Banking Bank Reviews

GoHenry vs. Greenlight: Which One Is the Better Option for Your Family?

Both GoHenry and Greenlight offer kids' debit card with similar perks for parents to teach their kids how to handle money. However, Greenlight offers more value overall.

By Miranda Marquit
and Kate Underwood

Edited by Jess Ullrich

Updated Feb. 18, 2025

Our view

As a parent, making sure my kids grow up knowing how to manage money is one of my biggest goals. They'll need skills with earning, spending, saving, and investing all their lives, and starting early is key. Here's where GoHenry and Greenlight come in.

When you compare GoHenry vs. Greenlight, both platforms provide fun and useful digital tools to teach money management. They make it easy to give your kids allowance or pay them for jobs they do. Plus, kids receive their own debit card that enables them to make purchases and plan ahead.

These services come at a cost, and you might be able to teach a lot of the same lessons without one. But the fees are minimal, and Greenlight is a bit more cost-effective with added perks. You can't really go wrong with either Greenlight or GoHenry, but I'd give Greenlight a slight edge in terms of usefulness to parents and kids.

How we evaluate products

Kids' debit cards can be helpful in teaching children financial literacy and money management skills. Greenlight and GoHenry are two of the most popular companies offering prepaid debit cards for kids and teens, as well as tools for safely transferring funds between parents and their kids.

Overall, we prefer Greenlight as its basic plan is more cost-effective for families, and it provides more features to choose from, such as investing. Here's what you need to know about GoHenry vs. Greenlight.

Editor's note

GoHenry was purchased by Acorns in 2023 and has since been rebranded as Acorns Early. You'll still see it referred to as GoHenry, and the GoHenry app is still available for families to use, but you might see the name Acorns Early start to be used more often. There's also an Acorns Early app, and that's the only one that'll include the latest features from here on out

GoHenry vs. Greenlight

	GoHenry	Greenlight
Card type	Debit card	Debit card
Payment network	Mastercard	Mastercard
Monthly fee	$5 per child or $10 for up to four child accounts Included at no added cost with the Acorns Gold investing plan ($12/month)	Family plans for parents and up to five children: $5.99 Greenlight Core $9.98 Greenlight Max $14.98 Greenlight Infinity
Minimum age requirement	Six years old	None
Features	Up to four kids Savings goals Automatic payments Set spending limits Ability to turn cards on and off Custom card option Mobile app for iPhone and Android FDIC-insured	Up to five kids Savings goals Automatic payments Set spending controls Ability to turn cards on and off Round up feature that saves spare change Mobile app for iPhone and Android Works with Apple Pay and Google Pay Investing component Identity theft, cell phone, and purchase protection with Greenlight Max and Infinity FDIC-insured SIPC-insured investments
Best for...	Parents who want simple features that can help improve financial literacy	Parents who want to teach their kids about financial literacy concepts, including investing
	Visit GoHenry	Visit Greenlight

How does GoHenry work?

GoHenry is designed as a family money management app to teach kids about saving and how to manage money. After you sign up for GoHenry, you get customized debit cards for your kids. They can choose from over 35 customizable card designs.

To fund your children's accounts, start by adding money to your parent account using a debit card or other payment account (when doing the free trial, I found I could link a credit card to fund my son's account). You can direct money into up to four kids' accounts.

Key features of GoHenry

Set tasks and payment amounts in the app (recurring allowances, payment for extra tasks, and more)
Set spending limits for your child
Money Missions enable your child to learn about financial concepts
Send money instantly to your child's account
Direct Deposit available to teens
Family and friends can send money to your child's GoHenry account via Giftlinks and relative accounts

Read our GoHenry review to learn more.

Good to know

Acorns Gold also includes Acorns Early Invest accounts, which are automated custodial investment accounts for kids that feature a 1% match. However, because these accounts are technically separate from Acorns Early or GoHenry accounts, we're not going to cover them in this review.

How does Greenlight work?

