Splitwise alternatives: six expense-splitting apps, honestly compared

The short version

If you want Splitwise without the daily limit and without paying, Tricount is the closest thing and it is completely free. If nobody wants to make an account, Splid or Spliit. If you are a couple or a household rather than a trip, the running tally is the wrong tool entirely, and you want the costs sitting next to the calendar and the shopping list. That is what Cria Planner does. If you genuinely use receipt scanning and currency conversion every week, pay for Splitwise Pro and stop reading. It is a good app.

What actually changed with Splitwise

Splitwise added a daily limit on how many expenses a free account can add. Hit it and you can wait for the reset, ask a friend in the group to add the expense on your behalf, or subscribe to Pro to make the limit go away (Splitwise's own help article). The number is not published, and people report anything from two to five a day. Which is fine on a quiet Tuesday and absurd on day one of a trip, when a group of four can generate a dozen expenses before lunch.

Pro is the fix they sell, and it unlocks unlimited expenses, receipt scanning, currency conversion, charts, itemisation, expense search and an ad-free app (Splitwise Pro). It is a subscription, monthly or yearly, and the price depends on your store and region, so check the listing before deciding. Splitwise's own stated reason for the limit is keeping the free tier sustainable without selling data, which is a fair thing to want. The question is only whether you want to pay for it, and what you get if you would rather not.

The six, compared

Prices are the publishers' own list prices at the time of writing and vary by region. Check the store before you commit to anything.

Pick by what broke, not by the feature list

“I just hit the daily limit and I am on holiday”

Then you want Tricount. It does the same job, it is 100% free with no expense cap and no premium tier (Tricount's own site), and it has been part of the Dutch bank bunq since 2022, which is why there is no subscription to sell you: bunq would rather sell you a card that adds the expense automatically (Tricount press page). You do not need the card. Make a tricount, share the link, carry on with the ice cream. If you already have the holiday itself planned somewhere, planning trips without the group-chat chaos covers the rest of the week.

“One of us will not install anything or make an account”

There is one in every group, and they are usually the one who paid for dinner. Splid needs no sign-up at all: create a group, add people by name, and it works with or without a connection (Splid on the App Store). The free app carries no ads, and the paid extras are one-off purchases of a few dollars rather than a subscription, which is refreshingly old-fashioned. Spliit goes further still: it is open source, funded by donations on a public ledger, and a group is just a link you send round (Spliit). The trade with both is that nobody is logged in, so the one person holding the group is the one holding the group.

“We are flatmates and half of it is the same bills every month”

Settle Up is the one built for this. The free plan does everything and shows an ad after every third expense, which its developer describes as the fair price of free; Premium removes the ads and adds receipt photos, recurring expenses, categories and Excel export, and one purchase covers your account on every platform (the developer's own write-up). Recurring expenses are the thing to notice. Rent, broadband and the cleaner do not need typing in twelve times a year, and every app that makes you do it is quietly teaching you to stop.

“We are a couple, not a trip”

This is the one where the whole category is slightly wrong. Splitwise and its cousins were built for a group that forms, spends, settles and dissolves. A couple or a household does not dissolve. The costs are the same ones every month, they belong to things (the flat, the dog, the wedding), and they sit next to the calendar and the shopping list that caused them. A running tally in a separate app gives you an accurate number and nothing else, and it turns out the number was never the problem. The problem is that only one of you was holding it, which is the whole argument of how to split money with your partner without keeping score.

Cria Planner: when the money is one of five things

I build this one, so read the next paragraph with a suspicious eyebrow raised and go and check the free tier yourself.

In Cria Planner a budget lives inside a plan. The villa week has its events, its packing list and its costs on the same screen; the flat has the chores, the shopping list and who paid the electricity. Each budget has its own currency, so the trip is in euros and the rent is not. When you want to square up, a settle-up round works out who owes whom and ticks off each transfer as it happens, so a month of small things becomes one payment instead of twelve. Guests can be added without an account, so the friend who will not install anything still gets counted, and everything is free for two people. The whole household on one plan, meal history and the rest of the paid part start at Duo.

If you only ever split one trip a year with eight friends, this is more app than you want and Tricount is the better recommendation. Yes, really.

Five things to test before the trip

1. Add six expenses in a row. If anything asks you to wait, you already know how day one of the holiday goes.
2. Can the awkward one join? Send the link to the person who never installs anything and see whether they show up in the group.
3. Enter a cost in a second currency. A weekend abroad will, and the conversion should not be the paid feature you discover at the airport.
4. Settle a balance and check it clears. Some apps record the transfer, some just show you the number. You want the one that ends with everyone at zero.
5. Try it in flight mode. The expense should sit patiently and sync later, not vanish because the campsite had one bar of signal.

The short answer

Free Splitwise, no cap: Tricount. Nobody wants an account: Splid or Spliit. Flatmates with monthly bills: Settle Up. You use the receipt scanner and the charts every week: pay for Splitwise Pro. The money is one of five things your household is trying to keep track of: Cria Planner.

And if the trip is the thing that started all this, the money is the easy half. Who is bringing the tent is in planning trips and events without the group-chat chaos, and the version for people who live together, rather than merely travel together, is in Cozi alternatives: six family organisers compared.