Comparison

Emma vs Surplus

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

Head to head
About

Emma

Consolidate all your financial accounts in one place to track spending, manage subscriptions, and set budgets. Receive weekly reports, daily balance notifications, and overdraft alerts. Offers bank-level security with SSL encryption and biometric authentication.

Highlights
  • Consolidate all accounts
  • Track subscriptions
  • Set budgets
  • Weekly spending reports
  • Overdraft alerts
  • Bank-level security
Features
Read full description

Meet Emma, your financial super app ● All your accounts in one place ● Find and track your subscriptions ● Set budgets ● Weekly reports ● Analyze your spending & expenses ● Daily balance notifications ● Overdraft alerts BANK LEVEL SECURITY Worried about sharing your data? We hear you. ● Emma uses SSL 256-bit encryption - the same security protocol that banks use - to ensure that your sensitive, personal information is fully encrypted and securely stored. ● Emma uses biometric security authentication for an added level of protection. CUSTOMER REVIEWS “This app is amazing! I used to manually track my expenses using a notepad or a spreadsheet but always used to make mistakes and never found time to update it. This fixes all my budgeting issues and saves me so much time as well as money!” Sarah “I love the fact that I can do everything within this one app. I mainly use it for tracking my expenses but have also started using it to instantly send/receive payments which makes things super easy. Also, the money I’ve saved from using this app is used to invest in my favorite companies using the investment feature!” Mike OUR MISSION We believe everyone deserves a financial advocate to help with money management and budgeting. Someone who watches our back no matter who we are and where we come from. We provide a great experience, which relies on a basic principle - caring about our customers’ financial well being. This is who we are and what we stand for. We have received amazing feedback from the finance community and have been featured in Forbes, Financial Times, Politico, The Sunday Times and CITY A.M. MORE FEATURES? GO PLUS, PRO OR ULTIMATE We have 3 subscription upgrades available in Emma to power charge your finances. Here’s what is available in each subscription upgrade: Emma Plus True Balance - preemptively see the balance of your bank account after your subscriptions are removed Fraud Detection - find out whether your personal details have been part of a known data breach Bill Reminders - get reminded about your upcoming bills so you never miss a payment Cashback - get cashback from your favorite brands Emma Pro All the features in Emma Plus Custom categories - so you can customize your finances to your heart's content Rename transactions - for easier reference Export data - to understand your finances on excel Create Offline Accounts - to manage your cash expenses and any accounts you can’t link to Emma Create Smart Rules - to automate your Offline Accounts. Look, no hands! Split your transactions - into multiple categories for more flexibility Legendary Pro Icon - because you are a Pro Emma Ultimate All the features in Emma Plus & Pro Spaces - group together different accounts to see separated analytics and budgets Ultimate Icon - so you can show them who's boss ----------------------------------- If you choose to purchase Emma Plus, Emma Pro or Emma Ultimate, payment will be charged to your iTunes account, and your account will be charged for renewal within 24-hours prior to the end of the current period. Subscription automatically renews unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24-hours before the end of the current period. Subscriptions are managed by the user and auto-renewal may be turned off by going to the user's Apple ID. Emma subscription prices start at $4.99 CAD/USD/month with 1-month and 12-month packages available. Prices are subject to change without notice. No cancellation of the current subscription is allowed during the active subscription period. If you don’t choose to purchase Emma Plus, Emma or Emma Ultimate, you can simply continue using Emma for free. Emma Technologies LTD is registered with the Financial Conduct Authority under the Payment Services Regulations 2017 for the provision of payment services. Reference no. 794952 Company Registration Number: 10578464. Terms and Conditions: https://emma-app.com/terms Privacy Policy: https://emma-app.com/privacy

About

Surplus

This app helps you manage your monthly finances by tracking income, expenses, and upcoming payments. It provides insights into your spending habits, categorizes transactions, and offers customizable reports. Sync your accounts automatically or manually for a clear overview of your leftover spend.

