What is the best credit score app in Canada?

It depends which bureau you need to see. Credit Karma is the strongest free pick for most people, because TransUnion won't give you a score free outside Quebec and Ontario and Credit Karma will. Borrowell is the better Equifax app, and the only one of the four that can also add to your file.

Which credit score app shows the score my lender will see?

None of them. Banks buy their own scores, sometimes on an older model and sometimes on a custom one built from their own default data. What these apps are good for is the direction your number is moving and the report behind it, not predicting a lender's decision to the point.

Can a credit score app actually raise my credit score?

Only indirectly, and only Borrowell of these four. Checking a score never changes it. Borrowell's Rent Advantage and Credit Builder are paid tools that file something with Equifax, so they can build history. Credit Karma, ClearScore and KOHO's free score report nothing to any bureau.

Is Mogo's free credit score still available?

Not as of September 2026. Mogo was one of the main free-score options in Canada for years, but its site now leads with personal loans and lines of credit, and the page that used to carry the free score serves the lending product instead.

Do you need an app to check your credit score in Canada?

No. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada says Equifax provides a free score in every province and territory, and both bureaus give you the full report free everywhere. Your bank may show one too. CIBC gives clients a free Equifax score in its mobile app.

Best credit score apps in Canada (2026): which bureau each one shows

App comparison
App	Cost	Credit bureau	What you get	What it needs
BorrowellFree credit score + monitoring	Free	Equifax	Score and full report¹	An account, no SIN²
Credit KarmaFree credit score + monitoring	Free	TransUnion	Score and full report³	An account, nothing else
ClearScoreFree credit score + monitoring	Free	TransUnion	Score and full report⁴	An address outside Quebec⁵
KOHOSpending + savings app (prepaid)	Free on any plan	Equifax	Score only⁶	A KOHO spending account

There are two credit bureaus in Canada, no app shows you both, and that single fact decides which of these is right for you. Borrowell and KOHO read Equifax. Credit Karma and ClearScore read TransUnion. All four show you a score for free, and the table above lines them up on cost, bureau and what actually comes with the number. Below is how each one works, who it suits, and the free route that doesn’t involve an app at all.

How we picked these, and who publishes this list

We kept apps that show a Canadian their own credit score for free, and we ranked them on the bureau they read, whether the full report comes with the score, and what each one wants from you first. We didn’t hold referral revenue against any of them, because all four are paid the same way: by recommending credit cards and loans beside your number.

Lodavo publishes this site, and we don’t make a credit app, so there’s no version of this list with us at the top of it. Every figure below comes from each provider’s own published terms, linked so you can check it, and the routes that skip the apps entirely get their own section.

Borrowell: the Equifax side, and the only one that can change your file

Borrowell is the best free Equifax app of the four, and the only one that sells a way to put something new on your credit report. The free tier is your Equifax score and the full report behind it, refreshed weekly, and Borrowell’s own page (opens in a new tab) says signing up takes no credit card and no SIN.

What separates it is the paid layer. Rent Advantage (opens in a new tab) files your rent with Equifax for $10 a month, and Credit Builder (opens in a new tab) opens a 48-month 0% instalment account from $5 biweekly that reports monthly without lending you cash. Rent is the biggest payment most Canadians make and normally reaches no bureau at all, so filing it builds history out of something you’re already doing.

Everything Borrowell files lands at Equifax only, so a lender pulling TransUnion sees none of it. Credit Builder also isn’t offered in Saskatchewan or New Brunswick. If building rather than watching is the goal, the credit-building roundup covers the products that reach both bureaus.

Credit Karma: TransUnion, and the half you can’t get free

Credit Karma is the strongest pick for most people, and the reason is the bureau rather than the app. It gives you the TransUnion score, the full TransUnion report and monitoring alerts, with nothing to buy alongside them.

TransUnion is the file you can’t easily see on your own. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada’s page on ordering your credit report (opens in a new tab) lists the free score as available from Equifax in all provinces and territories, but from TransUnion only if you live in Quebec or Ontario. So in B.C., Alberta, the Prairies, Atlantic Canada and the territories, this app hands you something the bureau won’t.

The number is the TransUnion CreditVision Risk Score, which reads how your balances moved over the past 24 months rather than where they sit today. That’s why it can drift from an Equifax score even when nothing on either file changed.

