AwardWallet vs PointsPulse: An Honest Comparison

Last updated: May 5, 2026. Loyalty programs change rules frequently. Verify with the program before relying on this for a redemption.

If you’re shopping for a points tracker, AwardWallet and PointsPulse are two of the main options. They take different approaches and they’re right for different users. This is a side-by-side comparison from the people who built PointsPulse, written as fairly as we can manage.

To be transparent: we built PointsPulse, so this is not an unbiased third-party review. We’ve tried to be honest about where AwardWallet wins and where it loses. If you want a third party’s take, OMAAT, Frequent Miler, and NerdWallet have all written about AwardWallet. We’d recommend checking those if you want a different lens.

The high-level summary

Where AwardWallet wins

Program breadth. This is the big one. 600+ programs is an enormous moat that took two decades to build. If you collect Diners Club, Hawaiian Airlines, La Quinta Returns, Sephora Beauty Insider, or any of hundreds of niche programs, AwardWallet has you covered. PointsPulse currently supports 10 programs, all of them in the top tier of US loyalty programs. If you want to track more than that, you’d need both tools or you’d need AwardWallet alone.

Long track record. AwardWallet has been in market since 2004. They’ve weathered changes in 2FA, program redesigns, devaluations, mergers, and program closures. The product is mature. PointsPulse launched in 2026 and is comparatively unproven.

Mobile experience. AwardWallet has fully developed iOS and Android apps. PointsPulse is a Chrome extension plus a web dashboard, with no native mobile app. If you want to check balances on your phone, AwardWallet wins.

Family account management. AwardWallet lets you manage accounts for multiple family members under one login. Useful for parents tracking their kids’ AAdvantage accounts, spouses sharing a Hyatt portfolio, etc. PointsPulse is per-user only.

Free night certificate tracking. Free night certificates from cobranded hotel cards expire on a hard date (usually 12 months from issue). AwardWallet tracks these explicitly and warns before expiration. PointsPulse focuses on point balances and doesn’t yet have a separate certificate-tracking layer.

Trip and itinerary management. AwardWallet ingests travel confirmations from your email and builds a unified itinerary view. We don’t do this.

Where PointsPulse wins

No password storage. This is the design decision the product is built around. AwardWallet stores your loyalty credentials and logs in on your behalf. We don’t, can’t, and never will. The Chrome extension reads your balance from the page when you’re already logged in, so your password never reaches our servers. For users who don’t want to expand their credential exposure, this is the difference.

To be fair to AwardWallet, they encrypt loyalty passwords with 1024-bit RSA, hash account passwords with bcrypt, and have not had a mass database breach in 22 years. (A 2015 incident affected roughly 250 accounts with weak or reused passwords through brute force, which AwardWallet disclosed publicly. No mass leak.) Their security work is real. But the model is fundamentally credential storage, and the worst case scenarios are different from a model that doesn’t store credentials at all.

Auto-tracking for the big four US carriers. This is genuinely the most decisive functional difference. American AAdvantage was completely removed from AwardWallet in 2023 (you can’t even forward statements). Delta SkyMiles, United MileagePlus, and Southwest Rapid Rewards all require you to forward statement emails to AwardWallet’s parsing inbox, which adds friction and requires you to first enable mileage statements from each airline. PointsPulse reads all four programs directly when you visit each airline’s website, no email forwarding required.

Better price on the annual plan. AwardWallet Plus is $49.99 a year. PointsPulse is $34.99 a year. About 30 percent cheaper. The monthly tier ($4.99) is also more flexible than AwardWallet’s annual-only option. If you only need a tracker for a few months around a redemption, PointsPulse can work as a short-term tool.

Earlier expiration alerts. AwardWallet Plus alerts at 90, 60, 30 day, then daily for the last 7 days. PointsPulse Pro alerts at 60, 30, 14, 7, and 1 day. AwardWallet’s 90-day warning is genuinely useful for big programs, but the daily 7-day spam can become noise. PointsPulse’s spaced thresholds are calibrated for the activities people actually do (a 14-day window is enough to plan a partner transfer, the 1-day alert is your panic button).

Newer technology stack. PointsPulse runs on a modern stack (Supabase, Stripe, Netlify) with continuous deployment. AwardWallet’s UI feels like a 2010 web app, which is fine if you don’t care about UX, but the gap is noticeable if you do.

