The 11 Best Splitwise Alternatives in 2026 (Free Options Compared)

If you have ever split expenses with a group of friends, there's a good chance you have used Splitwise. For years it has been the default recommendation whenever someone asks "how do I split bills with my roommates?" And for a while, it deserved that reputation. It was simple, it worked, and there wasn't much competition.

But the experience has changed. The free tier keeps getting more restrictive, the interface feels like it hasn't been updated since 2018, and the subscription pricing keeps creeping up. If you have found yourself frustrated with Splitwise lately, you aren't alone. There's a reason "Splitwise alternative" is one of the most searched expense-app queries in 2026.

SplitterUp was built from scratch to address the exact frustrations that drive people away from the incumbent. Not as a clone with a different name, but as a rethinking of what an expense splitting app should be in 2026.

Why People Are Looking for a Splitwise Alternative

The most common complaint about Splitwise is the daily expense limit on the free tier. You can only add a handful of expenses per day (commonly reported as 3 or 4) without paying for Splitwise Pro. If you're on a group trip and splitting breakfast, lunch, groceries, an activity, and dinner, you hit that limit before noon. For an app whose core purpose is tracking shared expenses, putting a hard cap on the number of expenses you can log makes the free version feel more like a demo than a real product.

Then there are the ads. The free version of Splitwise now shows ads throughout the interface, including banner ads on the main balance screen. When you're trying to quickly check how much your roommate owes you, getting served a banner ad for a credit card you don't want isn't a great experience.

Splitwise Pro removes the limits and ads, but at $59.99 per year billed annually, or $7.99 per month billed monthly (pricing varies by region). That adds up fast for an app that tracks who owes what. Many users feel that's steep for a utility app, especially when the same features are available elsewhere for free. We go deeper on whether that cost is worth paying in our breakdown of whether Splitwise Pro is worth it.

The interface itself feels dated. Navigation is clunky, there's limited dark mode support (Android system-level only), and the iPad experience is an afterthought. Receipt scanning with item-level OCR exists in the Pro tier, but it requires an ongoing subscription to access.

Finally, there's no concept of smart re-splitting. If someone joins your group trip late and you want to retroactively include them in past expenses, you have to manually edit every single expense. With a large group and a week-long trip, that's a serious pain.

Why Switch to SplitterUp

SplitterUp removes the specific things people leave Splitwise over: no daily expense cap, no ads, and receipt scanning that itemizes a bill instead of sitting behind a paywall. It's free right now, and when pricing does start, Premium is a one-time $4.99 purchase rather than a subscription, compared with Splitwise Pro's $59.99 a year, or $7.99 a month.

Switching doesn't mean starting your groups over from zero. Export your data from Splitwise — a Pro account gets a full backup, a free account exports one group at a time — then open SplitterUp's Splitwise importer, and your groups, expenses, and balances come across matched to the cent, with nothing duplicated if you run it twice.

Feature Comparison

Here is a direct comparison of what you get with each option:

*Pricing hasn't launched yet. Create your account while SplitterUp is free for a limited time and you keep Premium permanently; after pricing starts, Premium is a one-time $4.99 purchase, never a subscription.

For a more detailed feature-by-feature breakdown, see our full comparison page, or go straight to the SplitterUp vs Splitwise head-to-head for the specifics on this exact matchup.

How we compared these apps

We used the free tier of each app as a new user would encounter it, on both iOS and Android, and checked every claim against each app's own documentation and store listing. Pricing and limits are as of August 2026 and do change — Splitwise Pro was $59.99 per year at the time of writing.

SplitterUp is our own app. That is why this comparison names the cases where another app is the better choice rather than pretending they don't exist: an honest list you can check is more useful to you, and more durable for us, than one that ranks us first on every row.

The 11 Best Splitwise Alternatives, Compared

Splitwise is not the only option, and it is not the right option for everyone. Here is an honest read on the eleven alternatives worth considering in 2026, including where each one beats us. Prices and limits are as of August 2026 and do change.

