The Beans vs PlanLink
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
The Beans
This app offers a free, personalized visual financial plan to help you achieve money and life balance. It automatically categorizes transactions, plans expenses, and provides spending updates. Securely connect your accounts for a holistic financial overview.
- Custom visual financial plan
- Automatic transaction labeling
- Monthly expense planning
- Spending and bill updates
- Secure account connection
- Personalized plan customization
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The Beans — We’ll build you a custom, simple, free, Visual Financial Plan and keep you updated, so you find your Money + Life Balance. The Beans is the only Visual Financial Planning mobile app that will: • Build you a custom, simple, and free Visual Financial Plan that you can personalize. • Automatically and accurately label your transactions. • Plan your monthly expenses. • Keep you updated on how much you are free to spend and any upcoming bills. • Keep your information safe and secure. What is a Visual Financial Plan and how does it work? A Visual Financial Plan is a more holistic look at your finances. Think of it as an upgrade to a budget. You’d connect your active accounts (checking, credit cards, loans, savings— whichever apply to you), then we’d surface your bills and other financial commitments for you to confirm. After confirming your commitments, The Beans calculates your average spending outside of bills and presents you with a Visual Financial Plan, which you’ll then customize and commit to. New Plans begin on the first of each month. We’ll send you support to stay on track and you’ll earn achievements as time goes on. As your finances evolve so will your Plan, which you can adjust at anytime. How much does The Beans cost? The Beans app is free to download. Is it safe and secure? The Beans keeps your information private and secure. We won’t sell your information or advertise to you. Does The Beans work with my bank? The Beans works with close to 10,000 banks, if yours is not supported we will work to get you connected as soon as possible. Read our friendly Terms of Service here: https://www.thebeans.io/home/terms-of-service/
PlanLink
Quickly enroll in retirement plans and manage your investments. Access loan and withdrawal options, view performance data, and track transaction history securely with biometric authentication.
- Retirement plan enrollment
- Investment portfolio management
- Contribution changes
- Loan and withdrawal requests
- View portfolio returns
- Transaction history search
- Live fund performance data
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• Enroll in your retirement plan in 5 minutes or less • Easily manage your investment portfolio • Change your contributions • Request a loan, rollover, or lump sum cash withdrawal (if available) • View your portfolio rate of returns • Search transaction history on your account • Get live fund performance data and prospectus • Touch/Face ID for fast & secure authentication • Take control of your retirement!
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: PlanLink at 4.8 against The Beans's 4.1. PlanLink also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 2) and review sentiment (96% vs 66%). The Beans's advantage is update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 7 months). On price, ratings volume, ads and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. The Beans sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. PlanLink asks for nothing beyond the download.
PlanLink holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.1. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 87 and 105 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 66% of The Beans's written reviews are positive against 96% of PlanLink's.
The Beans ships an update every 2 weeks, PlanLink every 7 months. The most recent releases landed on September 21, 2026 and September 5, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | The Beans | PlanLink |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.1 (87 ratings) | 4.8 (105 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 65.9% of reviews | 95.8% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 87 | 105 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks — better | Every 7 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 58 MB | 36 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | TheBeans | Spectrum Pension Consultants, Inc. |
Customer experience
The Beans
PlanLink
Bugs and requests
The Beans
Reported bugs
10 issues- 🐛 App unable to recognize all income flows for entrepreneurs
- 🐛 Buggy app preventing access to transferred money details
- 🐛 Inaccurate tracking of expenses and month-over-month spending
- 🐛 App overheats iPhone
- 🐛 Transactions on account not showing up in the app
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- 🐛 Glitches in initial setup steps
- 🐛 Difficulty connecting to banks
- 🐛 Slow manual input process
- 🐛 App not recognizing income accounts correctly
- 🐛 App not downloading on iPhone
Requested features
5 requests- Ability to manually add reoccurring expenses and income
- More clear explanations of visuals and functionality
- Option to delete account directly within the app
- Support for weekly payment schedules
- Improved handling of complex income flows for entrepreneurs
PlanLink
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
The Beans
- The Beans Premium - 1 month7 Days trial$4.991 Month
- The Beans Premium - 1 year14 Days trial$29.991 Year
PlanLink
No in-app purchases