Free tier that’s actually useful for a small portfolio. AwardWallet’s free version limits expiration date tracking to 3 programs (you choose which) and limits balance updates to 2x daily. PointsPulse’s free tier tracks 3 programs fully, with the same data quality as paid users. If you only have a few accounts, the free version of PointsPulse is enough.

Where they’re roughly even

Reliability. Both products break occasionally when loyalty sites redesign. AwardWallet has a longer history of fixing these breaks fast. PointsPulse has a smaller surface area to maintain. We’d call it a wash for now, with AwardWallet’s track record giving them the slight edge.

Two-factor authentication handling. Both products struggle when programs add 2FA. AwardWallet sometimes can’t auto-update accounts with 2FA at all. PointsPulse handles 2FA naturally (you complete the 2FA when you visit the site, the extension reads after) but only when you actually visit. Neither is great, both are workable.

CSV export. Both products offer it, both work fine.

What about other tools (MaxRewards, Travel Freely, TripIt Pro, Kudos)?

Worth a mention because some readers will use these alongside or instead of AwardWallet/PointsPulse. They solve different problems.

MaxRewards ($108/year for Gold, $240/year for Platinum) is a credit-card-only tracker. Strong on auto-activating Amex Offers, Chase Freedom quarterly categories, and offer stacks. Doesn’t track hotel or airline loyalty balances at all. Good complement to a points tracker if you have a lot of credit cards.

Travel Freely (free) tracks card applications, sign-up bonus deadlines, and Chase 5/24 status. Doesn’t track points or miles balances. Doesn’t ask for any credit card numbers or bank logins. Pairs well with either AwardWallet or PointsPulse for the full points-and-cards picture.

TripIt Pro ($49/year) is primarily an itinerary management tool. Has light points tracking as a side feature (130 plus programs), but, like AwardWallet, cannot auto-track American, Delta, or United (forwarded email statements only). Better for people who want one tool for itineraries plus light tracking, not for serious balance management.

Kudos (free) is a browser extension and iOS app focused on which-credit-card-to-use at checkout. Not a balance tracker in the traditional sense.

So the realistic stack for many serious hobbyists is: Travel Freely (free, for cards) + PointsPulse or AwardWallet (for balances) + optionally MaxRewards or Kudos (for category optimization). These tools cover different jobs without much overlap.

How to choose between AwardWallet and PointsPulse

The honest decision tree:

If you have many programs, including international or niche ones: AwardWallet. The breadth advantage is decisive.

If you only track major US programs and care about not exposing more credentials: PointsPulse.

If you want a mobile-first experience: AwardWallet (until we ship a mobile app).

If you’re managing accounts for a family: AwardWallet (until we add family management).

If you’re a heavy free-night-certificate user: AwardWallet.

If you want auto-tracking for the big four US carriers (American, Delta, United, Southwest): PointsPulse, since AwardWallet either can’t track them at all (American) or requires email forwarding (Delta, United, Southwest).

If you want the cheapest annual paid tier and are mostly tracking the big US programs: PointsPulse at $34.99 vs $49.99.

If you want to use both: That works. AwardWallet for the long tail, PointsPulse for the major US programs you care most about. Some users do this.

What we’d improve about AwardWallet

A few things we’d push for if we were them:

• Move toward a credential-free model for at least some programs, possibly via browser extension supplement.
• Modernize the UI. The 2010 aesthetic actively turns away younger users.
• The $30 to $49.99 price hike walked back the goodwill of the early-supporter pricing. Users felt jerked around.
• More transparent communication about which programs are working at any given time.

What we’d be honest about for PointsPulse

We’re new. Things will break. The program list is small. The mobile story is weak. If your primary loyalty programs are international, we might never serve you well. If you’ve been on AwardWallet for a decade and it works for you, you don’t need to switch.

But if you’ve been waiting for an alternative that doesn’t store your passwords, or if you’re frustrated that AwardWallet can’t auto-track your AAdvantage account anymore, we built PointsPulse because we wanted that alternative ourselves.

Bottom line

Two products solving the same problem with different design philosophies. AwardWallet bets on breadth and the centralized-credentials model. We bet on a smaller program list with a security model that doesn’t put your accounts at risk if our database leaks, and direct auto-tracking for the major US carriers AwardWallet has lost.

Both are valid. Pick the one that fits how you think about the tradeoff. Or use both. The worst tracker is the one you abandon, so the right choice is whichever one you’ll actually keep checking.

If you want to try PointsPulse, the free tier covers 3 programs and doesn’t require a credit card. Install the extension, log into one of your loyalty sites, and you’ll see how it works in about 30 seconds.