Comparison

Surplus vs Balance

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

Head to head
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

About

Balance

Manage all your financial accounts in one place with a clean, intuitive interface. Track expenses, create budgets, and generate detailed reports to gain insights into your spending habits. Securely sync your data across Apple devices via iCloud.

Highlights
  • All account tracking
  • iCloud sync across Apple devices
  • Quick expense entry
  • Advanced search and filtering
  • Customizable reports
  • Budget management
  • Scheduled and recurring transactions
Features
Read full description

All Accounts Keep financial records for all accounts in one place. iCloud Sync Use Balance on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, or Apple Vision Pro. Your data will sync automatically via iCloud, no need to create additional accounts. Thoughtful Design Clean and easy-to-use interface designed for quick expense entry. Buttons at the bottom of the screen, swipe gestures, and suggestions allow effortless on-the-go transaction recording. Advanced Search Quickly filter existing transactions based on type, amount, payees, categories, or tags without the need to create detailed reports. Detailed Reports Create highly customizable reports to get insight on what your money is being spent on and what you can optimize. Budgets Use budgets to control spendings in particular categories, tags, or accounts. Scheduled & Recurring Transactions Create scheduled and recurring transactions to avoid missing a payment. Privacy We don’t collect or store your personal data. All data is stored locally on the devices you use Balance on and is synced across devices using your personal iCloud account. There are no analytics or tracking frameworks used. Advanced Features • Reconciliation • Siri Shortcuts • Split Category Transactions • Batch Transaction Editing • Refund Transactions • CSV Export and Import • Automatic Backups • Face ID & Touch ID • Keyboard Shortcuts Subscription Details • Balance Pro is an optional subscription to unlock unlimited number of accounts, custom report filters, and support future development. • Balance Pro is available as monthly, quarterly, annual subscriptions or lifetime purchase. • Payment will be charged to your iTunes account at confirmation of purchase. • Your subscription will automatically renew unless auto-renew is disabled at least 24 hours before the end of the current subscription period. • Subscriptions can be managed or cancelled by going to Account Settings on the App Store after purchase. Terms of Service: https://blnc.co/termsofservice Privacy Policy: https://blnc.co/privacypolicy

Screenshots

Surplus4 screens
Balance4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: Surplus at 15.0 against Balance's 27.0. On price, rating, review sentiment and ratings volume 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. Surplus sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month and Balance sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 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 Surplus against 4.7 for Balance. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 28 and 17 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 83% of Surplus's written reviews are positive against 85% of Balance's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Surplus ships an update monthly, Balance every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and November 7, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
Surplus versus Balance: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSurplusBalance
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (28 ratings) — better4.7 (17 ratings)
Positive reviews83.3% of reviews84.6% of reviews — better
Number of ratings28 — better17
Update frequencyMonthlyEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, Mac, Vision Pro — better
Requires iOS15.0 — better27.0
Further details — not scored
Size67 MB54 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperDev Harvest LLCAnatoliy Gershman

Customer experience

Surplus

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

Balance

All ratings15 ratings
Positive93.3%
Neutral0.0%
Negative6.7%
Written reviews13 reviews
Positive84.6%
Neutral0.0%
Negative15.4%

In-app purchases

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
4 purchases

Balance

Subscriptions3
  • Monthly$1.991 Month
  • Quarterly$4.993 Months
  • Yearly1 Month trial$14.991 Year
One-time1
  • Lifetime$49.99

Questions

Is Surplus free?
Surplus is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Balance free?
Balance is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Surplus or Balance?
Surplus is rated higher. Surplus averages 4.8 out of 5 from 28 ratings, while Balance averages 4.7 from 17 ratings.
Do Surplus or Balance have ads?
Neither Surplus nor Balance shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Surplus or Balance?
Surplus ships an update monthly, and Balance every 2 weeks. Most recently, Surplus was updated on November 3, 2026 and Balance on November 7, 2026.

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