Comparison

Simple Budget Planner vs Wave Budget

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

Head to head
About

Simple Budget Planner

Manage your money effortlessly with this intuitive app. Track income and expenses, utilize the envelope system for category budgeting, and set savings goals. Automate recurring transactions and gain insights into your spending habits.

Highlights
  • Expense and income tracking
  • Envelope budgeting system
  • Savings goal setting
  • Scheduled transactions
  • Income and expense statistics
  • Customizable budgets and categories
Features
Read full description

Simple Budget Planner is a calm, manual budget for you and your household. No bank login, no connected accounts, nothing automatic happening behind your back: you write down what you spend, and you always know what's left. PLAN YOUR MONTH • Give every category a budget, envelope-style, and see what's left at a glance • Bills and recurring payments are added for you and count before they arrive, so "left to spend" is honest • Monthly from your payday, weekly, or every 2 or 4 weeks • A "Left to spend" widget for your Home Screen and Lock Screen, with amounts you can hide TRACK IN SECONDS • Add an expense in three taps with the quick keypad • Edit anything in place, move entries between categories, undo a delete • Search, filter and sort by date or by due date SAVE ON PURPOSE • Savings goals with contributions and progress • Money set aside is shown separately, never counted as spending SHARE WITH YOUR HOUSEHOLD • Invite your partner or family to the same budget • Everyone sees the same numbers, on their own iPhone or iPad SEE WHERE IT GOES • Clear spending and income insights by category • Money in against spent over the last 6 months • Look back over any dates: a whole year, the last 3 months or your own range, with every entry in one list • Every chart has a text summary and a table view YOURS TO KEEP • Export everything to CSV at any time, on every plan • Works offline and syncs when you're back online • Your data is never sold and never used for ads • On iPhone and iPad, with two columns on the bigger screen PREMIUM Simple Budget Planner is free to download and use. The free plan includes 40 entries for your household, and every feature. Premium is an optional auto-renewing subscription that removes the entry limit. One subscription covers your household through Family Sharing. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. The subscription renews automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. You can manage or cancel it in your App Store account settings. Any unused part of a free trial is forfeited when you buy a subscription. Terms of Use: https://sbp.sh/terms Privacy Policy: https://sbp.sh/privacy

About

Wave Budget

Easily set up a monthly budget and monitor your spending to understand your remaining funds. Its minimalist design ensures quick and efficient financial management. Connect with your Apple ID for seamless cross-device synchronization.

Highlights
  • Monthly budget setup
  • Expense tracking
  • Minimalist design
  • Cross-device sync via Apple ID
  • No login required
Features
Read full description

Save money with Wave Budget! Wave Budget helps you to set up a monthly budget and keep track of your expenses. This way, you always know how much there is left for you to spend. It sounds simple, and it is! This is, why the app has this minimalistic style. Budgeting should not take more time than necessary, the simple design of Wave Budget helps you with that. You can use Wave Budget without logging in, but we recommend connecting your account with your Apple ID. This way you can manage your budget on all your devices. The app uses the standard Apple End User License Agreement: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Simple Budget Planner4 screens
Wave Budget4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Wave Budget at 100% against Simple Budget Planner's 60%. Wave Budget also leads on rating (4.8 vs 4.4) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 17.0). Simple Budget Planner's advantage is ratings volume (283 vs 13). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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. Simple Budget Planner sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per 7 days and Wave Budget sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Wave Budget holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Simple Budget Planner has 283 ratings behind it against 13, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 60% of Simple Budget Planner's written reviews are positive against 100% of Wave Budget's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 26, 2026 and October 30, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Simple Budget Planner versus Wave Budget: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSimple Budget PlannerWave Budget
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.4 (283 ratings)4.8 (13 ratings) — better
Positive reviews59.6% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings283 — better13
Update frequencyFortnightlyFortnightly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.012.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size24 MB55 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMehmet CetinStefan Galler

Customer experience

Simple Budget Planner

All ratings283 ratings
Positive85.5%
Neutral7.8%
Negative6.7%
Written reviews52 reviews
Positive59.6%
Neutral9.6%
Negative30.8%

Wave Budget

All ratings12 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

Simple Budget Planner

Reported bugs

6 issues
  • Periodic transactions not recorded automatically
  • App freezes or becomes unusable after declining to rate
  • Glitching UI elements
  • Data export errors
  • Subscription sharing/family plan issues
Show 1 more
  • Screen size/balance partially hidden on some devices

Requested features

11 requests
  • Add dark mode option
  • Allow sorting expenses by due date
  • Add bi-weekly pay period option
  • Add weekly budget option
  • Improve screen resolution and UI scaling
Show 6 more
  • Add option to subtract budgeted items from income
  • Separate statistics for savings
  • Export data to CSV
  • More detail for periodic transactions
  • Pleasing icons or artwork
  • Option to sort accounts alphabetically

Wave Budget

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

5 purchases

Simple Budget Planner

Subscriptions4
  • Unlimited Weekly$1.997 Days
  • Unlimited Monthly$4.991 Month
  • Unlimited Annually14 Days trial$17.991 Year
Show 1 more
  • Unlimited Semiannually$24.996 Months
One-time1
  • Remove Ads$9.99
2 purchases

Wave Budget

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Subscription$0.991 Month
  • Yearly Subscription$9.491 Year

Questions

Is Simple Budget Planner free?
Simple Budget Planner is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Wave Budget free?
Wave Budget is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Simple Budget Planner or Wave Budget?
Wave Budget is rated higher. Simple Budget Planner averages 4.4 out of 5 from 283 ratings, while Wave Budget averages 4.8 from 13 ratings.
Do Simple Budget Planner or Wave Budget have ads?
Neither Simple Budget Planner nor Wave Budget shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Simple Budget Planner or Wave Budget?
Simple Budget Planner ships an update fortnightly, and Wave Budget fortnightly. Most recently, Simple Budget Planner was updated on October 26, 2026 and Wave Budget on October 30, 2026.

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