Ibotta vs. Rakuten: Which App Is Right for You?

Bottom line: Ibotta is great for grocery shopping, while Rakuten offers cash back savings at more brands and retail stores.

Number of stores and brands

Rakuten has cash back offers at over 3,500 online stores, which is a good bit more than the 2,000 stores that Ibotta partners with. Although both companies work with a variety of retailers, Ibotta generally has more offers at grocery and convenience stores, while Rakuten has a larger selection of department stores and popular brand names. That said, in my experience using both apps, I've found that Rakuten has far more cash back offers for local restaurants and stores than Ibotta.

How cash back is earned

Ibotta and Rakuten require you to activate offers before you make a purchase. But between the two, Rakuten involves fewer steps.

To earn cash back with Rakuten, you just need to link a debit or credit card, then pay with that card at the retailer whose offer you activated. The purchase is tracked via the card and will be credited to your account later.

For Ibotta, you earn cash back by uploading receipts. All receipts have to be uploaded within seven days for the purchase to qualify. You can also link loyalty cards to your account and earn cash back that way. However, at this time, you can't track purchases using debit or credit cards, which means you have to keep track of your receipts and upload them promptly.

Minimum cash out

When cashing out, Ibotta offers more convenience. Basically, you can cash out anytime after hitting $20 in earnings. While Rakuten has a much lower redemption amount -- you only need $5.01 to cash out -- it only pays out four times a year: Feb. 15, May 15, Aug. 15, and Nov. 15. Outside of those days, you can't redeem your earnings, no matter how much you've accumulated.

How you get paid

Ibotta will let you transfer rewards via PayPal or exchange them for gift cards. Rakuten also lets you transfer rewards via PayPal, but it can also send you the dollar value of your rewards as a physical check.

Both apps have clean interfaces, are easy to use, and give you multiple ways to lookup stores and products. That said, Ibotta's app is slightly easier to navigate than Rakuten.

When you log in to your Ibotta app, you'll see your favorite stores, followed by retailers you might like, categories to shop, and special deals. These four are laid out one after the other in one long clean scroll. At the bottom, you can click "redeem" to upload your receipts or search for offers at specific retailers. You can also click the "bonus" section to see what products are offering special deals.

Rakuten's app, while also having a simple user interface, is a little less organized. When you open it, you'll first see "+10% Cash Back Boost," which shows you the biggest cash back offers in the app. These may or may not be stores you actually shop at. This is followed by "Member Faves," which shows a lot of the same stores that were under "+10% Cash Back Boost," then another section of big offers called "What's the deal?" All of these sections are pretty much the same, making it a little confusing at first glance.

Perhaps the best strength in the Rakuten app is the button devoted to in-store offers. This pulls up a list of offers in your vicinity, which you can quickly activate before checking out. It can come in handy, especially if you're checking out and need to activate an offer before you pay.

Ibotta and Rakuten are both free to use. However, Ibotta will charge a maintenance fee if your account is inactive for 180 days (this includes deactivated accounts). This fee will come from your account balance, not from your linked bank account. The fee is $3.99 and will be deducted from your Ibotta earnings every 30 days that your account continues to be inactive.

Ibotta offers slightly more ways to customize your in-app experience. For one, you can pin your favorite stores to the top of the app, which can come in handy if you're in a store and need to quickly look something up. You can also request a payout anytime after you reach $20 in cash back. This could make it more convenient than Rakuten's model, which is set to pay out every quarter.

Both Ibotta and Rakuten are great cash back apps. Since they're free to use, you don't really need to choose one over the other. You can take advantage of both their offers and let one's strengths balance out the other's weaknesses. That said, if you only want one, Ibotta might be better for grocery store shopping, while Rakuten could be well suited for those who want a wider variety of offers.