Whether you go with SoFi or Ally, you’ll be choosing one of the best online banks out there. Each bank offers accounts with few fees, 24/7 phone support, decent APYs and a variety of products and services. The differences in account offerings between the two online banks are marginal, but those small differences can add up.
 Sofi |  Ally | |
| Bonus |
| N/A |
| Savings | Up to 4.00% APY on savings by meeting deposit requirements | Up to 3.8% APY |
| Checking |
|
|
| CDs | N/A |
|
| ATMs |
|
|
| Branches | Online only | Online only |
SoFi and Ally are two of the most popular and well-known online banks. Both are FDIC-insured on their own, unlike many other digital banking fintechs like Chime and Current, which rely on third-party banks to insure their products.
SoFi and Ally offer some of the best personal bank accounts available. Ally Savings often earns itself a place on our best high-yield savings accounts list, and SoFi often takes the win for the best checking account. These accounts lack fees and deposit requirements, and they’re full of modern perks.
Both banks also allow joint owners on their accounts, use the Allpoint ATM network and accept mobile check deposits, and their APYs on savings are neck-in-neck.
With SoFi’s hybrid option, you only have to open one account to get both a checking and savings account. Unlike Ally, SoFi doesn’t offer money market accounts or CDs. But Ally can’t accept cash deposits at all, and SoFi accepts cash deposits at select retail locations for a $4.95 fee.
Ally offers:
SoFi offers:
SoFi and Ally offer similar lending options. Both banks offer mortgages, refinancing, auto loans, personal loans and business credit, but Ally offers three more credit card options.
SoFi offers:
Ally offers:
Both SoFi and Ally feature investing and retirement planning tools.
Both SoFi and Ally Bank offer subaccounts to sort savings goals, or simply organize your spending. Ally lets you make 30 Buckets, while SoFi allows for 20 Vaults, and both banks offer savings round-ups. Round-up features rounds up debit card purchases, depositing the difference into your savings automatically.
With Ally’s Buckets, you can set specific goals by selecting a target savings amount and choosing a date to reach it. Ally also has another tool called “Surprise Savings,” which analyzes spending patterns to identify safe-to-save amounts and automatically transfers those funds into savings.
The only real fee difference comes down to foreign transactions. SoFi’s Mastercard charges a low 0.2% foreign exchange convenience fee, and Ally has a 1% foreign exchange rate fee.
Other than that, SoFi and Ally are nearly identical in fees — or lack of them. Neither charges monthly maintenance fees on its personal accounts, they use the same free Allpoint ATM network and they don’t require opening deposits. But unlike SoFi, Ally also offers up to $10 in out-of-network ATM reimbursements per month and doesn’t require an opening deposit on its MMA or various CD offerings.
But SoFi allows unlimited savings transactions, and Ally only allows up to 10 withdrawals or transfers with its savings account — which is still higher than the typical six monthly transactions you’ll find at other banks.
Also, while Ally does have a transaction limit, there are no excessive transaction fees, and you can make unlimited transactions between your savings buckets.
Ally has an A rating with the Better Business Bureau (BBB), and SoFi holds the highest rating of A+. These ratings are based on a company’s responsiveness to customer complaints, as well as the volume of complaints they receive. While SoFi has a slightly higher BBB rating, it’s gotten over double the number of complaints at around 1,700, and Ally’s only received a little over 500.
The majority of these two banks’ complaints are typical banking grievances, such as struggling to contact customer support — a common complaint we see with digital banks without physical branches. Other common complaints are about frozen accounts due to fraudulent or suspicious activity, disappointment with being denied financing or billing issues.
You really can’t go wrong with SoFi or Ally. Both banks have no monthly fees or deposit requirements on their personal accounts, support joint accounts, offer 24/7 phone support, have envelope budgeting features, investing options, interest-bearing checking accounts and more. All in all, they have more in common than they differ.
If you’re after convenience and want to make cash deposits, SoFi might be better. You can also get a savings and checking account by opening just one account, and both your checking and savings balance earn interest when you meet deposit requirements. But it doesn’t accept or send international wire transfers, and it doesn’t offer CDs or MMAs.
Ally might be the better option for savings products. The 3.8% APY on savings is slightly lower than SoFi, but there are no deposit or balance requirements to earn that rate. It also offers more savings products, including a high-yield MMA with a debit card, an interest-bearing checking account and multiple high-yield CDs with no opening deposit requirements.
SoFi is better if you need to make cash deposits and want the convenience of opening one account for checking and savings.
Ally is best if you’re looking for high-yield accounts for savings, checking, CDs and MMAs.
If you prefer online banking but SoFi and Ally aren’t for you, you’ve got plenty of alternative options.
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