Comparison

HMRC vs Emma

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

HMRC

Manage your taxes, benefits, and savings securely and easily. Check your tax code, claim refunds, and track your State Pension. Access Self Assessment and Child Benefit information, and find your National Insurance number.

Highlights
  • Quick secure sign-in
  • Check tax code and pay
  • Claim tax refunds
  • View State Pension details
  • Self Assessment payments
  • Manage Child Benefit
  • Find National Insurance number
Features
Read full description

Take control of your money and tax with the HMRC app It’s secure, free to download, and easy to use. Get on it, and join millions of people already saving time with the HMRC app. Key Features: - Quick setup: sign in using face recognition, fingerprint scan, or a six-digit PIN - Stay in control: check your tax code and see your pay before it even shows in your bank, so you know you're paying the right amount - Claim a tax refund: find out if you’re due any tax back from us and quickly claim a refund if you’re owed one - Check your State Pension: see how much State Pension you could get, when you can get it and how to increase it, if you can - Self Assessment: a safe and secure way to make Self Assessment payments and get information you'll need to file - Child Benefit support: claim, manage, and update your Child Benefit details - National Insurance: find and save your National Insurance number so you have it when you need it - Go paperless: opt to receive key messages from HMRC online Download the HMRC app today and stay on top of your money and taxes

About

Emma

Consolidate all your financial accounts in one place to track spending, manage subscriptions, and set budgets. Receive weekly reports, daily balance notifications, and overdraft alerts. Offers bank-level security with SSL encryption and biometric authentication.

Highlights
  • Consolidate all accounts
  • Track subscriptions
  • Set budgets
  • Weekly spending reports
  • Overdraft alerts
  • Bank-level security
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

Meet Emma, your financial super app ● All your accounts in one place ● Find and track your subscriptions ● Set budgets ● Weekly reports ● Analyze your spending & expenses ● Daily balance notifications ● Overdraft alerts BANK LEVEL SECURITY Worried about sharing your data? We hear you. ● Emma uses SSL 256-bit encryption - the same security protocol that banks use - to ensure that your sensitive, personal information is fully encrypted and securely stored. ● Emma uses biometric security authentication for an added level of protection. CUSTOMER REVIEWS “This app is amazing! I used to manually track my expenses using a notepad or a spreadsheet but always used to make mistakes and never found time to update it. This fixes all my budgeting issues and saves me so much time as well as money!” Sarah “I love the fact that I can do everything within this one app. I mainly use it for tracking my expenses but have also started using it to instantly send/receive payments which makes things super easy. Also, the money I’ve saved from using this app is used to invest in my favorite companies using the investment feature!” Mike OUR MISSION We believe everyone deserves a financial advocate to help with money management and budgeting. Someone who watches our back no matter who we are and where we come from. We provide a great experience, which relies on a basic principle - caring about our customers’ financial well being. This is who we are and what we stand for. We have received amazing feedback from the finance community and have been featured in Forbes, Financial Times, Politico, The Sunday Times and CITY A.M. MORE FEATURES? GO PLUS, PRO OR ULTIMATE We have 3 subscription upgrades available in Emma to power charge your finances. Here’s what is available in each subscription upgrade: Emma Plus True Balance - preemptively see the balance of your bank account after your subscriptions are removed Fraud Detection - find out whether your personal details have been part of a known data breach Bill Reminders - get reminded about your upcoming bills so you never miss a payment Cashback - get cashback from your favorite brands Emma Pro All the features in Emma Plus Custom categories - so you can customize your finances to your heart's content Rename transactions - for easier reference Export data - to understand your finances on excel Create Offline Accounts - to manage your cash expenses and any accounts you can’t link to Emma Create Smart Rules - to automate your Offline Accounts. Look, no hands! Split your transactions - into multiple categories for more flexibility Legendary Pro Icon - because you are a Pro Emma Ultimate All the features in Emma Plus & Pro Spaces - group together different accounts to see separated analytics and budgets Ultimate Icon - so you can show them who's boss ----------------------------------- If you choose to purchase Emma Plus, Emma Pro or Emma Ultimate, payment will be charged to your iTunes account, and your account will be charged for renewal within 24-hours prior to the end of the current period. Subscription automatically renews unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24-hours before the end of the current period. Subscriptions are managed by the user and auto-renewal may be turned off by going to the user's Apple ID. Emma subscription prices start at $4.99 CAD/USD/month with 1-month and 12-month packages available. Prices are subject to change without notice. No cancellation of the current subscription is allowed during the active subscription period. If you don’t choose to purchase Emma Plus, Emma or Emma Ultimate, you can simply continue using Emma for free. Emma Technologies LTD is registered with the Financial Conduct Authority under the Payment Services Regulations 2017 for the provision of payment services. Reference no. 794952 Company Registration Number: 10578464. Terms and Conditions: https://emma-app.com/terms Privacy Policy: https://emma-app.com/privacy

