Comparison

Carly vs Auto Expense.

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

Head to head
About

Carly

This app allows car owners to diagnose issues, monitor live engine data, and perform maintenance tasks. It offers advanced features like coding hidden car functions and detecting mileage manipulation, helping users save on repairs and understand their vehicle's health.

Highlights
  • Read and clear fault codes from all ECUs
  • Monitor engine live data parameters
  • Step-by-step car repair guides
  • Perform car maintenance and reset service intervals
  • Check starter battery condition
  • Code and unlock hidden car features
  • Detect mileage manipulation
Features
Read full description

Carly is the most versatile OBD2 solution, offering diagnostics, engine live data, and guides for car repair and maintenance. It's helped over a million car owners to save up to $2,000 per year for car-related topics. Get the Carly app and the Carly Universal Scanner to access data through the OBD2 port of your car. Unleash your inner car hero with Carly! It works for Audi, BMW, Ford, Lexus, Mercedes, Mini, Opel, Porsche, Renault, Seat, Skoda, Toyota, VW, and almost all other car brands with an OBD2 port. As every car is unique, which specific Carly features are available will vary with every model, build year, hardware, and software. ———— BASIC FEATURES INCLUDED IN THE (FREE) BASIC PACKAGE Diagnostics (OBD), Live Data (OBD), and Emission Check (OBD) enable you to have control over the most important systems — engine and transmission. ADVANCED FEATURES INCLUDED IN THE PREMIUM PACKAGE (YEARLY LICENSE) • UNDERSTAND YOUR CAR'S HEALTH With Carly Diagnostics, you can read and clear fault codes from all built-in electronic control units (ECUs), including engine, transmission, ABS, airbag, and multimedia, keep track of your car’s health, gauge the severity of problems, and more. • POWERCHARGE YOUR REPAIR SKILLS Get expert repair guides for your specific issues to help you understand and fix the issues by yourself. • MONITOR ENGINE LIVE DATA Live parameters or live data can help you take the guesswork out of understanding what your car needs and narrow down the fault causes. • PERFORM CAR MAINTENANCE INDEPENDENT OF THE WORKSHOP The Carly Maintenance feature helps you step-by-step to service your car yourself, reset your service and keep track of your service intervals directly from your phone. • VIEW THE CONDITION OF YOUR BATTERY The Carly Battery Check function helps you monitor the status of your car's starter battery, which will help to increase your batterie lifetime. • CODE AND UNLOCK HIDDEN FEATURES Access hidden features set by the manufacturer and customize your car to fit your needs. This feature is only available on certain car brands/models, and the coding options vary between each control unit. • DETECT MILEAGE MANIPULATION Mileage manipulation is on the rise. Don’t get tricked when buying a used car — use Carly to perform a used car inspection before buying. ———— HOW IT WORKS Step 1: Check which features are available for your car model Step 2: Order your Carly Universal Scanner Step 3: Plug the scanner into the OBD2 port and log in on this app THE CARLY UNIVERSAL SCANNER — THE MOST ADVANCED OBD DEVICE The OBD2 device was designed to support almost all car brands with an OBD2 port and to enable advanced Carly features. The scanner comes with: • A lifetime warranty • Premium customer support Take the health of your car into your own hands! ———— You can purchase a subscription for an individual car brand or for all car brands. This is a yearly subscription. The subscription automatically renews for one year if not canceled at least 24 hours prior to the end of the current period. The subscription can be managed in your purchases and the automatic renewal can be deactivated there. Terms of Use: https://bit.ly/35Mxg5s Privacy Policy: https://bit.ly/35Rruze

About

Auto Expense.

Track your vehicle's fuel economy, energy consumption, and all associated expenses. Log fuel fill-ups, services, repairs, and other fees with detailed reporting and customizable units. Keep your car's financial history organized and accessible.

Highlights
  • Track fuel/energy logs
  • Log services, repairs, and other fees
  • Calculate fuel economy and cost per mile
  • Generate comprehensive cost reports
  • Set service reminders
  • Track unlimited vehicles separately
  • Data import/export and backup options
Features
Read full description

This is a simply but comprehensive app to track your car's fuel economy / electric car's energy consumption and other fees. Use this app to track fuel logs / energy logs, including odometer, fuel / energy charge, price, cost, date, receipt etc, repair logs, service logs and other fees like insurance, parking, vehicle cleaning etc. This app will calculate the fuel economy / energy consumption, like miles per gallon, cost per mile, cost per day etc; the fuel economy / energy consumption unit can be set as yours. Also it provides very comprehensive reports for the costs by category, period, service type, repair type, fees type and the tendency. Key Features: Fuels / Energies: ⁃ Track fuels filling up / energies charging logs with date, cost, price, cubage / capacity, odometer, distance compared with last filling up / charging, tank status / battery percentage, receipt and other note info. ⁃ Calculates fuel economy / energy consumption automatically. ⁃ Custom units for odometer, cubage / capacity and fuel economy / energy consumption. ⁃ Group logs by month. ⁃ Check fuel / energy charges by month. ⁃ Add, edit, and delete logs conveniently. Services: ⁃ Track services logs with date, cost, receipt and service type etc. ⁃ Check logs by month, cost or type. ⁃ Add, edit, and delete logs conveniently. ⁃ Custom service types and their service interval by odometer and time. ⁃ Set reminders for each service by date or odometer interval. Repairs: ⁃ Track repair logs with date, cost, receipt and repair type etc. ⁃ Check logs by month, cost or type. ⁃ Add, edit, and delete logs conveniently. ⁃ Custom repair types. Others: ⁃ Calendar overview of expenses. ⁃ Track fees like insurance, parking, washing, tolls, and taxes etc. ⁃ Track unlimited vehicles separately. ⁃ Eight reports for vehicles’ cost. ⁃ Check total fees by each category. ⁃ Imports data into this app from Dropbox or iTunes. ⁃ Export data in format of PDF, CSV or HTML by email. ⁃ Passcode protection. ⁃ Custom units and currency. ⁃ iCloud and Dropbox backup and restore. ⁃ Supports Apple Watch version. ⁃ Supports universal version. If you have any question, please email to yqapps@tom.com.

