Comparison

Gem vs Surplus

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

Head to head
About

Gem

Track your spending, manage budgets, and organize your finances with this comprehensive money management tool. It offers detailed budgeting options, expense organization by category, and bill tracking. Automate entries with Apple Pay and import/export data for a complete financial overview.

Highlights
  • Budgeting (daily, weekly, monthly, yearly)
  • Expense organization by category
  • Bill tracking and reminders
  • Savings goals and income tracking
  • Apple Pay integration for instant recording
  • CSV import/export
  • Customizable categories with icons
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

Log expenses and stay on budget. No subscription. In-app purchases are tips :) BUDGET - Daily, weekly, monthly and yearly - Average & daily spending, breakdown by category - Compare against same day last month - Rearrange your budgets, and other lists - Explore your costs and salary over time ORGANIZE - By category, budget, wallet, account, tag… - Customize category colors & icons (500+ from Apple) - Favorite accounts, custom sorting, merge categories - Add attachments and receipts BILLS - Repeat: day, week, month, year - View paid & upcoming subscriptions MONEY TOOLS - Savings goals, income, transfers, balance - Multiple currencies, exchange rates - Calculator & journal view WALLET SYNC & AUTOMATIONS - Instant recording when paying in store with Apple Pay (requires setup) - Auto-organize expensesbased on merchant names - App shortcuts and “Send to Gem” in share sheet - Import CSV files, sub-categories, notes. Import into specific wallet. Skip duplicates when importing - Export everything MORE - Customize the way your create entries - Widgets. Lock Screen shortcut - Daily iCloud backup - Daily reminders - Custom main screen, list layouts, app menu and theme - Insights in search results PREVIEW FEATURES May not work as expected :) - Type “Rent” → it’s categorized in “Household” - Detect receipt prices from attachments Need help? Have a suggestion? Email me at human@shelftwo.com. Terms & privacy: shelftwo.com/gem/terms

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

Gem4 screens
Surplus4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Surplus at Free against Gem's $0.49. Surplus also leads on device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 18.6). Gem's advantage is chart position (#30 vs unranked) and ratings volume (89 vs 27). On rating, review sentiment, update cadence and ads 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

Surplus is free to download; Gem costs $0.49 up front. Gem sells 4 one-off in-app purchases 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 — 4.8 for Gem against 4.8 for Surplus. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 89 and 27 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 88% of Gem's written reviews are positive against 83% of Surplus's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Gem ships an update every 4 weeks, Surplus monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 19, 2026 and October 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
Gem versus Surplus: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterGemSurplus
Price$0.49Free — better
Rating4.8 (89 ratings)4.8 (27 ratings)
Positive reviews87.9% of reviews — better83.3% of reviews
Number of ratings89 — better27
Update frequencyEvery 4 weeks — betterMonthly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#30 — better—
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS18.615.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size42 MB67 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperOz PinhasDev Harvest LLC

Customer experience

Gem

All ratings89 ratings
Positive93.3%
Neutral2.2%
Negative4.5%
Written reviews140 reviews
Positive87.9%
Neutral4.3%
Negative7.9%

Surplus

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

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Gem

One-time4
  • Gem PowerpackFree
  • Thanks tip$0.99
  • Amazing tip$2.99
Show 1 more
  • Spectacular tip$4.99
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 Gem free?
Gem costs $0.49, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is Surplus free?
Surplus is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Gem or Surplus?
Gem and Surplus are both rated 4.8 out of 5 on the App Store, from 89 and 27 ratings respectively.
Do Gem or Surplus have ads?
Neither Gem nor Surplus shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Gem or Surplus?
Gem ships an update every 4 weeks, and Surplus monthly. Most recently, Gem was updated on October 19, 2026 and Surplus on October 5, 2026.

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