ClearCheckbook vs Balance Guide Lite
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
ClearCheckbook
Manage your personal finances on the go with this comprehensive tool. Track transactions, view balances, set budgets, and monitor bill payments. Securely syncs with your online account for access across all devices.
- View account balances and transaction history
- Add and edit transactions
- Organize accounts and categories
- Set budgets and reminders
- Track bill payments
- Project future balances
- Spending tracker
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ClearCheckbook is a powerful and easy-to-use financial management app that syncs seamlessly with your ClearCheckbook.com account. The app provides tools that help you manage your finances including: - Instantly view account balances and transaction history - Add and edit transactions on the go - Create and organize accounts and categories to fit your needs - Set budgets, reminders, and recurring transactions - Track your bill payments so you never miss paying a bill - Project future balances and use our spending tracker All your data is securely backed up and accessible across all of your devices via ClearCheckbook.com.
Balance Guide Lite
Easily manage your finances and plan your budget. This app helps you track your account balance, upcoming bills, and spending habits. It offers forecasting for future finances and allows for quick correction of your balance without needing to enter every transaction.
- Dark mode
- Recurring transaction setup
- Financial forecasting
- Pie charts and graphs
- Customizable categories
- PIN security
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HOW MUCH MONEY WILL YOU SAVE ? A guide to your account balance, simple to use and not aimed at accountants. Makes it easy to plan a budget and see the status of your account with upcoming bills and see where your money is going. With Balance Guide you can quickly setup your recurring bills and deposits and produce a forecast of your finances for the months ahead. Later, you don't have to worry about entering all your transactions from your bank statement with the added bonus that you can easily correct your balance at any time. FEATURES - Dark mode - NEW - Multiple Accounts, transfer between account (ONLY AVAILABLE ONCE UPGRADED) - Setup recurring transactions for forecasting - Forecast calendar (ONLY AVAILABLE ONCE UPGRADED) - Now includes optimisation for iPhone X, XR and XS Max. - Clear / light colour scheme - All accounts summary information (not available for iPhone 4s / ONLY AVAILABLE ONCE UPGRADED) - Pie charts / graphs to show your financial status - Backup / Restore with Dropbox (ONLY AVAILABLE ONCE UPGRADED) - Simple customisable of categories to group your transactions e.g. "Utility Bills" - Tutorial / walk through showing you how to get started - Help pages, if you need to read about functionality in more depth - Correct balance at any time, so you don't need to enter all your transactions - PIN security, to protect your information from prying eyes REVIEWS This App is so good! ***** Really easy to use, looked at loads of others, but this has all you need. Your income v outgoings and lets you know where you stand on a monthly basis! I will and do recommend! Great App. Excellent tool ! ***** I have been looking for a handy app to organise my finances for ages. This is simple to use & very helpful when planning ahead. Would highly recommend Checkout our Demo video - http://youtu.be/3NrxZE_yFag SUPPORT Balance Guide uses the default currency set on your device, so there’s no complicated setup / installation. If you need help there are several methods available. Firstly, the tutorial, which is a kind of walkthrough. There’s also helps pages, providing in depth information. How to ask questions and contact us - - Use the contact form via my website, I'm happy to help. - Follow the app on twitter http://twitter.com/BalanceGuideApp - Like the app on facebook https://www.facebook.com/balanceguideapp NOTE: I'm unable to respond to bug reports left in reviews. Each new version wipes out all old reviews so please take the time to leave a review for the new version. As it’s not possible to reply to reviews on the app store, please use the new feedback features to tell us what you think. You can also join our beta programme and gain access to new features early.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Balance Guide Lite at 88% against ClearCheckbook's 38%. Balance Guide Lite also leads on rating (4.2 vs 3.1) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 16.0). ClearCheckbook's advantage is update cadence (fortnightly vs every 5 months) and ratings volume (153 vs 12). On price, ads, 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. ClearCheckbook sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Balance Guide Lite sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Balance Guide Lite holds the better App Store score, 4.2 against 3.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: ClearCheckbook has 153 ratings behind it against 12, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 38% of ClearCheckbook's written reviews are positive against 88% of Balance Guide Lite's.
ClearCheckbook ships an update fortnightly, Balance Guide Lite every 5 months. The most recent releases landed on October 12, 2026 and October 1, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | ClearCheckbook | Balance Guide Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.1 (153 ratings) | 4.2 (12 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 37.5% of reviews | 88.2% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 153 — better | 12 |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly — better | Every 5 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 | 12.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 105 MB | 70 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | SiliconTrance, LLC | Mindwarp Consultancy Ltd |
Customer experience
ClearCheckbook
Balance Guide Lite
Bugs and requests
ClearCheckbook
Reported bugs
14 issues- Transactions fail to sync between devices
- Duplicate entries appearing in register
- Balance not updating after adding transactions
- App crashes when adding transactions
- Spinning loading wheel that never stops
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- Transactions randomly assigned to wrong accounts
- Decimal point input not functioning properly
- Missing transactions from months ago
- Reconciliation checkmark color change too subtle
- Categories not displaying on smaller screens
- Auto-sync not working, requires manual refresh
- Data disappearing from accounts
- App incompatibility with older iOS versions
- Account creation causing app crashes
Requested features
12 requests- Dark mode option
- Receipt photo attachment capability
- Envelope budgeting gadget on mobile app
- Auto-complete for payee descriptions
- Better category management and easier category addition
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- Note section for transactions
- Larger UI sections on web version
- Automatic bank account linking and sync
- Split screen compatibility for reconciliation
- Better reconciliation visual indicators (green highlighting)
- Improved search by date range
- Balance information display on transactions page
Balance Guide Lite
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
ClearCheckbook
- Mobile Premium Upgrade$4.99
Balance Guide Lite
- No Ads, Multiple Accounts + Dropbox backup$2.99
Questions
Is ClearCheckbook free?
Is Balance Guide Lite free?
Which has better reviews, ClearCheckbook or Balance Guide Lite?
Do ClearCheckbook or Balance Guide Lite have ads?
Which is updated more often, ClearCheckbook or Balance Guide Lite?
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