Spendwise
The short answer
Pick Spendee if you want your bank transactions pulled in for you, your ledger on a web app as well as a phone, and someone else's servers keeping two devices in sync. Pick Spendwise if you would rather type the expense yourself than sign in, if you want the tracker to work on a plane, and if you do not want a subscription between you and a budget that already works.
This is a comparison written by the maker of one of the two apps, so read it as an argument rather than a verdict. The table below says where Spendee is genuinely the better tool, not only where it is not.
Side by side
| What matters | Spendwise | Spendee |
|---|---|---|
| Account | None. No email, no password, no profile. | Sign in to the app and to the web app; your data is tied to it. |
| Where the records live | A SQLite database on your phone. No copy on a server. | Spendee's cloud, kept in sync across your devices. |
| Price | Free. One non-personalised ad, no in-app purchases. | Free Basic tier; Plus at $1.99 a month or $14.99 a year; Premium at $5.99 a month or $35.99 a year, with a 7-day trial. |
| What the free tier includes | Every feature in the app, groups included. | One cash wallet and one budget on Basic. |
| Bank connections | None. You enter each expense, which takes a few seconds. | A paid feature, with automatic categorisation of imported transactions. |
| Sharing a budget with someone | Groups: a trip or household gets its own ledger, people, budget and settle-up, all on your phone. | Shared wallets with other Spendee users on Plus and Premium. |
| Platforms | Android 10 and above. | Android, iOS, and a web app. |
| Getting data out | A PDF or spreadsheet per month or year, plus a one-file backup holding every row and every receipt. | Import and export of transactions, listed on all three tiers. |
| Tracking and ads | No tracking ID. One non-personalised ad on the confirmation screen. Anonymous screen analytics that can be switched off. | Check Spendee's own privacy policy; it is not summarised here. |
What no account actually changes
The table is a list of features. The reason to choose a local ledger is what those features feel like once the account is gone.
There is nothing to sign into, and nothing to break
Spendwise opens on a language and currency choice, then on your ledger. There is no login screen to fail while you are queuing for coffee, no password reset, and no session to expire. It also means no one can lock you out of your own spending history, because there is no server holding it.
The trade is real: you own the backup
A cloud account is also a backup. Spendwise deliberately is not, and uninstalling the
app deletes the ledger. The replacement is a file you control:
Settings → Backup & Restore → Create backup file writes every
transaction, category, budget, person, group and attached receipt into one
.spendwise file in Download/Spendwise. Restore it on the new
phone and you are back where you were. Keep it somewhere you would keep a bank
statement, because the file is not encrypted.
Groups are included, and they are local
A group is a second ledger: a trip, a shared flat, a wedding. It gets its own categories, budget, people, notes and settle-up, so a holiday never muddies the household numbers. There is no subscription tier to unlock it and no invitation to accept. The honest counterpart is that the other people in the group do not get a live copy of it on their phones — one person keeps the ledger, and it is exact because one person keeps it.
One ad, and analytics you can turn off
Spendwise is not ad-free and does not claim to be. There is a single non-personalised ad on the confirmation screen, placed where a task is already finished, and there is no tracking ID. Anonymous screen analytics keep the app improving and have an on/off switch in Settings; off means off, not "less". The privacy policy spells out both.
Where Spendee is the better choice
Three things are hard to do without a server, and Spendee does all three:
- Bank connections and automatic categorisation. If you will not type expenses, no offline tracker will win. Spendee imports transactions and sorts them for you on a paid plan.
- Two devices, actually in sync. A phone plus a web app plus a second person's phone is exactly what an account buys. Spendwise is one phone by design.
- iPhone and web. Spendwise is Android only. If your devices are not Android, this comparison is already over.
Spendee is also the older, larger product, which shows in things that are hard to see in a feature table: more currencies in the bank list, more years of edge cases fixed. Both apps are free to try, and Spendee's paid tiers start at less than a coffee a month, so trying both costs an afternoon rather than money.
What the price difference buys
Spendwise's whole revenue is one ad on one screen, so the app is free and stays free; there is no upgrade to be sold to you later. Spendee's free tier is a real tracker but caps you at one wallet and one budget, and the two paid tiers are what unlock bank sync, extra wallets and shared wallets. If you want those features, $14.99–$35.99 a year is a fair price for them. If you do not, the free tier's ceiling is the reason to look elsewhere.
Frequently asked questions
Is Spendwise the same app as Spendee?
No. Spendee is made by SPENDEE a.s. in Prague. Spendwise is a separate Android app by a different developer. The names are similar enough that people find one while looking for the other, which is why this page exists.
Do I need an account to use Spendwise?
No. There is no sign-up, no email, and no password. First run asks for your language and currency, then opens the app.
Does Spendwise work without an internet connection?
Yes. Logging, budgets, groups, reports, backup and restore are all local. The one ad on the confirmation screen needs a connection to fill; offline it shows its placeholder and the rest of the app is unaffected.
How do I move Spendwise data to a new phone?
Open Settings → Backup & Restore → Create backup file. The file holds transactions, categories, budgets, people, groups and attached receipts. On the new phone choose Choose backup file; restoring replaces the current data after a safety snapshot. Full steps are on the support page.
Is Spendwise free?
Yes. No subscription, no in-app purchase. One non-personalised ad on the transaction confirmation screen pays for it, and anonymous screen analytics can be switched off in Settings.
Does Spendwise run on iPhone?
No. Spendwise is an Android app for Android 10 and above. Spendee is available on Android, iOS and the web.
Try the one that fits
If this page has done its job, you already know which column you are. Spendwise is free and installs in under a minute; if it is not for you, uninstall it and nothing has been uploaded anywhere in the meantime.