Expense Keep vs Simple Budget
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Expense Keep
This app offers a simple and fast way to track expenses and income, helping users manage their finances and save money. It allows for organizing funds into separate accounts or spending envelopes, with features for recurring transactions and detailed monthly history.
- Track expenses and income
- Organize money into accounts/envelopes
- Set up recurring transactions
- View monthly history and cash flow
- Create custom expense categories
- Transfer money between accounts
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Expense Keep is the simplest and quickest way to track your expenses. It will save you money and improve your financial health. Expense Keep has been downloaded over 500,000 times and ranked top 5 Finance app in 33 countries. "This is exactly what I was looking for. It has cut my spending tremendously. Couldn't be happier with this app." "I have never rated an app before but I feel so strongly about this app that I knew I had to share with everyone how great it is!" "All I wanted was a sole app to track multiple accounts. This does it. I love it and have deleted all of my other expense tracking apps." "This app is the only budget app that I could find which works well with a zero-based budget." "This is the best budget envelope app available. So beautifully designed and simple to use. Includes recurring transactions and transfers between envelopes." "This app is awesome! Super easy to use without requiring so much personal info like other apps (Mint)." "Finally an expenses tracking app that don't force you to connect every single bank account you have. This app is for those, like me, that like to keep their info as private as possible." "This app is helping me feel in much more control of my finances." "This app is fantastic. Don't know how i ever managed without it." "Awesome app. Easy to use. Quick to set up and quick to input transactions." "Have tried a number of apps to track expenses, and this one has everything I've been looking for." Expense Keep is a personal finance app built to be fast and designed to be flexible yet simple to use. Organize your money into separate accounts and track your expenses and incomes. Accounts can be used to track your bank account balances or as "envelopes" for your different spending groups. FEATURES: Accounts + Add/Edit/Delete accounts. + Set starting balance. + Organize your money into separate accounts. + View current balance of each account. Expenses and Incomes + Add/Edit/Delete entries for expenses and incomes. + Create custom expense categories. + Assign expenses/incomes to an account. + Set a date and note for each entry. + Select a category for expenses. Transfers + Add/Edit/Delete transfers. + Transfer money from one account to another. + Helps you stay on budget when you overspend in one account. Recurring Entries + Add/Edit/Delete recurring entries that get automatically entered. + Setup recurring expenses/incomes/transfers for each account. + Set repeat cycles of daily, weekly, biweekly, monthly and more. + Set a start date and end date for recurring expenses. + Or set recurring expenses to be ongoing with no end date. Monthly History + View all entries for current month. + Go back and see previous months' entries. + Go to future months and add entries ahead of time. Cash Flow + See how much you earned/spent for the month. + Cash flow bar chart helps you spend less than you earn. Expense Chart + Pie chart shows your expenses broken down into categories. + See where all your money is going. + Filter pie chart to show only the accounts you select. Report + CSV export Security + Passcode lock feature More features coming soon! Have questions, requests, or feedback? Send them to info@expensekeep.com If you enjoy using Expense Keep or found the app useful, please consider leaving a review. It helps us a lot. Thank you!
Simple Budget
This financial tool simplifies budgeting using the envelope system with digital enhancements. Manually track expenses, gain powerful insights into spending habits, and forecast future financial scenarios to grow your savings. Access your budget across devices with phone number sign-up.
- Envelope budgeting system
- Manual transaction entry
- Spending insights and analysis
- Budget calculator
- Cross-device access
- Transaction export
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Simple Budget is a hands-on budgeting app for people who want control over where their money goes. SEE WHERE YOUR MONEY GOES Break your spending down into categories, and give each category a budget. By planning your spending ahead of time, you can build savings directly into your budget, allowing you to have guilt-free spending money while still keeping up with your savings. Track your spending habits with Simple Budget to see if your spending matches your goals. HANDS-ON, WITHOUT THE HASSLE Stay close to your spending to see exactly where your money is going. Avoid the set-it-and-forget-it model and plan for every dollar. When you see each one coming in and out, you understand what you're spending and what you're saving. PLAN FOR THE FUTURE, LEARN FROM THE PAST • Plan your spending ahead of time, from retirement savings to weekend shopping. • Budget Calculator: see how your month ends up after the bills you know are coming, before you decide on that splurge. • Projected spending and savings for the current month. • Recurring income on any schedule: weekly, biweekly, monthly and more. • Year Savings: income, spending and savings for every month of the year. • Spending History: track your spending habits month to month. ENVELOPE BUDGETING, MADE EASY Building your budget is quick and easy with customizable, pre-built budget categories. Find what applies to you, tailor it to your needs, and build a budget that works for you. YOUR BUDGET, YOUR WAY • Track balances across your accounts, free. • Search, filter and sort every transaction, free. • Export your transactions to CSV anytime, free. • Sign in with your phone number and pick up your budget on any device, free. FREE AND PREMIUM Simple Budget is built for everyone, and stays affordable for anyone looking for extra budgeting firepower. The core of Simple Budget is free: budgets and categories, transactions, accounts, income, monthly insights and CSV export. Premium adds detailed category insights and trends, yearly insights, full Budget Calculator editing, history from previous years, and more. Simple Budget Premium is an auto-renewing subscription, billed monthly or annually. Payment is charged to your Apple ID at confirmation of purchase. Your subscription renews automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel anytime in your App Store account settings. Questions or ideas? luke@pgmediasolutions.com Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://www.gosimplebudget.com/privacy-policy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ratings volume: Expense Keep at 1.7K against Simple Budget's 50. Expense Keep also leads on review sentiment (77% vs 67%). Simple Budget's advantage is iOS requirement (15.6 vs 17.0). On price, rating, update cadence and ads 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. Expense Keep sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Simple Budget sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.4 for Expense Keep against 4.5 for Simple Budget. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Expense Keep has 1.7K ratings behind it against 50, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 77% of Expense Keep's written reviews are positive against 67% of Simple Budget's.
Expense Keep ships an update every 6 weeks, Simple Budget every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 17, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Expense Keep | Simple Budget |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.4 (1.7K ratings) | 4.5 (50 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 77.5% of reviews — better | 66.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1.7K — better | 50 |
| Update frequency | Every 6 weeks — better | Every 3 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 15.6 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 5 MB | 59 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Tayson Nguyen | Luke Brady |
Customer experience
Expense Keep
Simple Budget
Bugs and requests
Expense Keep
Reported bugs
4 issues- App crashes on launch after recent update
- Dark mode functionality is broken
- Recurring expense dates not updating correctly
- Unable to export data or send feedback in-app
Requested features
5 requests- Add support for multiple currencies
- Implement a monthly budgeting feature
- Allow customization of expense categories
- Improve data export and reporting options
- Integrate cloud backup and cross-device sync
Simple Budget
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Expense Keep
- Expense Keep Pro$19.99
Simple Budget
- Monthly Premium Subscription1 Month trial$0.991 Month
- Annual Premium Subscription$9.991 Year
Questions
Is Expense Keep free?
Is Simple Budget free?
Which has better reviews, Expense Keep or Simple Budget?
Do Expense Keep or Simple Budget have ads?
Which is updated more often, Expense Keep or Simple Budget?
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