# Pennies: Budget & Bill Tracker — user reviews

> 860 indexed App Store user reviews of Pennies by The App Shop, Inc., rated 4.60/5 from 1,806 ratings.

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/pennies-budget-and-bill-tracker/id916741290/reviews
- App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/pennies-budget-and-bill-tracker/id916741290.md
- Rating breakdown: 5★ 1,452 · 4★ 158 · 3★ 69 · 2★ 28 · 1★ 99

## What do users think of Pennies?

Overall sentiment: positive

**Pros**

- 👍 Simple and easy to use
- 💡 Helpful for budgeting and tracking expenses
- 🚀 Clean and intuitive interface
- 🚀 Convenient Apple Watch integration
- 👍 Effective for managing variable spending

**Cons**

- 🐛 Crashes and freezes
- 🐛 Syncing issues between devices
- 🐛 Laggy performance
- 💡 Lack of advanced features (e.g. reports, graphs)
- 💡 No option to share budgets with family members

**Commonly reported bugs**

- App crashes when trying to edit or delete budgets
- Complication not available on newer Apple Watch faces
- Syncing issues causing data loss or inconsistencies
- Expenses not properly tracking across time zones

**Most requested features**

- Add recurring expenses/bills
- Implement fortnightly budget option
- Introduce customizable categories and tags
- Add graphs and data visualization
- Enable budget sharing between devices/users

## Newest reviews (13 of 860)

### 3/5 — Review

*2026-06-29, version 6.4.13*

Stop asking me for a review every time I open the app or I’ll take away stars!

(Deducting a star because I keep getting asked for reviews. Originally 5 stars)

(Deducting another  star because I keep getting asked for reviews. Originally 5 stars)

### 4/5 — Review

*2026-05-29, version 6.4.13*

Stop asking me for a review every time I open the app or I’ll take away stars!

(Deducting a star because I keep getting asked for reviews. Originally 5 stars)

### 3/5 — Technical Issues

*2026-05-19, version 6.4.13*

I’ve had this app for two years. It has a small memory for businesses that you enter. So you have to re-enter the business almost every time. Every time I use the app it suddenly just disappears  from the screen and you have to start all over.

### 3/5 — Eh

*2026-04-09, version 6.4.13*

I enjoyed it until you now have to pay £39.99 a year to use it. If I had that money spare I wouldn’t be using a budget tracker. Also, £39.99 in my opinion is a steep price for what you actually get.

### 3/5 — App got worse!

*2026-01-11, version 6.4.12*

I’ve been using this for years and loved it with the simplicity, but for almost a year now the app just freezes constantly and sometimes reset my budgets. I reached out to the team but it never got fixed. I’m quitting this app now. It’s a shame really.

### 4/5 — 간편해서 사용하기 좋다.

*2025-12-08*

좋다!
군더더기 없고.

### 3/5 — Screen frozen

*2025-12-03, version 6.4.11*

After many years of using Pennies, I’m now giving up on this app as the screen keeps getting stuck and no improvements at all for months. It’s such a shame, I loved this app so much before.

### 3/5 — UI change

*2025-11-29, version 6.4.11*

I’ll be honest I haven’t updated the app in a while so I don’t know when these UI changes came about, but i accidentally deleted it the other day and had to reinstall and now the UI has changed when setting up a budget and honestly it’s ugly. The buttons are ugly, the floating lists with fake drop downs used to choose your settings (changed from the scroll menu) are ugly, the fact that i have to type in the decimal point now instead of it automatically being included is annoying. I wish developers would just let us CHOOSE how we want to interact with our apps instead of forcing UI changes on us that can never be modified. my app has looked and function  same way for 10 years until now and i’m seething.

ultimately still a good budgeting app though.

### 3/5 — Really like the app, but want more from the Apple Watch version.

*2025-11-19, version 6.4.11*

I really like using this app for one off budgets and really enjoy that there are Apple Watch widgets to see the total you have left on a budget. My biggest gripe is that if you have more than one budget, you can only use the budget that first on your list. I wish you could choose which budget you want to view on your watch. Would be a game changer!

