Is Propel safe to use?

Propel integrates 18 third-party SDKs spanning infrastructure, advertising, and analytics. It collects data linked to your identity including Location, Contact Info, Identifiers, and Usage Data and 1 more category. It includes 3 advertising or attribution SDKs. Whether this is acceptable depends on your personal privacy preferences.

What permissions does Propel need?

Propel requests 12 iOS permissions: Camera, Microphone, Contacts, Photo Library, Location (When In Use), Location (Always), Location (Always & When In Use), Calendars, Motion & Fitness, Face ID, Save to Photo Library, and Reminders.

What data does Propel collect?

According to its App Store privacy label, Propel collects data linked to your identity including Location, Contact Info, Identifiers, Usage Data, and Diagnostics. It collects Contact Info and Sensitive Info not linked to your identity.

How many SDKs does Propel have?

Propel integrates 18 third-party SDKs. 3 for advertising, 2 for analytics, 1 for crash reporting, 1 for social integration, 9 for infrastructure, and 1 for other.

Does Propel use Facebook tracking?

Yes. Propel includes 3 Facebook SDKs: Facebook AEM, Facebook SDK, and Facebook Login. These are used for ad measurement, attribution, and integration with Facebook's advertising platform (developers.facebook.com).

Does Propel use Google SDKs?

Yes. Propel includes 7 Google or Firebase SDKs: Firebase Cloud Messaging, Firebase Core, Google Data Transport, Google Sign-In, Firebase Core Internal, Firebase Installations, and Google Utilities. These are used for cloud infrastructure and services, not advertising.

Does Propel access your location?

Yes. Propel requests location access. The developer states: "This app requires access to your location when the screen is on and the app is displayed.".

Does Propel access your camera or microphone?

Propel requests access to both your camera and microphone. The developer says camera access is for "This app requires camera access to take photos". Microphone access is for "This app requires microphone access to function properly". These permissions are only active when you grant them in iOS Settings.

Does Propel access your contacts?

Yes. Propel requests access to your contacts. The developer states: "This app requires contacts access to function properly.".

Does Propel run in the background?

Yes. Propel registers 1 background mode, which means it can perform certain tasks when you're not actively using it.

What are some alternatives to Propel?

Other finance apps include EarnIn , Albert , Allstate , Amex , Atlas , and Autopilot . Each app takes a different approach to finance and varies in its data collection and SDK usage.

Finance · Privacy report

Propel: EBT, SNAP, WIC, & more

Free · ★4.9 · Propel Inc

Is Propel safe?

It collects a lot of your data, and shares it with trackers.

Our take. Propel carries 5 third-party trackers and its own label declares it links 5 categories of your data to you. It collects a lot itself, and shares a lot with outside companies.

Privacy footprint · vs 80 financeModerate

Trackers from other companies5 · some

typical finance: 3.5

Data the app links to you5 types · some

typical finance: 6 · from its own privacy label

What it collects about you

Propel links 5 categories of your data to you.

From the developer's own App Store privacy label. These are the kinds of data Propel ties to your identity.

LocationContact InfoIdentifiersUsage DataDiagnostics

Who else is inside

It carries trackers from 2 companies.

Third-party SDKs found in the app, matched to the company that publishes each. Present in the code; we do not observe what they transmit.

🇺🇸MetaAdvertising

Facebook advertising SDKs, built to link app activity to Facebook and Instagram ad profiles.

SDKs

🇺🇸GoogleAnalytics

Firebase, AdMob and Google analytics SDKs, built to record how you use the app and serve ads.

SDKs

How it compares

Where it sits among finance.

Every one of these apps we have scanned, on the two measures above: third-party trackers it carries (across) and data it links to you on its own label (up). Toward the top right is more invasive.

Each dot is one finance app. Propel sits to the right, carrying more third-party tracking than most.

The evidence

What it's built from.

All 18 SDKs in the app, grouped by what they are for. 5 are third-party trackers.

3advertising

2analytics

1crash reporting

1push & messaging

11standard libraries

5 of the 18 are third-party trackers. One is a push-notification SDK that delivers notifications, rather than tracking you across apps. The rest are the app's own code and standard open-source building blocks.

Show the full SDK list

MetaAdvertising · USA

Facebook AEM · Facebook SDK · Facebook Login

GoogleAnalytics · USA

Firebase Core · Google Data Transport

Push & messaging1 · notifications

Standard libraries11 · on-device

The app's own code plus open-source interface, storage and networking libraries.

How we know this

Counterspy downloads the app from the App Store and statically analyzes its compiled binary. Embedded SDKs are matched against a signature database and resolved to the company that operates each. We also read the developer's App Store privacy label, which lists the data the app says it collects and links to you. We do not run the app or intercept its traffic, so we report capabilities present in the code and the developer's own disclosures, not proven transmission. We assess privacy and data collection, not malware, security flaws, or developer intent. Reports are automated and never edited for payment. Scan v8.15.0, 2026-04-04.

Third-party trackers are advertising, analytics and attribution SDKs detected by static signature matching. Presence shows a capability is compiled in, not that it ran or transmitted data.
"Data the app links to you" is the count of data categories the developer declares as Data Linked To You in its App Store privacy label. Labels are self-reported and not verified by Apple.
Comparison across the 80 finance in our corpus. Trackers: median 3.5. Data linked to you: median 6.