Screenshots

HMRC4 screens
Emma4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: HMRC at none against Emma's 11. HMRC also leads on ads (none vs shown) and review sentiment (48% vs 39%). Emma's advantage is update cadence (every 6 days vs monthly) and chart position (#168 vs unranked). On price, rating, ratings volume 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Emma sells 8 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. HMRC asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for HMRC against 4.7 for Emma. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 600 and 1.4K respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 48% of HMRC's written reviews are positive against 39% of Emma's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

HMRC ships an update monthly, Emma every 6 days. The most recent releases landed on October 18, 2026 and October 17, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 5 level
HMRC versus Emma: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHMRCEmma
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (600 ratings) — better4.7 (1.4K ratings)
Positive reviews47.9% of reviews — better38.6% of reviews
Number of ratings6001.4K — better
Update frequencyMonthlyEvery 6 days — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank—#168 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.0 — better15.1
Further details — not scored
Size34 MB158 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperHMRCEmma Technologies LTD.

Customer experience

HMRC

All ratings600 ratings
Positive95.2%
Neutral1.7%
Negative3.2%
Written reviews889 reviews
Positive47.9%
Neutral4.8%
Negative47.2%

Emma

All ratings1,416 ratings
Positive92.6%
Neutral1.4%
Negative6.0%
Written reviews699 reviews
Positive38.6%
Neutral8.7%
Negative52.6%

User reviews

HMRC

From 600 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Easy to use
  • 🚀 Straightforward payment process
  • 💡 Useful information and updates
  • 🔒 Secure authentication

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Frequent login issues and app crashes
  • 🤔 Confusing navigation and UI
  • ⚠️ Lack of communication about tax changes
  • 🕰️ Slow and unresponsive app

Emma

From 1.4K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Helpful for budgeting and tracking spending
  • 🚀 Efficient at categorizing transactions
  • 💡 Useful for detecting subscriptions and recurring payments
  • 👍 Intuitive and user-friendly interface
  • 👍 Provides good financial insights and analytics

Room to improve

  • 🔒 Concerns about data privacy and security
  • 💰 Expensive subscription model, features locked behind paywall
  • 🐛 Syncing issues, transactions not always accurately categorized
  • 🔍 Difficult to cancel subscription or delete account
  • 📢 Aggressive upselling and notifications

Bugs and requests

HMRC

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Endless login loops and redirects
  • App freezing and becoming unresponsive
  • Inconsistent behavior after app updates
  • Issues with Face ID and biometric authentication

Requested features

4 requests
  • Improved notification system for tax updates
  • Ability to view and manage tax details in-app
  • Better integration with banking apps for payments
  • More user-friendly design and navigation

Emma

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • App crashes or freezes frequently
  • Transactions not syncing properly or showing incorrect balances
  • Issues connecting to certain bank accounts
  • Recurring payments not being tracked accurately

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add support for more banks and financial institutions
  • Improve budgeting features with better categorization and goal-setting
  • Provide more customization options for categories and reporting
  • Integrate with investment accounts and track net worth
  • Offer a more affordable pricing model or free tier with core features

In-app purchases

None

HMRC

No in-app purchases

8 purchases

Emma

Subscriptions8
  • Emma Plus Monthly7 Days trial$4.991 Month
  • Emma Pro Monthly7 Days trial$9.991 Month
  • Monthly Pro Subscription7 Days trial$9.991 Month
Show 5 more
  • Emma Pro7 Days trial2 variants$9.991 Month
  • Emma Ultimate7 Days trial$14.991 Month
  • Emma Plus Yearly7 Days trial$41.991 Year
  • Emma Pro7 Days trial2 variants$83.991 Year
  • Subscription7 Days trial$83.991 Year

Questions

Is HMRC free?
HMRC is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Emma free?
Emma is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, HMRC or Emma?
HMRC is rated higher. HMRC averages 4.8 out of 5 from 600 ratings, while Emma averages 4.7 from 1.4K ratings.
Do HMRC or Emma have ads?
Emma shows ads; HMRC does not.
Which is updated more often, HMRC or Emma?
HMRC ships an update monthly, and Emma every 6 days. Most recently, HMRC was updated on October 18, 2026 and Emma on October 17, 2026.

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