1. SplitterUp, best for most groups

Unlimited expenses with no daily cap, AI receipt scanning that pulls out every line item so people pay for what they actually ordered, multi-currency groups, settlement optimization that reduces a tangle of debts to the fewest possible payments, offline support that syncs when you reconnect, and no ads. Available on iOS, macOS, Android, and as a full web app at web.splitterup.app.

Where it falls short: it is a newer app, so your friends are less likely to already have it than Splitwise, and its Splitwise importer leaves receipts and comments behind — only the expenses, payments, and balances come across.

2. Tricount, best permanently free tracker

Tricount is ad-free, costs nothing, and does not require an account to start a shared list, which makes it excellent for a one-off trip where you do not want everyone signing up for something. It handles multi-currency and basic receipt OCR.

Where it falls short: there is no item-level splitting, so it cannot pull individual dishes off a restaurant receipt and assign them. Its web app was discontinued, leaving it mobile-only, and there are no home screen widgets.

3. Settle Up, multi-currency support on a free tier

Settle Up supports multiple currencies on the free tier, works offline with sync when you reconnect, and a modest one-time Pro upgrade removes ads.

Where it falls short: the free tier carries ads and it uses third-party analytics. Receipt handling is limited, and the interface is dated next to newer apps.

4. Splid, best one-time purchase

Splid is an independent German app that has been maintained by a single developer since 2015. It works offline, needs no account, and is the only app here that sells a one-time unlock rather than a subscription — genuinely appealing if recurring charges are the thing you object to.

Where it falls short: no receipt scanning, no web app, and development moves at the pace one person can sustain.

5. Spliit, best open source option

Spliit is free and open source, with no accounts and no paid tier. Groups are shared by link, and you can self-host it if you would rather your expense data live on your own infrastructure. It is also more capable than its minimalist framing suggests: alongside the web app there is a native iPhone app, rewritten in SwiftUI with iCloud sync, and it added AI receipt scanning from a photo. For privacy-minded or technical users, nothing else here competes.

Where it falls short: it is donation-funded, so the hosted instance depends on Open Collective contributions to cover its database and receipt-scanning costs, and there is no company behind it if something breaks. There is no Android app yet, and feature depth trails the commercial options.

6. SplitMyExpenses, best for a hands-on Splitwise import

SplitMyExpenses keeps core splitting, groups, balances, and settling up free, and it has a real Splitwise importer: you upload a group or friend CSV exported from Splitwise, choose whether to bring over balances or the full expense history, and map the names in the file to real users. If you would rather choose exactly how each name maps over, this hands-on approach is a solid option — SplitterUp's own Splitwise importer works differently: it reads a Pro backup to bring every group over at once, or a group spreadsheet for one group at a time, carries over expenses and payments with balances matching to the cent, and shows you a review step before anything is imported.

Where it falls short: the free plan only imports the past month of expenses, so moving years of history means paying, and AI receipt itemization is not in the free plan at all — that needs the Unlimited plan at $3.99 per month. The Splitwise export also has to be in English, because the importer reads Splitwise's column names directly.

7. Venmo, best when you just need to get paid back

If the entire task is "four of us split a dinner check in the US and I need the money now," Venmo is faster than any ledger app. Request, done.

Where it falls short: it is a payment app, not an expense tracker. There is no running balance across a trip, no multi-currency, and no way to see who owes what over time. It is US-only, and it is the wrong tool for roommates or a two-week vacation.

8. HippoSplit, best if you would rather just type it out

HippoSplit's angle is chat: you describe an expense in plain language and it parses that into a split, with AI receipt and photo parsing behind it. It covers 150+ currencies with live rates, does equal, custom, percentage, share and itemized splits, and lets people join through a shareable link without signing up.

Where it falls short: the free plan caps AI parsing at 20 scans per week, which is the feature the whole product is built around, and Premium is $4.17 per month or $49.99 per year. It is also web-only for now — the native iOS and Android apps are listed as coming later — so there are no widgets and no offline use.

9. Tab, best for a single restaurant check

Tab does one thing: photograph a bill, tap the items you had to claim them, and it works out tax and tip without anyone typing prices in. If your only problem is the restaurant check, it is a clean, focused tool on iOS and Android.

