Modak Makers vs. Greenlight: Which is best for kids and teens?

Are you looking for an app to help teach your kids and teens about financial literacy and money management? Both Modak Makers and Greenlight offer debit cards, money management tools, and allowance and chore features but differ in pricing, parental controls, and additional benefits.

This comparison breaks down their features, pricing, safety, and other key factors to help your family choose the best option.

Features comparison

Modak Makers provides a free, interactive learning experience with chore management and spending tracking, while Greenlight offers premium features like investing, advanced parental controls, and family safety tools. Modak Makers is a good choice for families looking for a simple way to teach kids money management through tracking spending, savings, and allowance-based earnings. Greenlight is ideal for parents who want more control and advanced features like enhanced parental controls, investing tools, and safety features like location tracking and crash detection. 

The table below breaks down their key features in a side-by-side comparison to help you decide which platform best fits your family’s needs. 

Modak Makers at a glance

Modak Makers is a money app designed to help kids develop smart money habits through a debit card and money management tools. Its mission is to empower families with interactive learning experiences and chore-based earnings, making financial education engaging and collaborative. 

Features:

• Debit card for kids and teens

• Customizable parental controls

• Financial literacy tools and educational content

• Chore and allowance management

• Savings goals and rewards

• Parental oversight on spending and saving

Greenlight at a glance

Greenlight is a money management app and debit card that helps parents instill smart money habits in their kids and teens. It offers three plans: Core, Max, and Infinity. With the Core plan, families have access to features like debit cards for up to five kids, chores and allowance management, access to financial literacy games, and more. But, when families choose to upgrade to the Max or Infinity plans, they’ll get up to 1% cash back on purchases², identity theft protection, purchase and phone ⁵ protection, and safety features like real-time location tracking, crash detection, and driving insights.⁴ 

Features:

• Debit card for teens

• Data sharing protection

• Category-specific parental controls

• Up to 5% on savings¹

• up to 1% cash back on purchases²

• Investing for kids and parents

• Chores and allowance management

• Financial literacy games

• Family safety features (location sharing, crash detection, SOS alerts, driving reports)⁴

• Transfer money quickly

• Identity theft, phone⁵, and purchase protection

Learn to earn, save, and invest together.

With a debit card of their own, kids and teens learn to spend wisely, keep an eye on balances, and track their spending. Big money dreams? Set savings goals and start investing with as little as $1 — with your approval on every trade.

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Modak Makers pros and cons

Let’s take a look at some of the pros and cons of the Modak Makers platform.

Pros:

• No monthly fees

• Chore and allowance management

• Gamified learning

• Multiple funding options

• Security features

Cons:

• No ATM access

• Reload fees

• Limited advanced features

Greenlight pros and cons

Now, let’s break down the pros and cons of Greenlight.

Pros:

• Comprehensive parental controls

• Chore and allowance management with flexible and automatic allowance payments

• Investing platform with educational tools and no trading fees

• Up to 5% on savings¹

• Educational games and tools

• Robust safety features, including location sharing and crash alerts⁴

• No ATM fees

Cons:

• Monthly subscription fee 

Chores and allowance management

The Modak Makers platform lets parents assign household chores while automating allowances for kids. The app allows kids to monitor their assigned tasks and accumulated earnings, which helps them develop financial responsibility.

Greenlight is similar to Modak Makers in that it lets parents control chores and allowances. But with Greenlight, you can set your child’s allowance to pay out weekly, biweekly, or monthly. You can even tie their payout to chores and pay a percentage based on progress—or only if they’re all done. 

Both Modak Maker and Greenlight offer strong management capabilities for chores and allowances, yet Greenlight offers better work-reward reinforcement by linking payments with task completion.

Spending and budgeting tools

Modak Makers keeps things simple when it comes to money management. Kids can track spending and set savings goals, then parents get real-time purchase notifications.

With Greenlight, parents can set spending limits by category, block or approve specific stores, and create financial boundaries to guide their kids’ money habits. Plus, with Spend, Save, and Give accounts, kids learn how to budget with purpose instead of just tracking their transactions.

While Modak Makers provides straightforward tracking tools, Greenlight’s budgeting tools give families more control and deeper financial lessons.

Pricing

Modak Makers does not charge monthly fees for core services, making it a budget-friendly option. However, certain services incur small fees and there is no ATM access. 

Greenlight offers three tiered subscription levels which increases in price for access to features such as investing options and family safety tools:

• Greenlight Core: $5.99 per month

• Greenlight Max: $9.98 per month

• Greenlight Infinity: $14.98 per month

Ultimately, Modak Makers is more cost-effective for basic services, but families who are looking for advanced features may prefer Greenlight's paid plans.

Parental controls

With Modak Makers, parents can lock or unlock their child’s card and stay on top of their spending with real-time notifications whenever a purchase is made.

Parents have granular control when using Greenlight. With Greenlight’s parental control features, parents can set spending limits for different categories and on a store-by-store basis, and get instant transaction alerts, giving them more control over how and where their kids use their money.

If you just need basic spending monitoring, Modak Makers has you covered. But if you want detailed controls over every dollar, Greenlight offers a more hands-on approach to managing your child’s spending.

Investing for kids

The Modak Makers app doesn’t include investment or stock trading features. 

Greenlight provides Investing for Kids³ through its Max and Infinity plans, allowing both kids and parents to invest in stocks and ETFs through the app. There are no trading fees, and parents can approve every trade. Greenlight also offers real-time investment tracking and educational content to teach kids about investing.

Take on investing together

When kids start investing early, they have the chance to grow their money as they save toward all their future goals. New car. College education. First apartment. You name it.

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Safety features

Both Modak Makers and Greenlight include safety features, though Greenlight offers a more robust suite. 

Modak Makers safety features

• Data encryption 

• Fraud protection

• Biometrics for security

• Transactions with unsafe merchants blocked

• 24/7 customer support

Greenlight’s safety features

• Fraud protection from Mastercard®’s Zero Liability Protection Policy

• 24/7 customer support 

• Identity theft, purchase, and phone protection⁵

• Crash detection with 911 dispatch ⁴

• SOS alerts⁴

• Family location sharing ⁴

• Driving reports and real-time trip alerts ⁴

Modak Makers provides security with data protection and fraud prevention, while Greenlight goes beyond financial safety, offering location tracking, crash detection,⁴ and identity theft protection. Greenlight is especially useful for families with teens who are new to driving or starting their first job because it helps parents track their child’s location, monitor driving habits, and ensure they have emergency support if needed.

Education and financial literacy

Modak Makers turns education and financial learning into a game. In the app, kids earn MBX points for completing financial challenges, which they can later convert into real money.

Greenlight, on the other hand, offers a more structured approach with its interactive Level Up™ financial literacy game. Through educational modules, kids learn budgeting, saving, investing, and smart financial decision-making.

Modak Makers vs. Greenlight: Which app is best for your family?

When it’s time to decide which app is better for your family, it will likely come to a cost vs. value consideration. Greenlight offers extensive financial tools, investing options, and advanced safety features that can grow with your kids as they become teens. But if you prefer a simpler approach to debit cards for kids and chore/allowance management with no ongoing monthly fees, Modak Makers may be the better pick.

Built for them. And for you.

Both you and your kids download the Greenlight app — with tailored experiences. They check off chores, you automate allowance. They spend wisely, you set flexible controls. They build healthy financial habits, and you cheer them on.

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