Mobile Banking App vs Martia — Comparison 2026

Your mobile banking app shows one account. Martia shows them all.

Adam Przywarty

martia.ai

April 2026|11 min read

Your mobile banking app shows one account. Martia shows them all. It is not a competition — it is two different layers of the same financial stack.

A bank app is the portal where you actually do things with money: sending an instant payment, freezing a card, paying at an ATM. Martia is the place where that money becomes visible together — every account from every bank, in one view, with automatic categorisation. The bank executes; Martia surfaces.

This article does not try to talk you out of HSBC, Monzo, N26 or BNP Paribas mobile. It tries to show where a banking app finishes its job — and where Martia begins. (These are two different jobs. Genuinely.)

Key takeaways

A mobile banking app handles one provider's accounts: payments, instant transfers, card controls, ATMs. It is a portal for action.
Martia aggregates all your accounts across European banks into one view — with automatic categorisation and budgeting.
According to the ECB Payments Statistics (2024), the number of European households holding accounts at more than one bank has grown steadily — making single-bank apps increasingly partial
The setup that works: bank app for actions, Martia for the weekly review — three minutes, every Sunday
Both are free, and both rely on the same regulatory backbone (PSD2)

What sets a mobile banking app apart from a budgeting app?

A mobile banking app is the official mobile interface of a single bank — HSBC mobile for HSBC, Monzo for Monzo, N26 for N26, BNP Paribas for BNP Paribas. It only handles accounts and cards issued by that institution. A budgeting app (a personal finance management tool, or PFM) connects to many banks through Open Banking and shows all of your money in a single view — regardless of how many accounts you hold or how many providers you use.

The difference is not which one is better. It is that they solve two genuinely different problems. A bank app answers the question how do I make this transaction. Martia answers the question where is my money and what is happening to it.

Why people start looking beyond their bank app

Because they have more than one account. A current account at BNP Paribas, a credit card at American Express, savings at Trade Republic, a Revolut for travel. Four apps, four histories, four different categorisation schemes. To see how much they have in total, they switch between apps and add it up in their head — or do not bother, because it is too much friction. Seeing the full picture in one place is not a luxury — it is the precondition for any meaningful spending control.

What a mobile banking app offers (HSBC, BNP Paribas, Monzo, N26, Revolut)

What is a mobile banking app?

A mobile banking app is the official mobile application of a commercial bank or neobank — built and maintained by that provider. It handles current accounts, cards, loans, deposits, and investments held with that institution. According to EBA Risk Dashboard data (2024), mobile banking is now the dominant channel for retail banking interactions across the EU.

European bank apps have matured fast. Let us be fair — they handle operational work better than any third-party app ever will. Monzo set the bar for retail UX in the UK; N26 reshaped account opening on the continent; HSBC and BNP Paribas have closed the gap on neobanks while keeping deeper product depth. Within their own category, these are premium tools.

What a bank app does brilliantly

Payments and instant transfers — SEPA Instant, Faster Payments in the UK, Wise-style FX inside neobanks. Move money in seconds, with all of the bank's fraud controls, with a full audit trail.

Card controls — instant freeze if you lose a card, limits per channel, switching contactless or online payments on and off. The features you need at the exact moment of an emergency, working in five seconds.

ATM and cash interactions — withdrawals, cardless cash, in some networks deposits. Pure physical interaction with the bank's infrastructure.

Real-time push on every transaction — you tap a card, your phone buzzes within two seconds. Any external app (Martia included) will always sit one step behind on this, because it syncs every few hours, not in real time.

Bank products: loans, mortgages, savings — opening a savings pot, applying for a mortgage, ordering a new card. Only the bank can do this, because these are the bank's own products.

Where a bank app does not try to reach

By design, a bank app handles its own institution's accounts. It cannot show you how much you hold at another bank. It cannot tell you how much you spent on groceries this month if half of that went on a Monzo card and half on an HSBC debit card. It cannot run a budget across all of your money, because it does not see the other half.

Some neobanks (Revolut, Monzo, N26) now let you connect external accounts via Open Banking — and that helps if you mostly live in their ecosystem. But aggregation is a side feature for them, not the product. For someone genuinely split across three or four providers, a single bank app — even an excellent one — only covers a fragment.

Where Martia does it differently

Martia does not try to be a bank app. It does not move money, issue cards, or open savings products. It does one thing no single-bank app can do by definition: it shows every account you hold, across every supported bank, in one view, with categorisation that works the same way regardless of where the transaction came from.

Multi-bank view — one place, all of your money

Connecting a bank through Open Banking takes 2-3 minutes. You do it once per bank. From that moment, Martia sees balances and transactions across every connected account — HSBC, BNP Paribas, Santander, ING, Commerzbank, Monzo, Revolut, N26, and 2,400+ more institutions across the EU and UK. You open Martia, you see the total. No tab-switching across four apps.

Automatic categorisation — consistent across every bank

Tesco → groceries. Shell → fuel. Lidl → groceries. Albert Heijn → groceries. Martia recognises European merchants and assigns categories automatically. Banks try to categorise too, but each does it differently — Tesco lands in "Supermarkets" at one bank and "Food & drink" at another. In Martia: one consistent category regardless of which card paid for it. More on this in automatic expense categorisation.

Budget and questions — Martia as someone you can ask

Bank apps display data; they do not answer questions. Martia lets you ask: "how much did I spend on eating out in March", "can I afford a €1,200 weekend in Lisbon", "how much is left until payday". You get a concrete answer based on your real money. (If the answer has edge cases, Martia shows them rather than hiding them.)

