Which Bank Has The Best App?

Nillionaire on 12/07/2025 - 11:14
Last edited 12/07/2025 - 11:15

So I've only had the Commonwealth Bank app since I was a teen and it's been cool enough for me until my friends showed me all the PayID transactions between them over the years on the Up app which presents them in the style of texts as opposed to boring statements.

I was amused and started looking into all the other apps and realised we have a lot of banks in Australia; from the big four and their subsidiaries to the neobanks, and independents like Macquarie which seems popular on OzBargain. I don't want to try them all so I decided to do a poll here to help narrow down the list.

So which one do you guys enjoy using the most? This is about features, aesthetics, and reliable performance. This is NOT about the best savings rate or bonus points.

Poll Options

  • 193
    CBA
  • 135
    Up Bank
  • 129
    Macquarie
  • 22
    uBank
  • 19
    NAB
  • 16
    Westpac
  • 13
    ING
  • 12
    ANZ
  • 4
    Bankwest
  • 3
    St George
  • 3
    Bendigo
  • 3
    Bank Australia
  • 2
    ME Bank
  • 2
    Suncorp
  • 2
    HSBC
  • 2
    Bank of Queensland
  • 1
    Citibank
  • 1
    AMP
  • 1
    Bank of Melbourne
  • 1
    BankSA
Financial Bank Account

Comments

          • Mugsy on 15/07/2025 - 14:15
            +1

            @Jase83: HSBC has the same issue.

            I was wondering why I had so little in my HSBC payees list when I've got accounts with 6+ banks normally have all the other banks in my payees list ready for when I need to transfer funds between banks. And then I tried adding in new payees. Ended up just add 2x accounts and sending 2x $1 to other banks.

  • indomatic on 14/07/2025 - 14:11

    Believe it or not I've used most of them and while CBA has nice bells and whistles I don't really use all their little extra features

    Macquarie's categorisation as well as ability to tag transactions (haven't come across any others that do this) makes it easily the best for mine

    • goody on 15/07/2025 - 09:32
      +2

      Tagging transactions is VERY handy!

    • nategasm on 17/07/2025 - 11:08

      Up also let's you add tags and categories to transactions

  • relentless on 14/07/2025 - 16:44
    +1

    uBank is the best banking app for NAB

  • kaleidoscope on 14/07/2025 - 21:26
    +5

    Those who say its cba 🧐…

  • nategasm on 15/07/2025 - 01:27
    +2

    I feel I should chime in since I've used most of the apps in the list. Instead of listing them all I'll just share a very subjective tier list I made based on OP's 3 criteria.
    TL;DR - Up is the goat, CBA is mid, Citi & HSBC are actual torture devices

  • payless69 on 15/07/2025 - 04:19

    Missing:
    Betashares
    MyStateBank
    Police and Nurses bank
    IMB Bank yes we all got 50 Buck from them!
    Worst bank: Perpetual, followed by AMP
    Worst App: Bank West

  • blorx on 15/07/2025 - 08:49
    +5

    I don't like CBA, bloated and slow. Balances don't update immediately after a trans currently. They only just added a feature to save PayId's rather than scrolling my contacts very recently which was nice QoL. Too many clicks for simple tasks, not-intuitive enough. Up bank however is a breath of fresh air, has taught my partner how to save and budget much better.

  • sauce2k on 15/07/2025 - 11:44

    Netbank and it's not even close

  • squeeb on 15/07/2025 - 18:12

    Have used all on your list (and more). Up Bank has the best app by far. No other banking app comes close in terms of speed of transfer and ease of use.

  • oblueknighto on 15/07/2025 - 19:47
    +2

    Up Bank definitely has the best features!

    • kaleidoscope on 15/07/2025 - 21:45
      +1

      It's definitely up there for sure and have been using it since very early days. They have however failed to add more features into since they have launched it. I wish they did a bit of revamp and redesign of the app and improved overall UX around it. Cant beat their support however, has always had the most helful and quick responses so far compared any other bank, or even a service!

  • parcus on 16/07/2025 - 04:58
    +6

    Results surely skewed by amount of users, how many people who voted CBA have never used Up or Macquarie, which are by any objective manner monumentally better apps?!

    CBA is bloated, slow, ugly and unintuitive; but they see their competition as the rest of the big 4 who have even worse apps hence the pat on the backs for a mediocre job

    Up gets everything right:

    • No need to log in/authenticate for access (that pointless lock animation on CBA does my head in every time just to open the app), why the need to authenticate when we already do so to open our phones? Up only requires authentication for the moments it matters - moving money, seeing card details, changing personal details etc
    • You immediately open up to the activity screen which shows the most important things in a banking app straight away - the money you have available and your most recent transactions; when you open up CBA (after needing to authenticate) all you're given is your balances and random useless 'tiles' (to sell you more products!!!) requiring another tap to load your recent transactions
    • UX is breezy and intuitive with simple swipes to get to the other parts of the app - settings, payments, savings, chat- that's all we need! on CBA I'm often needing to use that search bar to find things I need, why must it be so difficult?
    • Categorisation is superb, very granular with all the options for categories, insights that are actually useful, it's simple to understand and looks absolutely gorgeous; on CBA they give you the bare minimum with no useable actionable insights
    • There are a whole bunch of inbuilt tools to assist with savings and budgeting, only dabbled in these but sure as heck beats CBA's borderline pointless budgeting function
  • Typical16-bitEnjoyer on 16/07/2025 - 07:14
    +1

    Up is excellent.
    Westpac is above average
    ING is ok
    ANZ is vomit

  • Asti on 16/07/2025 - 08:06
    +3

    Up bank is so far ahead of everyone else it's crazy. Its clear they prioritise this above other things. Too bad their savings rate is atrocious.

  • FareEvader on 16/07/2025 - 09:47
    +1

    The votes for ANZ must be from their tech team lol

  • T-man on 16/07/2025 - 21:26

    Who voted HSBC? The worst banking app in the world, not just Australia.

    • Jase83 on 17/07/2025 - 11:49

      I have HSBC and Bank of China - HSBC is miles ahead of the BOC app

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