Comparison

Surplus vs Tabs

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

Tabs

Effortlessly split expenses with friends for any group activity, from trips to dinners. Simply scan receipts, assign items, and let the app calculate who owes what, handling taxes and tips automatically. Track balances, record payments, and settle up with ease.

Highlights
  • Receipt scanning for itemized entry
  • Automatic calculation of shares
  • Support for uneven splits
  • Handles taxes, tips, and discounts
  • Multi-currency support for travel
  • Real-time balance tracking
  • Payment recording and settlement
Features
Read full description

Tabs makes splitting money with your friends effortless Trips, roommates, dinners, group gifts, anything you share. Snap the receipt, assign who had what, and Tabs does the math to the cent. Scan, Don't Type • Photograph a receipt and Tabs reads the items for you • Review, assign, and save in seconds Split It Any Way • Split a bill equally in one tap • Or go itemized, assign each item to the people who shared it • Uneven splits made simple: someone had more? Bump their share and the amounts follow automatically • Tax, tip, fees, and discounts handled for you Built For Travel • Log expenses in any currency • Balances stay in your group's currency, converted at daily reference rates you can adjust • Made for trips abroad with friends Always Know Where You Stand • See who owes who at a glance • Track group spending over time with clear charts • Record payments and settle up in a tap Keep a Record • Export any tab as a CSV or PDF • Clean statements for reimbursements, expense reports, or your own files Sign in with your phone number and start a tab in seconds. Light and dark mode included. Start free. Upgrade to Tabs Pro for unlimited tabs and more receipt scans every month. Tabs Pro is an auto-renewing subscription (monthly or annual with a free trial), plus an optional one-time lifetime purchase. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation. Subscriptions renew automatically unless canceled at least 24 hours before the period ends; manage or cancel anytime in your App Store settings. Terms: https://tabs.page/terms Privacy: https://tabs.page/privacy

Screenshots

Surplus4 screens
Tabs4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Tabs at every 9 days against Surplus's monthly. Tabs also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 83%). Surplus's advantage is device support (3 vs 1) and ratings volume (28 vs 9). On price, rating, 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. Surplus sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month and Tabs sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Tabs holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.8. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 28 and 9 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 83% of Surplus's written reviews are positive against 100% of Tabs's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Surplus ships an update monthly, Tabs every 9 days. The most recent releases landed on October 22, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Surplus versus Tabs: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSurplusTabs
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (28 ratings)5.0 (9 ratings) — better
Positive reviews83.3% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings28 — better9
Update frequencyMonthlyEvery 9 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size67 MB33 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperDev Harvest LLCt19a

Customer experience

Surplus

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

Tabs

All ratings9 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews8 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

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
3 purchases

Tabs

Subscriptions2
  • Pro Monthly$4.991 Month
  • Pro Annual14 Days trial$29.991 Year
One-time1
  • Pro Lifetime$79.99

Questions

Is Surplus free?
Surplus is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Tabs free?
Tabs is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Surplus or Tabs?
Tabs is rated higher. Surplus averages 4.8 out of 5 from 28 ratings, while Tabs averages 5.0 from 9 ratings.
Do Surplus or Tabs have ads?
Neither Surplus nor Tabs shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Surplus or Tabs?
Surplus ships an update monthly, and Tabs every 9 days. Most recently, Surplus was updated on October 22, 2026 and Tabs on October 14, 2026.

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