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Deciding to take out a personal loan can be an intimidating prospect. This is especially true when you consider all the different lenders you have to choose from. You have your list of wants (loan term, loan amount, and APR), but the lender also has their own set of standards and miscellaneous quirks, and it can be hard to find the one that best lines up with your priorities.
This is where comparison sites can come in handy. These platforms present different lenders and their loans, compiling their most important factors and offering helpful reviews and breakdowns to aid you in your decision.
While you could research loans without visiting a comparison site, it’s far more helpful to get this all-in-one picture so you can get an industry-wide look at your options and make the right call.
With that in mind, here are some of the best personal loan comparison sites for you to browse.
At a Glance
| Lender Coverage | Loan Matching Tool? | Ratings and Reviews | Educational Resources | Best For | |
| Forbes Advisor | Moder- ate | Yes | Editorial | Loan tips, calcula- tor | Data-driven research |
| Best-Money | Moder- ate | Yes | Editorial | Article library | Quick research and usability |
| Nerd-Wallet | Moder- ate | Yes | Editorial and user | Personal loan guide, calcula- tors | Filtering by loan purpose |
| Super-Money | High (20+) | Yes | User | Personal loan guide | User ratings and reviews |
| Finder | High (50+) | No | Mostly editorial | Articles, calcula- tors | Side-by-side compari-sons |
Forbes Advisor: Best for Data-Driven Research
Forbes Advisor is under the broader Forbes umbrella, but instead of being a hub for business news and education, it helps you compare options for various types of personal financial products, including insurance, credit cards, banking, investing, mortgages, and loans.
Personal Loan Coverage
Under the personal loan category, Forbes has several best-of lists for personal loans in general, debt consolidation loans, emergency loans, and personal loans for bad credit. But if we look specifically at the broader personal loan list, Forbes currently focuses on nine lenders in total.
Forbes assigns each lender a “best for” moniker, considering data points like loan amounts, APR ranges, minimum credit scores, state availability, whether you can use a co-signer or co-borrower, and application turnaround times.
Loan Matching Tools
Forbes Advisor has a quiz you can take to get prequalified offers tailored to your needs. This tool is powered by Credible (another comparison site) and asks questions about the loan purpose, your employment status, your income, and other factors. Then, you can view offers and apply on the lender’s site.
Ratings and Reviews
The Forbes team has assigned each lender on the list a rating out of a maximum of five points. They developed the ratings after considering 23 metrics that fall into the categories of loan cost, loan details, eligibility and accessibility, the application process, and the overall customer experience.
Forbes also presents a Consumer Sentiment Index for every lender on its list, which is out of 10 points. This measures customer satisfaction levels, and Forbes develops it by gathering data from elsewhere on the web.
The reviews are fairly brief and mainly summarize the data points already presented on the site. However, reading through the reviews is a good way to get all the main points in one place rather than having to track them separately on your own.
Educational Resources
Beyond straight comparisons, Forbes Advisor also offers broader personal loan tips and information, like tips for choosing the best personal loan, the types of personal loans, personal loan requirements, pros and cons of personal loans, and personal loan alternatives. There’s also a calculator you can use to figure your monthly loan payments.
Pros
- Heavily data-driven
- Loan matching quiz
- Personal loan calculator
Cons
- Narrow list of options
- No ability to filter the list
- Short editorial reviews
BestMoney: Best for Quick Research and Usability
BestMoney is another helpful tool for getting the lay of the land for several financial products, including everything from credit cards and gold/silver IRAs to savings accounts and personal loans.
Personal Loan Coverage
BestMoney includes a few filters that you can use to narrow down your options: the purpose of the loan (debt consolidation, medical expenses, credit card consolidation, and other), the amount, your annual income, and your credit score.
For example, with a loan purpose of “other,” an amount of $15,000, an annual income of $50,000, and a credit score within the 690-719 range returns 10 lenders to explore, displaying the APR range, loan term, and credit score minimum for each.
Loan Matching Tools
BestMoney offers a “Find Your Match” quiz for personal loans, where you provide information like loan amount, purpose, credit score, annual pre-tax income, and employment status, and it will show you personalized offers.
Ratings and Reviews
BestMoney’s team assigns X/10 scores and publishes detailed reviews on some of the top lenders, considering factors like popularity, brand reputation, and features and benefits.
While BestMoney doesn’t have a review for every single lender included in its comparison tool, it covers some of the most popular options, such as SoFi, Best Egg, and LightStream. The reviews discuss topics like reputation, accessibility and flexibility, cost, user experience, and customer support.
Educational Resources
BestMoney has an extensive article library covering the ins and outs of personal loans. Some of the topics are fairly broad, like finding the right loan and avoiding lending scams, while others are more niche, like personal loans for childcare, vacation loans, and joint personal loans.
Pros
- Easy to use
- Personal loan filters
- “Find Your Match” quiz
Cons
- No personal loan calculators
- No side-by-side comparison tool
- Fewer lending options than some competing sites
NerdWallet: Best for Filtering by Loan Purpose
You’ve likely already heard of NerdWallet, a popular financial comparison site that spans credit cards, banking, insurance, investing, and loans. It also offers an app for tracking your savings and investments, but registration isn’t required to use the site.
Personal Loan Coverage
While the NerdWallet editorial team publishes a list of the “best personal loans,” the site also has several filters you can use to find the right lender for your needs, including loan purpose and your credit score. You can also choose to view hardship, emergency, unsecured, and secured personal loans.
