How we rank

Money transfer apps

Every app is priced on one transfer: £500, UK to Kenya, at a mid-market rate of 171.4 (mid-market rate on test day, 14 Oct 2026). We rank by recipient gets, the amount that arrives. Nothing else reorders the list.

What we show for each:

• Recipient gets (higher is better)
• True cost (lower is better)
• Transfer fee (lower is better)
• Exchange-rate margin (lower is better)
• Delivery time (lower is better)
• Max per transfer (higher is better)
• Pays out to

Where the numbers come from

Each figure cites one of these, with the day we checked it:

• Test transfer
• Provider fee page
• Provider website
• Provider support
• Regulator register
• Company register
• Third-party site
• Desk research

A test transfer is the strongest evidence. Desk research is a starting point we have not tested yet, and is labelled that way.

When a figure is missing

We say “Not yet verified” and leave it out of the ranking. A provider with no verified result for the test transfer is listed A to Z, not ranked, and we do not name a best alternative until one has a verified result.

What a licence status means

• Authorised: authorised
• Registered: registered
• Applied: applied, not yet granted
• Claimed: claimed, not yet confirmed
• Lapsed: lapsed

Only the regulator’s own register can make a licence “authorised”, “registered” or “lapsed”. Until we have found a provider on its register, we write “claimed, not yet confirmed”.

Our verdicts

Our written read on a provider says who it suits and where it falls short. Anything in a provider’s favour has to cite evidence. A warning does not, because when we are unsure, saying so is the honest default. We don’t use phrases a reader can’t check, such as “seamless” or “best-in-class”.

Referral fees

Thimania is free to use. We earn a fee when you sign up with a provider through a link on this page. That never changes how we rank them: rankings follow the numbers we checked, not who pays us.