Balance Guide Lite vs Spending Tracker
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.
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 rating: Spending Tracker at 4.8 against Balance Guide Lite's 4.2. Spending Tracker also leads on ratings volume (19K vs 12) and update cadence (every 2 months vs every 5 months). Balance Guide Lite's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and iOS requirement (12.0 vs 15.5). On price, review sentiment, in-app purchases and monetization model 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 Spending Tracker sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Spending Tracker holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Spending Tracker has 19K ratings behind it against 12, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 88% of Balance Guide Lite's written reviews are positive against 95% of Spending Tracker's.
Balance Guide Lite ships an update every 5 months, Spending Tracker every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Balance Guide Lite | Spending Tracker |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.2 (12 ratings) | 4.8 (19K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 88.2% of reviews | 94.6% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 12 | 19K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 5 months | Every 2 months — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | 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 | 70 MB | 50 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Mindwarp Consultancy Ltd | MH Riley Ltd |
Customer experience
Balance Guide Lite
Spending Tracker
Bugs and requests
Balance Guide Lite
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
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 Lite
- No Ads, Multiple Accounts + Dropbox backup$2.99
Spending Tracker
- Pro Upgrade$2.99
Questions
Is Balance Guide Lite free?
Is Spending Tracker free?
Which has better reviews, Balance Guide Lite or Spending Tracker?
Do Balance Guide Lite or Spending Tracker have ads?
Which is updated more often, Balance Guide Lite or Spending Tracker?
Other comparisons