Where it falls short: it is scoped to splitting a bill rather than keeping a ledger, so there are no ongoing group balances, no recurring expenses, and no running record of who owes whom across months. Tab does not publish pricing on its site, so check the store listing before relying on it.

10. Kittysplit, best when nobody wants to install anything

Kittysplit is a web tool with no registration and no password. You create a shared pool, add expenses, send a link, and it calculates who owes whom. It is free, and there are iOS and Android apps if you want them, but the point is that nobody has to sign up for anything.

Where it falls short: it is deliberately minimal — no receipt scanning, no multi-currency rate handling, no payment integrations, and no persistent account, which also means no history across trips. It solves the arithmetic, not the tracking.

11. GoodShare, best if you want budgeting attached

GoodShare aims at couples, roommates and families and pushes further into budgeting than a pure splitter: alongside fair settlement it has an AI receipt scanner, PDF bank-statement import, savings goals, recurring automation, and Sankey cash-flow charts.

Where it falls short: the free tier is tight — one budget book, five categories, three standing orders, and limited AI receipt scans — and Pro is €4.99 per month or €39.99 per year. It is listed on Google Play with no iOS app mentioned, which rules it out for any group that is not all-Android.

Quick Comparison

What About Receipt Scanning?

Both SplitterUp and Splitwise Pro offer item-level receipt scanning with OCR that can detect individual items and let you assign them to friends. The key differences are access and cost.

Splitwise's receipt scanning is locked behind the Pro subscription, which starts at $59.99 per year. Free users have no access to it at all. SplitterUp offers the same capability for free, with no subscription required. When you scan a receipt, the app extracts every individual line item, including the item name, quantity, and price. You then see a clean list of everything on the receipt and can tap each item to assign it to the person who ordered it. Multiple people can share a single item, too.

Once all items are assigned, SplitterUp automatically calculates each person's subtotal and proportionally distributes tax and tip across everyone based on what they ordered. The result is a mathematically fair split where everyone pays for exactly what they consumed.

This matters most at restaurants, grocery runs, and any shared purchase where people bought different things. The "just split it equally" approach works sometimes, but it breeds resentment when the amounts are meaningfully different. Item-level scanning removes that friction entirely.

Making the Switch

Switching from Splitwise to SplitterUp is straightforward. Download SplitterUp from the App Store or Google Play, create your account, and export your data from Splitwise — a Pro account can export a full backup, and a free account can export one group at a time as a spreadsheet.

Then open Account and tap 'Import from Splitwise' and choose the file, or add several if you have more than one group export. Your groups, expenses, and balances come across matched to the cent, and re-importing the same file never duplicates anything — see the full Splitwise import guide for the walkthrough.

The hardest part of switching any group app is getting your friends to join. But once one person in the group makes the move and invites the rest, their groups and balances are already there when they accept — nobody has to rebuild anything by hand, and the switch tends to stick.

Curious how SplitterUp stacks up against other alternatives too? Check out our roundup of the 7 best expense splitting apps in 2026 for a broader comparison. You can also see receipt scanning in action on our travel & dining page.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best free Splitwise alternative?

SplitterUp is the best free Splitwise alternative for most groups. It has no daily expense cap, no ads, item-level receipt scanning, and multi-currency groups. Create your account while it is free for a limited time and you keep Premium permanently; join later and it is a one-time $4.99 purchase, never a subscription. Tricount is the strongest permanently free option if you only need to track a single trip.

Can I import my Splitwise data into another app?

Splitwise lets you export a group to CSV, or a Pro account can export a full JSON backup. SplitMyExpenses supports importing Splitwise group and friend exports directly, and SplitterUp imports either export type too, matching balances to the cent and never duplicating expenses if you import the same file twice.

Why are people looking for a Splitwise alternative?

The three most common reasons are the three-expense-per-day cap on the free tier, ads on the free tier, and receipt scanning being locked behind Splitwise Pro. None of those limits existed in earlier versions of the app.

Is there a Splitwise alternative with a web app?

Yes. SplitterUp runs as a full web app at web.splitterup.app with no install, alongside its iOS, macOS, and Android apps. Spliit is web-only and open source. Tricount discontinued its web app, so it is mobile-only.