Comparison

Expense List vs Simple Shopping List

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

Head to head
About

Expense List

Track expenses, group them by category, and email detailed lists. Supports multiple currencies with user-defined exchange rates. Organize custom categories and subcategories for comprehensive financial overview.

Highlights
  • Expense tracking with amount, date, notes, and category
  • Multi-currency support with custom exchange rates
  • Customizable categories and subcategories
  • Filter expenses by date range
  • Email expense lists and database exports
  • Automatic date tagging
Features
Read full description

Expense List, Version 2.7 this free version is limited to saving 50 Expense Items. After an In-App Purchase, it can save over 500 expense items. Expense List keeps track of expenses, grouping and listing the expenses into different Categories, and e-mailing the expenses to other computers. Expense items - amount, date, notes and Category - Amount - recorded in $, €, £ or ¥ and converted to any one of these. Items are converted from one currency to any other currency using user-supplied exchange rates. - Date - automatically tags expense item with current day/time - Notes - add optional descriptions to expense items - Category - each expense item is assigned to a Category Categories - comes with an original table of Categories - Delete any original Category and add new ones - Rearrange table of Categories - Make any Category a subcategory of another Category. Subcategories can have subcategories. Lists - Display a list of expense items assigned to any specific Category, or to all Categories, converted and totaled in $, €, £, or ¥. - Filter-by-date expense items included in lists, keep a running total from one date to another - E-mail lists - E-mail a formatted listing of entire dBase of expense items to another computer for processing by a spreadsheet program capable of parsing format (NOTE - spreadsheet program is not supplied with this App - compatible with Excel).

About

Simple Shopping List

Create and manage multiple shopping lists with item prices. Automatically calculate expenses based on item cost or quantity and price. Track total paid, unpaid, and overall expenses for each list.

Highlights
  • Multiple shopping lists
  • Item pricing
  • Automatic expense calculation
  • Quantity-based pricing
  • Paid/unpaid tracking
  • Total expense summary
Features
Read full description

This simple app helps to: + Prepare many lists of shopping items with price. + Can input expense of item directly or input number of items & price for each item, then expense is calculated. + Each list is calculated with 3 conditions: total paid, total unpaid and total expenses.

Screenshots

Expense List3 screens
Simple Shopping List4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Expense List at 100% against Simple Shopping List's 0%. Expense List also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.5) and ads (none vs shown). Simple Shopping List's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1) and ratings volume (10 vs 2). On price, device support and iOS requirement 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. Expense List sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Simple Shopping List asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Expense List holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Simple Shopping List has 10 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of Expense List's written reviews are positive against 0% of Simple Shopping List's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Expense List ships an update every 3 months, Simple Shopping List every 8 months. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Expense List versus Simple Shopping List: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterExpense ListSimple Shopping List
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (2 ratings) — better4.5 (10 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews — better0.0% of reviews
Number of ratings210 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 months — betterEvery 8 months
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesAd-supported — better
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPod
Requires iOS12.0 — better13.0
Further details — not scored
Size1 MB5 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperPeter Kramergiang pham

Customer experience

Expense List

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews4 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Simple Shopping List

All ratings9 ratings
Positive88.9%
Neutral11.1%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral100.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Expense List

One-time1
  • upgrade to save over 500 expense items$0.99
None

Simple Shopping List

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Expense List free?
Expense List is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Simple Shopping List free?
Simple Shopping List is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Expense List or Simple Shopping List?
Expense List is rated higher. Expense List averages 5.0 out of 5 from 2 ratings, while Simple Shopping List averages 4.5 from 10 ratings.
Do Expense List or Simple Shopping List have ads?
Simple Shopping List shows ads; Expense List does not.
Which is updated more often, Expense List or Simple Shopping List?
Expense List ships an update every 3 months, and Simple Shopping List every 8 months. Most recently, Expense List was updated on November 1, 2026 and Simple Shopping List on November 3, 2026.

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