The 9 Best Cash-Back Apps & Websites (2024 Update)

Some of the links on our website are sponsored, and we may earn money when you make a purchase or sign-up after clicking. Learn more about how we make money.

We’ve tested dozens of cash-back apps and websites to find the best options based on average cash-back rates, the number of partner stores, ease of use and cash-out options. 

Our top picks are: 

• Best overall: Rakuten
• Biggest discounts: Capital One Shopping
• Easiest signup bonus: Drop ($5 instantly by entering code kkj8i)
• Best for groceries: Ibotta
• Best for gas: Upside
• Best general rewards platform: Swagbucks
• Best for receipt scanning: Fetch
• Best for automatic cash-back: Dosh
• Best for maximum cash-back: TopCashback

Note: The user review data listed below was collected on March 19th, 2024. We update this article regularly throughout the year to keep the numbers current. 

#1. Rakuten (Best Overall)

Why we like it: Rakuten offers a combination of excellent cash-back rates, an easy-to-use interface, and reliable transaction tracking that never leaves you wondering if you’ve been properly credited after a purchase.

Rakuten has cash-back rates of up to 15% at more than 3,500 online retailers, and offers a helpful browser extension that lets you activate cash-back with a single click. The website, app and extension are reliable and easy-to-use, and payment is issued automatically every three months.

Our managing editor uses Rakuten for most of his online purchases and has earned over $1,100 in just under four years:

One Rakuten feature that I personally benefit from is the fact that you can get paid in the form of American Express Membership Reward points. Since travel websites typically value these points at 2 cents each, that means you’re essentially earning double rewards on each transaction. 

Sign up for Rakuten.

#2. Capital One Shopping (Biggest Discounts)

Why we like it: Capital One Shopping combines good cash-back rates with the best automatic coupon code tool we’ve found to date. That pairing, along with a suite of other money-saving features, can lead to significant discounts at thousands of major online retailers.

Capital One Shopping is a free app and browser extension with multiple money-saving features. You don’t need to be a Capital One cardholder to use it.

Here’s are some of the platform’s key features:

• Shopping Credits, which are a percentage of each qualifying transaction awarded as points that can be exchanged for gift cards. (Shopping Credits are essentially cash-back, although the company does not use that term.)
• Exclusive Deals, which are customized discounts for products you’ve viewed based on your browsing history. (In our testing, these can be as much as 30% off the retail price of the item.)
• Automated coupon codes. Capital One Shopping combines publicly available discount codes with crowd-sourced codes from other app users to try and find the best possible deal.
• Real-time price comparison tool, which alerts you when it finds a better deal for a product you’re about to buy. (This feature works especially well when shopping on Amazon, as you’ll see a price comparison box right on the product page.)
• Automated price protection, which provides automated refunds for items that go down in price after you buy them.

The website and app aren’t quite as simple to navigate as Rakuten’s, and the payment process (earning points that you can exchange for gift cards) is less convenient then being automatically paid in cash. So the choice between the two comes down to whether you’re looking for strictly a cash-back app or a more fully-featured way to save money when shopping online.

Get Capital One Shopping.

#3. Drop (Easiest Signup Bonus)

Why we like it: Drop gives you $5 just for joining and linking a payment card, which takes about 60 seconds (use code kkj8i to get the bonus). Once you’re signed up, it’s one of very few apps that offers passive, in-store cash-back.

Drop pays cash-back in the form of points for shopping online through the app. It has decent cash-back rates, with recent offers including 6% back at Sephora and 4% back at Expedia and Lululemon.

But what really makes Drop stand out is its card-linked offers, which give you points every time you use a linked card at a participating retailer. Often, these offers include everyday stores like supermarkets and pharmacies, which are not usually found on cash-back platforms.

That said, there are a couple of downsides to Drop that you should be aware of:

• The earning system is convoluted and hard to follow. Offers typically pay between 3 and 70 points per dollar, making it difficult to know how much you’re actually earning. (See our Drop review for a deep dive into this topic.)
• Card-linked offers rotate periodically and have to be activated. You only have to do this once per rotation, and it can be done with a single click, but you still have to remember to open the app on a recurring basis.

If you’re willing to navigate those two relatively minor obstacles, Drop is worth checking out.

Download Drop.

#4. Ibotta (Best for Groceries)

Why we like it: ibotta has cash-back offers at most major supermarkets, as well as “any brand” offers that work on generic items like bread, bananas and milk. It’s easily the best cash-back app to use for in-store grocery shopping.

To get cash-back through iBotta, you have to activate offers before shopping, purchase the specified items, and then scan your receipt. For some stores, you can add your loyalty card and skip the receipt-scanning requirement.

Because this is a three-step process, using iBotta takes more effort than some of the other apps on this list. However, it’s the only cash-back app that works in-store at most major supermarkets (Publix, Kroger, Walmart and Safeway are just a few of the participating stores), making it the best choice when your goal is to save money on groceries.

To earn the $5 bonus, join using this link or enter the referral code frltllp when signing up. You’ll get the $5 credit after redeeming your first offer and submitting the associated receipt.

Sign up for ibotta.

#5. Upside (Best for Gas)

Why we like it: Upside has the best cash-back offers for gas, typically enabling you to save between 5 and 30 cents per gallon (and even more in limited cases). It also has the widest selection of restaurant cash-back offers of any app on this list, with rates ranging from 5% to 25%.

