Comparison

Expense Keep vs Jars

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Features
Read full description

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!

About

Jars

This app helps you manage your money using the envelope budgeting method. It allows you to divide your bank accounts into virtual "Jars" for specific purposes, providing a clear overview of your spending. It offers smart automation and can be used with connected bank accounts or manually.

Highlights
  • Envelope budgeting with unlimited Jars
  • Connects to bank accounts for automatic transaction download
  • Smart suggestions for assigning transactions
  • Manual account creation option
  • Automated deposits with Paycheck Plans
  • Shared accounts for family budgeting
  • Junior Accounts for teaching kids financial literacy
Read full description

A MODERN WAY TO BUDGET How do you know if you can afford something? Do you just look at your bank account balance and hope it's enough? Jars Budgets answers that question using the power of envelope budgeting. It lets you break your bank accounts into small, purposeful containers of money—known as Jars! With an unlimited number of bank connections and unlimited number of Jars, you can know exactly how much money you have for each purpose. If you ever find yourself short in one Jar, you'll immediately know what will be impacted by overspending. Simple. Smart. Secure. Forget complex spreadsheets and manual data entry. Jars connects to all of your bank accounts, allowing you to automatically download your daily transactions. When you're ready to assign them to your Jars, the app learns your habits and makes smart suggestions, so you can finish in seconds. And don't worry! Jars uses industry-leading, private, and secure means of connecting to your accounts. Your bank login credentials are never seen or stored by Jars. We use end-to-end encryption and the best protections from Plaid to ensure your data remains safe and private. Jars also understands not everyone wants to connect their bank accounts. You can still get the full benefits of Jars by easily creating manual accounts that remain disconnected from the bank. POWERFUL, FLEXIBLE FEATURES • All Accounts, One Place Unlike banks that offer sub-account features, Jars works with all of your accounts to give you a unified view of your money. • Smart Automation Our powerful Paycheck Plans let you automate routine deposits into your Jars, saving you time and ensuring your savings goals are always on track. • Built for Collaboration A single Jars membership covers the whole family. Budgeting should be a collaborative effort, and our shared accounts make it easy. • Teach Financial Literacy to the Kids Give your kids a safe, limited view of their own finances with a dedicated Junior Accounts. It's the perfect way to teach financial responsibility early.

Screenshots

Expense Keep4 screens
Jars4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Jars at 5.0 against Expense Keep's 4.4. Jars also leads on iOS requirement (14.0 vs 17.0). Expense Keep's advantage is ratings volume (1.7K vs 2). On price, update cadence, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Expense Keep sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Jars sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Jars holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Expense Keep has 1.7K ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Expense Keep ships an update every 6 weeks, Jars every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 22, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Expense Keep versus Jars: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterExpense KeepJars
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.4 (1.7K ratings)5.0 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews77.5% of reviews—
Number of ratings1.7K — better2
Update frequencyEvery 6 weeks — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFreemium
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.014.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size5 MB87 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperTayson NguyenGreentree Studio, LLC

Customer experience

Expense Keep

All ratings1,685 ratings
Positive87.7%
Neutral5.8%
Negative6.5%
Written reviews364 reviews
Positive77.5%
Neutral8.5%
Negative14.0%

Jars

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

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

Jars

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Expense Keep

One-time1
  • Expense Keep Pro$19.99
2 purchases

Jars

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Plan$9.991 Month
  • Annual Plan$79.991 Year

Questions

Is Expense Keep free?
Expense Keep is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Jars free?
Jars is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Expense Keep or Jars?
Jars is rated higher. Expense Keep averages 4.4 out of 5 from 1.7K ratings, while Jars averages 5.0 from 2 ratings.
Do Expense Keep or Jars have ads?
Neither Expense Keep nor Jars shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Expense Keep or Jars?
Expense Keep ships an update every 6 weeks, and Jars every 2 months. Most recently, Expense Keep was updated on October 22, 2026 and Jars on October 24, 2026.

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