Comparison

Starling vs Yotta Pay

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

Head to head
About

Starling

A digital banking app offering personal, joint, and business accounts with advanced security and 24/7 UK-based support. Manage your money, organize spending, and build financial habits with intuitive tools.

Highlights
  • Apply for accounts from your phone
  • 24/7 UK customer support
  • Manage account security
  • FSCS protection up to £120,000
  • Personal, joint, and business accounts
  • Organize finances with 'Spaces'
  • Instant spending notifications
Features
Read full description

Best-in-class banking, designed for your phone and life in the 2020s. Our free, habit-building bank accounts help millions of people be good with money. Apply for a free bank account directly from your phone – in minutes. Industry-leading digital banking security. • 24/7 UK-based customer support from real people. • Manage your account security with simple controls in the app. • FSCS protection up to £120,000. • Verify if it’s us calling you, with call status indicators in the app. One app. Everyday banking. From personal to joint to business banking, bring your finances under one roof: • Personal account: Spend, organise, save with the habit-building bank account. • Joint account: Bills, budgets or just getting brunch: it’s better together. • Business account: Pay no monthly fees, 24/7 UK customer support and free invoicing and accounting tools. • Under 16s: The free debit card for kids, managed from your account. • Student account: Budget with Spaces, spend abroad with no fees and apply for an interest-free overdraft. Easy mobile banking that just works. • Branchless and fully online. • Open and manage your account entirely from your phone. • Spend abroad like a local with no fees from us. • Get an instant notification every time you spend or receive money. Build life-changing habits with game-changing features. • Organise your finances by setting money aside into virtual ‘change jars’, aka Spaces. • Get instant notifications every time you spend. On holiday? Get notifications in both currencies. • Put your bills on autopilot so you only spend what’s actually available. • Make every penny count by rounding up payments to the nearest pound. • Get a clearer picture of your spending with our AI-powered features. Starling Bank Limited (trading as Starling) is registered in England and Wales (No. 09092149), 5th Floor London Fruit And Wool Exchange, 1 Duval Square, London, United Kingdom, E1 6PW. We are authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and the Prudential Regulation Authority under registration number 730166.

About

Yotta Pay

This free contactless payment app offers bank-grade security through Open Banking, eliminating the need to share card details. It enables instant payments to businesses and individuals, and allows users to receive funds quickly from clients, family, or friends.

Highlights
  • Contactless payments
  • Bank-grade security
  • Instant payments to businesses
  • Instant money transfers
  • QR code payment requests
  • Payment confirmation
Read full description

Yotta Pay is a free contactless payment app. Bank-grade security provided by Open Banking protocols. Confirm each payment with your mobile bank app and never share your card details. Pay money instantly to SMEs, sole traders, and charities. Receive money instantly from your clients, family, and friends. Request a payment from someone near you with QR code, or just choose a contact from your phone book. He or she will receive a clear pre-filled payment instruction in their mobile bank app. You will receive payment confirmation right after they confirm it.

Screenshots

Starling4 screens
Yotta Pay4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Starling at 4.9 against Yotta Pay's 3.7. Starling also leads on ratings volume (2.8K vs 3) and update cadence (weekly vs every 3 weeks). On price, review sentiment, ads and in-app purchases 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Starling holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 3.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Starling has 2.8K ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 74% of Starling's written reviews are positive against 77% of Yotta Pay's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Starling ships an update weekly, Yotta Pay every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 4, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Starling versus Yotta Pay: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterStarlingYotta Pay
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.9 (2.8K ratings) — better3.7 (3 ratings)
Positive reviews74.1% of reviews77.4% of reviews — better
Number of ratings2.8K — better3
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPod
Requires iOS15.014.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size558 MB57 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSTARLING BANK LIMITEDYOTTA DIGITAL LTD

Customer experience

Starling

All ratings2,804 ratings
Positive97.4%
Neutral0.9%
Negative1.8%
Written reviews1,588 reviews
Positive74.1%
Neutral4.1%
Negative21.8%

Yotta Pay

All ratings3 ratings
Positive66.7%
Neutral0.0%
Negative33.3%
Written reviews31 reviews
Positive77.4%
Neutral0.0%
Negative22.6%

Bugs and requests

Starling

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Login issues after phone updates
  • Inability to record video for verification
  • App crashes on certain devices
  • Delayed or failed money transfers

Requested features

7 requests
  • Joint account cards with different designs
  • Ability to set up automatic transfers to savings
  • More customization options for Spaces
  • Integration with password managers
  • Showing pending payments in balance
Show 2 more
  • Daily balance history view
  • Ability to split transactions into categories

Yotta Pay

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

Starling

No in-app purchases

None

Yotta Pay

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Starling free?
Starling is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Yotta Pay free?
Yotta Pay is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Starling or Yotta Pay?
Starling is rated higher. Starling averages 4.9 out of 5 from 2.8K ratings, while Yotta Pay averages 3.7 from 3 ratings.
Do Starling or Yotta Pay have ads?
Neither Starling nor Yotta Pay shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Starling or Yotta Pay?
Starling ships an update weekly, and Yotta Pay every 3 weeks. Most recently, Starling was updated on November 4, 2026 and Yotta Pay on November 3, 2026.

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