The basics of Greenlight are the same as those of GoHenry, with debit cards for kids and tools to help parents teach kids about money. As a parent, you can automate allowances and pay for extra tasks your children do. Children can customize their debit cards with a photo of their choice.

Key features of Greenlight:

Automate allowances and paid tasks
Set spending limits and ATM limits for your children
Teach money skills through financial literacy game
Options for cash back on savings and purchases
Boost savings through parent-paid interest
Investing options for the top two membership tiers
Phone, purchase, and ID theft protection for the top two tiers
Driving alerts, crash detection, family location sharing and SOS alerts for Infinity plan

Greenlight goes above and beyond what GoHenry can offer, with added features like Parent-Paid Interest and investing options. If you choose an interest rate to pay your child, you can teach how compound interest works, for example.

Greenlight is also FDIC-insured for the banking products and Securities Investor Protection Corp.-insured for the investing account. With Greenlight, parents can fund their accounts from a bank account or debit card and send money to up to five kids.

Get a one-month free trial of Greenlight | Read our Greenlight review.

How GoHenry and Greenlight are similar

I like a lot of the primary features of both GoHenry and Greenlight. With my kids at ages nine and eleven, they're ideal for me, with debit cards for kids and easy ways to automatic allowance payments.

Let's look at some of the ways GoHenry and Greenlight come out even:

Free one-month trial period
Kids' debit cards with parental controls and FDIC protection
Tools to help kids set savings goals
Financial literacy education through fun games and activities
Simple parent-to-child money transfers
Charitable donation option

Both apps are great for helping build a successful financial future for your children.

Who is GoHenry best for?

For simple kids' debit cards and allowance payments, GoHenry is a solid choice, especially if you only have one child. Here are two types of families we'd also recommend it for.

Families mostly focused on educational resources

GoHenry's gamified educational games are a strength of the platform. And even though Greenlight offers great educational resources, too, we slightly prefer GoHenry's toolkit here because we can see the games being more fun for kids. The games and courses, called Money Missions, are age-appropriate and engaging.

Current or potential Acorns users

As mentioned, the GoHenry kids' debit card and money management features are now called Acorns Early, and it's all rolled into the Acorns Gold subscription. If you already invest with Acorns at a lower tier, it might be worth upgrading to the Gold plan to take advantage of the complimentary GoHenry access.

But the price difference is $9 if you upgrade from Acorns Bronze ($3 per month) to Acorns Gold ($12 per month), so you'd only save a dollar in that scenario, assuming you didn't use any of the extra features that come with the higher plan tier besides the kids' banking platform.

Who is Greenlight best for?

Greenlight has more strengths overall, so we'd recommend it to more families (especially those with kids under the age of six, GoHenry's minimum). Consider Greenlight over GoHenry if any of these descriptions sound like you.

Families looking for the most bang for their buck

In general, if you're interested in added features, choose Greenlight, as it offers investing, identity theft protection, and options to add interest to your child's account.

Neither GoHenry nor Greenlight is free, but Greenlight wins in terms of pricing overall.

	Cost
GoHenry	$5/month for one child; $10 for up to four children
Greenlight	$5.99/month to $14.98/month for up to five children

Greenlight also has three tiers of membership that offer increasing levels of features and services. If you only want the basic debit cards and you have at least two children, you'll save money with Greenlight. And if you're looking for added benefits, here's more on how Greenlight's pricing works (all three plans work for up to five kids).

Core: $5.99/month for debit cards, automatic and special payments, and financial literacy games, earn up to 2% on savings from Greenlight

Max: $9.98/month for Core features, up to 3% on savings, 1% cash back on purchases, access to Investing for kids, and protection for phones, purchases, and identity theft

Infinity: $14.98/month for Max features, up to 5% on savings; driving reports, alerts, and crash detection; family location sharing; and SOS alerts

Overall, you get more for less money with Greenlight. But if you're not concerned with having the most features and mainly need a platform to give your child or teen space to practice spending and to pay an allowance, you should find that GoHenry should do the trick.

