Comparison

HomeBudget Lite (w/ Sync) vs Budgets

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

Head to head
About

HomeBudget Lite (w/ Sync)

Track expenses, income, and bills with integrated budgeting and account balance management. Features family sync for multiple devices and detailed reports with charts and graphs.

Highlights
  • Expense and income tracking
  • Bill management and reminders
  • Budgeting by category
  • Account balance tracking
  • Family sync across devices
  • Expense reports and charts
  • Receipt photo attachment
Features
Read full description

Lite version of the HomeBudget software, which is available as a paid application. Limited to 20 expense entries and 10 income entries. -- HomeBudget is an integrated expense tracker designed to help you track your expenses, income, bills-due and account balances. It offers support for budgeting, and allows analysis of your expenses and income, including charts and graphs. Two key differentiating features of HomeBudget are: 1. Integrated set of features. The features within HomeBudget are well integrated such that a bill can become an expense (when you pay for it) and also adjust the account balance at the same time. 2. Family sync. HomeBudget includes Family Sync, an advanced feature that allows a group of devices within the household to exchange expense and income information, and work together within a single budget. Once setup, the devices sync with each other automatically over the air. Family Sync works across all features including Bills and Accounts. Please refer to the Family Sync Quick Start guide at http://www.anishu.com for information on configuring Family Sync. KEY FEATURES: Expenses: - Create/Edit/Delete expenses and recurring expenses - Browse expense entries by month, by category/date with the ability to drill-down - Optionally associate an account and payee with an expense - Attach photo images of receipts; drag and resize images on screen - Support for multiple currencies and automatic exchange rate conversion - Search expense entries Income: - Create/Edit/Delete income and recurring income - Optionally associate an account with the income Bills - Create/Edit/Delete bills and recurring bills - Support for Payees, and track payments by Payee. - Make payment on bills either an as expense or as a transfer (to avoid double accounting your expenses) - Calendar and list view of Bills - Bill reminders Categories and Budget - Create/Edit/Delete expense categories and sub-categories - Set a budget, and track expenses at the category/sub-category level. - Associate icons with the categories and reorder category display order - Budget rollover - Classify expenses into fixed, variable and discretionary and compute your disposable income Accounts - Support for Accounts such as Checking, Savings, Credit, Debit, Cash, etc. - Associate your expense and income entries with your accounts and accurately track account balances. - View transactions, and do transfer between accounts. - Ability to choose a different base currency for each account Reports - Trend chart for Expense, Budget and Income for the last 6 months - Pie/Bar charts for expense break-down (Available in the Expenses screen). - Export data/reports by email or via WiFi Family Sync - Automatically sync multiple devices (iPhone, iPad, iTouch) in the household and see the same numbers on all devices over 3G and WiFi - Work within the same budget with other members of the household Other - Backup/Restore complete application data, including all receipts - Choice of color schemes: blue, iOS, orange - Ability to upload your own list of category icons - Large numeric keypad for expense/income data entry with decimal point placement automatic for your locale/region - HomeBudget follows the locale/region setting on your device and shows date and currency symbols appropriate for your region Visit http://www.anishu.com to see more screenshots, and to download the user guide (PDF, 42 pages).

About

Budgets

Easily manage your finances by setting up budgets, tracking spending, and syncing with your bank accounts. Prioritize savings and stay out of debt with tools to monitor your balances and transfer funds between budgets.

Highlights
  • Setup budgets quickly
  • Sync with bank accounts
  • Track budget balances
  • Transfer balance between budgets
  • Access on mobile and web
  • Secure data encryption
Features
Read full description

Your money is moving. See where it’s going and what you could do differently. Budgets brings your spending, bills, and monthly plan together so you can make everyday money decisions with a clearer picture. Understand what’s already spoken for, find spending you could adjust, and make room for what matters to you. START WITH YOUR REAL LIFE Connect your bank and credit card accounts to build a starting plan from your income and spending. Review the suggestions and make them yours. You have something real to work from, instead of a blank budget. SEE WHERE YOUR MONEY GOES Bring transactions together, organize them into categories, and see how your spending compares with your plan. From groceries to dining out, get a clearer view of the choices adding up throughout the month. FIND ROOM FOR WHAT MATTERS Look at your everyday spending and recurring charges to decide what you want to keep and what you could change. Put those choices into a plan that reflects your priorities whether that’s a future trip, a savings cushion, or more room for everyday life. KEEP UPCOMING BILLS IN VIEW With enough account history, Budgets can identify recurring paychecks, bills, and subscriptions. See expected charges alongside your spending so they’re part of the picture when you plan. KEEP YOUR PLAN CURRENT Connected accounts bring in new transactions as they become available. Review your activity and adjust your plan as life changes. Prefer to start manually? Add custom accounts and build your own budget. Connected accounts are read-only. Budgets never moves your money. You decide what changes. Spend well. Save what matters.

Screenshots

HomeBudget Lite (w/ Sync)4 screens
Budgets4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Budgets at 100% against HomeBudget Lite (w/ Sync)'s 55%. Budgets also leads on rating (5.0 vs 3.3). HomeBudget Lite (w/ Sync)'s advantage is update cadence (fortnightly vs every 3 months). On price, ratings volume, 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Budgets holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 27 and 10 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 55% of HomeBudget Lite (w/ Sync)'s written reviews are positive against 100% of Budgets's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

HomeBudget Lite (w/ Sync) ships an update fortnightly, Budgets every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
HomeBudget Lite (w/ Sync) versus Budgets: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHomeBudget Lite (w/ Sync)Budgets
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.3 (27 ratings)5.0 (10 ratings) — better
Positive reviews55.3% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings27 — better10
Update frequencyFortnightly — betterEvery 3 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.615.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size17 MB7 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAnishu, Inc.Derek Wene

Customer experience

HomeBudget Lite (w/ Sync)

All ratings27 ratings
Positive55.6%
Neutral7.4%
Negative37.0%
Written reviews541 reviews
Positive55.3%
Neutral11.6%
Negative33.1%

Budgets

All ratings10 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews5 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

HomeBudget Lite (w/ Sync)

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Recurring expenses/income not working properly
  • Crashes when trying to restore from Dropbox backup
  • Unable to edit or delete existing entries

Requested features

5 requests
  • Add ability to change budget period (weekly, monthly, etc.)
  • Improve recurring expense/income handling
  • Integrate with bank accounts for automatic transaction import
  • Provide more detailed reporting and analytics
  • Allow custom icons and categories

Budgets

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

HomeBudget Lite (w/ Sync)

No in-app purchases

None

Budgets

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is HomeBudget Lite (w/ Sync) free?
HomeBudget Lite (w/ Sync) is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Budgets free?
Budgets is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, HomeBudget Lite (w/ Sync) or Budgets?
Budgets is rated higher. HomeBudget Lite (w/ Sync) averages 3.3 out of 5 from 27 ratings, while Budgets averages 5.0 from 10 ratings.
Do HomeBudget Lite (w/ Sync) or Budgets have ads?
Neither HomeBudget Lite (w/ Sync) nor Budgets shows ads.
Which is updated more often, HomeBudget Lite (w/ Sync) or Budgets?
HomeBudget Lite (w/ Sync) ships an update fortnightly, and Budgets every 3 months. Most recently, HomeBudget Lite (w/ Sync) was updated on October 21, 2026 and Budgets on October 7, 2026.

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