Monthly Spending Tracker vs RealBudget
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Monthly Spending Tracker
This personal finance app helps you monitor your monthly expenditures. Record transactions, categorize expenses, and set spending limits to stay within your budget. View past spending and generate expense reports.
- Track monthly spending
- Categorize expenses
- Set monthly budget limits
- Receive budget warnings
- View transactions by month
- Generate expense reports
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Monthly Spending Tracker is a personal finance app that helps you track your monthly spending habits. Whenever you spend money, enter the transaction into monthly spending tracker. The app records the transaction, the category (what type of expense it is), the date and the payee. With Monthly Spending Tracker, staying within your monthly budget is simple. The app allows you to set a monthly spending limit, and will warn you when your spending reaches your budget. You can also view all of your transactions by month, and even print out monthly expense reports.
RealBudget
Manage your money effectively with a digital envelope budgeting system. This app allows you to create custom envelopes, track expenses, and gain full control over your finances. It offers features like bank syncing and budget sharing to simplify your financial management.
- Digital envelope budgeting
- Custom budget periods
- Budget sharing
- Bank transaction syncing
- Flexible rollover options
- Persistent savings envelopes
- Cross-device access
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RealBudget helps you organize your money with envelope budgeting in a clean, modern, and intuitive way. Create digital envelopes for your spending categories, track expenses, and always know what’s available to spend. Whether you prefer manual budgeting or automatic bank imports, RealBudget makes it simple to stay organized and in control. Key Features: • Create envelopes for groceries, dining, bills, savings, and more • Know exactly what’s left to spend in each category • Flexible budget periods — monthly, weekly, bi-weekly, quarterly, yearly, and more • Automatic bank transaction imports* • Helpful spending estimates based on past transactions* • Share budgets with family or partners in real time* • Carry over leftover funds between budget periods • Savings envelopes for long-term goals • Export budget data to CSV • Access your budget across mobile devices and the web* • Clean, simple, and distraction-free design RealBudget is free to use on a single mobile device and on the web. Upgrade anytime with RealBudget Premium: Share Tier — $3/month USD • Share budgets in real time • Access budgets across multiple mobile devices Sync Tier — $10/month USD • Everything included in Share • Automatic bank transaction imports • Spending estimates based on past transactions • 30-day free trial for first-time subscribers *Bank sync currently available in the US & Canada. Start envelope budgeting with RealBudget today. See the following link for the end user license agreement (EULA) https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: RealBudget at none against Monthly Spending Tracker's shown. RealBudget also leads on update cadence (fortnightly vs every 18 months) and ratings volume (138 vs 3). 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
Both are free to download. Monthly Spending Tracker sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and RealBudget sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Monthly Spending Tracker against 4.9 for RealBudget. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: RealBudget has 138 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Monthly Spending Tracker ships an update every 18 months, RealBudget fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on November 11, 2026 and November 12, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Monthly Spending Tracker | RealBudget |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (3 ratings) — better | 4.9 (138 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | — | 94.6% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 3 | 138 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 18 months | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.6 | 15.6 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 7 MB | 89 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Brandon Stecklein | Limitless Innovative Technologies |
Customer experience
Monthly Spending Tracker
RealBudget
Bugs and requests
Monthly Spending Tracker
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
RealBudget
Reported bugs
3 issues- Too many glitches to deal with
- Cannot budget for future budgets
- Savings budget messes up monthly budget
Requested features
6 requests- Ability to see notes at a glance
- Duplicate budget button or master budget option
- Ability to share budget
- Ability to split transactions
- Option to approve money withdrawal visualization
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- Visual deposit animation
In-app purchases
Monthly Spending Tracker
- Spending Tracker Premium$2.99
RealBudget
- Premium1 Month trial$2.991 Month
- Premium14 Days trial$2.991 Month
- Sync1 Month trial$9.991 Month
- Tip$1.99
- Tip$3.99
- Tip$4.99
Show 4 moreShow fewer
- Tip$5.99
- Tip$7.99
- Tip$8.99
- Tip$9.99
Questions
Is Monthly Spending Tracker free?
Is RealBudget free?
Which has better reviews, Monthly Spending Tracker or RealBudget?
Do Monthly Spending Tracker or RealBudget have ads?
Which is updated more often, Monthly Spending Tracker or RealBudget?
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