Comparison

Expense vs AJournal

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Expense

Effortlessly monitor your finances with this intuitive spending tracker. Visualize your expenses with a clean line chart and gain insights into your spending habits. Customize categories and export your data for detailed analysis.

Highlights
  • Intuitive expense tracking
  • Beautiful line chart visualization
  • Monthly spending overview
  • Customizable categories
  • Export data to CSV
  • Local data storage
Features
Read full description

Expense makes tracking money easy and intuitive. • Simple and beautiful line chart • Fast expense tracking, enter amount and select a category, that’s it • Track where your money is going in monthly view • Export to CSV for further processing • Customize categories in settings • All of your data are stored locally and are not available to us

About

AJournal

This app combines digital planning with the tactile feel of handwriting. Organize your days, weeks, and months, set goals, and track habits using Apple Pencil or your finger. Choose from numerous templates or create your own custom layouts.

Highlights
  • Handwriting and text input
  • Digital calendar integration
  • Over 100 customizable templates
  • Sticker library and custom stickers
  • Reminders integration
  • PDF export and iCloud sync
Features
Read full description

AJournal is the all-in-one digital planner built around handwriting and your calendar. Use Apple Pencil to plan, journal, and reflect on pages where events from any connected calendar appear right alongside your notes. Choose from 100+ fully customizable templates or design your own to fit exactly how you think. Combine the mindfulness of handwriting with powerful organization tools — plan days, weeks, and months, set goals, and track habits, projects, and progress, all in one place. SUPPORTS HANDWRITING, TEXT & IMAGES - Write/draw with Apple Pencil or finger - Text input with Scribble or keyboard, with complete formatting support like fonts, colors, etc - Save links to a website or another planner page - Add images and resize, rotate, or object crop - Choose among over 2500 stickers to make your journal/planner fun and personal - Save your own images as stickers for easier access DIGITAL CALENDARS - Connect any digital calendar so all events will show up in daily/weekly planners - Write/Scribble/Type alongside the events from the digital calendars REMINDERS - Apple Reminders are integrated into daily planners STAY ORGANIZED - Navigate effortlessly through journals/planners by dates, weeks, months, and projects - Search function for inputted texts makes it easier to find a journal/planner OVER 100 TEMPLATES TO CHOOSE FROM & FULL CUSTOMIZATION - Over 100 templates with minimalist design and cover every need: daily/weekly/monthly planners, project planners, finance planners, meal/fitness/habit trackers, ATracker, etc - The templates are fully customizable, simply add/remove/rearrange/configure elements and set colors/headers - Personalize a page with your writing/drawing and save it as a template Aesthetic Backgrounds & Color Themes - Choose from over 100 backgrounds with different textures, styles, and seasonal themes. - Select from various tints and foregrounds. INTEGRATION WITH ATRACKER (OPTIONAL) - With over 2 million downloads, ATracker is a time tracking tool trusted by users worldwide. - Combined with task/goal tracking in ATracker, you can follow up on your progress in AJournal in real time. EXPORT & BACKUP - Export your journals/planner as PDFs to read in other tools or for keepsake - Create backups to keep your data safe SPLIT VIEW & SLIDE OVER ICLOUD SYNC - You can now use AJournal on your iPhone - AJournal data can be synced via iCloud (Active subscription needed) SUBSCRIPTION AJournal supports unlimited pages per day/week/month/year and projects with a subscription. This add-on is optional. • AJournal subscriptions purchased in-app renew monthly or yearly, depending on your plan. Plan pricing may vary by country. • Payment will be charged to iTunes Account at confirmation of purchase • Subscription automatically renews unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24-hours before the end of the current period Users can try out AJournal without any limitation with a 7-day free trial. SUPPORT Visit http://Ajournal.pro or contact us at support@Ajournal.pro. Terms of Service: http://Ajournal.pro/TOS.html Privacy Policy: http://Ajournal.pro/policy.html AJournal - Organize your thoughts, keep track of your goals

