Forbidden Finance · Comparison
Forbidden Finance vs Copilot Money
Copilot is an Apple-ecosystem personal finance app known for design quality and AI-assisted categorization, sold as a single subscription tier. It is USD-only, supports US institutions only, and has no Android app.
Copilot Money is best for: Apple-ecosystem users who want the best-designed personal finance app on iPhone and Mac.
Facts about Copilot Money were checked against their published pages in August 2026; every cell links its source. Spot something out of date? Tell us at support@403fin.io and we'll fix it.
At a glance
| Dimension | Forbidden Finance | Copilot Money |
|---|---|---|
| The basics | ||
| Price | Free tier forever; paid plans $4.99–$14.99/mo. No free trial — 30-day money-back guarantee on web purchases. | No free tier. $13/mo or $95/yr; 1-month free trial plus a no-account demo mode.↗ |
| Business model | Subscriptions only. No ads, no data sales, no cross-sells. | Single-tier subscription; no ads. Venture-backed (~$10.8M), reported profitable since 2023.↗ |
| Security & privacy | ||
| Data selling & ads | We never sell user data, share it with advertisers, or build behavioral profiles for third parties. | States it does not sell financial information or share it for third-party marketing; uses marketing cookies for its own advertising.↗ |
| Bank credentials & tokens | Bank credentials never touch our servers (entered with regulated aggregators); sensitive tokens encrypted with AES-256-GCM before storage. | 256-bit encryption at rest, TLS in transit; never sees bank credentials (aggregators hold them).↗ |
| Encryption inside the database | Sensitive financial fields are sealed under encryption keys unique to each account before they reach the database; keys live in a separate key service. Amounts are aggregated in memory after decryption, so financial values never need to sit readable in the database. | Not publicly documented (as of 2026-08).↗ |
| Database-level isolation | PostgreSQL row-level security enforces per-account isolation inside the database engine itself. | Not publicly documented (as of 2026-08).↗ |
| Deletion & export | Self-serve: 30-day recovery window, then permanent deletion and destruction of the account’s encryption keys. Full data export on every tier. | Self-serve deletion in Settings or by email; full transaction data download.↗ |
| Sign-in security | Passkeys, authenticator-app (TOTP) MFA, biometric unlock, session management. | Magic link, password, or Sign in with Apple. End-user MFA/passkeys: not publicly documented (as of 2026-08).↗ |
| Security testing & audits | Built by a founder with a professional penetration-testing background; an independent, human-led penetration test is scheduled ahead of full launch. Not yet SOC 2 certified — we say so plainly. | Documents regular application penetration tests; states plainly that the SOC/ISO certifications belong to its cloud provider and "Copilot is not certified at the moment."↗ |
| Features | ||
| Bank sync | US & Canada via regulated aggregators (daily + updates when your bank reports changes); UK/EU via bring-your-own open-banking connections; CSV & JSON import. | Plaid + Mastercard Data Connect, plus direct integrations incl. Apple Card (FinanceKit), Capital One, Coinbase; US institutions only.↗ |
| Budget methods | All 8 methods: 50/30/20, Pay Yourself First, Zero-Based, Envelope, Kakeibo, FIRE, Values-Based, Custom. | Monthly category budgets with rollovers; zero-based possible but not enforced; budgeting can be turned off entirely.↗ |
| Investment tracking | Brokerage connections with holdings, activity & cost basis (Pro+); per-lot detail and tax-lot CSV export (Premium). | Holdings by ticker with average cost and total return where institutions provide it; daily refresh after market close.↗ |
| Multi-currency | 1 / 3 / 10 / unlimited currencies by tier, with exchange-rate conversion. | USD only — no conversion; foreign amounts shown as-is in USD.↗ |
| Partner / household | 1 partner (Pro) or up to 5 users (Premium). You choose exactly which accounts to share; partners work in a shared budget while each also keeps a private budget; connection slots can be lent. | No multi-user model — partner sharing is a magic-link login into one shared account, full control for both.↗ |
| Platforms | Web (installable PWA), iOS, Android. Android direct download available today; app-store listings Coming Soon. | iPhone, iPad, native Mac app, Apple Vision, Web — no Android, no Windows.↗ |
| Open source / self-host | Proprietary, not self-hostable. The exit stays open: full data export on every tier. | Proprietary, no self-host, no public API.↗ |
Security, side by side
We compare only what Copilot Money publicly documents. "Not publicly documented" means exactly that — it is not an accusation, and plenty of solid engineering never makes it to a marketing page. Here's what each side is willing to put in writing.
What Forbidden Finance puts in writing
- Data selling & ads: We never sell user data, share it with advertisers, or build behavioral profiles for third parties.
- Bank credentials & tokens: Bank credentials never touch our servers (entered with regulated aggregators); sensitive tokens encrypted with AES-256-GCM before storage.
- Encryption inside the database: Sensitive financial fields are sealed under encryption keys unique to each account before they reach the database; keys live in a separate key service. Amounts are aggregated in memory after decryption, so financial values never need to sit readable in the database.