Screenshots

Carly4 screens
Auto Expense.4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Carly at 4.6 against Auto Expense.'s 4.1. Carly also leads on ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (weekly vs every 9 months). Auto Expense.'s advantage is review sentiment (65% vs 29%) and device support (4 vs 2). On price, in-app purchases, monetization model 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. Carly sells 12 in-app purchases, starting at $11.99 per year and Auto Expense. sells 9 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Carly holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Carly has 9.9K ratings behind it against 46, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 29% of Carly's written reviews are positive against 65% of Auto Expense.'s, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Carly ships an update weekly, Auto Expense. every 9 months. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 22, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Carly versus Auto Expense.: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCarlyAuto Expense.
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (9.9K ratings) — better4.1 (46 ratings)
Positive reviews29.2% of reviews64.8% of reviews — better
Number of ratings9.9K — better46
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 9 months
AdsNo — betterYes
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS16.015.6 — better
Further details — not scored
Size417 MB25 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperCarly Solutions GmbH Co KGZhengzhou Yeqiang Technology Co., Ltd

Customer experience

Carly

All ratings9,895 ratings
Positive91.7%
Neutral1.7%
Negative6.6%
Written reviews602 reviews
Positive29.2%
Neutral5.5%
Negative65.3%

Auto Expense.

All ratings44 ratings
Positive70.5%
Neutral15.9%
Negative13.6%
Written reviews176 reviews
Positive64.8%
Neutral11.4%
Negative23.9%

User reviews

Carly

From 9.9K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Great customer service
  • 🚀 Lots of functionality
  • 💡 Useful diagnostic and coding features
  • 🔒 Secure and reliable

Room to improve

  • 💰 Expensive subscription model
  • 🐛 Connectivity and compatibility issues
  • 🔍 Limited functionality for some vehicles
  • 📚 Confusing or lacking documentation

Auto Expense.

From 46 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Easy to use
  • 📊 Useful for tracking expenses
  • 💰 Reasonable pricing
  • 🔍 Comprehensive features
  • 🗓️ Helpful for budgeting and monitoring mileage

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Issues with decimal input for fuel and price
  • 🤖 Poor translation quality in non-English languages
  • 💸 Expensive subscription model
  • 📤 Difficulty with data export and import
  • 🔍 Confusing or unclear UI elements

Bugs and requests

Carly

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • App crashes or freezes
  • Adapter not working as expected
  • Inaccurate or misleading diagnostic information

Requested features

4 requests
  • More vehicle support
  • Improved user interface
  • Offline functionality
  • Easier subscription management

Auto Expense.

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Inability to add fuel expenses above a certain limit
  • App crashes after recent updates
  • Persistent ads even after paid subscription
  • Incorrect currency conversion and calculations

Requested features

5 requests
  • Support for alternative fuel types (e.g. CNG, LPG)
  • Automatic sync across devices
  • Customizable expense categories
  • Improved reporting and analytics
  • Ability to set maintenance reminders

In-app purchases

12 purchases

Carly

Subscriptions12
  • Smart Mechanic$11.991 Year
  • Toyota$21.991 Year
  • Mercedes$28.991 Year
Show 9 more
  • Smart Mechanic$35.991 Year
  • Volkswagen, Audi, Seat, Skoda$53.991 Year
  • Carly for BMW Full-Version$59.991 Year
  • BMW and Mini$63.991 Year
  • All Brands Upgrade6 Months trial$78.991 Year
  • All Brands$82.991 Year
  • VW/Audi/Seat/Skoda + Mechanic$89.991 Year
  • BMW and Mini + Smart Mechanic$99.991 Year
  • All Brands + Smart Mechanic$118.991 Year
9 purchases

Auto Expense.

Subscriptions5
  • Premium - 1 month7 Days trial$0.991 Month
  • Premium - 1 year3 Months trial$4.991 Year
  • Premium - 6 months1 Month trial$5.496 Months
Show 2 more
  • Premium - 1 year3 Months trial$6.991 Year
  • Premium - 1 year3 Months trial$9.991 Year
One-time4
  • Unlimited Cars$27.99
  • Unlimited Records$45.99
  • Export Data$45.99
Show 1 more
  • Remove Ads$59.99

Questions

Is Carly free?
Carly is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Auto Expense. free?
Auto Expense. is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Carly or Auto Expense.?
Carly is rated higher. Carly averages 4.6 out of 5 from 9.9K ratings, while Auto Expense. averages 4.1 from 46 ratings.
Do Carly or Auto Expense. have ads?
Auto Expense. shows ads; Carly does not.
Which is updated more often, Carly or Auto Expense.?
Carly ships an update weekly, and Auto Expense. every 9 months. Most recently, Carly was updated on October 29, 2026 and Auto Expense. on October 22, 2026.

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