Splitwise alternatives: what to use in 2026, and what actually matters
Every one of these apps does the maths correctly. The real difference is elsewhere: what they limit, what they do with your data, and what makes your friends actually record their expenses.
5 min read
Most people go looking for a Splitwise alternative for one of two reasons: they have hit the free plan's three expenses per day on the first evening of a trip, or they would rather not see adverts in their household accounts.
Both are good reasons. But before switching, it is worth asking the question that actually decides whether any of this works: will all six people in the group use it? A tally kept by one person is not a shared tally, it is an invoice.
This comparison is written by the people behind one of these apps, and says so up front: read it knowing the bias, and check the prices, which move.
Where Splitwise stands in 2026
Splitwise remains the most complete option for long-running use: a flatshare that lasts, balances that run for years, automatic reminders, a mature app on both platforms.
What has changed, and what sends people looking:
- the free plan is capped at three expenses per day and shows adverts;
- Pro costs $4.99 a month or $49.99 a year, which removes the cap and adds receipt scanning.
Three a day is comfortable for a flatshare and impossible for a trip: on day one, between the accommodation, the food shop, fuel and dinner, you are out of allowance before you sit down to eat. Most people find out about it while abroad.
If you are two or three people with a handful of expenses a week, Pro is honestly not bad value. If you are six people on a week away, it is the wrong shape of product for the job.
Tricount
The most used app in France and Belgium by a wide margin, and the simplest to get people into. You create a "tricount", share a link, and record. It is free: the old Premium tier was dropped in the new version of the app.
What sets it apart: you can take part without creating an account. That removes the single biggest objection in a group of friends, and it explains a large part of its success.
What is worth knowing: Tricount has been owned since 2022 by bunq, a Dutch bank. There is nothing improper about that and it changes nothing day to day. But if your reason for leaving Splitwise is not wanting your spending held by a large company, that is a fact worth having, and it is not exactly advertised.
A shared spreadsheet
Dismissed too quickly. It is free, it puts nobody on anybody's servers, and for two or three people on a short project it is a perfectly sensible choice.
Its three limits are always the same: entering data on a phone is miserable, so nobody does it in the moment; working out the transfers is harder than summing columns, and most improvised sheets stop at balances; and the file belongs to whoever made it, who eventually gets tired of maintaining it.
Kotisso
This is the app we make, so treat the following accordingly.
The position: everything to do with the tally is free, with no limit on expenses, participants or repayments. That includes all four split modes, currency conversion, receipt photos, and exporting the tally to a spreadsheet and a PDF. What is paid for is three comforts that do not touch the numbers: more than two groups open at once, history beyond twelve months, and per-group statistics.
One rule follows from that, and it matters more than the list: a free account sees fewer lines, never different figures. An expense that has scrolled out of view still counts in the balances and the totals. A truncated tally would be a wrong tally.
What is unusual:
- foreign currency entry, with the rate frozen at the moment you record the expense and never recalculated afterwards;
- recurring expenses: rent is entered once and comes back on its own each month;
- PDF export, which matters when the tally has to leave the group: the end of a tenancy, an agreement between separated parents;
- it installs from the browser and opens without a network so you can check figures you have already seen.
What it lacks, and you should know: Kotisso is new, its community is small, you do have to create an account to take part (where Tricount does not), and it is not on the app stores yet. If your absolute priority is that nobody has to sign up, Tricount is still the right answer.
The table, with its caveats
| Spreadsheet | Tricount | Splitwise | Kotisso | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free | Free, capped at 3 expenses/day; Pro $4.99/mo | Tally free; comfort €2.99/mo |
| No account needed | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Foreign currency | By hand | Yes | Yes | Yes, rate frozen on entry |
| Export | Native | Yes | Depends on plan | Spreadsheet and PDF, free |
| Adverts | No | No | On the free plan | No |
| Owned by | You | bunq (bank, Netherlands) | Splitwise (United States) | Independent, France |
Four questions to ask before switching
1. How long will this run? A weekend and a three-year flatshare do not need the same thing. For a weekend, how easily people can join beats everything. For three years, it is history, recurring expenses and export that matter.
2. Who is going to enter things? If the answer is "me", pick whatever exports well: you will need to show your figures. If the answer is "everyone", pick whatever asks the least of someone joining.
3. Will the tally have to leave the group? The end of a tenancy, a separation, an agreement between parents: the tally becomes a document. Check it exports to PDF, with the receipts, and for free.
4. Do you mind connecting a bank? None of the options above requires it. Some offer it. If it bothers you, check that it stays optional.
What should not decide it
The length of the feature list. All of these passed what a group actually needs a long time ago. A longer list means a longer list.
Popularity. It tells you what other people chose three years ago, under conditions that no longer hold. Splitwise's daily cap is recent.
Accuracy of the maths. They all get it right. If you want to check, there is one test that never lies: a group's balances must add up to exactly zero, always. If your app shows anything else, change app, whatever its reputation.
If you would rather judge for yourself than read a table, create a group on Kotisso: it is free, it takes a minute, and the full tally needs no subscription.