# Monzo

19 Hacker News commenters recommended Monzo and 7 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 8 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** People recommend Monzo for its easy, modern app and fast backend, plus full API access. Critics point to outages, poor customer service and some business decisions.

## Why people recommend it

- Easy to use (4 comments): "They managed to build from scratch on relatively shoestring budgets their own implementation of a consumer bank" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46623178)) "Where you can open an account, see savings, current account, business account, CC etc all in one." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47349073)) "Rare example of a consumer banking company that makes things easy." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49487927))
- Fast, modern backend (2 comments): "Yes the backend for Monzo is indeed very performant. I have a dev app connected using their api" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47350330)) "I'm sure Monzo is slicker because it isn't talking to a bunch of COBOL in the backend" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47349361))
- Works on rooted phones and GrapheneOS (2 comments): "I use Monzo, and that works perfectly on GrapheneOS." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47229674)) "Monzo in UK is fine with rooted and no Google Play" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49199640))
- Fair fees and sensible approach (2 comments): "Platform fees are capped at £250 and their default managed fund fees is 0.14% which is pretty normal" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49488978)) "I'd still say theirs is a great approach" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49488559))

## What people warn about

- Outages and poor customer service (2 comments): "Then they screw you with poor customer service. Like the worst." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49050984)) "Due to the recent outage where it didn’t work properly" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49487519))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Mercury Bank](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mercury.md): 44 recommend
- [Revolut](https://hackerapproved.com/p/revolut.md): 43 recommend
- [Starling Bank](https://hackerapproved.com/p/starling-bank.md): 10 recommend
- [N26](https://hackerapproved.com/p/n26.md): 8 recommend

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://monzo.com/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Monzo", https://hackerapproved.com/p/monzo/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).