Friends, it’s time once again to mourn the passing of a beloved FinTech tool. Following in the footsteps of other apps I loved such as Mezu and Tally Save, last month, Clarity Money announced that it would be shutting down as of March 5th. Now, with that date nearly upon us, indulge me as I take a quick look back at the app.
I had actually been using Clarity Money for years — even before they were acquired by Goldman Sachs (or, more accurately, Marcus by Goldman Sachs). What I liked most about it in comparison to other financial apps was its layout. Instead of tabs upon tabs to navigate between, Clarity offered what I referred to as a widget-style feed. While these widgets sadly weren’t arrangeable, I really loved the bright colors and sleek aesthetic that each brought to the experience. As a result, the entire app was enjoyable to use, standing in contrast to some other user interfaces I’ve endured.
In terms of functionality, Clarity had a few things going for it. Sure it wasn’t the most comprehensive or powerful budgeting tool, but it served as a great financial hub for someone like me with far too many bank accounts. Beyond this aggregation, some of the most useful widgets included a “How much did I spend on…” tool that could quickly calculate your spending at a certain retailer over a selected period of time. Elsewhere, there was also a subscription tool that would not only remind you of recurring payments you had but also share how you could cancel them. Yet, the feature I used the most was the recurring savings tool. To be clear, this was far from the most original offering in the app, but setting up weekly transfers was super easy and allowed me to set money aside without even thinking about it. Once the app was acquired by Marcus, I opted to upgrade my account to a Marcus account, allowing me to also earn interest on these savings.
On that note, while Clarity Money itself will be going away, Marcus has brought some of Clarity’s features over to their own app — which, as it happens, was designed by the Clarity Money team. Apparently, you can even access these Marcus Insights features even if you don’t have a Marcus account. Having browsed Marcus Insights, it does retain some of the aforementioned features. Still, it’s not quite the same.
For me, saying goodbye to apps I’ve used and have grown to love can be hard. On the bright side, sometimes these deaths lead to newer, better products. In fact, just this week, Long Game reemerged as a once-again-free product after previously shutting down (it’s a FinTech miracle!). Anyway, in case you happened to forget the point of this entire post, Clarity Money will be closing down on March 5th — and I for one will miss it.