Balance Guide vs Spending Tracker
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Balance Guide
This app helps you manage your money by tracking expenses, forecasting bills, and visualizing your financial status. It offers features like multiple account management, recurring transactions, and customizable categories to simplify budgeting and financial planning.
- Multiple account management
- Recurring transaction setup
- Visual financial overview
- Customizable expense categories
- PIN security
- Instant balance corrections
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Take Control of Your Finances with Balance Guide! Balance Guide is your go-to money management tool, designed to simplify financial planning and budgeting. Whether you're managing multiple accounts or just trying to get a handle on monthly expenses, our user-friendly app makes it easy to keep track of your finances. Key Features: - Multiple Account Management: Easily transfer funds and view account summaries at a glance. - Recurring Transactions: Set up automatic transactions for accurate financial forecasting. - Visual Financial Overview: Use pie charts and graphs to visualize your budget and financial status. - Backup & Restore: Securely backup and restore your data using Dropbox integration. - Customizable Categories: Create and manage categories like "Utility Bills" to organize your transactions. - Interactive Tutorial & Help Pages: Get started quickly with an introductory walkthrough and detailed help pages for additional support. - PIN Security: Safeguard your financial information with built-in security measures. - Instant Balance Corrections: Adjust your balance on the fly without the need to input each transaction manually. With Balance Guide, you can see where your money is going, plan ahead for upcoming bills, and ultimately save more. Start mastering your finances today!
Spending Tracker
Easily track your expenses and income to gain control over your finances. Set budgets, view spending summaries, and generate reports with interactive charts. Take the first step towards saving money by understanding where your money goes.
- Simple and intuitive interface
- Flexible time period tracking (Weekly, Monthly, Yearly)
- Budget mode with carry-over
- Summary view of spending progress
- Log expenses and income
- Editable spending and income categories
- Interactive charts and reports
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Spending Tracker is the easiest and most user friendly Personal Finance App in the store. And best of all, it's free! The simple fact is, by tracking your spending you will be able to stick to a budget and therefore SAVE MONEY. So give it a try and have instant control over your spending! *** Features *** ------------------ √ Simple and intuitive user interface - helps you track your spending quickly and easily √ Flexible Time Periods - choose to track Weekly, Monthly or Yearly √ Budget Mode - optionally set a fixed budget amount to help you meet your spending targets - carry over any remaining budget to the next period √ Summary View - overview of your current spending progress - time travel backwards and forwards in time - see your main areas of spending √ Log Expense and Income - easy and quick transaction entry - sort by date, name or amount - repeat transactions daily, weekly or monthly (Pro Upgrade required) - export transactions (Pro Upgrade required) √ Categories - editable spending and income categories - choose a quality icon for each category √ Reports - easy visualisation of where your money goes - beautiful and interactive charts - view spending grouped by category - see the history of your spending
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: Spending Tracker at Free against Balance Guide's $2.99. Spending Tracker also leads on ratings volume (19K vs 15) and rating (4.8 vs 4.5). Balance Guide's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and ads (none vs shown). On review sentiment 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
Spending Tracker is free to download; Balance Guide costs $2.99 up front. Spending Tracker sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Balance Guide asks for nothing beyond the download.
Spending Tracker holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Spending Tracker has 19K ratings behind it against 15, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 87% of Balance Guide's written reviews are positive against 95% of Spending Tracker's.
Balance Guide ships an update monthly, Spending Tracker every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 20, 2026 and September 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Balance Guide | Spending Tracker |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $2.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.5 (15 ratings) | 4.8 (19K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 86.7% of reviews | 94.6% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 15 | 19K — better |
| Update frequency | Monthly — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, Apple Watch — better |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 15.5 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 31 MB | 50 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Mindwarp Consultancy Ltd | MH Riley Ltd |
Customer experience
Balance Guide
Spending Tracker
User reviews
Balance Guide
From 15 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Easy to use interface
- 📈 Excellent forecasting capabilities
- 🧮 Manages multiple accounts
- 💰 Helps control finances
- 📊 Clear graphs and visualizations
Room to improve
- 🐛 Forecast graph needs EOD Balance
- 🐛 No confidentiality statement for support
- 🐛 Cannot change payments in forecast based on budget/wages
- 🐛 Cannot list all months events, only from today
- 🐛 Balance goes mad since Jan 19
Spending Tracker
From 19K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Easy to use
- 📊 Helpful reports and charts
- 💰 One-time fee for premium features
- 🔁 Recurring transactions
- 🗂️ Multiple accounts and categories
Room to improve
- 🐛 Occasional syncing issues
- 🔢 Lack of fortnightly budget option
- 🗂️ Difficulty deleting unused categories
- 💰 Paid upgrade required for some features
- 📈 Limited budget tracking within categories
Bugs and requests
Balance Guide
Reported bugs
40 issues- Balance goes mad since Jan 19
- Change of year blip
- New version won't let correct balance
- Lost half of stuff in new version
- Useless now because it doesn't work
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- Buggy
- Data accuracy issues
- Randomly changes cost amounts
- Similar problem with dates and recurrences
- Forecast pointless if data is wrong
- Bug: date chooser chooses day after selected date
- Only tracks one account
- No update for multiple accounts for over a month
- Forecast graph needs EOD Balance
- End date selector off screen on iPhone 4s
- Future balance graph not zoomable in portrait
- UI should keep all screens vertical
- Downloaded today, and it does not work
- Tap on icon, splash screen appears, and app closes
- When I type in costs like $2312, I go back later and look and it is $2
- Similar problem with dates and recurrances
- When you sent the date it chooses the day after
- For instance you choose July 16 in the date chooser and it automatically shows July 17
- Only tracks one account
- Contacted the developer over a month ago, apparently it's something which is being worked on but no update yet
- Buggy
- When I type in costs like $2312, I go back later and look and it is $2. That only happens some times.
