Balance Guide Lite vs Expenses
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Balance Guide Lite
Easily manage your finances and plan your budget. This app helps you track your account balance, upcoming bills, and spending habits. It offers forecasting for future finances and allows for quick correction of your balance without needing to enter every transaction.
- Dark mode
- Recurring transaction setup
- Financial forecasting
- Pie charts and graphs
- Customizable categories
- PIN security
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HOW MUCH MONEY WILL YOU SAVE ? A guide to your account balance, simple to use and not aimed at accountants. Makes it easy to plan a budget and see the status of your account with upcoming bills and see where your money is going. With Balance Guide you can quickly setup your recurring bills and deposits and produce a forecast of your finances for the months ahead. Later, you don't have to worry about entering all your transactions from your bank statement with the added bonus that you can easily correct your balance at any time. FEATURES - Dark mode - NEW - Multiple Accounts, transfer between account (ONLY AVAILABLE ONCE UPGRADED) - Setup recurring transactions for forecasting - Forecast calendar (ONLY AVAILABLE ONCE UPGRADED) - Now includes optimisation for iPhone X, XR and XS Max. - Clear / light colour scheme - All accounts summary information (not available for iPhone 4s / ONLY AVAILABLE ONCE UPGRADED) - Pie charts / graphs to show your financial status - Backup / Restore with Dropbox (ONLY AVAILABLE ONCE UPGRADED) - Simple customisable of categories to group your transactions e.g. "Utility Bills" - Tutorial / walk through showing you how to get started - Help pages, if you need to read about functionality in more depth - Correct balance at any time, so you don't need to enter all your transactions - PIN security, to protect your information from prying eyes REVIEWS This App is so good! ***** Really easy to use, looked at loads of others, but this has all you need. Your income v outgoings and lets you know where you stand on a monthly basis! I will and do recommend! Great App. Excellent tool ! ***** I have been looking for a handy app to organise my finances for ages. This is simple to use & very helpful when planning ahead. Would highly recommend Checkout our Demo video - http://youtu.be/3NrxZE_yFag SUPPORT Balance Guide uses the default currency set on your device, so there’s no complicated setup / installation. If you need help there are several methods available. Firstly, the tutorial, which is a kind of walkthrough. There’s also helps pages, providing in depth information. How to ask questions and contact us - - Use the contact form via my website, I'm happy to help. - Follow the app on twitter http://twitter.com/BalanceGuideApp - Like the app on facebook https://www.facebook.com/balanceguideapp NOTE: I'm unable to respond to bug reports left in reviews. Each new version wipes out all old reviews so please take the time to leave a review for the new version. As it’s not possible to reply to reviews on the app store, please use the new feedback features to tell us what you think. You can also join our beta programme and gain access to new features early.
Expenses
Easily track your spending and income in any currency with this private finance app. Organize expenses with custom categories and gain insights into your spending habits through intuitive charts and trends. Collaborate with others on shared sheets and sync data across Apple devices.
- Expense and income tracking
- Multi-currency support with auto exchange rates
- Customizable categories
- Spending trend analysis
- Real-time sheet sharing
- Private by design, no account needed
- Data import/export (CSV)
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Track your spending with Expenses Expenses focuses on what matters: tracking your money simply and privately. Log expenses and income in any currency, scan receipts to enter details faster, organize spending by category and merchant, and understand your habits with intuitive stats and spending trends. With iCloud, your data stays in sync across iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Vision Pro. You can also share a sheet with others to manage expenses together seamlessly. • Featured by Apple on the App Store • Used by people in 100+ countries Start effortlessly There is no learning curve and no account to create. Just open the app and start adding your expenses or income in seconds. When you travel, you can add expenses in different currencies. Exchange rates update automatically for major currencies, and you can set custom rates whenever you need. Scan receipts faster Capture receipts and turn them into expense entries with less manual typing. Expenses helps you keep accurate records while staying focused on your spending, not data entry. Organize with categories and merchants Create and customize categories that fit your life, then track where your money goes by merchant. Whether you want to review grocery trips, subscriptions, restaurants, or travel costs, merchant support makes your spending easier to understand. Discover where your money really goes See the bigger picture with visual trends over time and detailed breakdowns by category and merchant. Turn your spending data into actionable insights that help you make smarter financial decisions. Share and collaborate Planning a trip? Managing a household? Invite others to share a sheet and track expenses together in real time. Privacy built in Expenses is private by design. No sign-ups and no personal data collection. Your information stays on your device or in iCloud, always under your control. Import and export your data You can export your expenses as a CSV file anytime for backup or further analysis. Expenses also supports importing existing data from CSV, making it easy to migrate from other tools or bring in previous records. Designed for everyone Expenses works beautifully on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Vision Pro with: • Dark Mode for comfortable viewing • Widgets for quick expense entry • Shortcuts automation support • Full accessibility features • Instant sync across all your devices Download Expenses today and see where your money goes. Terms and Conditions: https://bluecometlabs.com/terms/ Privacy Policy: https://bluecometlabs.com/privacy/ Contact: https://expenses.cash/contact/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Expenses at 4.8 against Balance Guide Lite's 4.2. Expenses also leads on update cadence (every 6 days vs every 5 months) and ratings volume (1.8K vs 12). Balance Guide Lite's advantage is iOS requirement (12.0 vs 16.0). On price, review sentiment, ads and in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. Balance Guide Lite sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Expenses sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Expenses holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Expenses has 1.8K ratings behind it against 12, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 88% of Balance Guide Lite's written reviews are positive against 87% of Expenses's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Balance Guide Lite ships an update every 5 months, Expenses every 6 days. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 7, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Balance Guide Lite | Expenses |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.2 (12 ratings) | 4.8 (1.8K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 88.2% of reviews — better | 86.8% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 12 | 1.8K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 5 months | Every 6 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Vision Pro — better |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 — better | 16.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 70 MB | 71 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Mindwarp Consultancy Ltd | BLUE COMET LABS LLC |
Customer experience
Balance Guide Lite
Expenses
Bugs and requests
Balance Guide Lite
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Expenses
Reported bugs
4 issues- Syncing issues between devices
- Disappearing transaction data after updates
- Inconsistent balance display
- Unresponsive UI elements
Requested features
5 requests- Ability to create folders/groups for sheets
- Option to view combined stats across sheets
- Recurring expense/income tracking
- Improved sorting and filtering of transactions
- Budget comparison and forecasting tools
In-app purchases
Balance Guide Lite
- No Ads, Multiple Accounts + Dropbox backup$2.99
Expenses
- Expenses Pro - Monthly$1.991 Month
- Expenses Pro - Yearly$14.991 Year
- Expenses Pro - Lifetime$39.99
Questions
Is Balance Guide Lite free?
Is Expenses free?
Which has better reviews, Balance Guide Lite or Expenses?
Do Balance Guide Lite or Expenses have ads?
Which is updated more often, Balance Guide Lite or Expenses?
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