### 2/5 — Hard to understand

*2025-11-17, version 6.4.11*

Tried the app with no success 
Could not find information how to use it

### 2/5 — Devenu quasi inutilisable

*2025-11-07*

Est devenu quasi inutilisable depuis quelques mises à jour.  
À chaque fois qu’on la lance, elle met environ 25-30 secondes à se synchroniser avec iCloud. Ok. Sauf qu’elle fait cela à chaque fois qu’elle est activée. On bascule sur une auto appli et on revient même 10 secondes après et c’est reparti pour 30 secondes d’attente. 
Cela le fait même quand on est en mode avion. Et le pire c’est que cela continue à le faire même quand on désactive la synchronisation iCloud. 
Je regrette les anciennes versions qui fonctionnaient mieux.

**Developer response:** Merci d'être un utilisateur fidèle au fil des années ! 

Nous sommes heureux d'annoncer que nous publierons cette année des améliorations de l'expérience d'étiquetage afin de les rendre plus personnalisables et flexibles.

### 4/5 — The simplest (thus best) budgeting app

*2025-10-18*

I’ve been using Pennies for several months now and the thing I love about it is its simplicity. I’ve used other apps like Mint, but I always found myself losing steam because it was so complex - all of the automation made the app less useful, not more (and I didn’t like giving them access to so much data about me). Pennies is the complete opposite - the simple UX makes it so easy to stick to.

I rated 4/5 because one area where it could use some work is the Notes system - it would be super useful to be able to modify the default/persistent Notes. I have a number of recurring expenses that don’t fit neatly into the defaults. Of course I can type in a custom note, but once it rolls off of the most recent notes, I have to add it again, and sometimes I forget how I categorized things and will use a different note later on. This makes it hard to consistently track a category over time.

### 2/5 — Ne fonctionne pas sur mon iPad mini

*2025-10-07*

Bonjour, j’utilise votre application depuis plusieurs années. Je l’apprécie beaucoup et elle est simple d’utilisation que ce soit sur mon iPhone ou iPad Pro. Cependant son utilisation sur mon iPad mini est impossible, la synchronisation ne fonctionne pas. J’ai même dû la désinstaller car elle ne s’ouvre plus.

## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated)

### 1/5 — App won’t open without paying

*2026-07-17, version 6.4.13*

When opening the app first is a pop up with a 50% off offer, I click no thanks and it takes me back to that pop up every time. No point in downloading if you don’t want to pay the app is useless.

### 1/5 — 시작화면에서 넘어가질 않아요

*2026-05-27*

앱을 실행조차 못합니다

### 1/5 — Doesn’t work

*2026-05-20, version 6.4.13*

Sign up doesn’t even work

### 1/5 — Probablema en Apple Watch

*2026-02-19, version 6.4.13*

Desde la actualización no sincroniza con Apple Watch. No es la primera vez que pasa tras una actualización. 
ACTUALIZO: Cada vez va peor, sincroniza cuando le da la gana, borra transacciones… Era la mejor, ahora no te puedes fiar.

### 1/5 — Misled

*2026-01-17, version 6.4.12*

$5.99 a month. Would appreciate some transparency.

### 1/5 — scammy

*2026-01-04, version 6.4.12*

literally doesn’t let me press the option not to buy a subscription upon first opening the app

### 1/5 — Used to be a great app

*2025-12-15, version 6.4.12*

I have used this app for years and loved it. But one of the latest updates changed the rollover feature. It used to ask during the budget setup if you wanted the budget to rollover each week. Now it doesn’t ask and I always forget. The only way to do it is to create the budget and then go into the edit menu and change it to rollover. And if you forget, tough luck. Unlike what the app says, yes you can change this at anytime, but it will only be for going forward. If you forget and the next week starts it won’t recalculate. Stupid update. I’m going to have to find a new budget app.