Upside only pays cash-back at gas stations and restaurants (it doesn’t have an online shopping portal), but it offers the most locations and best rates within those two categories.

Earning cash-back with Upside is a four-step process:

1. After signing up, you have to manually enter the details for one or more payment cards.
2. When you’re ready to buy gas or go to a restaurant, open the app and claim an offer before making a purchase.
3. Pay for your purchase with a linked card within four hours of claiming the offer.
4. Upload a photo of your receipt.

If you’re a first-time user, make sure to take advantage of Upside’s new member discount codes. For example, entering the code AFF25 will get you an additional 25 cents off per gallon on your first fill-up. (We scored 88 cents cash-back per gallon by using this code.)

Download Upside.

#6. Swagbucks (Best Online Rewards Platform)

Why we like it: Swagbucks offers multiple ways to make money, including cash-back for online shopping, receipt scanning, paid surveys, paid trial offers and more. Because there are so many different ways to earn, it’s the best platform we’ve found for making money online quickly.

Swagbucks has good cash-back rates at most major online retailers, though they’re not always the absolute best available. In our opinion, what makes the app worth considering is the fact that it offers more than 20 ways to earn money, including lucrative signup bonuses and trial offers that regularly pay between $50 and $100.

In one test we conducted, we earned $240 in rewards in one hour. In fact, one The Ways To Wealth team member has earned a total of $856 by completing these types of offers, as shown in the screenshot below:

You can read our in-depth Swagbucks review for a comprehensive look at how the site works, but the articles below offer quick tips for getting the most out of the platform:

• The best ways to earn money on Swagbucks
• The best Swagbucks hacks and tips
• The best current Swagbucks promo codes

Sign up for Swagbucks.

#7. Fetch (Best for Receipt Scanning)

Why we like it: Fetch pays you for uploading any receipt from any store. You won’t earn much (just a few cents per receipt), but you get bonus points when your receipt lists specific items, and you don’t have to pre-activate these offers. Because of this, points can add up surprisingly quickly.

To evaluate Fetch for our in-depth review, we conducted both a short-term test and a long-term test:

• Shot-term: We earned $6.52 by uploading 15 receipts over a two week period, but most of those points came from bonus offers.
• Long-term: A different tester earned $14.45 by uploading 252 receipts over a 10-month period, with only about 10% of those points coming from bonus offers.

In other words, while the main benefit of Fetch is that you can upload any receipt from any store with any products on it, how much money you’ll ultimately earn depends largely upon whether you buy products the pay bonus points.

Here’s the good news: You can stack receipt-scanning apps. For example, you can upload the same receipts to Fetch and iBotta.

Download Fetch.

#8. Dosh (Best for Automatic Cash-Back)

Why we like it: Dosh offers a set-it-and-forget-it experience. Just link your payment cards and you’ll earn cash-back whenever you use those cards at participating merchants (with no offer activation or receipt uploading required).

Dosh is the only app on this list that offers 100% passive cash-back. (Drop’s card-linked offers require reactivation every week.)

The only downside to the app is the limited number of participating merchants, most of which fall into one of two categories: major fast food chains (like Dunkin’) or independent restaurants (like local Mexican and Thai restaurants). Depending on where you live, you may have access to a handful of participating merchants, or you have none in your area at all.

Since the app is completely passive, you can certainly download it, link your cards, and see if cash-back trickles in from your everyday spending.

Download Dosh.

#9. TopCashback (Best For Maximum Earnings)

Why we like it: TopCashback consistently offers the best rates available at almost every online retailer, and it has no minimum cash-out amount. Despite that, it only ranks #9 on this list because of its clunky (and slow) website and app, which makes it somewhat inconvenient to use. Still, it’s hard to beat if your goal is to get the absolute maximum possible savings when shopping online.

When we tested TopCashback for our in-depth review, we found that it pays 2.6% more on average than the other apps on this list.

But as noted above, the big downside is that the website and app have not been updated in years and don’t provide a high-quality user experience. Additionally, during our testing, we had a slightly higher-than-average number of transactions fail to credit properly.

Sign up for Topashback.

Pro tip: If you really want to max out your cash-back, use our cash-back calculator to instantly see how much you can save on a given purchase by mixing different rebates and rewards.

Final Thoughts: Cash-Back Apps Put Money Back Into Your Bank Account

If you’re anything like me, you shop online all the time. And if that’s the case, using a cash-back app or website is a no-brainer. They’re free to join, take just seconds to use, and can help you save at most major online retailers.

Apps like Rakuten and Capital One Shopping are great for online purchases, and that’s where you’ll rack up the most savings. But don’t overlook the ability of a grocery rebate app like Ibotta to help you save on everyday purchases. Saving a few dollars on every shopping trip might not seem like much, but it adds up over time.

The Best Money Making Apps

MAKE MONEY

We reviewed over 60 apps to find the few that can actually add money to your bank account.

Read More

*Capital One Shopping compensates us when you sign up for the service using the links provided.

R.J. Weiss

R.J. Weiss, founder of The Ways To Wealth, has been a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ since 2010. Holding a B.A. in finance and having completed the CFP® certification curriculum at The American College, R.J. combines formal education with a deep commitment to providing unbiased financial insights. Recognized as a trusted authority in the financial realm, his expertise is highlighted in major publications like Business Insider, New York Times, and Forbes.