Comparison

Santa's Bag vs Tally

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

Head to head
About

Santa's Bag

Manage your Christmas gift recipients, planning, shopping, and budgets with this fun and easy-to-use app. Track gift ideas, links, preferences, and notes for each person. Generate customizable lists for planning and shopping, and monitor your budget with progress bars.

Highlights
  • Add gifts, ideas, links, preferences, and notes per recipient
  • Track gift links, photos, and notes
  • Save links via app extension or drag & drop
  • Generate customizable planning and shopping lists
  • Manage split/multiple/unassigned gifts
  • Set recipient/occasion budgets with progress bars
  • Christmas countdown timer
Features
Read full description

Santa’s Bag has been recommended by The New York Times, US News & World Report, Consumer Reports, USA Today, Forbes Magazine, Fox News, Parents Magazine, Real Simple Magazine, PC Magazine, NBC News, Buzzfeed.com, and The Huffington Post, among others. Revolutionize your Christmas shopping experience! Santa's Bag is a fun and easy-to-use app to help you manage your Christmas gift recipients, planning, shopping, and budgets. Each detail of the app is carefully designed to make sure you don't forget anyone or anything. Christmas shopping has never been easier or more fun! * Add Gifts, Ideas, Links, Preferences, and Notes for each Recipient * Add Links, Photo, and Notes for each Gift * Save Links through our App Extension or by Drag & Drop into the app * Email, print or save customizable, checkable lists: Planning Lists, Shopping Lists, and more * Split/Multiple/Unassigned Gifts * Recipient/Occasion Budgets and Progress Bars * Screenlock Passcode * Highly Customizable Views/Sorts/Filters * Christmas Countdown Timer * Database Backup and Restore

About

Tally

This shopping assistant helps you create product lists, either manually or by scanning barcodes. It also verifies your supermarket receipts to catch pricing errors and ensure you pay the correct amount.

Highlights
  • Create shopping lists
  • Scan product barcodes
  • Verify supermarket receipts
  • Track pricing errors
  • Manage product database
  • Add disabled items to lists
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

Full tutorial video (subtitles available): http://tallyvideo.lemonskin.net Tally is an application designed to facilitate your shopping. Create a list of products (either manually or by capturing the barcode) and check for errors on the supermarket receipt. It's a fact: when you have to go to the supermarket you need to fill a shopping list. How many times have you tried to keep everything in mind just to realize, upon returning home, you had forgotten a key ingredient for dinner or the cake of next day? Post-its, however, are pretty boring and, without a pen in hand (for example, when you're already going around the shelves), they can't be upgraded in a convenient and practical way. Our smartphone is always with us, then why not use it to make our life easier? Here at Lemonskin we like to go further. Why limit the app to a simple shopping list when it's possible to add tools that can automate the whole shopping process and may help you to verify the correctness of the receipt? There's no need to write all the time "bread, flour, milk, eggs, ..." when we have a camera in our pocket! With Tally creating a list is as simple as frame the finished product barcode (at home) or a new one (in the supermarket). You will need to enter the product name only the first time, from then on the application will learn to associate the correct code to the specific product. No problem if you buy a different brand of yogurt. Tally is capable to associate multiple codes to the same article. One of the most useful features of Tally is the ability to quickly check for errors on the receipt. It's happened to us all to pay a higher-than-expected total and, once at home, realize that a product, advertised as discounted, was instead charged full price. There are mistakes that occur more often than you think, and maybe some supermarket plays a bit around it. Tally has a specific section dedicated to the receipt verification. So you can, in seconds, find the inconsistency and show it to the cashier in order to be immediately reimbursed (or enjoy in case the error occurred is to your advantage). We purposely designed the interface of Tally to be simple and intuitive, but we have included powerful features that simplify your decisions during shopping. If you are not sure you want to buy a particular product but you don't want to take the risk to forget about it, you can have it in the list but disabled. That way it will always be at your fingertips and you can check how much it affects the final cost. Products database is always accessible via a special section and can be easily modified, extended or simplified. This will give you full control over your saved items. Tally, your definitive shopping assistant! :)

Screenshots

Santa's Bag4 screens
Tally4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Santa's Bag at Free against Tally's $4.99. Santa's Bag also leads on rating (4.9 vs 3.8) and review sentiment (93% vs 60%). Tally's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 18.6). On in-app purchases, chart position and device support 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

Santa's Bag is free to download; Tally costs $4.99 up front. Santa's Bag sells 5 one-off in-app purchases and Tally sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Santa's Bag holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 3.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Santa's Bag has 6K ratings behind it against 5, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 93% of Santa's Bag's written reviews are positive against 60% of Tally's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Santa's Bag ships an update every 2 weeks, Tally every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 9, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard8 real differences · 3 level
Santa's Bag versus Tally: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSanta's BagTally
PriceFree — better$4.99
Rating4.9 (6K ratings) — better3.8 (5 ratings)
Positive reviews93.3% of reviews — better60.0% of reviews
Number of ratings6K — better5
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeks — betterEvery 3 months
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterPaid
Best chart rank#159#100 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS18.612.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size28 MB23 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperClay Pot Software LLCLemonskin

Customer experience

Santa's Bag

All ratings5,836 ratings
Positive97.6%
Neutral1.1%
Negative1.3%
Written reviews432 reviews
Positive93.3%
Neutral2.8%
Negative3.9%

Tally

All ratings5 ratings
Positive60.0%
Neutral20.0%
Negative20.0%
Written reviews5 reviews
Positive60.0%
Neutral20.0%
Negative20.0%

Bugs and requests

Santa's Bag

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Data loss after updates
  • Inability to delete or clear past data
  • Syncing issues between devices

Requested features

6 requests
  • Ability to share lists with family members
  • Option to track other holidays/events (birthdays, etc.)
  • Barcode scanning for gifts
  • Ability to add gift receipts/photos
  • Improved sorting/filtering options
Show 1 more
  • Automatic budget tracking and alerts

Tally

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

5 purchases

Santa's Bag

One-time5
  • A tip to say Nice Work!$0.99
  • A tip to say Keep it Up!$1.99
  • Remove Banner Ads$4.99
Show 2 more
  • A tip to say I Love this App!$4.99
  • A tip to say Rocking My World!$9.99
1 purchases

Tally

One-time1
  • full version$1.99

Questions

Is Santa's Bag free?
Santa's Bag is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Tally free?
Tally costs $4.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Santa's Bag or Tally?
Santa's Bag is rated higher. Santa's Bag averages 4.9 out of 5 from 6K ratings, while Tally averages 3.8 from 5 ratings.
Do Santa's Bag or Tally have ads?
Santa's Bag shows ads; Tally does not.
Which is updated more often, Santa's Bag or Tally?
Santa's Bag ships an update every 2 weeks, and Tally every 3 months. Most recently, Santa's Bag was updated on October 24, 2026 and Tally on October 9, 2026.
Which is more popular, Santa's Bag or Tally?
Santa's Bag currently peaks at #159 in the App Store charts, and Tally at #100. Chart position reflects recent download velocity rather than total install base.

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