- Similiar problem with dates and recurrances.
- When you sent the date it chooses the day after. For instance you choose July 16 in the date chooser and it automatically shows July 17.
- The forecasts are only based on individual account.
- The new version won't let you correct your balance. And has lost half of my stuff. It's now useless coz it doesn't work.
- Since Jan 19 if I add or change a payment the balance goes mad. Into the minus by several thousand pounds. There seems to be a change of year blip!!!!!
- The Forecast Graph needs to report on the EOD Balance (days income-outgoing) instead of the Start Balance.
- On iPhone 4s the end date selector is off screen so very difficult to set. Future balance graph - would be better if zoom able without having to scroll and not just in landscape.
- Downloaded this today, and it does not work. I tap on the icon, the splash screen appears, and the app closes.
- Paid for this on the back of great reviews and then realised it only tracks one account, so if you have a current account and a credit card you'll only be able to track one of them. Contacted the developer over a month ago, apparently it's something which is being worked on but no update yet.
- When I type in costs like $2312, I go back later and look and it is $2. That only happens some times. I can't trust any of the costs. Similiar problem with dates and recurrances.
- When you sent the date it chooses the day after. For instance you choose July 16 in the date chooser and it automatically shows July 17.
- The forecasts are only based on individual account. That is useless.
- The new version won't let you correct your balance. And has lost half of my stuff. It's now useless coz it doesn't work.
Requested features
70 requests- Forecast graph to report on EOD Balance instead of Start Balance
- Confidentiality statement for support requests
- Option to change payments based on budget/wages
- Ability to list all months events, not just from today
- Notification before planned transaction is overdue
Show 65 moreShow fewer
- Option for part payment (split)
- Semi-monthly recurrence option
- Import transactions via CSV
- Summary list of accounts with balances
- Sync between installs for multiple devices
- Zoomable future balance graph in portrait mode
- Manually change transaction amounts in forecasting
- Way to clear out what has and has not been paid yet
- Default setting for future forecast to be today's date
- Keep all screens vertical in UI
- Option to change 'only this transaction' or 'change all future transactions'
- Multi-currency support
- Alarm for direct debits
- Statistics on absolute values by category of spend instead of percentages
- Ability to import data
- Bimonthly option for income and expenses
- Sync feature for multiple users (e.g., husband and wife)
- Dark mode option
- Advanced analytics dashboard
- Ability to enter transactions manually instead of automatically
- Allow changing amount if different without changing original amount
- Switch between accounts on any page
- Social media integration (though one user is unsure of its use)
- More user-friendly interface
- Adjustments for months with 5 weeks
- Ability to correct balance
- Fix for lost data in new version
- Fix for forecasts only based on individual account
- Fix for date chooser selecting the day after
- Support for multiple accounts
- Update for multiple accounts
- Ability to import
- Bimonthly option
- Sync between installs
- Forecast graph needs EOD Balance
- Confidentiality statement for support
- Change payments based on budget/wages
- List all months events
- Notification before planned transaction overdue
- Part payment option
- Semi-monthly recurrence
- CSV import
- Summary list of accounts
- Sync between installs
- Zoomable graph in portrait
- Manual transaction changes
- Clear paid/unpaid transactions
- Default forecast date to today
- Vertical UI
- Change reoccurring transactions
- Multi-currency
- Direct debit alarms
- Statistics by category
- Import data
- Bimonthly option
- Sync for multiple users
- Ability to correct balance
- Fix for lost data
- Fix for individual account forecasts
- Fix for date chooser bug
- Support for multiple accounts
- Update for multiple accounts
- Ability to import
- Bimonthly option
- Sync between installs
Spending Tracker
Reported bugs
2 issues- Transactions sometimes entered in wrong order
- Backup and restore functionality not always reliable
Requested features
5 requests- Add ability to split transactions into multiple categories
- Incorporate currency conversion and exchange rates
- Allow family/shared account access and updates
- Implement a 'Debt' category to track loan payments
- Add option to take photos of receipts and attach to transactions
In-app purchases
Balance Guide
No in-app purchases
Spending Tracker
- Pro Upgrade$2.99
Questions
Is Balance Guide free?
Is Spending Tracker free?
Which has better reviews, Balance Guide or Spending Tracker?
Do Balance Guide or Spending Tracker have ads?
Which is updated more often, Balance Guide or Spending Tracker?
Other comparisons
