TL;DR
For a fast deposit-and-mortgage split with nothing to sign up for, use the Calc Garden down payment calculator: type a property price and a deposit percentage and it shows your deposit, the mortgage left to borrow and your loan-to-value ratio the instant you type, in any currency. If you are buying in the US and want private mortgage insurance, property taxes and a savings timeline folded in, the Zillow down payment calculator does more. This is not an "only free one" claim: Zillow, NerdWallet and Bankrate all offer free down payment calculators too. The real choice is a quick, no-signup split versus a fuller US-specific planner.
What the Zillow down payment calculator does well
Zillow's down payment calculator is a genuinely capable free tool, and it is worth being clear about that before positioning anything against it. It is built for the US market, so it does more than split a price into a deposit and a loan. It estimates private mortgage insurance (PMI) when your down payment is under 20 percent, sets the figure in the context of property taxes and insurance, and can run in reverse from a savings goal to show roughly how long it takes to save a target deposit. It also plugs into Zillow's home listings and lender network, which is convenient if you are actively house-hunting on the same site.
The trade-offs are the flip side of that same design. It is US-only, so the currency, the PMI logic and the tax assumptions do not fit a buyer in the UK or elsewhere. And because Zillow is a marketplace, the calculator sits inside a funnel that nudges you toward getting pre-qualified and comparing lender quotes. None of that costs money, but if you just want the deposit-and-mortgage split without the surrounding journey, it is more page than the job needs.
The down payment calculators compared
In the table a check means the tool does it cleanly, "Partial" means it does it with caveats, and a dash means it does not. The pricing row reflects each product as of 2026.
| Capability | Calc Garden | Zillow | NerdWallet | Bankrate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price (as of 2026) | Free | Free | Free | Free |
| No signup or account to use | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| No lender lead-capture funnel | Yes | No | No | No |
| Shows loan-to-value directly | Yes | Partial | Partial | Partial |
| Works in any currency (not US-only) | Yes | No | No | No |
| Shows the deposit and LTV formula | Yes | Partial | Partial | Partial |
| Estimates PMI under 20 percent down | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Savings timeline to reach a deposit | No | Yes | Partial | Partial |
| Runs entirely in your browser | Yes | No | No | No |
| Default currency | Pounds (GBP) | Dollars (USD) | Dollars (USD) | Dollars (USD) |
Read it honestly. Zillow, NerdWallet and Bankrate all win where a US buyer needs the most help: they fold in PMI, taxes and, in Zillow's case, a savings plan, which a bare split does not. Those are real advantages if you are buying in dollars. Calc Garden wins on simplicity, reach and privacy: no lead-capture funnel, the loan-to-value shown directly, the underlying formula on the page, and a tool that works in pounds, dollars or any currency because it never assumes a country. If your question is narrowly "what is my deposit, my mortgage and my LTV," it answers that in one screen.
The down payment formula, and a worked example
Every one of these tools runs the same core sum. Your down payment is the property price multiplied by your deposit percentage. The mortgage is the price minus that deposit. The loan-to-value ratio is the mortgage divided by the price, which is the same as 100 percent minus your deposit percentage. Everything else a calculator adds, from PMI to a savings plan, sits on top of that split.
Calc Garden's down payment calculator lands with a worked example already filled in: a 250,000 pound property at a 15 percent deposit. That gives a deposit of 37,500 pounds, a mortgage of 212,500 pounds and a loan-to-value of 85 percent. Change either figure and it recomputes instantly, so you can dial the deposit percentage up and down to see the point where the mortgage drops and the LTV crosses a rate band. Because the sum is currency-agnostic, the same page works whether you think in pounds or dollars: enter 250,000 and 15 percent and the arithmetic is identical.
Why no lead-capture funnel can matter
The marketplace calculators are free to use, but the reason they are free is that they are acquisition tools for lenders and agents. Enter your numbers on Zillow, NerdWallet or Bankrate and the natural next step the page offers is to get pre-qualified, see today's rates or connect with a loan officer. For an active buyer that can be useful. For someone who just wants to sanity-check a deposit, it is friction, and it means your figures feed a system designed to match you with a product.
A plain calculator sidesteps that. Calc Garden's down payment calculator runs client-side in your browser, shows the split and the loan-to-value, and stops there. There is no form asking who your lender is and no push to compare quotes. That makes it a clean choice for an early what-if, before you are ready to talk to anyone, or when you simply want the maths without joining a funnel. The honest trade-off is that it will not hand you a lender or a rate, because it is not trying to.
Which one to use
Reach for Zillow, NerdWallet or Bankrate when you are buying in the US and want the fuller picture: PMI estimated for a low deposit, property taxes and insurance in the payment, a savings timeline, and a path straight to lenders. If you are house-hunting on those sites already, keeping the calculator in the same place is convenient and costs nothing.
Reach for the Calc Garden down payment calculator when you want the deposit, mortgage and LTV fast, in your own currency, with no signup and no funnel. From there, two tools take the plan further: the mortgage affordability calculator estimates how much you could borrow in the first place, and the mortgage repayment calculator turns the resulting loan into a monthly payment and the total interest over the term. For the wider set of explainers, the guides index collects the rest, including the best free mortgage affordability calculator and the best free mortgage calculator that shows total interest.