Credit Karma vs Experian vs myFICO: What's Free, What's Paid, and Which to Use in 2026
Credit Karma, Experian, and myFICO all promise the same thing: your credit score, free, right on your phone. What they actually sell are three different products, built on different slices of your credit data, with three different ideas of what "free" means. Pick casually and you either pay for coverage you never needed or walk into a loan application holding a number your lender will never look at.
This is the money side of the comparison: what each service includes at no cost, what the paid tiers charge as of July 2026 (checked on each company's own pricing page this week), and which service fits which situation. If you want the scoring math behind why the three apps show different numbers for the same person, that lives in our companion piece on why your scores never match.
Credit Karma: all free, no FICO
Credit Karma has never charged for scores and still does not. An account gets you VantageScore 3.0 calculated twice, once on your TransUnion file and once on your Equifax file, plus free credit reports from both bureaus, monitoring alerts, and a pile of calculators. No credit card required, no trial clock ticking.
The company is refreshingly clear about its model. Credit Karma is owned by Intuit and gets paid by advertisers when you take a card or loan it recommends; its own editorial note says as much on every page. The score is the reason you keep opening the app, and the offer wall is the reason the score is free. Know that going in and you can use the tool happily while ignoring the sales pitch.
Two hard limits, straight from Credit Karma's own FAQ, updated in mid July 2026. First, it does not offer FICO scores at all, only VantageScore 3.0. Second, it does not work with Experian, so a lender that pulls only your Experian file is looking at data Credit Karma never sees.
Experian: the best free FICO, with a $24.99 upsell
Experian is the one place among the big three where a real FICO Score 8 costs nothing. Per Experian's plan comparison page as of July 2026, the free tier includes your Experian credit report, a FICO Score 8, credit monitoring with alerts, a free dark web surveillance report, and a personal privacy scan. Since card issuers order FICO 8 more often than any other version, that free number is usually the most application-relevant score you can get without paying anyone.
The paid tier, Premium, runs $24.99 a month after a seven day trial, per the same page. The fee buys breadth: monitoring across all three bureaus instead of one, a three bureau credit report with FICO Scores updated quarterly, daily Experian FICO 8 refreshes, Experian CreditLock, up to $1 million in identity theft insurance, and a long list of fraud alerts covering everything from address changes to court records. A Family plan at $34.99 covers a second adult and up to ten children.
One honest caution: Experian sells hard. The app is dense with offers and trial prompts, and the seven day trial converts to a charge quietly. The product underneath is solid; just set a reminder for day five if you test Premium.
myFICO: no longer paid-only, and the deepest paid tiers
myFICO is FICO's own consumer storefront, and for years it was the only one of the three with no free option. That has changed. myFICO's pricing page as of July 2026 lists a Free plan, no credit card required: a FICO Score 8 built on your Equifax report, updated monthly, with the credit report and score monitoring included. One bureau, no simulator, no identity tools, but a genuine FICO for nothing.
The paid ladder, from the same page: Basic at $19.95 a month covers one bureau (Experian, in a small irony) with monthly updates. Advanced at $29.95 covers all three bureaus with updates every three months. Premier at $39.95 covers all three bureaus monthly and adds a simulator for the mortgage scores. Every paid plan includes the thing nobody else sells at all: the full family of FICO versions lenders actually order, meaning the older FICO 2, 4, and 5 that conventional mortgage lenders still pull, plus the auto and bankcard variants. Paid plans also carry up to $1 million in identity theft insurance. Note the fine print, which myFICO states plainly: cancel anytime, no refunds.
Side by side, July 2026
| Service | Free tier | Paid tiers | Scores and bureaus | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Credit Karma | Everything it offers | None | VantageScore 3.0 on TransUnion and Equifax | Everyday monitoring and alerts |
| Experian | FICO 8, Experian report, monitoring, dark web scan | Premium $24.99, Family $34.99 | FICO 8 on Experian; three bureaus on paid | A real FICO before a card application |
| myFICO | FICO 8 on Equifax, monthly updates | Basic $19.95, Advanced $29.95, Premier $39.95 | FICO 8 plus lender versions; one to three bureaus | The months before a mortgage |
All prices are list prices taken from each company's own site in July 2026. All three repackage without much notice, so confirm on the pricing page before subscribing.
The zero dollar setup that watches all three bureaus
Here is the quiet win most comparisons miss: the three free tiers stack into full coverage. Credit Karma watches TransUnion and Equifax. Experian's free app watches Experian. myFICO's free plan adds a FICO-scored second view of Equifax. Open all three accounts and every bureau file you own is being monitored, with real FICO 8 numbers on two of the three files, for exactly zero dollars a month.
The stack has limits. None of it shows mortgage scores, alert speed varies by service, and you are juggling three logins instead of one dashboard. But for error patrol and fraud detection, which is what monitoring mostly exists for, the free stack does what a paid subscription does at the price of a little setup time.
Match the service to your next application
- No application planned: Credit Karma alone is plenty. Watch the trend, let the alerts run, ignore the offer wall.
- Credit card in the next few months: add Experian's free tier. Card issuers usually pull FICO 8, and that is exactly what it shows. Check your bank's app first, too: many issuers already display a free FICO score for cardholders.
- Auto loan: the free FICO 8 gets you close. If the rate matters enough, one month of a myFICO paid plan shows the FICO Auto Scores a dealer's lender may order.
- Mortgage within a year: this is the case myFICO's paid plans were built for. Conventional lenders still qualify most borrowers on the middle of the older FICO 2, 4, and 5 scores across the three bureaus, and no free service shows those. Two or three months of Advanced or Premier before preapproval removes the surprise.
- Identity theft worries: Experian Premium and the myFICO paid tiers both include up to $1 million in identity theft insurance and restoration help. Pick Experian if you want CreditLock and family coverage, myFICO if you want the score depth thrown in.
Frequently asked questions
Is Credit Karma actually free, or is there a catch?
It is genuinely free and no credit card is required. Credit Karma shows VantageScore 3.0 from TransUnion and Equifax and earns money from advertisers when you take a recommended offer. The real catch is coverage: it has no Experian data and no FICO scores.
How much does myFICO cost in 2026?
myFICO's pricing page as of July 2026 lists a free Equifax-based plan plus three paid tiers: Basic at $19.95 a month (Experian only), Advanced at $29.95 (all three bureaus, quarterly updates), and Premier at $39.95 (all three bureaus, monthly updates). You can cancel anytime, but myFICO does not give refunds.
Is Experian Premium worth $24.99 a month?
It bundles three bureau monitoring, quarterly three bureau FICO reports, daily Experian FICO 8 updates, CreditLock, and up to $1 million in identity theft insurance. If you want one paid dashboard for credit plus identity protection, it is a fair package. If you only want scores, the free tiers cover most of it.
Can I monitor all three credit bureaus for free?
Yes. Credit Karma covers TransUnion and Equifax, Experian's free app covers Experian, and myFICO's free plan adds a FICO 8 view of Equifax. Together that is every bureau, with two real FICO numbers, for zero dollars a month.
Whichever service you land on, the score itself moves for the same handful of reasons everywhere: on-time payments, low utilization, older accounts, few new applications. To see how a specific move typically lands before you make it, the credit score simulator shows the usual direction and point range by score band, no login and no credit pull.