Highlights
  • Monthly income and expense tracking
  • Categorization of spending
  • Customizable reports with CSV export
  • Transaction grouping
  • Home and lock screen widgets
  • Automation via Shortcuts app
Features
Read full description

Surplus is a monthly expense tracker that takes into account your monthly income, expenses and upcoming payments to provide you with a clear overview of your leftover spend. -- Spend Wisely -- Know how much you have left to spend, including your subscriptions and installments. -- Profile Your Spend -- Categorize your expenses into meaningful groups that drive insights into your spend profile. This can include popular budgeting methods such as the “50/30/20 budget rule” or the “80/20 budget rule”. -- Adaptable Workflows -- Manual or automatic, easily sync and categorize transactions from all your accounts. -- Transaction Collections -- Group related transactions across buckets and time. They can be themed around trips, shared expenses or anything you'd like! -- Widgets -- Customize your home and lock screens with widgets that showcase your leftover spend, upcoming transactions and buckets. -- Interactive Reports -- Customizable reports for your historic and upcoming spend with support for CSV Export. -- Shortcuts -- Automate your expense tracking with actions configurable via the Shortcuts app. Examples include triggering an expense entry when leaving your favorite coffee shop or scheduling spend summaries on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. Actions can be run via Siri, Apple Watch and the Shortcuts app. -- Privately Synced with iCloud -- All financial data is stored on your device(s) and synced privately via your iCloud Account. We do not store any personal information or transaction data on our servers. Surplus is free to use with pro features that can be activated via in-app purchases. Surplus Pro can be purchased as a one time payment or as a recurring subscription. Current pricing and purchase offers are available in the app. By downloading and using Surplus you agree to our terms and conditions: Terms of Use https://surplus.app/terms Privacy Policy https://surplus.app/privacy Surplus is an indie app developed and maintained by Omar Inam. If you have any questions or feedback please feel free to contact me through Twitter @_oinam

Screenshots

Emma4 screens
Surplus4 screens

Verdict

The call

Emma and Surplus both sit at 4.7 stars, but that hides the real split: 83% of Surplus's written reviews are positive against 38% of Emma's. Surplus also leads on ads (none vs shown). Emma's advantage is update cadence (every 6 days vs monthly) and ratings volume (1.4K vs 27). On price, rating, in-app purchases and monetization model 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. Emma sells 8 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and Surplus sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for Emma against 4.8 for Surplus. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Emma has 1.4K ratings behind it against 27, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 38% of Emma's written reviews are positive against 83% of Surplus's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Emma ships an update every 6 days, Surplus monthly. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and June 4, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Emma versus Surplus: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterEmmaSurplus
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (1.4K ratings)4.8 (27 ratings) — better
Positive reviews38.4% of reviews83.3% of reviews — better
Number of ratings1.4K — better27
Update frequencyEvery 6 days — betterMonthly
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.115.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size165 MB67 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperEmma Technologies LTD.Dev Harvest LLC

Customer experience

Emma

All ratings1,409 ratings
Positive92.5%
Neutral1.4%
Negative6.0%
Written reviews674 reviews
Positive38.4%
Neutral8.9%
Negative52.7%

Surplus

All ratings27 ratings
Positive96.3%
Neutral3.7%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews6 reviews
Positive83.3%
Neutral16.7%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Emma

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • App crashes or freezes frequently
  • Transactions not syncing properly or showing incorrect balances
  • Issues connecting to certain bank accounts
  • Recurring payments not being tracked accurately

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add support for more banks and financial institutions
  • Improve budgeting features with better categorization and goal-setting
  • Provide more customization options for categories and reporting
  • Integrate with investment accounts and track net worth
  • Offer a more affordable pricing model or free tier with core features

Surplus

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

8 purchases

Emma

Subscriptions8
  • Emma Plus Monthly7 Days trial$4.991 Month
  • Emma Pro Monthly7 Days trial$9.991 Month
  • Monthly Pro Subscription7 Days trial$9.991 Month
Show 5 more
  • Emma Pro7 Days trial2 variants$9.991 Month
  • Emma Ultimate7 Days trial$14.991 Month
  • Emma Plus Yearly7 Days trial$41.991 Year
  • Emma Pro7 Days trial2 variants$83.991 Year
  • Subscription7 Days trial$83.991 Year
4 purchases

Surplus

Subscriptions3
  • Surplus Pro Monthly$3.991 Month
  • Surplus Pro Yearly$14.491 Year
  • Surplus Pro Yearly$29.991 Year
One-time1
  • Surplus Pro Lifetime$29.99

Questions

Is Emma free?
Emma is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Surplus free?
Surplus is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Emma or Surplus?
Surplus is rated higher. Emma averages 4.7 out of 5 from 1.4K ratings, while Surplus averages 4.8 from 27 ratings.
Do Emma or Surplus have ads?
Emma shows ads; Surplus does not.
Which is updated more often, Emma or Surplus?
Emma ships an update every 6 days, and Surplus monthly. Most recently, Emma was updated on September 24, 2026 and Surplus on June 4, 2026.

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