### 1/5 — It's not free

*2025-10-13, version 6.4.10*

It's not free, clarify it better

### 1/5 — Just wasted £40 !!

*2025-10-05, version 6.4.10*

Thought the app would help with my finance but soon realised is a very very basic app and u might aswell keep your money and use your bank ! However when trying to get my £40 back from apple when the subscription accidentally went through ,im apparently not eligible for a refund yet every other time ive done it when its been £5 or £10 i get it back straight away , really disappointed as it seems like any payment over £10 will not refunded !!

### 1/5 — Can’t claim discount offer.

*2025-09-20, version 6.4.9*

Button to “Claim offer” doesn’t work.

## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated)

### 5/5 — Fabulous

*2026-07-06, version 6.4.13*

I use it every day. It has saved my finances

### 5/5 — 180 degree turn

*2026-01-30, version 6.4.13*

I bought the app when it was paid on the AppStore. I was very pleased and felt happy I truly owned, to the point I remember even donating tips. 

To see it turn into a free app, and then a subscription-based app is a complete toss away of business ethics, and developer integrity to its previous values.

### 5/5 — Absolute best in category

*2026-01-24, version 6.4.13*

Just enough functionality for what I need. This app is absolutely essential for me.

### 5/5 — Best simple budget tracker

*2025-12-29, version 6.4.12*

This budgeting app can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be. For beginners, it offers a simple user interface that is easy to navigate and operate. For power users, it has robust automation tools to simplify complex budgets with multiple accounts and ledgers. For all, it offers nuanced flexibility without the baggage of complexity.

### 5/5 — 디자인도 깔끔하고 쓰기도 편함.

*2025-12-18*

자동 지출등록 기능은 애초에 IOS의 한계니 빼더라도, 디자인도 예쁘고 쓰기도 편함. 분야마다 예산을 다르게 설정해 놓을 수 있다는 것도 편리함. 화면 구성도 복잡하지 않고 깔끔해서 좋음. 가계부 어플 중 화면이나 디자인이 투박해서 사용하는 데 망설이던 앱이 많았는데, 기본 기능에도 충실하고 디자인도 예쁘니 오래 쓸 것 같음. 카드별 관리가 가능하다면 더 좋을 것 같다. 3개월 쓰면서 느낀 단점이라면 예산을 융통성 있게 운영하기 힘들다는 것. 총액을 기준으로 사용하기엔 편리하지만 수입이나 소비가 불규칙적일 경우엔 조금 번거로움. 이런 경우 다른 가계부 사용을 추천함. 간단한 화면 구성은 편리하고 깔끔하지만 그만큼 부족하게 느껴지는 부분도 없지않아 있음. 번역이 너무 안 좋아서 번역부분 개선이 꼭 필요함.

### 5/5 — Good

*2025-11-29, version 6.4.11*

Good

### 5/5 — Review

*2025-10-09, version 6.4.10*

Excellent!

### 5/5 — Quasi perfetta

*2025-10-02, version 6.4.10*

Semplice e pratica, senza inutili (per me) grafici e tabelle, ma un chiaro raggruppamento di spese per categoria. Ottima anche graficamente. Aggiungerei le spese periodiche, solo quello, sarebbe comodo. App sempre aggiornata e sul pezzo, complimenti!

### 5/5 — 심플이즈더베스트

*2025-06-17*

예전에 사용하다가 한동안 업데이트가 끊겨서 아쉬웠는데, 다시 살아나셨군요. 감사합니다 꾸준히 개발해주세요 꾸준히 사용할게요

**Developer response:** We're happy to be of service!

### 5/5 — Used to be great!

*2025-06-16, version 6.4.0*

This app still works and I use it almost daily but has been super slow and crashes a lot for about 6mo to a year. Keep waiting for them to fix it

---

*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-08-26.*