Larger families

Family size is a factor in choosing a children's debit card. You can get debit cards for up to four children for $10 a month with GoHenry, or you can get debit cards for up to five children for as little as $5.99 a month with Greenlight. If you're a parent to more than five, you might need to open a separate account with either.

Technically, you'll save a little bit by choosing GoHenry if you only have one child. But for families with multiple children, Greenlight is the better value.

Families that want to invest

GoHenry doesn't offer any investing options for kids built into its platform, while Greenlight does. I wish I'd started learning how investing works when I was ten years old (I definitely don't recommend waiting until your thirties to do so).

Greenlight enables parents to approve every trade before their child makes it, and the account is SIPC-insured. SIPC insurance doesn't cover investment losses, but it can protect you if the company fails.

Families that want safety features

Again, Greenlight simply does more than GoHenry: you can access identity theft and phone protection with either the Max or Infinity plan. It's definitely a nice feature to have and might make you feel more justified in paying a higher monthly price.

Access to payment apps

Greenlight debit cards are compatible with Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay, enabling more convenient payment options. Your child must be 13 or older to use Apple Pay or Google Pay with GoHenry.

With GoHenry, your child (aged 13 and older) may use Apple Pay, but Google Pay is not enabled. If Apple Pay is the only one of its type that your family uses, this may be perfectly fine.

Other alternatives to consider

Another option we suggest is to check with your bank to see whether it offers joint accounts for minors. You might be able to open a basic joint checking account with your teen. Many of the best banks offer these accounts at no charge and will issue your child a debit card. You can then use the bank's app to monitor your child's account, without paying a fee.

FAQs

Which is better, GoHenry or Greenlight?

This depends on your family's size and how many services you'd like. GoHenry can work well for a family with one child to learn basic money management with access to a debit card. Greenlight, on the other hand, is less expensive for larger families and offers a more robust range of services, including investing and interest on savings with certain plans.

Does GoHenry charge a monthly fee?

The Greenlight basic plan costs $5.99 for the entire family, covering up to five kids (each with their own debit card). GoHenry, on the other hand, charges $5 per child or offers a family plan priced at $10 for up to four child accounts.

Does GoHenry offer ATM access?

Yes, it's possible to access an ATM with a GoHenry debit card with no fee for domestic and international transactions. However, you might have to pay ATM fees with the ATM owner.

Is Greenlight a credit card?

No, Greenlight is not a credit card. Instead, it's a prepaid debit card that parents can add money to with the goal of helping kids learn about money management.

What are some alternatives to Greenlight and GoHenry?

There are different alternatives to GoHenry and Greenlight. Here are some options:

FamZoo: FamZoo offers families the opportunity to manage finances together with debit cards for kids and monthly fees as low as $2.50 when you pay for 24 months in advance and up to $5.99 a month for a month-to-month subscription.
Current: If you have teens, you can get a prepaid debit card from Current that allows you to set notifications and spending limits and track your child's purchases. Read our full Current review for more information.
BusyKid: You can also use BusyKid to get debit cards for kids and pay them for chores. It's just $4 a month ($48 a year) for a family of up to five kids.

These are excellent and cost-effective alternatives. You can also check into whether your bank offers joint checking accounts with minors. This may not cost anything, and you can monitor your child's spending by logging into the joint account or checking your banking app.

Bottom line

Both GoHenry and Greenlight are excellent platforms that offer kids real-world experience in using a debit card to manage their money. In an increasingly cashless world, those skills will serve them well. I like both of the services, but you should think about what you're looking to gain from the platform before selecting one.

Greenlight is a better value overall since you get up to five debit cards for $5.99 per month, whereas GoHenry charges $5 per child and $10 for up to four children. And if you'd like your child to earn interest on savings, cash back on purchases, and have access to investing, Greenlight is the way to go.