Lodavo vs Blossom: Savings App or Investing Community?
| Lodavo | Blossom | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Prize-linked savings app | Social investing community |
| Cost | Free | Free, PRO $8.99/mo 1 |
| Interest or return | None. You keep your bank’s rate 2 | None from Blossom 3 |
| Prize draws | Yes | No |
| CDIC-eligible | Your own bank’s coverage 4 | Not applicable 5 |
- 1 Blossom · Cost Free with one linked brokerage. Optional PRO analytics run about $8.99/mo or $71.99/yr (as of July 2026).
- 2 Lodavo · Interest or return Lodavo pays no interest of its own, so your rate is whatever your bank already pays. The free weekly draw is on top, with at least $100 going to a user every week and up to $10,000 when the jackpot is won. Every $25 you save earns a free ticket.
- 3 Blossom · Interest or return Your investments stay at your own brokerage and earn market returns there.
- 4 Lodavo · CDIC-eligible Lodavo never holds your money, so your account keeps whatever coverage it already has.
- 5 Blossom · CDIC-eligible Blossom never holds funds. Your brokerage account keeps its own protections, typically CIPF.
Lodavo vs Blossom is a clean split: the two apps connect to opposite halves of your money. Blossom is a free social network for DIY investors: you link your brokerage read-only, and your verified holdings join a feed of more than 500,000 investors. Lodavo is a free savings app that rewards you for saving, with free tickets in a weekly cash draw. Blossom can’t link a chequing or savings account. Lodavo can’t track a brokerage. There’s no overlap to argue about, which is why plenty of Canadians end up with both.
What’s the difference between Lodavo and Blossom?
Blossom is a social network for investors. Lodavo is a savings app. Blossom connects to your brokerage so you can track your portfolio and see what other people actually hold. Lodavo connects to the deposit account you save in and gives you free tickets in a weekly draw for cash prizes. Different accounts, different jobs.
That account split is the whole comparison. Blossom links brokerage accounts and registered plans held at a brokerage: a TFSA at Questrade, an RRSP at Wealthsimple, an FHSA at your bank’s direct-investing arm. Lodavo reads deposit balances, so a chequing account, a savings account, or a deposit-based TFSA.
They also sit at different stages of your money. Blossom starts once you’ve already got money invested and want to understand what you own, or see how other people are handling the same decision. Lodavo works earlier, on the cash you’re trying to build up, and gives you a reason to keep going.
How Blossom works
Blossom builds a social profile out of your real portfolio. You link your brokerage through SnapTrade, and Blossom’s own description of that connection (opens in a new tab) is that it’s read-only and your login credentials are never stored, so no trades can be placed through it. Your holdings and returns import automatically. What people post is backed by their actual account rather than typed in, which is the point.
It covers 19 brokerages (opens in a new tab), including Questrade, Wealthsimple, RBC Direct Investing, Scotia iTRADE, Qtrade, Desjardins and National Bank Direct Brokerage, with TD Direct Investing in beta. It handles the Canadian registered accounts properly: TFSA, RRSP, RESP, RDSP and FHSA. Cash accounts, mutual funds, managed accounts and robo-advisor accounts aren’t supported. Privacy has a sensible default too. Only you see the dollar amounts (opens in a new tab); everyone else sees your percentage allocations.
The app is free, and Blossom’s homepage (opens in a new tab) puts the community at more than 500,000 investors. On the free tier you can link one brokerage. Blossom PRO (opens in a new tab) lifts that to unlimited connections and adds the analytics layer, dividend forecasting, sector breakdowns and allocation tracking, at $8.99 a month or $71.99 a year on Blossom’s own published pricing as of July 2026, with prices varying by country and currency. Blossom also runs occasional contests with partners, though there’s no standing draw attached to what you hold.
Blossom isn’t a brokerage. You still buy and sell wherever your account already lives.
How Lodavo works
Lodavo rewards you for saving. It’s Canada’s first prize-linked savings app, it’s free, and it works with the bank you already have. You connect your account through Plaid (opens in a new tab), which reaches over 99% of Canadian deposit accounts (opens in a new tab), so you can track your savings each week and earn free tickets as your balance grows. Save more, get more tickets.
The draw runs every week, with up to $10,000 on the line. At least $100 is paid out to a user each week no matter what, so there’s a winner regardless of how the week goes. Tickets are free and there’s no subscription. How each draw is run is laid out on the provably fair page, and the odds and eligibility are in the contest rules.