Screenshots

Expense3 screens
AJournal4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Expense at none against AJournal's 2. Expense also leads on ads (none vs shown) and review sentiment (97% vs 77%). AJournal's advantage is update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 6 months) and ratings volume (5.3K vs 112). On price, rating, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. AJournal sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Expense asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for Expense against 4.7 for AJournal. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: AJournal has 5.3K ratings behind it against 112, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 97% of Expense's written reviews are positive against 77% of AJournal's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Expense ships an update every 6 months, AJournal every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 8, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Expense versus AJournal: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterExpenseAJournal
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (112 ratings) — better4.7 (5.3K ratings)
Positive reviews97.1% of reviews — better76.6% of reviews
Number of ratings1125.3K — better
Update frequencyEvery 6 monthsEvery 3 weeks — better
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad — better
Requires iOS17.016.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size4 MB120 MB
Age rating4++4
DeveloperShan CaoWonderApps AB

Customer experience

Expense

All ratings112 ratings
Positive96.4%
Neutral2.7%
Negative0.9%
Written reviews69 reviews
Positive97.1%
Neutral2.9%
Negative0.0%

AJournal

All ratings5,338 ratings
Positive92.0%
Neutral3.3%
Negative4.6%
Written reviews531 reviews
Positive76.6%
Neutral10.5%
Negative12.8%

User reviews

Expense

From 112 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Extremely simple and easy to use
  • 🚀 Fast and efficient expense tracking
  • ✨ Clean and minimalistic interface
  • 🆓 Free to use with no ads
  • 💡 Intuitive GUI

Room to improve

  • 💡 Lacks search functionality
  • 💡 No recurring expense option
  • 💡 Limited category icon selection
  • 💡 No subcategories
  • 💡 Currency display can be odd

AJournal

From 5.3K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Great integration with calendar and reminders
  • 👍 Highly customizable templates
  • ✨ Ability to create own templates
  • 💡 Combination of digital and handwritten planning
  • 🎨 Variety of stickers and colors

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Sync issues between devices
  • 🔒 Requires subscription for full functionality
  • 📱 No iPhone app, only iPad
  • 🖋️ Limited handwriting tools compared to other apps
  • 🔍 Difficult to find some features or settings

Bugs and requests

Expense

Reported bugs

2 issues
  • Currency display issues
  • No visible way to delete entries (user reported)

Requested features

28 requests
  • Search functionality
  • Increased list of category icons
  • Ability to use Emojis as category icons
  • Set a recurring expense
  • Add a 'memo' or text field for notes
Show 23 more
  • Search function
  • New icons for categories
  • Option to add a 'sim' if money and it to tell me how much is left (per diem)
  • Read from/write to the app with Shortcuts
  • Annual summary feature
  • Online help or FAQ in settings
  • Exporting to select week or month
  • Better category icons
  • Subcategories
  • Currency format tweaks
  • Total cost row/cell for exporting
  • Home screen widget
  • Currency symbol (auto-set)
  • Password protection
  • Custom image option for categories
  • Organize by week or bi-weekly
  • Year-end summary
  • Filter process for month/year outlook within the app
  • Configure file export layout
  • Auto-backup via iCloud
  • Add button closer to screen edges
  • iPad & Mac version
  • iCloud sync

AJournal

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Text boxes sometimes lose formatting or disappear
  • Occasional crashes when switching between views
  • Syncing issues causing data loss

Requested features

7 requests
  • Add PDF support
  • Improve handwriting recognition and tools
  • Implement iCloud sync
  • Develop iPhone app version
  • Add more customization options for templates
Show 2 more
  • Improve search functionality for handwritten notes
  • Provide option for one-time purchase instead of subscription

In-app purchases

None

Expense

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

AJournal

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly subscription7 Days trial$2.991 Month
  • Yearly subscription7 Days trial$26.991 Year

Questions

Is Expense free?
Expense is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is AJournal free?
AJournal is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Expense or AJournal?
Expense is rated higher. Expense averages 4.8 out of 5 from 112 ratings, while AJournal averages 4.7 from 5.3K ratings.
Do Expense or AJournal have ads?
AJournal shows ads; Expense does not.
Which is updated more often, Expense or AJournal?
Expense ships an update every 6 months, and AJournal every 3 weeks. Most recently, Expense was updated on November 1, 2026 and AJournal on November 8, 2026.

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