It reports nothing to any bureau, so it will never build credit. It’s there to show you the file, not to change it.

ClearScore: a second TransUnion option, unless you’re in Quebec

ClearScore reads the same bureau as Credit Karma on the same weekly cycle, so it isn’t an upgrade on it. It’s the alternative. The free tier is the TransUnion score, the full report, and Protect, which watches your report and the dark web for your details. Protect Plus adds daily dark-web scans, fraud case management and identity-loss insurance for $14.99 a month, and most people won’t need it.

There’s one hard limit and it’s easy to miss. ClearScore isn’t available to users in Quebec. No other app here has a province rule, so for a Quebecer the shortlist is three apps, not four. Worth knowing before you spend ten minutes on a signup that won’t finish.

One correction while we’re here. Several roundups, including Borrowell’s own, list ClearScore as an Equifax app. It reads TransUnion, which ClearScore says on its Canadian site (opens in a new tab) and repeats in its App Store listing. If you picked it expecting the Equifax file, that’s the wrong half.

KOHO: the score bundled into an app you might already have

KOHO is worth a slot only if you already use it, or want a spending account anyway. The free Equifax score sits inside the app, updates monthly, and costs nothing on any plan including the free Essential tier.

It’s the weakest of the four for watching credit. You get the number alone, since the Equifax report behind it needs the Everything or Credit Building plan, and you need a KOHO spending account to see it at all. That’s a lot of app for one monthly figure if credit is all you came for.

If you already have KOHO, though, it’s a free monthly Equifax reading you’re not using. And a monthly number from an app you already open beats a weekly one from an app you install and forget.

The free option that isn’t an app: Equifax and TransUnion

Half of what these apps sell, you can get from the source for nothing, and it reframes the whole list. Per FCAC, Equifax provides a free score in every province and territory. TransUnion provides one only in Quebec and Ontario.

Hold that against the table. Borrowell and KOHO are showing you an Equifax number that Equifax already gives you free wherever you live, so what they’re really selling you is convenience and a weekly reminder. Credit Karma and ClearScore are showing you the half that TransUnion genuinely withholds from most Canadians. That’s the difference between a nicer interface and access.

The full report is free from both bureaus everywhere, online or by mail. It’s only the score TransUnion holds back.

Your bank may cover it too. CIBC gives clients a free Equifax score in its mobile banking app through CreditView, and CIBC’s page (opens in a new tab) confirms checking your own score won’t hurt it. Check what you already have before you install anything.

What happened to Mogo

Mogo was one of the main free-score options in Canada for years, and roundups published in 2026 still list it alongside these four. It isn’t one anymore. Mogo’s site now leads with personal loans and lines of credit, and the page that carried the free credit score serves that lending product instead. If you opened a Mogo account for the score and can’t find it, that’s why.

A different number, once a week

We make Lodavo. It’s a free app that connects read-only to the savings or chequing account you already use, and every $25 you keep in there earns you a free ticket in a weekly cash draw worth up to $10,000, with at least $100 going to a user every week.

If you’re shopping for a credit app, you already have the habit this runs on: opening something once a week to see whether a number moved. The difference is what moves it. A credit score changes when a lender gets around to reporting. Your ticket count changes because you left money alone, which is the part you control. The draw is independently verifiable.

So which one should you pick?

If you live outside Quebec and Ontario, start with Credit Karma, because TransUnion is the file you can’t get free anywhere else. If you’re in Quebec or Ontario, both bureaus already owe you a free score, so pick on the app rather than the access, and Borrowell’s weekly full report is the better one.

If you’re building or rebuilding credit, it’s Borrowell, since the other three can’t put anything on your file. If you’re in Quebec, it’s not ClearScore. And if you already have KOHO, you have a free Equifax reading sitting there either way.

Running two is the honest answer for anyone who cares about this, and it costs nothing. One Equifax app and one TransUnion app is the only way to see both files, and you don’t get to choose which one a lender pulls. Neither of them runs a hard inquiry, so holding both can’t cost you a point.

All four are free because they earn a fee when you take out a card or loan they recommend. That’s worth remembering when an offer appears under your score, and we go through the models in how free money apps make money. For the two big ones head to head, there’s Borrowell vs Credit Karma.

None of these companies paid to appear here.

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