What counts is deposit money: chequing, savings, and a deposit-based TFSA. You can connect more than one account. Self-directed investment accounts don’t count yet, so a brokerage TFSA is outside what Lodavo tracks. That’s exactly the account Blossom is built for.
Can you use Lodavo and Blossom together?
Yes, and there’s nothing to reconcile, because they connect to different accounts. Blossom links your brokerage. Lodavo links your savings. Neither one holds or moves a dollar, both are free, and adding the second costs you nothing.
Picture a fairly ordinary setup: a self-directed TFSA at Questrade and a savings account at EQ Bank. Blossom tracks the first and puts it in front of a community making the same calls. Lodavo covers the second, so the account that just sits there earns free tickets in the weekly draw. Between them you’ve got both halves covered.
The two piles also carry different protection. Deposits at a Canadian bank are covered by CDIC within its limits (opens in a new tab); stocks, ETFs and mutual funds aren’t deposits and carry market risk, whichever app you view them in. That’s the usual argument for keeping short-term savings in cash and long-term money invested, and it’s another reason these two apps end up doing separate work.
When Blossom is the better choice
If your money is already in the market and the question is what to do with it, Blossom is the app and Lodavo isn’t. Pick Blossom if:
- You invest yourself and want to learn from verified portfolios instead of anonymous opinions and screenshots.
- You want dividend tracking, sector breakdowns and allocation views across your accounts in one place.
- You hold Canadian registered accounts and want an app that understands a TFSA, an RRSP and an FHSA rather than treating everything as a generic brokerage account.
- You want the community part. Following real Canadians through the same decisions is genuinely useful, especially early on.
- Your savings are already sorted and the investing side is where you want help.
None of that is Lodavo’s job. It isn’t connected to your portfolio at all, so how your holdings are split between tech and everything else stays a Blossom question. To see where Blossom sits next to the other Canadian money apps, our roundup of the best money apps in Canada covers the field.
When Lodavo is the better fit
Lodavo is the better fit when the hard part isn’t picking investments, it’s building the savings in the first place. Pick Lodavo if:
- You want a chance to win cash every week for money you were going to save anyway, up to $10,000.
- Switching banks, moving money, or opening another account sounds like more trouble than it’s worth. Lodavo works with virtually any Canadian bank or credit union you already use.
- You want it free, permanently, with no analytics tier to upgrade to.
- Most of your money is still cash rather than investments, which is where most people start.
- You keep an emergency fund and want that balance doing something beyond sitting there. It keeps earning whatever your bank pays, and the draw tickets are free on top.
Saving is the part that usually stalls, because nothing happens when you do it well. A good month of saving looks exactly like a bad one. Free draw tickets give that month a payoff, and adding them costs you nothing. For the full field of Canadian savings options, best savings apps in Canada puts Lodavo beside the accounts that do hold your money.
Your investments already have an app. Give your savings one too, free, on the Apple App Store (opens in a new tab) or the Google Play Store (opens in a new tab).
Terms and conditions apply. No purchase necessary (alternate method of entry available). Skill-testing question required. Open to legal residents of Canada who are the age of majority. Odds depend on the number of eligible entries received. Full rules and odds at our contest rules.
Lodavo
Pros
- Free, with no subscription and no paid tier
- A weekly draw for up to $10,000, and at least $100 is paid out to a user every week
- Works with the Canadian bank you already save at, through a read-only connection
- Covers the cash side of your money, not just what you've invested
- Every draw is published, and the method is open on the provably fair page
Cons
- No interest, and it isn't somewhere to keep your savings
- Can't track a brokerage or a self-directed investment account
- You might never win, since the draw is a chance rather than a return
- No community, portfolio analytics, or investing content
Blossom
Pros
- Free to use with one linked brokerage, and it never holds your money
- Holdings are pulled from your real brokerage, so what people share is verified rather than typed in
- Handles Canadian registered accounts properly: TFSA, RRSP, RESP, RDSP and FHSA
- Links 19+ brokerages, including Questrade, Wealthsimple, Desjardins and National Bank Direct Brokerage
- Only you see your dollar figures; everyone else sees percentages
Cons
- Can't link a chequing or savings account, so cash savings sit outside it
- No support for mutual funds, managed accounts, or robo-advisor accounts
- Portfolio analytics sit behind PRO, $8.99 a month or $71.99 a year (as of July 2026)
- No prize draws tied to what you hold
- Following other investors isn't advice, and copying a stranger's portfolio carries real market risk