ages 6 to 15, has “no charge to open an Under 16s Space” and lives inside the parent’s Starling current account. Monzo for Under 16s, also 6 to 15, has “no up-front costs, subscription or top-up fees”, lets a parent see transactions, set spending limits, schedule pocket money and switch cash withdrawals and online payments on or off, charges nothing abroad, and hands over to a 16–17s account at sixteen. HyperJar’s kids card has “no monthly fees”, pairs to an adult’s HyperJar account for ages 6 to 15 with a separate teen card from 13, charges £1 when transfer limits are exceeded and allows no cash withdrawals. Revolut <18 has no monthly fee on a standard Revolut account from age six, with a possible card delivery fee. Chore and lesson features are thinner than GoHenry’s on all four; the trade is £48 a year per child for a card that does the spending part just as well.

Cheaper subscription cards

NatWest Rooster Money is the closest like-for-like replacement: a prepaid card for ages 6 to 17 with pocket money routines, chores and a star chart, at £1.99 a month or £19.99 a year after a one-month trial, half of GoHenry’s price, and free for existing NatWest, Royal Bank of Scotland and Ulster Bank customers for up to three cards. Its App Store listing describes no lessons, quizzes or videos for children; the card tier lists “educational content & resources”, which on the site are guides for parents. nimbl is a prepaid card for ages 6 to 18 whose price, about £2.67 a month or £32 a year, comparison sites report and the company publishes in-app. Both are cheaper than GoHenry and both are, like GoHenry, a card with a subscription.

No card at all

Comparison lists usually leave out the option with no card. Rooster Money’s Virtual Tracker is free for UK parents, with “no deposits, virtual £ or stars”: pocket money, chores and stars without any money moving. CapKin is the same shape, built as part of the household budget. A child gets their own ledger: pocket money arrives on a schedule, they log what they spend, and every entry stays pending until a parent approves, corrects or rejects it with a note. Savings goals can be locked by a parent, badges reward what the child does with money, and a hand-written story course covers ages 6 to 8 with daily discoveries and a weekly quiz for 8 to 12. The money itself stays where it already is. For a child under about eleven this usually teaches more than a card, because the lesson at that age is deciding; the case is made in do kids need a debit card to learn about money, and the UK pocket-money version is on the pocket money tracker page.

What GoHenry does that the free cards do not

GoHenry’s lesson layer, Money Missions, is the thing none of the free bank cards has; Acorns, which built the current version, says it runs to 110 lessons across three levels and has posted more than 80 of the videos free on YouTube since January 2026. GoHenry also bundles chores and tasks, custom card designs and parental controls that the bank cards offer in thinner form. If those are why you have GoHenry, a free bank card saves £48 a year per child and loses the teaching. A free card paired with a ledger that has its own lessons, such as CapKin, keeps both.

If you are in the US

GoHenry in the United States became Acorns Early after Acorns bought the company in 2023, priced at $8 a month for Early Lite or included in Acorns Gold at $12, for ages 6 to 18. The US field of alternatives is different, with Greenlight, FamZoo, BusyKid and free bank cards from Capital One and Chase; it is on the Greenlight alternatives page.

How to choose

• —Child under 8. A ledger or a jar: Rooster’s Virtual Tracker or CapKin. No card teaches anything at this age that a record and a parent do not.
• —Ages 8 to 12, and you bank with Starling, Monzo, HyperJar or Revolut. The free card, with a ledger alongside for the deciding and the record.
• —Ages 8 to 12, and you bank with NatWest, RBS or Ulster. Rooster Money’s card, free for up to three children.
• —You want the lessons. GoHenry itself, or the Money Missions videos free on YouTube plus a ledger.
• —A teenager who spends alone. Any of the free bank cards for the spending, and a budget they can see against a limit for the rest; that is the budget app for teens question.

How this works in CapKin

The limits first. CapKin has no card, no bank connection and no way to move money, so it replaces GoHenry only for families who do not need the card yet, and runs beside a free bank card for those who do. Its learning content is written for ages 6 to 12 and teenagers hold the ordinary member role in the family budget. The interface is in English; a household budget uses one currency, so a UK family runs it in pounds. It runs in a web browser and installs as a web app with no app-store listing, a child uses it only through a parent’s household account, it is free during beta and paid plans have not been announced.

What it does is keep the child inside the family’s money: their own pocket-money ledger, entries pending until a parent approves them, savings goals a parent can lock, badges for what they do with money and none for opening the app, Beaver Trails for 6-to-8s and a discovery a day for 8-to-12s. Children never receive push notifications or email, and a child account stores a display name and at most a birth year. What each age gets is on the kids page; the UK and US market by price and what the child holds is in money apps for kids without a debit card; every product claim is stated in full on the product facts page.

Sources

• —GoHenry. UK pricing page (gohenry.com/uk/pricing), read 19 October 2026: Everyday plan £3.99 a month per child, one month free; standard card included, personalised designs from £4.99; accounts for ages 6–18, Apple Pay from 13.
• —FStech. Barclays to acquire youth banking platform GoHenry, 15 June 2026. Barclays UK acquiring GoHenry’s UK business from Acorns; completion expected in the fourth quarter of 2026 subject to regulatory approval; around 500,000 children served; brand and standalone app retained. Announcement first reported 12 June 2026.
• —Starling Bank. Under 16s page, read 8 October 2026: ages 6–15; “no charge to open an Under 16s Space”; requires the parent’s Starling current account.
• —Monzo. Monzo for Under 16s page and help articles (monzo.com), read 19 October 2026: ages 6–15, UK residents, parent or guardian account needed; “no up-front costs, subscription or top-up fees”; spending limits, scheduled pocket money, no fees abroad; FSCS protection; 16–17s account from sixteen.
• —HyperJar. Kids page, read 8 October 2026: “No monthly fees”; ages 6–15 paired to an adult’s account, separate teen card from 13; £1 charge when transfer limits are exceeded; no cash withdrawals.
• —Wise. GoHenry alternatives: UK kids’ cards compared, 10 August 2026, sources checked 29 July 2026: Revolut <18 with no monthly fee on a standard Revolut account from age 6; nimbl at about £2.67 a month (£32 a year) for ages 6–18.
• —NatWest Rooster Money. Pricing page, read 8 and 16 October 2026: Virtual Tracker free for UK residents 18+, “no deposits, virtual £ or stars”; Rooster Card £1.99 a month or £19.99 a year after a one-month trial, ages 6–17. NatWest kids prepaid pocket money card page: up to three cards free for NatWest customers. Apple App Store (UK) listing, read 16 October 2026: no lessons or quizzes described.
• —Acorns. Acorns Early page, read 8 October 2026: Early Lite $8 a month, Acorns Gold $12 a month, ages 6–18. Press release, 21 January 2026: Money Missions 110 lessons across three levels, 80+ videos free on YouTube.
• —CapKin product facts, last verified 4 August 2026.