For each lender, NerdWallet shows you the estimated APR range, the loan amount, the minimum credit score requirement, and the loan term. Those designated as “quick loans” show you the funding time in days.
Loan Matching Tools
NerdWallet has a “Get My Rate” quiz that you can complete to find out whether you prequalify for any personal loans. You’ll have to provide details like the loan purpose, your estimated debt balance, your credit score, your employment status, how often you get paid, your estimated annual income, etc.
Ratings and Reviews
For the lenders in its database, NerdWallet presents an editorial rating and a borrower rating (if there are enough reviews), both out of five stars. The editorial rating factors in rates and fees, the customer experience, the impact on credit scores, and responsible lending practices. The borrower rating is entirely user-driven, derived from users who submit scores and write about their experiences.
The editorial lender reviews aren’t lengthy, but they give you an idea of the pros and cons, as well as how to qualify.
Educational Resources
If you want to learn more about personal loans in general before applying, NerdWallet is a great site for that too. It has a thorough guide covering the requirements for a personal loan, an article on average personal loan rates, and calculators for both personal loans and debt consolidation.
Pros
- Extensive filtering
- Includes both editorial and user reviews
- Personal loan calculators
Cons
- No side-by-side comparison tool
- Some lenders have no user ratings
- Short editorial reviews
SuperMoney: Best for User Ratings and Reviews
SuperMoney is primarily used for its mobile app, where you can connect your bank accounts, get recommendations, and find better rates. However, you don’t need the app to access their online marketplace, which includes product options for banking, credit cards, debt assistance, insurance, investments, mortgages, refinancing, taxes, business financing, personal finance, and loans.
Personal Loan Coverage
Presently, SuperMoney has details on 24 different lenders for personal loans on its best-of list. There are several filters to use, such as those related to fees (origination and prepayment), rates and terms, credit bureau reporting, eligibility, immigration status, credit score, military status, and state availability. There are also niche subcategories, like dental loans, funeral service loans, Christmas loans, and loans for the unemployed.
For each lender, SuperMoney shows you the APR range, the loan amount range, and the loan term in months.
Loan Matching Tools
Like many other comparison sites, SuperMoney has a form you can fill out to receive loan offers. In order to receive your results, you’ll need to provide details on the loan purpose, the amount of debt you have, your credit score, whether you’ll be applying with a co-borrower, your employment status, your annual income, your military status, and whether you have a checking account.
Ratings and Reviews
SuperMoney is unique in that it doesn’t publish any editorial ratings or reviews for its lenders. Instead, it focuses on user reviews, which SuperMoney then derives user recommendation scores from. This recommendation score ranges from -100 to +100, but it’s also converted to a 5-point rating scale.
One issue is that some of the lenders don’t yet have any user reviews or ratings, while some others have very few.
Educational Resources
Beneath SuperMoney’s list of lenders, the company provides a guide covering the basics of personal loans, including when you shouldn’t use one, how to qualify, credit score requirements and impacts, rates, the approval process, and how you should compare them.
Pros
- Extensive lender database
- Niche personal loan subcategories
- Incorporates user feedback
Cons
- No editorial ratings or reviews
- No personal loan calculators
- Have to scroll below partner results to see the full lending database
Finder: Best for Side-by-Side Comparisons
True to its name, Finder helps users find deals across banking, investing, lending, and business. It also offers rewards to members, such as gift cards when signing up for certain products.
Personal Loan Coverage
Finder presents the most lending options of all the sites on this list: 51. It tells you the loan APR, the minimum credit score, and the loan amount, and you can sort the list by any of these factors. There are also traditional filters to use, such as the loan type, states serviced, your credit score, the loan amount, and the loan purpose.
Finder also includes a side-by-side comparison tool, where you can compare APRs, credit score requirements, and loan amounts for up to four lenders at a time.
Loan Matching Tools
One area where Finder is lacking is that it doesn’t have a quiz to take or form to fill out to view prequalification offers. For this, you’ll have to visit a different site.
Ratings and Reviews
Finder assigns an X/10 “Finder Score” to most lenders, factoring in characteristics like loan amounts, turnaround times, APRs, fees, and customer reviews. There’s also a full editorial review for many of the lenders, and while there’s a section for user reviews, few users have taken advantage of this yet.
Educational Resources
Finder includes a guide to the basics of personal loans, as well as niche articles that go in a little deeper. Some of the topics include loans for seniors, loans for American expats, and financing a swimming pool.
Finder also has six calculators: personal loan monthly payment, debt consolidation, loan comparison, borrowing power, car loan monthly payment, and business loan comparison.
Pros
- Many lenders to choose from
- Side-by-side comparison tool
- Personal loan calculators
Cons
- No loan matching quiz
- Potentially overwhelming number of options
- Some lenders not yet scored
So, Which Site Is the Best for Comparing Personal Loans?
There’s no best site for comparing personal loans. In reality, it’s wise to visit several of these sites during your personal loan search instead of relying on just one or two, since each site presents different options and perspectives.
With that being said, your decision might come down to whether you want a curated list of editorial picks or a search-like experience. The ones that focus heavily on editorial ratings and reviews include NerdWallet and Forbes Advisor, while sites like BestMoney, SuperMoney, and Finder are better described as personal loan marketplaces because they’re optimized for user search.
Regardless of which sites you visit, be sure to do plenty of research before taking out a personal loan.