Mobile banking in Europe — 2024 data

73%

of EU adults used internet or mobile banking in 2024 (Eurostat, 2024)

2,410+

European bank connections available through GoCardless Open Banking (GoCardless, 2026)

PSD2

the EU regulation that makes secure third-party access to bank data possible (EBA, 2024)

Sources: Eurostat — Individuals using the internet for banking (2024), GoCardless Bank Account Data — coverage, European Banking Authority — PSD2

See every account in one place

Connect your first bank in 2-3 minutes. Martia shows balances and transactions across every account you hold — without a single manual entry.

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Mobile banking app vs Martia — side-by-side

The table compares a typical mobile banking app (HSBC, BNP Paribas, Santander, Monzo, N26, Revolut) with Martia across 10 criteria. Wins are marked in colour — and they fall on both sides. These tools are complementary, not interchangeable.

Criterion	Mobile banking app	Martia
Number of accounts visible	1 — only this provider's accounts	Every connected European bank in one view
Payments, transfers, ATMs	Full functionality — instant	None — read-only by design
Card controls (freeze, limits)	Yes — instant freeze in 5 seconds	None
Real-time transaction push	Instant — seconds after the tap	After sync (every few hours)
Automatic categorisation	Basic, varies bank by bank	AI with European merchants — consistent across every account
Cross-account budgets	Sometimes available, single-bank only	Core feature — works across every connected bank
Loans, mortgages, savings products	Full product range — these are the bank's own products	None — Martia is not a bank
Ask questions about your money	None	Yes — Martia answers questions about your real spending
Setup	Already done — installed when you opened the account	2-3 min per bank, one-off
Cost	Free	Free

Recommendation: the bank app stays on your home screen for actions (payments, transfers, card freezes). Martia sits next to it as the place where, once a week, you check the full picture across every account. Each tool does a different job.

When to use which

The choice is not "bank app or Martia" — it is understanding what each is for. There is one simple rule that helps decide.

The one-bank vs two-bank rule

If you hold all of your money at a single bank — your bank app is enough. If you hold accounts at two or more banks, a single-bank app shows you a fragment, while Martia shows the whole. The trigger is the second bank, not the size of the balance.

A bank app is enough if...

You hold one bank account. Your salary, savings, and card all live there. Your spending is predictable and you do not need advanced categorisation or budgeting — the in-app history is enough. You prefer simplicity and one app. In that case, Martia will not change your life — because the data it would surface is already visible inside your bank app.

Martia is for you if...

You hold accounts at more than one bank — salary at one, credit card at another, savings at a third, a Revolut for travel. You do not actually know how much you have in total, because it takes four apps and a calculator. You have tried budgeting but doing it manually across multiple sources turned out to be too much friction. You want a real answer to "how much is left until payday" without summing in your head. Connecting a bank account to a budgeting app — works the same way in Martia.

Both — if you want the full picture

This is the most common setup among Martia users. The bank app stays on the home screen for action: instant payments, card freezes, ATM. Martia sits next to it as the weekly review spot — three minutes, once a week: how much in total, where it went, what is left. The bank executes; Martia surfaces. Together they form a complete personal finance setup — without choosing one at the expense of the other.

If you want to compare Martia against specific budgeting apps, see the best household budget app for 2026 or the app vs spreadsheet comparison.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to switch from my mobile banking app to Martia?

No. Your bank app does things Martia does not — payments, instant transfers, card freezes, ATM withdrawals, mortgage applications. Martia does things your bank app does not — shows all your accounts from different banks in a single view, categorises spending, and runs a budget across the whole picture. They are two different tools in one financial stack. Most Martia users keep their bank app and add Martia next to it.

Can I use my mobile banking app and Martia at the same time?

Yes — that is the typical setup. Your bank app stays on your home screen for daily operations: sending an instant payment, checking that a refund landed, freezing a lost card. Martia sits next to it as the place where, once a week, you check the full picture: how much you have across every account, what went on groceries, what is left until payday. The bank handles transactions; Martia shows you what they add up to.

Does Martia replace my mobile banking app?

No, and it is not designed to. Martia does not move money, send transfers, or withdraw cash. Martia reads data from your accounts (through the European PSD2 standard via GoCardless) and shows it in one place. Your bank app is the portal where you do things with money. Martia is the place where that money becomes visible together.

How much does Martia cost compared with a mobile banking app?

Both are free at the basic level. Mobile banking apps from your bank (HSBC, BNP Paribas, Santander, Monzo, N26, Revolut Standard) come at no extra cost with your account. Martia is free in the basic plan — you can connect every supported European bank without a fee. There is no pricing trade-off between the two tools.

Is Martia as safe as my bank app?

Martia connects to your bank through the European PSD2 standard (regulated by the EBA in the EU and the FCA in the UK), using GoCardless — itself FCA-regulated. You log in through your bank's official authentication window; you never share your bank password with Martia. Martia has read-only access to transactions — it cannot send a payment, change a limit, or freeze a card. It is a different security layer from your bank app, built on the same regulatory standard. More in the article on Open Banking in Europe.

Which European banks does Martia connect to?

As of April 2026, Martia supports more than 2,410 bank connections across the EU and UK through GoCardless Open Banking — including major institutions in Germany, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Ireland, the UK, and Poland. A mobile banking app only connects to its own provider — and that is exactly the gap Martia fills.

Connect your first bank to Martia

Your bank app stays where it is. Martia sits next to it and shows the full picture — every account together, with categorisation, free.