- Database-level isolation: PostgreSQL row-level security enforces per-account isolation inside the database engine itself.
- Deletion & export: Self-serve: 30-day recovery window, then permanent deletion and destruction of the account’s encryption keys. Full data export on every tier.
- Sign-in security: Passkeys, authenticator-app (TOTP) MFA, biometric unlock, session management.
- Security testing & audits: Built by a founder with a professional penetration-testing background; an independent, human-led penetration test is scheduled ahead of full launch. Not yet SOC 2 certified — we say so plainly.
The full story, including what we're NOT certified for, is on the Security & Privacy page.
What Copilot Money documents
- Data selling & ads: Privacy policy: "We do not sell your Financial Information that you enter or integrate into the app." App Store privacy label declares Financial Info, Location, and Usage Data as "Data Linked to You" used for Analytics.↗
- Bank credentials & tokens: Unusually candid certification stance: lists its cloud provider’s (GCP) SOC/ISO certifications and states plainly that "Copilot is not certified at the moment." Documents regular application penetration testing.↗
- Encryption inside the database: Copilot documents 256-bit at-rest encryption generally; per-user encryption keys inside the database are not publicly documented.↗
- Database-level isolation: Not publicly documented (as of 2026-08).↗
- Deletion & export: No fixed post-deletion purge or recovery window published; retention "for as long as your account is active or as needed to comply with applicable legal obligations."↗
- Sign-in security: The MFA claim on Copilot’s security page ("MFA on all internal systems") covers staff systems, not end-user accounts.↗
- Security testing & audits: Documents regular application penetration tests; states plainly that the SOC/ISO certifications belong to its cloud provider and "Copilot is not certified at the moment."↗
Where Copilot Money is a better fit
An honest comparison cuts both ways. If these match what you need,Copilot Money is a fine choice — we'd rather you pick the right tool than churn out of the wrong one.
- You live in the Apple ecosystem: a genuine native macOS app (not a web wrapper), iPad and Apple Vision apps, and polished widgets — the best-designed option in the category.
- Your money is in Apple Card, Apple Cash, Capital One, Coinbase, or Public: Copilot’s FinanceKit and direct OAuth integrations reach accounts most competitors cannot.
- You want to evaluate with zero commitment: a demo mode that works before linking any account, then a 1-month free trial.
- You want shipped AI categorization today — Copilot’s learns from your corrections and is mature (ours is Coming Soon).
- You value candor in security claims: Copilot documents regular penetration testing and states plainly which certifications it does and does not hold.
Trade-offs to know about Copilot Money
- No Android and no Windows — mixed-platform households are out
- USD only, US institutions only, no conversion
- No real multi-user model: partner sharing is a shared login with full control
- No public API
Why pick Forbidden Finance over Copilot Money
Shipped today
- Cross-platform: Web, iOS, AND Android — a mixed-device household can actually share it.
- Real partner sharing: separate logins, per-account opt-in, and a private budget each — not a shared login.
- Multi-currency with conversion plus a UK/EU connection rail; Copilot is USD/US-only.
- Lower monthly price at the Pro tier ($9.99 vs $13 month-to-month).
- Per-account encryption inside the database with key destruction — Copilot documents 256-bit at-rest encryption, not row-level protection.
- 30-day money-back guarantee on web purchases instead of a trial that auto-converts.
On the way
- Flexible budget periods — pick your own start date and frequency, or alternate phases: run a 6-month budget, or three high-income months followed by three lean ones, the way contractor income actually works Coming Soon
- AI-powered insights (privacy-gated, on open models) Coming Soon
- API access Coming Soon
- MCP connector for AI assistants Coming Soon
- Dedicated FIRE planning tools Coming Soon
- Debt payoff tools Coming Soon
Unshipped features stay labeled until they're real — that's the same honesty rule the rest of this page runs on.
Switching from Copilot Money?
Export your data from Copilot Money, then bring it in with Forbidden Finance's CSV & JSON import — available on every tier, including Free, so you can test-drive with your real data before paying anything. The help docs walk through imports step by step.
Common questions
$13/month or $95/year. Copilot’s site shows "$7.92/mo", which is the annual price divided by twelve — paying monthly costs $156/year. Forbidden Finance runs $0 (free tier) to $14.99/month, with the mid $9.99 Pro tier covering investments and all budget methods.
No — Copilot runs on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Vision, and the web only. Mixed iPhone/Android households can’t share it, since partner sharing works by logging into one shared account from the app. Forbidden Finance ships Web, iOS, and Android.
No. Copilot’s help center states it "only supports USD and does not convert foreign currency transactions," and it supports US institutions only. Forbidden Finance supports multi-currency with conversion (1 to unlimited currencies by tier) plus a UK/EU bank-connection rail.
No — and Copilot says so plainly: the SOC/ISO certifications on its security page belong to Google Cloud, its host, "and Copilot is not certified at the moment." It does document 256-bit encryption, TLS, and regular penetration tests. Forbidden Finance is not SOC 2 certified either (we say so on our security page); we document per-account envelope encryption in the database and PostgreSQL row-level security.
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