Withholding Calc vs Paycheck Buddy
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Withholding Calc
Estimate your paycheck's tax withholding with this ad-free tool. Input your gross pay, deductions, filing status, and allowances to see how much goes to the government and how much you keep. Optimize your budget and prepare for tax season.
- Estimate paycheck tax withholding
- Input gross pay and pre-tax deductions
- Specify filing status and allowances
- Advanced view for extra withholding
- Supports 41 states with income tax
- Based on current tax rates
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Tax time is coming again! Will you be ready for it? WithholdingCalc is an ad-free estimator for your pay check. Input your pay check gross pay, pre-tax deductions (insurance, 401k, etc.), filing status, state, and withholding allowances from your W-4 and get an estimate of how much of each of your pay checks is going to the government, and how much is going into your pocket. You can see how to optimize your monthly budget and make sure you've had enough taxes held back for tax time! Want to get even more advanced? Switch over to the advanced view and you can enter extra withholding amounts for both Federal and State taxes, and separate filing status and withholding allowance amounts for your state to get an even more accurate picture of your tax withholding. WithholdingCalc lets you easily manipulate the numbers from your W-4 form to help you get an accurate picture of your budget and how much tax withholding you will have accumulated for tax season. WithholdingCalc is based on current 2018 tax rates for most federal and state tax rates for the 41 states that have income tax plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. We will update Withholding Calc as further tax rate changes come in. WithholdingCalc uses an annualized method for computing taxes for most jurisdictions. This means that the total tax withholding that it computes may be slightly different from what your employer computes. Generally the two numbers will agree to within a few cents. If they don't, please use our contact form to let us know and we'll investigate it! With the updates some of the 2018 tax brackets now in place, we'll be adding in some of the features we've been working on, like the option to compute your pay check based on an hourly pay rate (with or without overtime pay), calculations for places where there are local taxes as well as state taxes, and more accurate options for states like Arizona which use flat percentage options for withholding instead of a withholding allowance amount. The 2018 IRS tax brackets aren't available yet, but we'll be adding them as soon as they are. WithholdingCalc is not endorsed by any taxing authority, including the Department of the Treasury or the Internal Revenue Service (They want you to give them too much money :) ).
Paycheck Buddy
Estimate your net income by calculating your paycheck after taxes. Adjust your hours to see how your earnings change. Currently supports a limited number of states with more planned for future updates.
- Paycheck calculation
- Income estimation
- Tax deduction calculation
- Hours adjustment
- State-specific calculations
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Calculate your paycheck to estimate your income after tax and how it can change depending on your hours. Currently limited states are available but will have more state added soon. Current States are AK, AL, AR, AZ, MA, RI, FL, NV, SD, TN, TX, WY, with more to come.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Paycheck Buddy at every 10 days against Withholding Calc's every 10 months. Withholding Calc's advantage is chart position (#124 vs unranked) and price ($0.99 vs $1.99). On ads, in-app purchases, 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
Withholding Calc costs $0.99 and Paycheck Buddy $1.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Withholding Calc ships an update every 10 months, Paycheck Buddy every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 19, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Withholding Calc | Paycheck Buddy |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0.99 — better | $1.99 |
| Rating | — | 4.5 (13 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 34.5% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | — | 13 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 10 months | Every 10 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Paid |
| Best chart rank | #124 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 — better | 16.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 65 MB | 11 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Jason Michaelson | Money Calendar App LLC |
Customer experience
Withholding Calc
Paycheck Buddy
Bugs and requests
Withholding Calc
Reported bugs
26 issues- App crashes constantly after entering info and swiping to the second page.
- App crashes every time I turn the page from the start.
- App closes every time you try to change the state.
- None of the information entered shows up in the fields.
- Can't see the input entries with this new grey background!
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- Output data is far from actual.
- App opens but does not accept any inputs.
- App crashes every time I open it after iOS update.
- The gross amount is clear at the top of the screen and does not allow it to work.
- The app graphics are not optimized for iPhone X. The very top of the screen extends into the ‘Notch’, causing the top field to be obstructed by it.
- When adding extra Witholding amounts on the 'Advanced' screen, the amount is added twice on the results screen, both on the "Federal w/h" line, and in the "Extra Federal w/h" line, thus doubling the extra contribution when those two lines are added together in the "Total Federal w/h" line.
- In advanced mode retirement withholding is not taken into account.
- NJ sui/sdi is not calculated
- if you have extra state /or federal withholding it wont show the correct amount in the basic screen, you have to go to to the advanced screen to see the correct amount.
- Federal income tax, is was off by 6 cents, not much but still off.
- California state tax is messed up since the latest update
- Federal and California withholdings are off by a good $150 dollars!
- This app does not deduct the correct federal amount.
- The previous version of the app was more user friendly. The recent update prevents you from changing screen to screen and it is more clunky and not as seem less as the previous version.
- It looks like they changed the format from one screen to a bunch of screens to swipe and now everything lags.
- They redesigned a very nice app and it’s basically a joke now. Absolutely no graphics, a bizarre swipe method and a confusing layout.
- Tax rats aren’t loaded correctly. They don’t match my previous pay stubs. For example, federal with holding is about $100 off.
- All of the tax amounts match, give or take a few cents, however the Paycheck Net is off. The app indicates $35.46 more than my actual Net Pay. Then I discovered it’s because the app does not automatically factor in CA SUI/SDI Tax. It forces me to annotate this for ‘Extra State Withholding’.
- The recent update you loaded is not the current tax tables.
- Since the update on 2/19/2020 this app no longer works.
- App is now broken and vastly inaccurate (at least for IL)!
Requested features
37 requests- Fix app to work correctly
- Return money for broken app
- Update app to keep up with iOS updates
- Fix crashing issues
- Fix app so buttons work
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- Fix federal tax calculation
- Fix input visibility issues
- Add login for saving info
- Add info boxes for fields
- Include local withholding section
- Update for 2020 tax brackets
- Add print option
- Optimize graphics for iPhone X
- Automatically factor in CA SUI/SDI
- Fix gross amount obstruction
- Update tax tables
- Allow users to contact support
- Fix advanced mode retirement withholding
- Fix results screen math error
- Add NYC withholding calculation
- Add SDI deduction
- Add hourly pay calculation
- Calculate NJ SUI/SDI
- Show correct extra withholding amounts
- Improve results screen readability
- Add social security calculations
- Add number of dependencies
- Add head of household filing option
- Add forecasting and what-if scenarios
- Allow saving entered information
- Automatically calculate pay and overtime
- Make app more user-friendly
- Revert to previous design
- Add option to put in hours worked and pay rate
- Add state income tax calculator as separate purchase
- Add more detail to deductions
- Fix large amount error for married filing
Paycheck Buddy
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Withholding Calc
No in-app purchases
Paycheck Buddy
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Withholding Calc free?
Is Paycheck Buddy free?
Do Withholding Calc or Paycheck Buddy have ads?
Which is updated more often, Withholding Calc or Paycheck Buddy?
Other comparisons
